The Mena weekly star., 1913-04-17
lO Millions in Damage IsuiIS.
BETTER FARMING PAYS BETTER

Mister Editor:
 When man gets religion pro- vidin' he i> the right kind of man land gets the right kind of religion. The wants 10 make 1t contagious sos lall his neighborsll get it. too. Nope. l I aint got religion. for I've done had Ithat nigh onto 30 year, but I've got
 the agricultural epidemic, which Is next to it, and got it just ike l got religion. all in flash Q light One came to me in an old log church
 in Fancy county, Missouri, and the other in a fine railroad coach that stopped in our town about month
 ago. Fact Is, there was whole train of five coaches, but l dldn
 go into but one. and what l saw and heard in there was what give me
 the epidemic.
 The papers and posters called 1t
 the agricultural educational train, but when 1 got home l told Maritime,
 my wife, that it was an agricultural
 missionary train. Yes, sir, an l told her pint blank that I'd be dad gum
 med if I wasn't goin' to quit bein
 a common branch-Water clOd- fhopper and was goln' to be a agrl- culturist. Narthie dropped a pan
 Q biscuits. looked at me sort O horroscoped like an said: My
 land. Jason. you ain't sittih' blas- phemious in your old age, air ye? No. Marthie," says I, T ain't gIttin blaSphemious, but I've got the az ricultural fever an I am eein to
 set right down an write a piece for the paper. I've just got to splavi- cate or bust. Land Sakes, Ja-
 son. sez Marthie. what did you see down at that agricultural cir GUS train that upset you so?" Sez l, T seed some of the finest seed corn. the best cotton and the finest lot O farm and garden stuff that ever groWed out o' the ground Yessum. and there was apples and peaches and pears big as pint cups and all kinds of fine grains and grasses. Shore. lt was a sight. and after We got through lookin around a little spindlin feller got iup in one end of the ear and be- gun to tell us farmers how 10 raise corn He didn't look like he had eyer done a days work in his life. and l seed several farmers wink a. each other and heard em whisper Hes a book farmer But >huck,, That sickly lookin' chap hadn. talked five minutes before every feller was leanin' ford in his seat and liStenin' with all his might. Honest. Marthie. 'cordin to the way Us farmers had been tryin' to raise corn his talk sounded revolution ary. but he shore held us right to the scratch an hammered more in- formation into us in an hour than We had dug up in all our lives. an he proved his p'ints by p'intin' to the corn in the car that had been raised 'cordin' to his plans and specifications. An right there is where he got my dOubtin skelp. He said to break your land deep and then cultivate your corn shaller. just the opposite of what most of us Forked Holler farmers had been dOin'. We had been streakin' off our land with a bull-tongue. bustin' out the mlddles after the corn was Dig enough to blow. and then durin' hot and dry weather sockin' the blow down to the beam in order to let the moisture up out O the ground. That little book farmer said We mustn't let the moisture up. but must keep it down. and hv JlngS he showed us how 10 do if Easy as fallin' off a log. Just keen a-Stlrrin the soil shaller as nos sIDle. He said a lot about caterpil- lar attraction that l didn't inst raf through my nOggin. but have sent Tor lot of readin' matter nerfaiDl Tn to better farmin' and I am goin' 10 study up on all these things
 Fact Is, Mister Editor. as I fold my wife Marthie, I will never sav another disrespectful word aboui the book farmer, but I am goin' to take ms advice an add it to my experience, sos tO make a regular agriculturist out of myself of course 1t is all right to he plain farmer, but from what saw and heard Tn that railroad coach moi long ago. l shorely think there is more money In bein' a agriculturist hats what I told Nartbia an; that's what I want 10 tell au n,v friends. It is what We cai ou, n, what We grow that counts No more grand-dad style If farmin' fer me. '' ''''''
 Jason B. Jackson.
 forhed Hollow. Ark. Apirl ii. 1913
 Many so-called 'bitters" are not