The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-07-26

bought it and had been experiment.
ing in the selection Of seed He used
the best seed, applied plenty of man
ure, and, 10 and behold, when the
crop was gathered Bats woke one
morning to find himself famous and
with all the world beating a path to
his door. How had he done it? By
mixing brains with muscle and a de-
termination to do better farming than
he had ever seen done in all his life.
That is all, Sounds simple, doesn't
bound up many days of hard labor,
much thought. many experiments and
much observation. No man does a
big thing like Bats has done unless
he has been years preparing for it. He
grew up on a farm. first in Edgecombe,
then in Wilson, for his father, who
lives with him, is a farmer, and the
young man began to grow corn al
most as soon as he could walk. A
few years ago Capt. J. P. Edmundson,
OF Johnston, who was born in Wilson
county, induced young Bats to come
to his farm-nearby this place-to
grow tobacco He saw that the boy
had good head and q strong arm,
for Mr. Edmundson is as good a judge
Of what a young man can do as you
will find in North Carolina. And that
is how Wake county gets the glory Of
being the home of the young Corn
King. Otherwise, Edgecombe or Will
son would have had the honor, for
Bats had In him the making of a
leader, and it Is true saying there's
more in the man than there is in the
land" Some years after coming here,
Mr. Bats bargained to buy $50 acres
Of land of the Turner tract for S2,950
"a little over $50 an acre. It was
not better-Mr. Simpkins says it was
not as good-as the land adjoining it,
but Mr.. Bats put his life into the land
and the world knows the result. No
man can do anything big unless he
puts his life into it. Brain muscle,
time-everything was poured into the
land to make ready for the day when
the name Bats should be known
throughout the country beca he
had done something that mad not
only given him more comforts and
larger income, but also because he had
furnished an object lesson that is rev
olutionizing corn growing in the
South.
Mr. Bats paid s2.95O for this farm
of $50 acres. He sold the seed from
his one acre last year for more than
$4,000.
State in the Uniop for seed that ne
could not furnish. He had done some
thing better than anybody else, and
the world beat path to his door!
Here, in a neat and freshly painted
unpretentious house, amid massive
shade trees, surrounded by good
neighbors, with a farm stocked with
the best Of everything, with growing
orchards, fine COWS, the best labor saw
ing machinery. with his father and
mother and growing family, this young
Corn King is not resting on his laurels,
but is going on to greater conQuests.
We got lost today in his thirty acres In
one tract of corn so fine that there is
no words / can use to describe II. Cofh'
planted from the best OF the Batts
seed-corn, that is so high ana 50
dense-though planted far apart-that
a whole regiment of soldiers coulu
hide from a passing enemy In It's shad-
ows. 1t is hard to conceive of sucn
corn I have gone through the ESypt
section of Illinois, where the corn
grows more luxuriantly than IN any
other portion Of the North, nave
Travelled a whole day through the
corn fields west of the Mississippi, ana
have sped past the luxurious corn