The Washington herald., 1912-08-25

cant. On the eleventh ballot luke Lea
was brought into the contest Newell
Sanders was directing the votes Of the
Republicans. He and Lea, 1t appears.
had an understanding. Anyway. Lea
was to be put into the fire and tested.
I II he failed. Sanders was to try his own
4 fortunes on the next or twelfth ballot.
There were thirty-two independent Dem
ocrats and an equal number Of Republi-
| cans in the Legislature. Combined. they
cast sixty-four votes. But sixty-siN
votes were required to elect a Senator.
Luke Lea needed the votes of two regu-
lar Democrats. He received the votes
of four.
| Then, in a little while, "Fiddling Bob
Taylor. who had been prudent enough net
to resign from the Senate, fell Ill and
died and Gov. Ben Hooper chose Newell
4 Sanders TO I'LL the vacancy. Il am
here," Senator Sanders said with =
! smile, though / have never wanted to
hold public office and have never been
a candidate, openly or privately.
Went south on borrowed Money.
How" asked. did you get into the
business OF making plows?"
"Oh. / was handy about machinery
while a boy on my fathers farm and
| even while l was a student at the In
diana University / hoped some day to
be a manufacturer. left the farm when
was nineteen years old. Being i'll pre-
pared for college, l spent two years
with the permission of the professors,
in making up the elementary things in
which I was lacking. The next two
years l was busy earning my bread and
butter. A book dealer at Bloomington,
where the university was located, gave
me board and lodging for such clerking
as could do in the mornings and even
H. n
money for clothing and other expenses
and was 800 in debt on the day was
graduated.
The book merchant offered me his
stock OF goods for $500. I gave him a
note IN payment. He was a venturesome
man; so was i. as II afterward turned
out. / Immediately married Miss Corinne
Dodds, which event was speedily fol-
lowed by the panic of 1873 The mer-
chandise, against which my creditor
held a promissory not for $ 900. dwindled
frightfully in value. To make matters
worse, i had to pay IS per cent for the
money with which to meet current ex-
penses. / was really a bankrupt but
nobody knew 1t. So I rode the storm in
safety. kept the store for four years
sold out, paid all my debts, borrowed
railroad fare to Chattanooga. rented a
small room, hired three or four men,
and began making plows.
"Plows constitute a great industry.
The American manufacturers of agri-
cultural implements and machinery use
about $1,000 tons Of steel annually. Only
the railroads are purchasers Of a larger
tonnage. Some countries are still plow-
ing with hooked sticks. We laugh at
their Anticipated methods. being too ig-
norant ourselves to know that soil in
some parts of the world is so wet and
Iii IN m ka nj ~ n faI
a physical impossibility.
what He Saw In Cuba.
II have seen eight bulls, hitched
tandem. and two men pillow in Cuba and
only turn over a third of an acre OF
ground from sunrise to sunset. Back in
1873, when l set up my little shop in
Chattanooga, the farmers Of the South
wouldn't buy anything but a one-horse
pillow. They only scratched the surface
Of their fields, to the injury of their
lands and a yearly loss to themselves.
began preaching the visionary doc
trine that there was big money in a two
horse pillow. Even at that early day /
tried to show how deep plowing-and II
is the most important question in this
country right now-breaks UP the soil
and opens crevices in the earth so that
the rain can soak in and the rootlets of
growing plants can spread and become
strong. Our agricultural methods are
slowly improving. but the average farmer
is still blowing a four or a six-inch fur
row. when he should turn the earth over
to the depth Of a foot. In France. where
there are no crop failures, blowing varies
from twelve to fifteen inches and the
soil is narrowed until 1t is almost as
fine as flour. There the rains sink into
the earth and do not run away in
streams carrying the rich surface into
bitches and ravines.
Deep blowing with horses. of course.
is rather difficult. Engine plows. how
ever, are now being made In almost
every factory. An engine pulling six
disks will plow twelve acres a day. It
can be bought for 5000 but the expendi-
ture would pay the farmer who has
only quarter section of land under cul-
tivation- A dozen mules, costing 5000
each. would be required to do the same
amount of work and blowing by mule
power would necessarily be much shall |
lower. Engine plows were formerly driv-
en- by steam; now they are mostly driv-
en- by gasoline.
Steam can't be made inside of thirty |
coal and water must be hauled |
to the engine In the field and two men |
are required to operate the machinery. !
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