The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1902-12-09

creased about 100 per cent. Ten years
ago there was Nry little machinery for
saving hay in all Eastern North Caro-
Ina Today nearly every progressive
farmer has his mower and horse-rake
L think this a change of immense i'm
portance. 1t means that the farmers are
raising their own stock feed, and not
buying so much Western grain and hay
Ana 1t follows that they raise more
stock-improVed stock, at that-and
therefore they buy less Western meat.
But the thing Of most Importance which
this change shows is that the farmers
are improving their land by a rotation
of crops instead Of running it down"
under the constant clean culture which
the old allcotton system demanded
Yet the Eastern Carolina farmer may
not stop there, nor has he stopped there
He can add tobacco growing and trucking
TO his list OF crops. The tobacco crop is
now OF about as much Importance in this
section as the cotton crop; so is the
trucking business, only perhaps still more
important, and both are growing rapid
ly. Under this plan it is necessary to
employ help by the year and keep things
moving every work day in the year in
stead of hiring ones hands till crops
are laid by as formerly. If cotton is
time of planting it will not need to be
worked till the strawberry crop is out
of the way; and the tobacco crop is US
ually harvested by the time cotton is
ready to pick; so that the three crops
do not materially conflict as to time OF
working and harvesting. True there is
some conflict and hands are hard to get
at times; but the fact that since this
change our farmers usually have the
cash with which to pay for work, ought
| to call back many laborers that have
/ gone away to Georgia and Mississippi
! and also bring in many that are entirely
/ new and conditions will hardly get
/ worse.
! But from the lament of Harry Far
mer, quoted above, it seems there are
/ some folks who wish to change back
again and plant all our improved land
in cotton. to see how much we can raise
/ 1T will be better for us to sell all our
nice harvesting machinery ard turn our
corn grain and pea fields likewise our
strawberry and vegetable fields into cot
ton culture. Then all hands can lay by
crops and rest till cotton is ready to pick,
and from the time it is picked till it is
time to plant again That's the way our
daddies did, and they lived better than
we da Suppose we do OverdO the thing
raise too much-and the price goes down
to five cents again, why then can
/ mortgage our farms, and if they are sold
we can blame it to hard times, caused by
| the Republicans or Democrats, which
ever may be in office. and get
revenge as well bring back pros
perity' by voting for 'tother side. .
No; this is not what Harry Farmer
wants to happen. 1 don't believe he in
hot lar
| though it reads very much like one. He
was just observing the prospects for the
cotton crop alone, and was not counting
the two maybe three four or five dol
lars the farmer gets out of his to-
bacco, strawberries, melons, canteloupes,
vegetables, hay, grain, hogs and COWS
and chickens, for every one dollar that
he gets out of his cotton crop. Harry
Farmer is probably quite satisfied with
this change" which has taken place, and
which is still going on.
This change is one of the things that
made the Atlantic Coast Line rich enough
to enable it to absorb two other great
railway systems we'll as numerous
small lines, within only a few months, a
thing UNPARALLELED in the annals OF
American railways.
An old nursery rhyme tells us all about
how the mighty ocean and the beauteous
land" were made by little drops of Wa
ter and little grains of sand,' and now,
behold. what a mighty railroad such
an insignificant little thing as change
can make. ROBT. 5. TAYLOR.
Duplin County. n. c.