The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-10-20

won thrvugh seed selection. Tear after year he has worked on the development of a sweet potato which would give big yield on upland. This potato he developed with the old fashioned Southern yam as 8 basis, He claims this section of the country. He is also selling seed from his specially devel- oped yam and there has been a good demand for them.
 ! In working out farming problems. he discovered that there was a whole lot in the claifns of the scientific far- mers that land should be plowed deep and that sub-sofling should be looked after. He attended to this ev- cry year. He blows deep in the late fall and turns under the grass and veg citation on all of his farm. This he has found to be very profitable. Then he believes in feeding the land. Sta ble manure he has found to be the best fertilizer and on 1t he largely depends. But he uses cotton seed meal and pllos- phate. But the principal dependence is stable manure, The fertilization of the land is done after system through which. he has built up year after year.
 Work of this sort was needed on MT. Stephens's eighty acres when he took charge Of them. The land was of red clay and sandy loam. It was rather
 badly washed, because negroes had been cultivating 1t for several years. But it's a fine farm now. with the care, the fertilization and the sub-soiling that has been done.
 Mir, Stephens uses negro labor. such as the farmers of Montgomery County depend upon. He gives his labor the closest kind of supervision. He sees that the hands do their work, and he knows what work they do. He sets them rather good example, too, in the matter of continuous work. Three negroes are employed regularly on wages. A number of times during the year he was forced to call in day la borers. His two boys, Reuben and Willie. also render service when the farm demands 1t.
 A Now. IS to his truck farming. which has been so rernunerative: Montgom- cry is, of course, hts market. But the time came occasionally during the year when the Montgomery market was flied to overfowtng. Then he loaded his garden truck on the cars and shtp~ ped it to Birmingham, where the mar ket is never glutted. Most of his wa termelons were shipped away. He took care that the commission men did not get the best of him on the watermelon and cantaloupea business, and he was able to do it because of q
 long experience in marketing farm stuff. But most of the truck was sold from St. Stephens's wagon on the streets of Montgomery.
 In reviewing the years success on MT. Stephens's eighty-acre farm. the importance of his scientific methods. deep blowing, subsoi1ing. land Dutld- ing and seed selection must not be minimized; yet he knew nothing of the importance of these methods wnen he was getting his first experience Tn farming. He learned how. on the Bar bour County hills. few miles out from EufaulA, and according to the old style, between blow handles In 2 stump-s studded field. He made suo- ceas of farming there, and according to old methods. He was especially successful in watermelon growing. He ia said to have made two or three Tor tunes farming, and to have lost them bv Investments in other business to which he could not give his personal attention.
 For the past seven years he has been farming in the suburbs around Mont xonery and she never yet failed 70 make a good crop. He went into truck farning rather extensively, and 1t has paid well.
 MT. Stephens's home is on Cleveland Avenue, where the city limits cross tha avenue. His farm is in sight of his house. He leases the land and pays the rent monthly. But there IS gooo money in his style of farming.