The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1902-08-12
a CARD PROM PROFESSOR MASSEY.
Cor. of The Progressive Farmer.

Cor. of The Progressive Farmer.
Please allow me space in your col
umns to correct the misstatements
you make in your editorial this week
GA Dangerous Precedent"
In the first place, there has never
been the slightest intimation of N
purpose to make me Director of In
stitutes in Pennsylvania. 1 am not a
citizen of Pennsylvania, but hope to
spend the remainder of my days in
North Carolina doing the work that
through the years has "come to be
mine" [ have never asked the Board
of Agriculture to create any new Of
fee for me, but simply asked to be al
lowed to aid in the more effective or
ganization of the Institutes under the
direction of the Commissioner of
Agriculture.
My main business is not the editing
of the Practical Farmer. A mans
main business is that to which he
gives most of his time. I give the
whole day to the work of the Exper-
iment Station, and my editorial work
is all done after hours. If you were
more familiar with the Station farm,
and knew that for years past I have
answered the letters of the farmers of
this State on every topic that pre-
scented itself to them, to the extent of
nearly 1000 annually, that I have done
this work with my own fingers on a
typewriter paid for with my own
money, and with no help from a stem
ographer, you would realize that the
editing of the Practical Farmer is but
the side issue in a life that has been
spent in the hope of elevating the
farmers of the South to a better and
more profitable use of their soil. I
have been engaged in agricultural
journalism for over forty years, and
have worked with an eye single to the
material interest of the farmer, and
the farmers of the State fully appre-
ciate my work for them. I have lee
tured at Institutes in this State for
thirteen years, and no man ever heard
boom any paper. I have asked to
be released from field work in order
that I may more effectively help the
farmers by the preparation of bulle-
tins and the systematic organization
of the Institutes as local organiza-
tions in the counties. You may not
be able to understand that a man may
feel that he has a mission III life with
which no sordid intentions have any
thing to do. I have worked on the
agricultural press with the sole idea
that thereby I may be able more eff
fectively to help those who need help.
This has ben my life work, and I have
simply desired a better opportunity to
carry it out, and your editorial is the
first insinuation that I have any ute
rior object in view. I have stuck at
my work here at great sacrifices to
me financially, for I have more than
once been offered larger salaries to
go elsewhere. In 1890 the University
of Georgia offered me, and repeated
the offer, of $4,000 a year to go there
and organize Farmers Institutes. On
ly last year the Georgia Station want
ed me to go there for more than I am
getting here. And yet I stick at my
work I have been doing here, and
mean to stick at it, though I have to
do other work to exc out a salary that
does not half support my family.
When a man sacrifices financial adj
vancement for the sake of his work,
it is too late to insinuate that he has
sordid motives in doing it.
Yours truly,
W. F. MASSEY.