The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1902-08-12
Agriculture.
HARRY FARMERS TALKS.
LXXXIII.

Here is a farm that was bought sew
eral years ago at a low price. The
people living near regarded it as
poor place. 1t looked as if the man
might perish. But he went to work,
he and his wife, with vim. The old
field had about grown up; besides it
was very small. 1t was necessary to
rent land for year or two until he
could clear land enough to farm on,
which only required eight or ten years.
Having been reared on a good farm
which was naturally fertile, it was an
uphill business to get good crops with
out heavy application of commercial
fertilizer or manure.
THE STORY OF ONE FARMERS SUCCESS
Among the first improvements he
made was a very large shelter to keep
his cattle under in the winter, so that
he could save all the manure. His
neighbors preferred to let their cattle
stay on the range, but he and his wife
and children all liked milk and want
ed it the year round and by housing
the cattle in nice stalls, which we're
kept well cleaned, with good beds of
straw and a small feed of cottonseed
and corn shucks, it made it easy to
get the cattle to come home every
night. Of course, it took work and
plenty of it to do this; but what a
pile of manure was made!
sUNDRY IMPROVEMENTS AND WHAT
CAME OF THEM.
And later the corn pile became a
matter of wonderment to the neigh
bors around. The farm was soon noted
for extra large ears of corn; the cot
ton crop above the average for the
neighborhood; the watermelons were
the finest seen on the market; the hogs
were the fattest, and this caused the
owner to sell meat and lard; the
sweet potato crop was enormous, and
the cane crop furnished a large sup
ply of the finest syrup.
Soon a good supply of apples and
peaches with other fruits was grown
on the place. Then a large orchard
of ever-bearing mulberries was plant
ed to feed the summer pigs on. Oats
are sown in the fall and begin to ripen
about the same time the berries COM
mence to fall, which makes a real Par
adise for the hogs, chickens, geese,
etc. The family suffered with fever
some on account of bad water, but this
was soon changed by a pump or arte-
sian well which furnishes an abund-
ance of pure water for man and beast.
Among the last improvements was the
charging of the dwellinghouse and
identifying the place by a nice yard
or lawn.
EDUCATING HIS CHILDREN.
Moreover, his children have been
fairly well educated. The school
being placed near the center of the
district, it left this farmer to one
side with a thick growth of trees and
bushes and low wet piece of land
with pond here and there to cross.He
did not swear that his children should
grow up in ignorance before they
should go to school through such a
place, but he hired a man to help him,
and with a few sawed boards to cross
some of the ponds, he opened a good
path which only required a few hours
work every year to keep it in good
order. Of course, he was appointed
on the school committee in due time
for "seest thou a man diligent in bust
ness, he shall stand before kings"
Thus we see one of the most beauti-
ful places in all the country made
out of one of the poorest.
HIS CROP ROTATION,
His success was brought about by
giving close attention to his stock and
following a definite rotation of crops
as follows: Corn and peas followed by
cotton or oats. He planted one half to
corn and peas every year and the Other
IN cotton, oats and sweet potatoes.
This closes our journey, and we viii
follow with articles on subjects OF
vital interest to agriculture.
HARRY FARMER.
Columbus Co., N. @.
II nl