The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-09-08
HOWARD A. BANKS

and dumped in a heap at the far end
Ol the lagoon, where a fire is constant
~ consuming it. 1t pays to burn if
up ratner thar to clog up the premises
with this waste. 1t is said that there
IS enough spruce timber in the noun
talnS within reach of this little rail !
road to keep the mill running steadily |
Tor twelve years longer. There are |
enormous stacks of the sawed lumber
IN the dry kilns, and the little mill is
operated with magnificent skill and |
system.
While we were driving rough the
baptist colony at Ridgecrest, l noticed
over on a nearby mountain a whole
forest OF Scared and dying pine trees.
"A forest fire, l see,' | said to Mr..
TOmpkins.
No. said he, significantly. The
pine beetle"
/ noticed everywhere in the Black
Mountain region the ravages of this
+. pest. 1t seems hat nothing can be
done except to cut down the for
eStS n burn them. Some of the
beautiful white pines on DR.. Cotron's
estate at Montreal are being attacked
by the beetle, and I passed one mans
little cottage yard which had been
very carefully planted out with white
pine, n every one was ruined and
dying, no doubt injuring the value of
this little mountain home, and at least
necessltating the r~e-planting Of his
shade trees.
In the course of one of our CONVEX
s%ations, Mr.. Tompkins made the state
ment OF a fact which I had never
heard before, namely: that the water
power of a cotton mill will drive more
splndles at night than it will in the
day t1me-perhaps ten per cent more;
at least somewhere around that num-
Der. Mr.. Tompkins said that this was
a fact known to engineers, but said
that he himself could not give any
very definite reasons therefor.
This is a bumper fruit crop year in
the mountains. Apples are a glut on
the market at Waynesville at so cents
a buShel. Shippers of apples at Can
ton are paying the mountain people
40 cents a bushel. I fell into onver
sation with a man named Justice, who
has an orchard of 1000 trees near
Waynesville, and he says that there
is no Northern market for apples, and
he is looking southwark to see if he
scannot find a market in that direc-
ton which will yield him better prices.
Mountain wagon in Waynesville are
loaded with apples and with fresh
apple cider at 10 cents a quart.
Capt. Robert Johnston, U. S. A, re-
signed, Of Asheville, has an immense
crop Of apples on the old Boggs or
chards, which he bought several years
ago. The orchards are about two
miles from Waynesville, and are prob
ably the finest in North Carolina.
Capt. Johnston has not disposed of his
fruit. Haywood county's fruit grow
ers' exchange is now having a rather
{ hard row of stumps to hoe, as they
? have been without a manager for a
2 year or so, and do not know where tc
! find one. This is a serious handicap
? to the orchard men in a bumper crOI
year like this.
g The mountains are a God-send, with
their colonies, and with their scenery
f enrapturing the eye Of the artist; bu'
the most interesting thing in them i!
the people,-particularly the children
= DR.. James. of Harvard, the great psy.
chologist, used to spend his summer:
at Blowing Rock, n he paid a yer!
t high compliment to the mountain
children, saying that they were ia
S brighter naturally than the children
e of the New England mill towns.
was taking a walk up the Eagle
o Nest road at Waynesvil1e with m.
S children one day, and we came to tn
mountain poultry farm Of Mr.. Hyatt
e 1t was in charge of a mountalnee
" named Davis, and he very kindl
. . White Leghorns. Me gets somethin,
like $500 or $3.50 a pair for them
and good prices for the eggs, toe
d In one run he had two hundred fin
# laying fowls, which were -contributin
n very literally towards the supply Q
the Waynesville soda fountains, wit
a eggs for their egg-fips.
-
By the side of the road a littl
shack had been put up, and in 1t wa
4. an eleven-year-old mountain boy, Mas
% ter Frank Davis, the son of the mar
ager of the chicken farm. Frank Wa
,e running a little wayside store, sellln
,S soda water candy, mountain apple
and the like. He was an ambltlOu
q youngster, and said that while he on
# not get his store started until the mlc
20 die of the season, he had ne~Vertneles