Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1911-04-06

Ser OF broad acres anu tag hefup ~
slay--.that ID the history Of hundreds
81 agricultural successes in Kansas.
TAe happy transition, not literally
81 day. perhaps. but Of few sea-
nons at most, has been the experience
Of one-time tenant farmers, now
among the "solid citizens" Of the
most prosperous rural communities
In America
Those men have proved that there
Is q short cut to wealth--that there
Is such thing as legitimate get
rich-quick system. They have prov
II, Cd that brains and sweat, mixed with
the soil, will grow dollars where
only weeds grew before, and that
conscientious and intelligent effort,
without capital, will produce more
IN the country than In the city.
VI y y
what Is their secret7 There 10
4 none. There 10 nothing miraculous
IN their achievements the wonder
a that many more have not made
the same success under like condi-
/ lions, They are merely hard-handed,
hard-headed, intelligent farmers, who
knew their business and took adj
vantage Of the opportunities offered.
They have studied farming 40 q BUSH
ness, just as the successful city man
has studied merchandising. banking
or any other department Of CONNER
cial life. rW
Their course has been certain ana
rapid, but not easy. 1t ID not one
20 be followed successfully by the city
man, Intelligent and wiling, per-
haps, but without practical knowl-
edge Of farm problems and their So
luton. And they are no less above
and beyond the class Of countrymen
hacking in initiative, brains, energy
ana stamina, who. drudge away their
lives as tenant farmers without ac-
formulating enough to provide for a
decent burial at the end.
A majority Of the tenant farmer
successes formerly were servants,
-.hired hands, in the employ Of land
owners, and had nothing but their
wages Of few dollars a month. That
was only few years ago. Now
most Of them are well-to-do, and
some are.rich. Not rich in the sense
Of owning enormous bank accounts
or bundles Of stocks and bonds, but
in the possession Of their equivalent
n rich farms, comfortable homes.
certain, comfortable living and q
margin Of cash profit to lay away
each season. They began BY saving
! little Of the little they earned,
slmmping until they acquired, us
ually. team Of horses, the first
essential to the business Of farm
ing. Then they rented land and set
shout the business Of overtaking OPP
portunities and seizing them for their
own.
Here follow some Of the plain
stories that tell Of the transition
from poverty 10 prosperity;
Three miles north Of Hope, here
IN Dickinson county, there 10 a typi-
cal Kansas farm, with its big barn
for barns in Kansas are by no
means the last confederation COM
portable appearing house. and scat
tered about the place may be seen
cattle .sorne for beef and others for
dairy purposes-hogs, sheep and
chickens. There are 16O acres in
this farm, and II is owned BY man
who thirteen years ago was a thous-
and dollars worth off than nothing"
As visitor drove into the lane
which led into this place he saw a
farmer unloading hedgewood. There
was nothing about this man which
would have made him stand out in
crowd. He was robust and showed
that he had lived much in the open.
The visitor. guessed him to be As
years old.
This man was Tom Lay. Thirteen
years ago he was threshing grain
for farmers and there was not a
foot Of land on the earth which he
could call his own. zone night
decided that / could never get ahead
At the threshing game" Mr.. Lay
said, $50 made up my mind 10
farm. Ny two boys and moved on
section Of land six miles north Of
Hope. For ten years We plowed and
sowed those $40 acres Of ground"
NY Lay said that Il was hard
work but be aid not mind Il because
his efforts we're resulting in actual
production Of grain and feed. II
was through feeding cattle and hogi
. Al J.