The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-12-17
rAFF.eoRREsPoNpENcE
CHAsLoTTs, II. c.. Dec. z, 1889.

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CHARLoTTs, n. c., Dec. z, 1889.
1t is Q fact worthy of note that the
citizens Of Charlotte and Mecklenburg
county are wide awake so far as good
roads are concerned Several of the
most travelled roads leading into the
city have been Macadamized for some
distance into the country and the
good work is going on yet 1t is a
costly business but will pay more on
the Investment than any other system
Of road working because it is perma-
nent. ..:~%,>s IS :
The Alliance cotton buyer at Char.
lotte is the. right man for the business.
He buys a large portion of the cotton
marketed here, which is conclusive
evidence that he. is not standing in"
with anybody, but is working to the
advantage of the farmers who depend
upon him to make their cotton bring
its full value. He is handling grocer
les at prices satisfactory to, buyers,
also. ~ e..
M~ecklenburg, like all counties, has
a lot of members Of the Alliance who
expect pancakes to grow on trees
and milk and honey to bubble up spon-
taneouslyl without any effort on their
part. However, this grand old county
can show some of. the most intensely
earnest Alliancemen in the State.
Capt, Gibbon, the, County President,
is a quiet man but is deeply interested
in the upbuilding of the order.
I hope I may be pardohed for Civ
ing nay experience in working up the
circulation of THE PRoGREssFvE
FARMER. But the thousands of read
ers of The PROGRESSIVE FARMER would
be proud to hear the many expressions
complimentary of the paper. It has
many subscribers who are not farmers.
However, I started out to give the
men who "hain't got time to read a
paper" a little free advertising, not
because I have any bad feeling for.
them, but because they are pitiable
objects, and if you know any such
try to reform them. There is too
many of this class of men. You can
generally tell them at. sight, if you are
a close observer. ~ ~
If you would go into a menagerie
to see one of these m~onstrosities you
would expect to find him in a great
steel cage clawing the air, foming and
fretting his life away. But you need
not get excited, you can get out Of
the way if he does break out of the
cage. The man who "hain't time to
read papers would put in two days
chasing a terrapin and then go to
sleep and let it escape. He generally
puts in at least a week making prepa
rations to go to town and then puts in
a whole day selling a dozen or two Of
eggs which his wife sends with him.
If you were to 60 to his home you
would expect him-to be pufngaround
with 200 pounds of steam on, yet he
will put in a half a day going to his
nearest neighbours to borrow a tool of
some kind. He will sit on a fence
and talk. about 'possum days and
swapping horses for hours at a time.
His wife, his children, his horses and
cattle and even his dogs all show his
value of time, for he is so pushing
that he makes his wife and children
do all the work; isso pressed for time
that he fails to feed and curry the
stock; his. dogs sit around so much
that they take indigestion and get
NANCY. His fence corners grow up
with briars and bushes simply because
he has no time to kill them out. He
is dead sure that the world is just a
little larger than a pumpkin and that
he just about fills all of the hollow
space himself. He could tell you, if
he would, that he put in the most of
his life sticking his forefnger in a
pool of water and drawing it out and
trying to discover the hole.
Such is aarough sketch of some of
our double=barreled, self-acting farm
ers. If all our farmers were of this
class we would soon be a ~grovelling
lot of barbarians. y.
When. will all our farmers learn
that every other class Of people have
been doing our reading and thinking
for us and that if we do not get out
of the old rut we will have less time
to read papers ~ 10 81" r.
EDITORIAL NOTES.