The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-02-25
IS A FARM DOCTOR.
One Woman Makes Good in Profes
sion-Money for Herself and Others.


Fee, $50 an Acre and Up
This is a card or shingle the south s
greatest woman farmer is entitled to
hand out as the result of her effort to
make agriculture more profitable for
the southern tenant and landlord. 1t
is a paving profession. Mrs. Mathis 5
largest fee has been in excess of S35,-
600 and she has grown wealthy in re
cent years through restoring fertility
TO the soil of wornout and rundown
farms in the poor land districts of
Alabama.
Mrs. Mathis began her career as a
farm doctor some years ago when she
purchased 1000 acres of the poorest
land i'll Alabama, paying So an acre
for it, This land had become so lack
ing in fertility that tenant farmers
were barely able to make living for
their year labor.
Mrs Mathis divided it into 50-acre
tracts and act tenants at work farming
the land under her supervision. Six
years later. after approved methods of
soil rebuilding had been used, Mrs
Mathis disposed of this same land for
| sac an acre, having already received
her not inconsiderable share of the pro-
ceeds from the crops.
Since that time Mrs Mathis has
| made business OF building up run
down farms. Tenants are set at work
enriching the soil until it is capable of
| producing one or two bales of cotton
| TO the acre and then the land is sold
/ The proceeds are invested in more poor
! lands and the process Of rebuilding is
! begun again. Not only has Mrs. Mathis
| made money for herself under this sys-
| TEN, but she has taught her tenants
tho secret of making money.
Mrs. Mathis does her farming by
rule. Every tenant has his work laid
ont for him for the whole year, Mrs
! Mathis having adopted a farming cal
, endar covering each week of the year
Tenants are required to follow the
rules strictly, as they are based on the
most approved methods of rota ing
crops and rebuilding the soil.
Mrs. Mathis has found that the trou-
bic with the average southern farmer
is that no is apt to depend upon cotton
rs his sole crop. Now cotton is what
/ is known as a soil robber, and gen IRA
tions of cotton crops aoon impoveris..
the soil until it can grow little or moth.
ing. The Mathis tenants are required
20 grow corn and other crops raised in
the northern states, where crop rata.
ton is practicod to hola the fertility
J of the soil.
The cotton crop, therefore, is tho
surplus money crop. If a farmer end
the season with one bale of cotton
the average is greater than this, OF
coursc-his profits consist of the none,
he receives for his cotton He has
raised enough meat and vegetables t,
care for his family, and begins tn,
new year with more productive soil
At the end of five or six years his farm
land haa been restored to the proud so
cicty of rich farm lands and its valu,
has been increased many times.
The earning capacity Of the average
Alabama tenant farmer has been 500
q year. Tenants on the Mathis farms
average from $1,000 to $1,000 a year
and some make even more or 80 acres
Mrs. Mathis s success on her owl
farms inspired the bankers of Alabam;
D 70 employ her to teach the gospel o.
diversified farming to the landlords an,
tenants of tac state for q wear. Sht
p has travelled more tnan 10000 mile
3 aud has given hundreds of talks OF
O. crop rotation and soil building. He
time is in such demand in the south
ern state. that she simply has been nm
able 10 accept half of the engagement,
Her farm GOSPEL has been spread tn
world over. wherever the English Ian
, guage is read. One National convcu
tion before which Mrs. Mathis spok
I m, Inr 4 i
her address printed and sent into ever
NJ Notwithstanding country in the worl
, As m example Of the results accom-
pli,hed ~ Mrs Mathis. there is FIJI
case ~ JOHN Stewart. "a tenant iarme
, 80" could not write his name M Tn
n slime p" was installed ON one of tn
D, Mathis farms. But he followed dire,
tions implicitly, and during his las
n year on the farm raised IS bales G
4 cotton, 500 bushels of corn, enough ha
T. and grain to feed his live stock an
- enough meat and vegetables to suppl
/ the family table for the vear. II
4 profits for the years work were MOI
than $1,000 after he had paid all e,
penses and had given ALr9 Mathis ht
share.
Successes of this kind have bee
common on the Mathis farms in recel
t, years. and Mrs Matlis's campaign
bringing about an era of better rel
Il tionShip between landlord and rente
During the first year Mrs Mathis WI
engaged in preaching her farm gosp
farm products in the state increas,
Sl9,000,0oO in value. This gain w
attributed mainly to increased intere
II in diversified farming az practiced
the great farm belt states.-Ncw Yo
Sun.