The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1922-09-28
l. ". Drake Conquers Boil
Weeuil, Washing Soil Etc.

| the fields where no clover was grown.
Mr.. Drake busted his cotton with
calcium arsenate four times during
the month of July, the total cost be-
ing $3.50 per acre. He would have
busted during August also but there
has been no rain on the Drake farm
since July 7, making it impossible
to use busting methods to any ad-
vantake.
Mr.. Winters explained that Mr..
Drake did not leave the dusting op-
Grafton to "some negro" but that
the owner Of the farm, with the aid
of a son, did the work. Twelve nights
during the month of July the busting
operation went on, the owner and
his son attempting to catch little
sleep during the day, that they might
fight the weevil by night.
The weevil came but it did not
stay.
It might have been that far away
the fields looked green, as they some
times do to humans, and the insects
left. But the more probable reason
is that the dusting method literally
smothered the boil weevil out of
house and home, causing the invader
to throw up the sponge and quit in
disgust Today the Drake farm is
said to have less weevil infestation
than any other farm in the Piedmont
if not in the entire state.
The corn crops grown by Mr.. Drake
have been equally as successful as
the cotton crops. There has been
no such thing as need on the Drake
farm and the cribs have been filed
with the healthy ears of red and
white corn. The methods used have
been similar to those used in cotton,
crops being rotated to bring out the
best that is in the land.
A cotton gin in the front yard takes
care of the f1eecy staple grown on
the Drake farm. Silos fand corn
cribs, to say nothing of fat porkers,
take care of the yawning crops of
corn and grain. A bank in Ander-
son is said to find one Of it's best de-
positors in the man who has brought
it all about, showing that the game
of cooperation has worked to the
good of all concerned.
When Mr.. Drake acquired this
farm there were seventeen huge gull
lies on the place (for the benefit Of
those not familiar with the farm
terms it can be said that 'gully"
is a ditch chat nature rather than
man has dug, by the constant wash
ing a way Of the soil.) Sixteen Of
these have been filed up and today
crops are growing where man once
could be hidden as he stood upright.
The seventeenth is also being filled
in, velvet beans and other cover crops
helping sand and soil in this battle
to reclaim Anderson county land.
There may have been other causes
than intelligent farming in the up
building of the Drake place. In the
front yard, on a conspicuous sign,
is the warning that aPy. and all agents
! are forbidden to come on the place
and that any agents delivering goods,
etc., will be prosecuted. Mr.. Drake
! believes in living at home and buy
ing from the home merchants as
one would infer from the sign in the
front yard, and he does not propose
to have the fruits Of his laborers go
for the upkeep of unknown agents.
Those who have doubted that
farming could be made to pay in
South Carolina should visit the Drake
farm, The skeptics and doubters who
have continually said, II told you
so," upon hearing stories of aban-
doned farms and deserted homes
would be put to utter confusion.
J. Wade Drake may never attain
the place in history that others of
his native state have but in causing
two blades of grass to grow where
none did before, he has gone long
ways towards solving the problem of
the rural southland.
Misunderstood.