The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-07-25
EVERY TOWN HAS
 ONE CRANKY MAN And He Usually Sets a Pace
 for the Others DIR. JOHNSON'S GOOD WORK He Is Man Living at Jemison Who Is Demonstrating Things
 in the Way of scien-
 tlfic Farming.
DIR. JOHNSON'S GOOD WORK
BY WALTER HARPER.

BY WALTER HARPER.
 Jemison, July 24-(Special. )-Every town or community has Its crank. He Is al-
 ways the smartest-man in the community
 though he comes in for more ridicule perhaps than any other man.
 To be known as a crank is to be fa- nous. Eccentricity is synonymous with
 genius. The rabble of the village may
 tap their heads significantly when he passes by and look dolefully sympathetic. The children may ridicule, but in the
 years to come the village may receive a
 rich heritage from the crank's accumu-
 lated store of knowledge and unsefsh re-
 search. The crank Is never careful of
 the plaudits of the living. Personal praise
 is as chaff to him. He Is usually en-
 gagged in research that looks to the com
 fort of human existence and however
 extreme his theories may be they always
 lead to some valuable discovery.
 Looks Up Crank.
 After I had heard the story of the
 founding of Jemison, talked with the
 mayor and the leading merchants, taken
 note of the preachers and teachers, dis
 cussed politics with the justice of the
 peace and studied the faces of the people
 who gather to see the trains go by.
 asked to see the town crank.
 "The town crank! What do you mean?"
 "The man in the community who Is
 laughed at by the most people for some eccentric idea"
 "Oh, you want to see Dr. Johnson" "Yes What is his hobby?'
 Corn"
 My newly made acquaintance closed
 his store and we walked out to the edge of town. The Johnson home is one of the prettiest In the place. It covers a block The yard and surrounding gar den and barnyard are as neat as church
 on Sunday morning.
 Fine Corn Patch.
 We found Dr. J. M. B. Johnson in his | corn patch. He had finished his regular 1 two hours morning reading in his well 1 filled library and was in his working 1 clothes under broad brimmed straw | hat. Dr. Johnson is perhaps the best | posted man in book learning in this en- 1 tire section. He reads everything from | the most abstruse scientific treatieses 1 down to the days baseball dope, His | favorite study, however, Is practical agri- l culture. He declares that the art of plant I culture is the highest known to man. It puts him in partnership with God. He l pronounces a desperate indictment against l the man who will not and who does not | fulfill his full share of that parnership. "God provides the soil, the sunshine. the l rain, the life in the seed and trains the l plant. but 1t is left for man, the mortal,
 active partner to furnish the brain power
 and the labor" says Dr. Johnson. I am sure that there can be no better | corn in Chiffon county than that which | Dr Johnson Is raising. It is planted in | fiye-foot rows, ten inches in the drill.
 Every stalk will average three large, fine | ears of corn Some stalks have as many 1 as seven and eight.
 | "I have taken as a basis the William son method of culture," said Dr. John l son, "and am trying to improve on It.. l My friend Williamson Is not the smart l est man in the world-neither am I, but | his brain and mine together ought to 1 improve even his most excellent method. Hastings Prolific.
 l q planted the Hastings Prolific variety of corn. The land was not prepared. 1 simply laid off the rows and dropped the corn in the drill. The idea is to stunt the 1 plant until 1t begins to tastle. You put l no fertilizer of any kind in the drill with I the seed. You know the average farmer l in Alabama puts down seed and with it 1 all the fertilizer he expects to use. This l starts the plant right off from the jump. 1 It begins at once to draw on the fertilizer | and the result Is that about the time the l fruit needs help the fertilizer Is exhaust ed. The consequence is you have a large l stalk and small ear.
 l According to the Williamson method | the fertilizer Is fed to the plant as 1t Is
 needed during its growth and the develop l ment of the fruit. I am going farther than Williamson with the idea of putting as many plants on the ground as can be fed and matured with the maximum amount of grain. There is hardly any l limit to the amount of corn that can be | produced if the necessary amount of plant 1 food is supplied when 1t is needed. Corn Is RepIanted. '"Then Eere is another idea of mine | When I plant the corn I also plant few extra rows for replant purposes. For one | cause or another you never get full
 stand in planting. If you replant with seed after the first planting is up and
 growing the second planting will be. of course, later and will never catch up
 with the first You must transplant stalks that have the same age as the corn in the field. The transplanted stalk having the same age will mature as soon as the first planting, though the stalk may never be as large. The ears on the stalk will be just as good and as large. You supply it with the same food you do the other plants and 1t has the same producing quality and strength.
 T have thoroughly tested this trans planting scheme and found 1t successful. I expect to produce at the rate of 15o