The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1922-09-28

Out of the red hills four miles
south of this city has been carved a
farm, the making of which comprises
one of the brightest pages in the ro-
mantle and agricultural history of
Anderson county, says an Anderson
special of Friday to the Greenville
News.
Romance and energy are so blend
ed that it is impossible to tell where
one ends and the other begins, for
where huge gullies once held sway,
farm that is among the most pro-
duc.ive in the state and rural home
with every modern convenience now
greets the passersby along the gen.
eral road.
J. Wade Drake has forever earned
high place among the builders Of
the Palmetto state, if the expressions
obtained today from the 400 farmers
Of this section who visited the Drake
farm may be taken as an indication.
The state of South Carolina has pro-
duced a number of illustrious sons,
but probably none have so effectively
blended energy and brains as has Mr..
Drake on the farm which today was
visited by 400 farmers from the coun-
ties of Greenville, Spartanburg, An
derson, Pickens, Oconee, Laurens,
Union, Abbeville, Greenwood, McCor-
mick, Cherokee, Newberry and Ches-
ter.
Ten years ago rolling tract of red
hills, as full Of gullies as vaude-
Vile show is of ragtime, was pur-
chased by Mr.. Drake. At that time
some of the neighbors are said to
have expressed the opinion that Mr..
Drake was ''off' in his. mentality as
the farmers of that immediate sec-
tion were having a hard time Of it
making a living on the farms which
they possessed more by circumstance
than by choice.
From the outset Mr.. Drake made
things hum on the tract Of several
hundred acres. He worked almost
day and night, rotating his crops and
endeavoring to bring do wn from the
air and out of the earth the fertili-
zers which would take the place Of
those made in factories and shipped
in sacks to the consumer. And the
advantage of nature-made fertilizers
over chemicals has been demonstrat-
ed by the waving fields Of corn and
the white fields of cotton, tang with
the spirit of Dixie, that have been
grown where clover and velvet beans
once grew.
To get down to the meat of the
story, Mr.. brakes methods have sue
eeeded so we'll that N. E. Winters,
Specialist in soil fertilizers and farm
crops of Clemson college, has pointed
out the Drake farm as a model in his
trips over the state. Some time ago
he started a movement to have the
farmers of the Piedmont visit this
farm and to see for themselves what
could be accomplished out Of what
once was a mass of washing bitches
and poor red hills.
Four hundred farmers, not from
the valleys of Hall or the hills of
Habersham, but from over the en-
tire Piedmont of South Carolina,
came here today and witnessed, a
fight that has been going on for ten
years-a fight made more difficult by
the presence this year Of the boil
weevil. But in spite Of this insect,
Mr.. Drake has conquered and the
yield, on the Drake farm is expected
to be from three-fourths to one bale
per acre this year-with the cost of
fertilizers kept down to about $500
to the acre.
With megaphone in hand, Mr..
Winters today headed the procession
of interested spectators that wended
their way over the Drake farm. Each
point of interest was explained in
detail, including the methods Of cul-
tivation, the time Of planting and 9TH
er information.
Cotton on the Drake farm was
planted ION April and April 27.
Twenty-four days doesn't make much
difference in the calendar, maybe, but
it will mean difference of one-fourth
of bale of cotton per acre, accord
ing to Mr.. Winters's estimate Of Mr..
brakes crop. Cotton planted on Ap-
ril is expected to produce bale of
cotton to the acre, according to Mr..
Winters, while that planted on April