The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1892-11-08
BILL NYE ON HIS T
He Has q Windmill and a Plumbers
picnic--A Few Pointed Facts About
Windmills---The Advantages Of
the City and Of the Country
Compared.

ARDEN, N. c., October, 1892.
October is the choicest month in the
year in these parts. Geraniums and
ham should now be be potted for win
ter. The farmer now looks over his
COWS and selects the milk COWS from
the others because they are more apt
to roduce milk. Corn should be housed
and blowing done. Here we have a
light, ~calcareous soil, which il soothing
to the bare feet of the peasant, and
sometimes produces large green worm
called the tobacco worm.
He is not so plentiful in this State as
formerly, having gone father south,
where he can get his tobacco cheaper.
Here, too, he found a good deal of
competition. The tobacco worm has
no other occupation on earth than to
usetobacco. Herehe found that others
had already entered the field before
him and undertaken to subsist entirely
upon tobacco and rest. Therefore the
Tobacco worm is less plentiful now in
North Carolina than formerly. To-
bacco is also 25 per cent. less in guam
tity here this fall than formerly, but
of good quality. The brightest and
most fragrant tobacco for smoking is
grown In this State. Itsmells as sweet
as clover and is not injurious to the
health
Snuff is grown here, and so some
times when there is a blockade or a
washout on the railroad snuff cannot
be readily landed at our doors, and
there is a great deal of suffering.
Nobody nose how much there is.
Snuff is not administered up the nose
here, however, among those who use
it, but Is kept In a neat little bonbon-
Mere, or gourd, and a small wooden
stick made of birch, che we'd into a brush
at one end, is ever and anon dipped
into the snuff and then chewed or
rubbed back and forth over the gooms.
/ Only the hoi polloi use snuff here
the hoi poIloi lady, 1 mean. If you see
her coming down a vista of brilliant
autumn coloring, a somber figure in
the gaudy perspective, you will notice
that she dexterously jerks something
out of her mouth and conceals it in her
apron, trying as you pass to look all
wrapped up in the contemplation of
nature.
She has just removed her snuff stick
or, as I may say. half in jest, the
handle of the dipper is removed. Here
n finds among the peasantry chill
dren hardly done with their milk teeth,
using snuff in this way. So we have
the Little Dipper and the Big Dipper.
The snuff stick or brush is left dang
ling in the corner of the mouth as little
young children in the absence of the
mother hold a rne of cloth that has
been wrapped around a bit of sugar,
''and the same with intent to deceive"
Arden is not a large place, but it is a
good site for one. There are two gen
eral stores and a blacksmith shop.
Lately a shooting scrape on Saturdays.
Since I have been digging my well I
have put a good deal of money in cir
culation. This has made flush times
in western North Carolina and some
lawlessness. Human life at one time
was SO lightly valued while this stream
of gold was flowing in that I had to
shut down work on my well till times
should tighten up a little.
Lately I have been putting in a wind
mill at the estate. This, too, has let a
food of wealth into the channels of
trade. Eggs went up to 8 ] cents and
good eggs were worth a shilling.
I had been reading about windmills
and determined to buy one. At first I
thought I would buy Of those dear
old windmills of southampton and
Europe which the artists ave about,
but this one will be dear enough by the
time I get through with it.
The mill arrived last April and was
put on the ground early in that month.
A plumber from Ashevlle was to
put it up. Eight men were sent out
hereby train to put the mill up. They
did not know how to put up a wind
mill, and so a preparatory school had
to be opened here to give Instructions.
1 paid the tuition. Special trains a
ried my plumbers to and from Ashe-
Vile. It was a pleasant sight to see
those plumbers on their way, with
bright, expectant faces, toward the
place where they we're learning how
to plumb at my expense.
The scheme was spoken of around
here as "Nye's Fresh Air Fund
Every little while I could hear some
one say, There goes the plumbers
picnic"