The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-09-14
| Guild MINE" IN FLEA HILL TOWNSHIP
(F'ayetteyille INDEX

" dVeCteVlIIe Index
DID you eve See land produce 40
TO 100 bushels of corr to the acre
without an ounce Of fertilizer or anv
KIND Of manure? Mr.. Henry w.
Downing otherwise known as Corn,
DoWnlng), of Flea Hill township.
cumberland county, has over 500
acres that will Yield that much this
year, and a considerable portion Of
II has never had a pillow in it. He
mas many acres that have never had
a pillow which will make easily IS
nusnels to the acre, and a good por-
ton OF this Will certainly yield very
nearly or quite 100 bushels to the
acre.
They have a gold mine, and don't
know it," Such was Mr.. Downing's
remarkable declaration to me last
thursday afternoon as he and 1 were
urlVlng trough a portion of the
sWamps' on the east side Of the Cape
Fear river between Fayetteville and
wade. He was referring to the peo-
pie who own the land in thu sec
ton. When We concluded the drive
| said, like the queen of Sheba when
she had behe1d Solomon in all his
glory, The half had not been told
me-" Verify that is the Kansas of
Cumberland county.
h key to the door Of immense
possibilities, in that portion Of h
county, the key to the door to wealth,
is drainage. I am convinced that
digging the proper canals and bitches
in that section is but the digging Of
the shaft to the gold. Thus will the
gold mine be developed. Mr.. Down
ing and a few others W cog
nized the key to the situation, and
they are already gathering the gold,
but they would not say so. Modesty
with them forbids.
These lands are not lowlands in
the ordinary sense or the term, al
though they are called 1.-The swamps."
A drainage fall of over ten feet to the
mile is comparatively easy to get.
The land is perhaps as much as ff-
teen to twenty-five feet above the
water in the Cape Fear river, and the
section referred to lies within two or
three miles Of the river. The soil is
very dark, but O stiff. It is loose,
and can De cultivated with remark
able ease. When drained it never
gets too dry to pillow and never sobs
One who is any judge of the qualities
of Ian doe not have to see a crop
on it to be convinced that it is rich
as cream" You know that when you
look at the soil. The growth on the
uncleared land is blackgum, sweet
gum, poplar, white oak, etc. The
soil itself is a rich dark loan, loose
and light when in cultivation.
Thursday afternoon I went with
Mr.. Downing to his beautiful home,
two miles from the river and three
miles from Fayetteville, went over
his plantation there and hen drove
with him to his upper plantation,
which is divided by the main line Of
the 4 c. L., just beyond Beard sta
ton. We went by the "P1ank'' road
and returned by the Dirt road and
the River road. It is undoubt-
eddy one of the finest pieces Of coun-
try I have ever seen. And it is pretty
thickly settled. Cumberland has some
Of her most valuable citizens over
there. The McLaurins, the Geddies,
the Williamses, the Bottoms, etc, live
there. We passed Eastover school.
There is a school building that is a
| credit to the entire county.
At MI. Downing's home place he
has 6S4 acres of land, in one body.
About 500 acres Of it is in cultivation.
And the major porricn Of it is under
corn. There is the finest corn field
I ever saw. Level, we'll drained, soil
pulverized, not O. stump to be found,
it is a thing Of beauty The corn is
so he was p~enalized another 5 per
cent, making his time 29 minutes