The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-24
RIDE AUTOMOBILES AND WEAR DIAMONDS An Interesting Visit to Cren-
 shaw County GUS HILL A CHARACTER Rides Around BrantIey in His Big Car. J. s. Johnson, a Farmer Who
 Wears Diamonds While
 He Flows
BY WALTER HARPER

Augustus II. Hill, or Gus Hill, as he is called by the hundreds of peo- pie who know him, lives, moves and has his being at Brantley. Brantley is in Crenshaw county.
 When I first met Gus he was coiled up in a seat in the dirty smoking com partment of a Central of Georgia rail- way train going out of Union Springs. He had on a broad-brimmed slouch hat, the hat he works in every day You know how a mans hat sometimes helps you to form a wrong impress sion of the owner7
 We'll, I gave the fellow a glance and deposited my s2 grip and third year mackintosh in a seat opposite and preceded to ignore the member of the multi-millionaire regiment of the common people just across the aisle.
 A mutual friend came in and intro duced us. The mutual friend was a farm machinery drummer from Flu faula. Gus Hill is a man you ought to know. He Is one of the good farm CTS of south Alabama"
 Gus Hill passed us cigars and though they looked and tasted very much like ''two-bitsers" I was still unsuspicious that the man in the slouch hat had a rating of AAAA1 In Bradstreet's.
 For the benefit of the initiated four a-one is as much as any man or firm is ever given by the aforesaid Brad street. It means good for more than million dollars and tip top credit.
 Gus Hill can afford to wear a slouch hat and coll up in dump seat In the rear coach of a slow-going train. He could also afford to be ignored by a s11.97 newspaper reported.
 But he was gracious enough to in vito me to stop off at Brantley. More than that, he was indulgent enough to explain where Brantley is
 If you will come to Brantley we will show you town where there are no idle people and where there are some of the best farmers in Alabama" he said:
 That Is why I stopped of at Brant- ley next day, It was then that I dis. covered the AAAA1. Gus Hill is not only a successful farmer but he Is the biggest merchant in the place. He sells everything. The firm name IS Henderson & Hill. You can look 1t up for yourself. Henderson seems to be silent partner I only heard Of him.
 Gus kept his word. When I got off the train he was waiting for me with his big
  farmers in the community. And they are really big ones, too. They raise 100 bushels of corn and two bales of cotton 70 the acre.
 J. S.. Johnson was one of the agricui- tural barons we visited. We found him in the field blowing and directing other blows. He was blowing himself, breaking up his land and preparing it for next years cotton and corn. And this was just three days before Christmas, too mind you.
 And that is not all. could not help but observe the big diamond he wore in his shirt front.
 He had on overalls and the fresh plowed soil was sticking to his shoes. The dia- mond matched the broad, healthy, con tented smile on his face. And the gem did not look out of place.
 It Is time for the farmers of Alabama to wear diamonds and ride in automo- piles. And they are going to do it. Such farmers as J. s. Johnson can always wear diamonds.
 Fifteen farmers over in Pike county own automobiles and some of them are as fine as Charles Henderson can ride By the way, Charles Henderson bought a new machine few days ago.
 But I was not through with J. s. John son.
 He had boy cotton patch this year It contains a fraction less than two and one-half acres. He gathered from this patch three heavy bales weighing, rr- spectively, 510, $40 and 5s5 pounds, and 66S pounds of seed cotton that was not baled. Divide this by three to get the amount of lint and make your own figures. The total cost, including his own labor and a liberal allowance for rent, was $129.5U. The cotton was sold at 14h cents.
 He says he will increase this yield next year.
 He gets the same results in growing corn
 Tt is cheaper to grow 100 bushels of corn or two bales of cotton to the acre than one-fifth those amounts" said MT. Johnson. Tt is not only good business, but mans duty to get the largest pos- sible results from every acre of land under cultivation. It is next to criminal to butcher land and rob it of the glory of the largest possible results"
 That diamond just won't get off my mind.
 M. M. Bentley is another Brantley farm CT that rides in an automobile and whose business goes through the banks.
 He despises anything less than 100 bushels of corn to the acre and really believe he would stick a match to an acre of cotton that does not give him one and a half bales.
 He also has a large sawmil in .the edge of town that helps to swell his bank account and keep him busy between times.
 D. J. Nelson lives eight miles from Brantley and is a good type of the Cren- shaw county farmer. He has been farm ing on his own hook for 27 years within few miles of where he was born and reared. He has never bought a bushel of corn for his own use since he has been farming and always raises his own meat and some to sell His brother, J. T. Nelson, in the same community, is another good farmer who believes in producing his own hog and hominy and does it.
 But this section Is full of just such ooff Fo IT