The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-09-26
SOME THINGS OsBE SEEN
 ON A MODEL DAIRY FARM
The "Locust Grove" Establishment Near Mid way, in Bullock County, from Which Emanates Sure Enough Milk
 and Butter
BY WILL T. sHEEHAN.

EVdu nuu SAW iI WlIH prise. To tell the truth it looked out of place in that section of the country through which we had been passing,
 We were going from Clayton to Mid way and the road wound and twisted along sidge of which there was too much of sand and too much of rock. The negro had left the trail of his oc- cupancy of the ridge farms Which means that much of its former glory had departed. He had left the hills rockier and sandier than he had found them and the richer plans and bottoms bore the imprints of his improvident ways.
 The older homes, the homes of the white farmers who had lived along the road in the days before the war and the days after the war, were melan- choIy reminders of their former great ness. They were in truth only inade- quate mementoes of the days when the plantations were well kept when the fields were productive and when the planter and his family lived generous ly and well. But time moved them to the cities A different sort of history has been written and mores the pity, a different sort of condition has come in among these hills and valleys, once the scene of plenty and content- ment.>
 Ine negro HdS COile tilO lHe uOHlcS and the old scenes of thrift and thor oughness went out when he came in. The old cedar avenues have grown ragged and jagged. The fences be- came firewood. It was too much trouble to go to the woods fifty yards away for fire wood on winter days. The hungry and wandering cows years ago ate up the flowers and trampled down the beds. The walks and ave- hafr idaptity in, wilderness of weeds. The steps have routed and are unsafe and the windows have been the victims of divers acci- dents. The roof is moss s-decorated and on rainy days the water pours through
 The Old Country Home.
 But what difference does it make? It's easier to move the bed than it is to fix the roof The only fence in sight is the ramshackle, apologetic af- fair around the horse lot and 1t is in- adequate to the task of holding safe its lean and attenuated live stock pris- oners.
 And behind the house the hills are cut and gashed with gullies. Sweet gum bushes and short leaf pine trees are disputing possession with the gull lies. On the levels the broom sedge is supreme. an eloquent commentary on the sort of farming that has been
 
 bottoms and along some of the newer hillsides a sort of haphazard, weakly farming is done. such is too often the farm of the negro.
 Of course. around Mt. Andrew the ridge makes a different sort of show ing. Of course, that's different. The white man is in charge there and the hills and valleys are treated with con sderation. Corn and cotton verdant- | ly thTives and the promise of success full crops Is of the confidence winning sort. And near Midway there are oth- CT white mems farms which show up well and satisfyingly. D..
 But the succession of the negro farms. with the unkempt yards and the rack houses and the run down -at-the- heels barn do not form an inspiring panorama. :.......
 But they did form telling contrast with the farm and the modern cottage on the hill that We had come to as we were nearing Midway. Because the contrast seemed so great is why the and' modern and home-like cottage seemed out of place when it first came into view. So nice a home belonged in a town or city, according to modern ideas It is true, pitably true, that the new homes are now no longer built on the farms and in the country a s they are In the towns and the cities. It is an unfortunate mod ern disposition in Alabama for the man to build his new home in the town, and turn over his home to his negro ten ants, to the misfortune of his farm and the old home in the country. ...
 But this-this was a cottage of mod ern architecture that would have orna- mented any town. There was in 1t a combination of the old time roominess and comfort of the country with beau tifying effects of modern architectural effects. The rooms were large the halls wide and the verandas spacious Wtthal through a happy combination the effect was tasteful and inviting Ii was modern enough for a city home and comfortable enough for a country home. -~.=* ~.. *."
 The Modern Farm House.
 There were lace curtains in the win dows and the same windows were screened as thoroughly and as well as any city home could be since the pop- ularizing of the mosquito theory of the of disease. The wide 1 spreading cottage was painted in 2 light olive green and the fences about | 1t were as we'll built and as well kept | as though the place had been on a | fashionable avenue of big city.
 And the farm behind it-it would | delight and please the eye of any | i"l met mere were no hills gaShed | with gullies. there were no sedge | heids, there were no incipient pine for | ests and no waste places for them to | grow upon. Who said the rolling | farms of the ridge were impoverished | and unpromising? Here was a flat | denial Of the assertion. From hill | side covered with stately cornstalks, | rom slopes ornamented with vital and | vigorous cotton. from pea field from | nayfeId, from half a score of forage | heldS the denial came II was as fine | farm, as productive a farm as one | could find In a days ride through the | best of Alabama.
 It was not the land which made the | differences between the disappointing farms we had passed and the inspir- | Ing one that we had come to. The | difference was not in the Iand-it was | in the men who titled the land If a | man should accept the popular idea | that the gray sandy and chocolate | lands of the ridge was unproductive | he would have to deny the ex- istence of as pleasing bit | of landscape, as that which | we had just come to. On the other | hand the farm was a convincing ex- hibit as to the possibilities of the | older farms and plantations which had | been allowed to fall into neglect, but | which need only energy and brains | to restore them to glory greater | than that which was formerly theirs |
 Oats Halls dairy farm" So !