The farmer and mechanic., 1911-02-28
Progressive Farmer.

that l talked with SeeHieu ~ S
the necessity of putting more nuinuS
into the land. but verv few of them
seem disposed TO go ahead ana ~
il. and / judged that the most ol
the opinions around were III
of using more fertilizers
/ travelled about 200 miles over ti!e
Southern. the Seaboard and Atiantic
Coas4 Line and certa My wherever
we went in daylight there was mlghty
Iit,fe evidence that the teachln,'S ol
the experiment stations OF lhe pe
ter farmers was beng lolpw eu.
If the railroads would take
narrovy strips, half q mile long let
ns cav and narrow enough so that
the contrast would be clear for a
lone distance. and develop these IN
alfalfa, clover and similar things 10
show what could be done, | am s.lre
It would be a remarkable adVert1se-
ing for the South. This was tried
in northern Michigan on the pine
barrens with immense success and
II would be we'll to stir up the South
ern roads to something Of the sort
The idea is q good one, for moth
ing gives traveller worse ldea OIL
the South than the general appear
ance of the lands along the railroads.
But unfortunately the 'industrlaI
agents of the railroads seem to spend
all their efforts in aiding the
real estate boomers, and noth-
ing to show what can be done
with the land lying waste along
their tracks. Take the line TT
the Seaboard through southern
North Carolina and South Carolina,
and the traveller sees a wilderness OF
scattered pines. sand and scrub, and
wonders how the towns have grown
up and what the people live on II
he does not understand that there are
better lands lying back on both sides
of the railroad. But if the indus
trail agents were to inaugurate the
improvement of some of the lands
right along the tracks, and snow how
easy it is to get these lands to pro-
ducing crops by good manaeen1 ent
the roads would do far more for the
country through which they pass
than they now do with newspaper
advertising Demonstrations, such as
DR.. Knapp is making. VII do far
more than simple real estate BOOM
ing and would pay the railroads a
great deal better.
Farmers Should Fight For the Parcel
Post.
The farmer needs a good parcel
post more than almost any rural i'm
provement, and yet as one has said.
there are four reasons why we do
not get it. These four reasons are
the four great express comnanies.
They own each others stock, and the
and carry express matter far cheaper
than they carry the mails, and they
make such enormous profits that they
distribute millions Of dollars in bonds
to the stockholders to prevent the
dividends looking SO large
And now these companies are ac-
lively getting the country merchants
to send petitions against the parcel
post by making them tn ink that it
will ruin their business when, in fact,
no class Of the community will be
more benefited by reasonable parcel
post than the country merchant.
Then too, there is scheme to try
the parcel post on rural routes only.
This will simply be making the rural
routes the delivery agents for the ex-
press companies, and will do no good
at all We can now send a package
weighing eleven pounds to England
or Japan, but cannot send it to any
postotfice IN this country. The man
in Japan or England can send me
package that [ cannot mail to the
next poatotfice unless l divide it into
packages of less than four bounds
each and then pay more than the
man in England or Japan pays for
an eleven-pound package. There is
something rotten, evidently
Then there is always a talk about
the deficit in the postal service. Why
the War and Navy Departm ents are
al dStltIl" lo pOStdi service IS ICI
the benefit of the people, and they
are willing to pay for t. But they
talk about making the magazines pay
greater rates because of their ad-
vertising matter. Why, these ads
bring more money to the Postoffice
Department than anything in the
country. and if their rates are raised
they will have to increase their price
and get less circulation and the De
partment less revenue thereby The
hoarv frau5 of the free seeds SEN
out by Congressman costs over hall
m llion of dollars for seeds anC
mailing. and if that was cut out, the
deficit in the postal revenue wouic
be greatly diminished. But what ths
people want is good service by mail
and they do not care a button abou
the deficit The packages of seed arr
now being sent out by the Congress
men. [ get them and feed to III,
SuarraXS for 7 =