The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-06-06
ARP AIT TE][g G[ELN77[E[N]N]1A[L L.
Trip Taught Him
N,ucha He ell OF n a n interesting Manner

Man never gets too old to learn, and If
he is a good learner he is a good teacher.
Shakespeare says knowledge is the wing
with which we fly to heaven" and as
heaven is where we all wish to go, it be-
comes us to acquire knowledge. Lord
Bacon said knowledge is power" and so
it was a day we'll spent, for | learned
much in one day at the Tennessee Cen
tennial-so much that | am going to re-
turn very soon and take more time and
acquire more knowledge. | sometimes
think it great pity that by the time a
man becomes fit to hive his time IS out and
he has to die. If the old men who have
made good use of their time and talents
were given q new lease-anOther three
score years and ten, and had the vigor
of their youth restored what a world of
wisdom would they accumulate We
would all be Solomons and write pro-
verbs. What farmers we would make;
what inventors; what teachers; what
preachers: what scientists. Maybe pro-
violence cut us down to seventy years
for fear We would learn too much of His
mysteries and once again eat the fruit
from the tree of knowledge.
| was Illuminating about this while lis
tening to the earnest discourse of Colonel
Killebrew, who has charge of the Nash
vile, Chattanooga and st. Louis and the
Western and Atlantic railroad exhibits
at the exposition. Now there is a man
who as Paul said to Timothy magnifes
his office. 1t is like going to school to
hear him explain and eXpatiate and phil
osophize upon things that ordinarily would
o%+n ION
man in charge of a special exhibit had his
enthusiasm the exposition would not only
be grand success, but would diffuse
more knowledge among men than any
similar display has ever done.
Now, for instance, when we paused to
look at some tobacco that was hanging
from the rods he said: "That tobacco
grew on very poor land. The best tobac-
co always grows ON poor land" Indeed it
seems providential that poor land is good
for something.
The sandy, gravelly hand OF CRANBERRY
county. in north Georgia, grows the finest
tobacco in the world, and it commands
the highest price. The soil is not rich
enough to give it a dark color, and hence
it is pale and sickly, and has the consump-
ton. so to speak. This tobacco grew
upon land that is so per cent silica-Sandy
land poor, white land, as your Barlow
county farmers call it-yOu have lots of
it down there. | have seen it, and it can
be bought for a song, but there is more
money in it than in your valleys and river
bottoms. The sand that is in Florida soil
will make tobacco growing a success there.
| have been experimenting in tobacco
4 md lryaAx
whereof | speak There are thousands Of
acres in north Georgia that are just suit
ed to it, and all those poor white lands
in Cobb county are just waiting for it.
Some of that land along our railroad that
will not grow corn high enough to shoot
an ear or make a tassel, would grow the
most aristocratic tobacco.
We paused again to look Mt some little
pyramids of broken rock, and | learned
that it was phosphate recent dlscoy-
cry in counties contiguous to the railroad.
"'rhere are millions of it and millions in
it," said the colonel 'As is usual, these
discoveries were accidental. Some min
eral experts were prospecting for zinc,
and were at loss to account for these
singular deposits. They have had them
analysed. and they are pronounced by re-
liable chemists to be the very finest
grade of phosphate rock, running from
81 to So per cent, and some of the strata
are twelve feet thick, and underlie thou
sands of acres. There are no phosphates
in Florida that will compare with them,
and most OF it can be mined with a pick
a single hand taking out six tons a day"
After inspecting many kinds of ores
and minerals such as iron, manganese,
bauxite, gold, silver, echre, corundum,
etc. much of which was from our county
of Barlow, we were shown the greatest
variety of useful and ornamental woods
that has ever been exhibited i'll this coun-
try. And also the variety of farm and
garden products is admirable. Just think
Of one farmer, on a little plat Of twenty
five acres exhibiting seYenty-eight speci-
ments that were grown upon his farm.
Seyenty-eight different products, useful
for man or beast. And another man
sends specimens Of sixty different woods
that grow upon his land. Then there are
several hundred botanical pictures of the
flora Of Tennessee that were gathered
and planted and framed by General
Kirby Smith. But it would take too
much space to describe or even to cata-
logue the hundreds of interesting things
LII THIS magnificent TdllTOdu SHOW. IL
would make a good exposition of itself.
OF course it has cost money-much
money to get up such an extensive collec-
ton, but it indicates the far-seeing policy
of Mr.. Thomas. the best railroad mag
nate of the south. For two years past
he has had in his employ Colonel Kille-
brew, who is without doubt the most eff
ficient and best educated teacher and
promoter of agriculture and mineralogy
in the State, a man Of large and liberal
enterprise, a cultured scholar who, can
talk science with the scientist and prac-
teal farming with the humblest farmer.
He had charge Of both these departments
i'll the first Atlanta exposition. He has
travelled mule back over Mexico, in
speeding the silver mines for their
owners. He has more recently invaded
the homes of the settlers in Colorado and
Kansas and other northwestern States
and communed with them about our eli
mate and lands and laws, and they lis
tended to him gladly, and the result has
been the location of 1900 families along
the line Of this railroad from Nashville
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