The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-11-17
DAVIDSON---A COUNTY THAT ISN'T
WORRYING ABOUT HARD TIMES
Rated Fourth in Industrial W~ealth-Shows Wisdom Of
Thrifty Policy of Making Things Needed to Supply
the Table-On Solid Foundation.

ton.
How did your brothers corn crop
turn out" Mr.. Varner asked.
Two hundred and fifty seven bush
els, and dry at that" was the answer.
and Mr.. Warner explained that j.. A.
Myers, an old veteran Of above seven
t. years, on two acres of land had
weighed up that amount of corn.
Nearly a hundred and twenty-nin
bushels to the acre. and the boy who
did it has no occasion to be ashamed
Of his job, or Of the county where he
made it. That is almost six times as
big as the average corn crop Of the
United States, and it is -four times as
big as the average of the best corn
State of n Union, and five times as
big as the average of the biggest corn
States, for the best averages are made
in the States that raise but a little
corn and cultivate it intensively.
When We go into town from the
country we have the early rising
habit. So 1 strolled down from the
hotel one morning while l was waiting
for breakfast to be ready and for the
town to get up. i went out in search
Of adventure. Presently I found that
l was at the flour mill. The miller
was there, for they run all the time.
He told me the mill makes a hundred
barrels of flour a day, and it uses
5000 bushels Of wheat a week to do
it.
Where do you get the wheat?"
From the farmers" he said, and
ne further said hat he sells his flour
around his neighborhood and that he
does not use anything like all the wheat
raised in the county.
Also a Wheat County.
Davidson is a wheat county. They
make over a quarter of a million
bushels a year, and will probably in
crease that yield right along.
A few more figures. The average
yield of wheat in the United States
does not reach fifteen bushels to the
acre. Kansas is the biggest wheat
State and it averages about eleven
bushels to the acre. On Linwood
farm l saw a tract of twenty acres that
had measured up over forty bushels to
the acre. The Finch farm turned off
6etween sixty n seventy bushels, I
90 not recall the exact figure. A
bunch Of counties up here, running
from Alamance to Iredell, are show
ing a wheat crop that is interesting.
and a crop of grist mills that tell a
story.
All this time I keep thinking about
Lexington in Kentucky and Davidson
county in Tennessee, and they are fair
to dream about. But az I compare
them with Lexington and Davidson
county in North Carolina I can only
see about one difference, and hat is
that here in North Carolina the same
money will buy more land, and buy it
in a little better climate. ~exingt
in Kentucky is some colder in winter.
and Davidson county in Tennessee, is
considerably better in summer than
/ nvin cfop ~ -.- = MI
DINA.
The farmers OF Lexington are
growing interested in live stock. 7
do not imagine they will ever run to
h a sort Of horse flesh hat is repre-
sented by the Goldsmith Maid and
Rarus, but they are able to bunch in
Lexington now a gathering of horses
that remind me very much of some
of the display Of horses up and down
the blue grass in Kentucky, and the
cattle are coming into the same
class.
Waking Up.
Like all the rest of North Carolina
Davidson has been waking up The
county is nearly a hundred years old.
and 1t locke it's age until a few years
ago. Lexington was a village until
within the last fifteen years. Thomas
Vile was smaller. The awakening
n a swept the State came down
through Davidson like the old mail
route from Raleigh to Salisbury came
before the war. It broke here with
more or less Of a suddenness. Thorn
asvllle commenced to grow up to be
the most important chair manufacture
ing center in the South, and cotton
mills arose in Lexington. From a few
hundred people Lexington spread out
to nearly five thousand people, and
brownsville followed not far behind.
Recently Lexington has taken her foot
IN her hand, and has picked out a
location among the cities that are to
nave twenty or thirty thousand people
IN the next few years. Yes, there
go again with a prediction, in spite Of
the act that l am not a prophet. but
l nave seen this thing happen SO
much in the North and West tina
can tell it as surely as 1 can tell that
the parson is due to get a fee pretty
soon hen l see a young fellow ring
the same door bell five or six nights
In a week. Once in a while the
sign fails, but it wins SO often thai