The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-12-20
southern Pines Tourist. J


The Tourists corn editor was
startled out of his usual placidity the
other day in Il way which set him to
thinking.
Dropping into the Broad Street
Pharmacy he wasted nickel on a
coca-cola. took a hasty glance around
aud Was just on the point Of escaping
uuhaGmed when he was accosted in
: low voice, by leading winter resi-
deut who is interested In all real
dau5 who is insterested in all real
Q1oth the winter resident: Where
g. YOU get your corn stories?''
Oh. replied the newspaper man.
Il pick 'em up here and there. and
have several men looking out for good
0aeS all over the country. Don't YOU
siAe emp
Yes sir" continued the winter resi-
dent 4 like EN- all right and they're
good reading and good advertising for
this region. but-but-weli, see here
perhaps you don't know it. but they're
'nlIing' YOU" He said this in a very
Tow tone so as not to allow the crowd
50 hear
oh. said the writer Of corn
stories light begins to break In
infer that these scheming and no.
toriety loving Moore county farmers
are working me for lot of free ad-
vertjsing on fake facts; sort Of Doe
Cook scheme. Ell? To pu6 It IN home
is bur forcible English you mean to
intimate that these sons Of the soil
are 'stringing me- He allowed that
! had arrived at his meaning
Now a little thing like that doesn't
phase a man who has been running a
newspaper-eyen a wee little one--for
a few years, but 1t sets him thinking
The winter resident asked the writer
II he really believed that any man
had raised a hundred bushels OF corn
on an acre of Moore county sand.
When informed that he not only be-
leved 1t but believed it trem endously,
because OF his familiarity with the men
and his repeated visits to their corn
fields, he was sure that either the
ground or the corn was not accurately
measured-perhaps neither. When
told that the largest yields recorded
were on demonstration acres where
the whole process was under the di-
rection of an official OF the United
States Government and that the
Tourists information in these cases
was taken directly from the reports
OF that official. he sadly shook his head
and allowed that he couldn't believe
it: there must be something wrong
somewhere. He further remarked
that up around New York they were
laughing at the Tourists corn stories.
because Of their palpable exaggeration.
Business men who had seen the sand
hills simply couldn't be made to be-
Leve that such yarns could be literally
true.
Two other persons Of equal I'M eli1-
yence have recently declared that they
did not believe that the things written
about the productivity Of this section
were true. The best answer that the
Tourist has to offer to these doubts is
an interview with a man who has been
investigating this region for two years
from the standpoint Of the "shoW-me-
the-money-in-it'' business man.
Many months ago slim, qulet' 81
lent, youngerly man came to Southern
Pines His name is Fl. e. Cover. lie
hailed from New York, and was SAID
to have money or strong backing.
He kept his own automobile, employed
A. II. Kerr as his driver and represen-
tative when he himself was elsewhere.
Pretty soon the Southern Plantation
Company was incorporated and this
WAS later changed to the Southern
farfas Company. The Tourist got