The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1892-06-07

ended and repulsive stumps we will
have an ornament of some kind where
ever the eye rests.
When I bought the farm it was sur
rounded by trough and most unsightly
rail fence. have taken these rails,
and placing them in groups of three
and standing them on end to form a
sort of tripod, have hung thereform
an o pot, giving the farm the ap-
pearance of a Gypsy camp, as it were,
for here, and there all over the place
may be seen these tripods with a ket-
tie attached to each and a beautiful
hollyhock or nasturtium growing out
OF same at great rate.
One reason, I think, why boys leave
the farm is that the farm is not made
attractive. 1t is too prosy. Boys love
art. They love to see beautiful colors
and simple, artistic decorations. We
moan over the fact thai year after
year less American boys go into agri-
culture, while our farms are gradually
falling into the hands of the foreigner,
| believe that I have solved the great
question. Boys go to the city, where
they find beautiful 5hings and efforts
toward art. My boys shall never
throw it up to me in future years that
l failed to make the farm attractive.
Ny only sorrow is that the neighbors
in Buncombe county and those who
live near me at Buck Shoals, mislead
me regarding agriculture. They speak
lightly of my efforts at art and mis-
represent things to me regarding the
business. They do it in a spirit Of
raillery-a sort af fence raillerys I pre-
sUme-but I think it is because they
do not approve of my style of farming
and regard it as a sort of reproof to
them for their lack of fast and artistic
sense.
Now, for instance, 1 regard it as a
little bit unneighborly to take hold Of
a literary men and fill him up with
facts and statistics that cannot be
demonstrated. [ hate to be fooled
with in that way. Why, should a
man whom l have treated with kind
ness ever since [ came here to go to
work and tell me that here in North
Carolina four crops of lambs from the
same set of parents was and has been
the regular thing for years, while on a
good year, when the mean average
rainfall can see it's shadow On ground
hog day, the yield run up to five and
six.
This sort of thing not only makes
me feel unhappy and bitter toward my
neighbors, but it has fostered a miser-
able spirit in my breast and caused my
relations with my domestic animals to
become strained. At first I laid it to
the weather, but finally I began to re
gard my sheep with distrust. I felt
that they were ~neglecting their duties
and taking advantage Of the fact that
| am not an experienced farmer. So l
concluded to ask Mr.. Vaderbilt, whohas
farmed it six weekslonger than I have,
and who therefore knows the ms and
outs of the business pretty we'll. He
tells me that one crop of lambs per
year is all they get here under the
most favorable circumstances.
Plum Levi also tells me that while
timothy and clover often yield two and
three crops, he never harvests his
lambs over once a year.
It hurt the country to misrepresent
these things to strangers and capital
lists like myself-men who wish to
build up the country and add to it's
wealth. Why not be fair and truthful
in the start, and thus invite the good,
the true and the beautiful to come
and settle among us? @
Last year my plug tobacco was a
complete failure, and old resident Of
Sandy Mush allowed that it was be-
cause I did not plant the plug with
the tin tag end downward, I have
since learned that one should not plant
the plug at all. 1t will not reproduce
itself even if the tin tag end be plan
ted downward. Tobacco grows from
the seed and is made into plugs after
ward.
Why would it not be as we'll to tell
a stranger those things instead of al
lowing him to make an outlandish and
large ass of himself with a Vatican
back jaw.
Ny well is down now to porphyry
rock and schist with a hemalite stain
in it. Neighbors tell me that even if I
donot strike wat9r 1T will be- good cool
place to keep vegetables in.
learned yesterday that the former
ouyro,.o IF tho r1ooo hove ooob duo a