The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1913-04-08

Hoffman, April 4.--The patient sta
ton agent at Hoffman has been asked
so often the road to the big Gates plan
tation that when a stranger alights
from the Seaboard train and begins to
frame the interrogation the agent
sweeps the western horizon with his
hand. mods his head and nSwer you
before Won can catch your breath and
yo,l hit the sstnd-clay road III toward
the hearing.
II Frederick e. Gates were not q
gooJ-naturcd and cordial man [ sup
pose he would he tired To death an
~ ering l!o, questions that are shower
ad OH him bv a continuous stream OF
y~i-itors. all with their conversation
masscd in the Interrogation point
-tvlo. but I could not see that he even
keeps a. dog to set On the unlimited
guests who are tramping a path to
his front door.
\ short distance out from the sta
tion at Hoffman you note the fresh
turned earth. IT. is easy 10 tell the
Gates line. for the land mas been plow-
I'd by a traction engine pulling six or
eight big disc ploWs, all the burrows in
each trip across the field holding to-
gcther ia perfectly parallel rows. You
also know the Gates land for 1t is
cleared thoroughly, and at the present
I'D lit TyCdIll CoStJS CtDOoi " CSSe~ .
mile.
The Gates property contains 1900
acres. II was bought last summer.
In the fall Mr.. Gates and his sons be-
gan work. They have cleared over
dive hundred acres SO far. built about a
dozen houses to accommodate their
tenants and hands, with barns, ware
house, cominissary, office, and smaller
buildings, and arc continuing the
clearing as fast as they can. IN one
week with one traction engine work
ing full time and one engine WORKING
half time they took trees and stumps
OF Of sixty-three acres. making II
ready FOR the plows. In ploWlnE one
engine drags six 2S-inch Dlows or eight
24-jnch piows, getting over the ground
plenty fast enough to keep up with the
clearing crew.
Clearing Is done on 9 heroic scale. 4
gang Of men go into the woods anC
cut down everything under o three
inches in disameter. The stunlps left
by that small stuff is ripped out by tns
plows Of the traction engine wher
they come along. The bigger stun l;
pulled out bodily by a cable hltchst
to an engine, which operates sevcra
cables and pulls several trees at on
time.
The cost 81 clcarinc the ground il
his way, making it free OF everyth,n;
AID ready for the plow, IS about 81,
To- ten dollars an acre. Many OF IN
pine stunps are pulled by the tractlol
engines. The big ones are lett TO b
taken out with a stump puller. Whel
everything is removed from the cart
and plumber is gathered in large pile
and burned, trees, stumps, brush an
all lit gigantic bOnfires. and when tn
Tres gre going II certainly has tn
suggestion of II fiery cross shlnli
from the hill tops.
Frederick 7. Gates is a modest scf
~ q fellow, and he has q punch 9
boys about him who struck me as DC
ing about as important an additlon I
North Carolina as the farm n AT
helping 10 make (for they are Ne
Workers by earlv inclination and cnl
North CarClinians by about a year
The father deprecated any grand I
ypioitation OF their enterprise, an
explained that the work is to 3 col
siderable extent an experiment, VII
many points to work out. -.
The Gates farm Is in the sandhi
country. Here Is a section that n;
been overlooked by the geographic!
except as they classified it as stra
fragment Of that Great American De!
art we used to rea about In scnO
years ago. Only recently has this Sc
Uon come to be recognized by the agr
cultural departments Of the state
nation as of any consequence: so u
mon who farms around Holman nj
been obliged to dig up his inforrnatif
With his Dixie pillow and his perplex'
hinlser. frequently getting as mut
misinformation as anything else.
Because scientific research n e
pertinent has not thought Of the san
hill soils and climates in it's investig
ton the sandhill man can not apply
great deal Of the accumulated VI
dom from Washington or Raleigh. IL