The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-03-12
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

dishers" dream which failed to ma terialize. 1t will lose much of its pith and point in my telling of 1t, for the tones and the gestures of my friend who told it to me cannot be put in words or even illustrated on paper.
 Now, in the outset, I tell it because 1t happened to brother newspaper man and also to disprove the statement so often made that no Jew ever takes will ingly to farming, but is usually content farmers.
 The Israelite of whom I write is facle writer an entertaining speaker and a successful business man-and yet without any previous knowledge in agrl- culture, made up his mind that he would pull off planting stunt in his county which would make the old planters point l him out as an agricultural Moses.
 
 He freely admits that he was puffed up with pride when he took his plunge into the peanut industry which, under his wise hand, was to revolutionize his section of the state and show the so- called experts on soil culture that they were without the proper information as ! to the properties of their lands. 1 He had tract of 40 acres upon which ! to conduct his revolutionary experiments which were to astonish the~state agricul- l tural department and make Auburn si' | up and take notice that new and dar- ling experimentor had appeared on the horizon. He even went so far as to DIG | turing himself called to Washington te onfer with Secretary Houston. ! But not having his vivid oriental i'm | agination I can only record in oaie | and unpicturesque way his patriotic ven ! ture into an attempt to add to tp' worlds food supply and thereby nell Uncle Sam win the war by growing bumper crop of peanuts on red clay SOIL This in itself took nerve, for the author | ties had pronounced against it.
 | Ss .
 He freely admitted that about all tha he knew about peanuts when he becam obsessed with his great idea was tha
 they were roasted and put up in htti paper sacks and formed with pink lem ,nade the alluring and appetizing menu at all circuses or were peddled in all self respecting baseball circuits.
 The old story of the news butcher ol he train who went through the coache
 and gave to each passenger just on Ioeanut and then went back to his sea
 n the smoker and waited awhile befor
 going through the car laden with fres
 pasted ones to tempt those who ha
 allen into his trap by eating his sam
 pie, working in his case.
 AS soon as he was bitten with desir for peanuts he sent to the departmen at Washington and got every pamphle published on the peanut industry and be
 gan to devour them without having go
 his fill. He next tackled Auburn an
 got some valuable information from D
 Duggar. His first thought was to get u
 on the literary side of peanut culture. Having at last gorged himself on boo knowledge about peanuts he got dow
 to business and called in man who ha had practical experience in cultivatin
 the land, but refused to take any advic I on the crop to be planted, for he ha
 become "a nut" on the subject of pes
 nuts. He believed that success was t
 be had in planting his whole 40 acre with the nuts of his fancy.
 Reing A newspaper man he scented l corking good story in the remarkab . adventure he was making in farmin ) with peanuts, and therefore from tn first planting was accommodating facts t go in his final write up which, with at
 curate figures as to proper rental fc
 the land. with the costs of it's cultivf
 ton. with an accounting for the sect and the amounts paid for the gatherin he would show the tremendous profit and be heralded throughout the state a the young Hebrew who showed the Ger tiles few things.
 3 asked him how he got it into h t head that his land was suitable for pes . nuts. I thought he had gone into tf . undertaking with reckless abandon an without forethought, but was mistake l He said he reached his conclusion fro the fact that cotton had been plante / on it and had failed--that corn had bee sowed and proved unprofitable, ar therefore he believed it~was the Lord town leading which suggested to him
 try peanuts.
 But why draw out the agony any lon! '' CT? It's the result you want to get a ; Briefly, after much strenuous labo T. careful watching and accurate bookkee ing, at the end of the season he can p out on the wrong side of the ledger the tune of $424.13. This is why his gre
 agricultural story never broke, for h
 little excursion into peanut farming can
 perilously near breaking him. : ,AnxK1NMlAau,tiW P S.--If you want to hear the sto : fully and sympathetically told, just a!
 Ir,odora popport the yersatile editor