The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1897-06-09
BILL ARP'S LETTER.
Barlow Man Pleased with his Trip TO
the Tennessee Show.
atlanta Constitution.

the Tennessee Show.
atlanta Constitution.
Man never gets too old to learn, and
if he is a learner he is a good teacher.
Shakespeare says knowledge is the
wing with which we fly to heaven
AS heaven is where we all wish to 60,
it becomes US to acquire knowledge.
Lord Bacon said Knowledge is pow
err and SO it was a day well spent,
for I learned much in one day at the
Tennessee Centennial-so much that
I am going to return very soon and
take more time and acquire more
knowledge. I sometimes think it a
great pity that about the time a maj
becomes fit to live 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 a new lease-anoth-
er 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 Solo
mons and write proverbs. What
farmers we would make; what inven-
tors; what preachers; what scientists.
Maybe Providence 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.
I was Eliminating about this while
listening to che earnest discourse of
Colonel Killebrew, who has charge of
the Nashville, 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. It
is like going to school to hear him *
plain and expatiate and philosophize
upon things that ordinarily would at
tract no special attention. If every
man in charge of a special exhibit had
his enthusiasm the exposition would
not only be a granu success, but would
difuse more knowledge among men
than any similar display has ever
done.
Now, for instance, when we paused
to look at some tobacco that was hang
ing from the rods, he said: "That to-
bacco grew on very poor land. The
best tobacco always grows on poor
land" Indeed, it seems providen-
tial that poor land is good for some
thing.
The sandy, g~ravelly land Of Gran
berry county, in north Georgia, grows
the best tobacco in the world, and it
commands the highest price. The soils
not rich enough to give it a dark col
or, and hence it is pale and sickly,
and has the consumption, so to speak.
This tobacco grew upon land that is
80 per cent silica-sandy land-poor,
white land, as your Barlow county
farmers call it-you have lots of it
down there. I have seen it, and it
can be bought for a song, but there is
more money in it than in your valley
and river bottoms. The sand hal is
in Florida soil will make tobacco grow
ing a success there. I have been ex-
%perimenting in tobacco growing and
curing for years, and know whereof I
speak. There are thousands of acres
in north Georgia that are just suited
to it, and all those poor white lands
in Cobb County are just waiting for
it. Some Of that land along our rail
road that will not grow corn high
enough to shoot an ear or make a tas-
sci would grow the most aristocratic to-
bacco.
We paused again to look at some
little pyramids Of broken rock, and
learned that it wa phosphate re.
cent discovery in counties contiguous
to the railroad. "There are millions
Of it and millions in it," said the col
onel. Gas is usual, these discover.
les were accidental. Some mineral
experts were prospecting for zinc, and
were at a loss to accountfor these sin.
gular deposits. They have had them
analysed, and they are pronounced by
reliable chemists to be the very finest
grade Of phosphate rock, ranging from
Cd to IS per cent, and some of the
strata are twelve feet thick, and un'
derlie thousands Of acres. There are
no phosphates in Florida hat vii
compare with them, and most Of il
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, maganese,
bauxite, gold, silver, ochre, corrun'
dunn, etc., much of which was from
our county Of Barlow, we were shown
the greatest variety of useful and or
namental works that has ever beer
exhibited in this country. And also
the variety Of farm and garden pro.
ducts is admirable. Just think of ont
farmer, on a little plat of twenty-five
acres, exhibiting seventy-eight speci
mems that were grown upon his farm
Seventy-eight different products, use
full for man or beast. And anothe.
man sends specimens of sixty differ
ent woods that grow upon his land
Then there are several hundred botan
ical pictures of the fora Of Tennessee
that were gathered and painted ant
framed by General Kirby Smith. Blu
it would take too much space to dc
scribe or even to catalogue the hun
dreds Of interesting things in til:
magnificent railroad show. It would
make a good exposition of itself. O.
course it has cost money-much mon
ey to get up such an extensive collec
ton, but it indicates the far-sceinl
policy of Mr.. Thomas, the best rail
road magnate in the South. For tw'
years past he has had in his emplo.
Colonel K~illebrew, who is withou
doubt the most efficient and best ed
ucated teacher and promoter Of agri
culture and mineralogy in the State
a man of large and liberal enterprise
a cultured scholar who can talk science
with the scientist and practical farm
ing with the humblcst farmer. II
had charge of both of these depart
ments in the first Atlanta exposition
He has travelled mule-back owe,
Mexico, inspecting the silver mine
for their owners. He has more re
Gently invaded the homes of the set
tiers in Colorado and Kansas and 9th
or northwestern States and commune