Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1909-08-22

DODSON IS NOT AFTER
THE JOB OF G. OF A.
Some One Must Have
Meant it for a Joke.
But His Soul Yearns for
the Country Just
the Same.

! the race for Commissioner of Agricul-
| ture in the event that Commissioner
Tom Hudson lays down the job and
| begins to legislate for the nation at
| Washington? Farmer Bill has been
doing heap of talking about crops
of late, talking in very knowing
way, too, and that may be the real
secret of the rumors that have gone
through the county
Down in the Seventeenth District
| it is believed, almost to a man. that
Farmer Bill is going to preside over
| the destinies of the Agricultural De-
partment after next year and the de-
spondency created by the fear that
| Sumter was going to lose control of
the job has disappeared
Everybody is smiling now over the
knowledge that sure enough farmer
| from the best county in the Common
wealth is to follow in the footsteps
of Farmer Tom Hudson in keeping
the department up to high level of
efficiency as a practical medium for
the improvement of agricultural con-
ditions.
But Farmer Dodson denies the ac-
curacy of the rumors.
He smiles rather sheepishly when
the rumors are mentioned. 1t is true,
he admits, that farming has peculiar
attractiveness for him, that agricul-
ture lost a most successful servant
when he took up the study of law and
the pursuit of politics as professions
for life instead of viewing nature
from between the pillow handles and
breathing in the inspiring air of
heaven while the dew is on the cot
ton and the hooking bird is sweetly
caroltng.
This is where his poetic nature as
serts itself, Indeed some of his
friends think that if Farmer Bill had/
stuck to agriculture Sumter county
would long before this have had IL
second Bobby Burns to it's credit.
Those who remember his passionate
eulogy on the 'pOssum can appreciate
how powerful poet of nature he
would have made if not lured away
from the fields of the old plantation
by the siren call of the bar
Crops really amt what they
ought to be-, said Farmer Bill the
other day, after a day on his farm
out toward Plains somewhere. I'VE
didn't get enough rain in that sec
ton and the yield of cotton was cut
short as a result Too much hot
winds, too; too much hot winds"
This was said with an utterly reck-
less disregard of the fate of another
Georgia politician who in a rash mo-
ment talked about "hot winds"
The truth of the matter is" he
philosophical farming is a mighty
uncertain occupation. It's sorter like
the law, you see.
You start out with brilliant antici-
pations. The crop comes up just
fine, the skies are blue, the sun is
cheerful, and in fancy you see bales
pouring into the warehouses and the
bank balance swelling clean out of
sight But the hot winds and the
black root, and the red spiders, and
a whole lot of other things happen,
just happen, you know, not because
you amt good farmer, but things
you can't control and down goes the
prospects to zero"
Nov when a young fellow starts
in the law it's just the same way.
He remembers how up there in Ath-
ems, or Mercer, the audience went
wild over his strong and masterful
addresses. He sees the juries swept
off their base with his commanding
eloCuence. Verdict after verdict
comes his way, he has a mansion out
on Lee street and forty-horsepower
auto, just like Farmer Crawl Wheat
ley, the prettiest girls all want to
marry him, and he even gets elected
to the legislature.
But it's all dreams, all dreams,
just like the farmers vision of his
cotton profits.
He gets a few cases, the juries
are stupidity indifferent to his plead
ing, they call it hot wind, the judge
comes down on him like a boil wee
vii, and if he wins the other fellow
knocks him out like a drought does
cotton when it reaches the Court Of
Appeals. You know, I am thinking
of writing a poem for our next Board
of Trade banquet along that line, the
uncertainty of human plans as exem-
plified on the farm and at the bar.
But to get back to my crop; do
you know, | don't believe | am going
to make over a half bale of cotton
to the acre. That is just little bet
ter than Jim Williams can do Too
much prohibition out in that section
just when we needed it to be wet. 1t
will take two or three good cases
here in town to make up the money
lost; l mean the money between what
[ thought / would make and what |
am really going to make.
But the pleasure, ah the pleasure
l have had. Why, do you know when
| go out to my plantation it Just fills
me with pleasure, just like that New
Jersey fellow filled up with wind the
other day when his lung was pierced.
Why, / would rather be a farmer if
l had my way than anything else on
earth. Next to being a farmer the
best thing is to be a Commissioner Of
Agriculture, like my friend. Tom
Hudson"
is that rumor true, them" Col.
| Dodson was asked