The Robesonian. [volume] (Lumberton, N.C.) 1870-current, 1908-09-17

ty the department sends out
a man, free of charge to the
farmer, to superintend or give
instructions as to the cultivation
of these farms. Mr.. Hudson
says that the records show that
the farmers make about 500 per
cent. more on these demonstra-
ton farms than they do on their
other land, simply because it is
cultivated better and the land is
broken at the right time. The
land should be broken in the fall
of the year instead of the spring,
as most farmers do. After Mr..
Hudson's speech the meeting
adjourned to meet at 2 o'clock.
At 2 O'Clock the crowd reas-
sembled to hear Mr.. M. O.
Eldridge, of the office of good
roads, discuss the question of
good roads. Mr.. Goodwin, be-
fore introducing Mr.. Eldridge,
spent about ten minutes dis
cussing the necessity and ad-
vantages of having a better
system of agricultural education.
He says that the farmer must
quit letting the other man
keep the books and regulate the
prices he gets for his produce;
and to do this the farmers must
raise on their farms all that they
consume and quit buying corn
from somebody else. We allow
men in a State that does not
raise boil of cotton to say what
we will take for our crop. To
avoid this the farmer must be-
come independent.
Mr.. Eldridge in the beginning
of his speech stated that he had
been out over some of our roads
near town and that he wished tC
congratulate Mr.. A. E. White,
chairman eff the board of road
supervisors, on his management
of road building. He said thai
in his opinion the work could MOI
be done better than Mr.. White
was having it done. The sane
clay road, he said, is unquestion
ably the thing for our county
but the work on the roads SHOULD
be done in the fall of the yea
when the ground is wet, so tina
the sand and clay will become
thoroughly mixed; and it il
sometimes we'll to run a dis
harrow over the road to worl
} the sand into the clay. Mr.
Eldridge says that there are fou
methods of working roads-th'
old statute labor law, the casl
system, State aid and bond is
suing; but of the four he pre-
: fers our method, the cash sys
, tenn, which in his opinion is mucl
better in many respects than an,
of the other methods, unless i
is the bond issue method, and il
that case the only advantage i
that we have the use of goo
) roads at once, while under GU
, method the roads are bull
slowly, but payed for as the
are built. He says that there i
no reason in the world why W
should not have good roads i
Robson. The land is level an
} the roads can be built at an ex
pense of about $500 per mile
Good roads increase the valuatio
of the farms through whic
4 they run and enable the farme
to market his crop at a niue
less expense than he could other
wise do. He said that in som
sections of our country it cost
the farmer more to market hi
/ cotton than it costs the shippe
to get it to Liverpool, all on az
count of bad roads that ougt
! to be fixed. He indorses tn
4 plan of building roads with m;
! chimes instead of hiring so niue
i, labor. He says that there is r
: question but that roads can /
l built in this level country wit
) machines at a much less expens
Il than with common labor.
At the conclusion of M
. Eldridge's speech Mr.. Godwi
l thanked the people for their a
tention and stated that he e,
= pected to continue having thes
i meetings and hoped that the
= would result in much good to tt
. people. Prominent farmers fro
+ all sections of the county a
', tended the meeting and mut
IL interest was manifested.