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0 Thursday, July 30, 1931 McCORMICK MESSENGER, McCORMICK, SOUTH CAROLINA PAGE NUMBER SEVEN Money On Farms Despite Depression (By Henry S. Tohnsqn, Sec. S. C. Bankers* Association.) ATK^NF^NS FIND PIONEERING GOOD IN VARIETY FARMING Getting returns, like $800 per acre from grapes and $400 an acre from fancy dewbenSes, A. D. and Fraak Atkinson, father and son, variety, with a careful eye to marketing, reduces and, with them, virtually eliminates risk in among the first to grow the dew farming. The Atkinson’s fafm is a berry in that locality, having put rolling place overlooking the Sav- it out for the first time !'ast year armah river, between Aiken and How pioneering of that kind may oay is illustrated by the fact that, before harvesting $400 worth of Augusta, and they market some thing in the latter market nearly every day in the year. Nearly the berries from the first acre, the everything they market is so rare * L*. and of such high quality that they in quart baskets covered with transparent cellophane and with each package there went a printed card telling interestingly of the new fruit. They were pioneers in growing grapes for the local market, which, being unaccustomed to fresh grapes, at first looked askance at Mr. Cilyman Comes to Fairyland Atkinson’s sold from the first vines cutting enough to more than re- eetT oractically "uniform and prem- coup what they paid for original t their offering. But last year eager him mices plants and for fertilizing them the local consumers paid 10 cents a For example this year they sold first season. I pound for the 20,000 pounds of 2000 quarts of an improved dew- In marketing the practically new first grade grapes the Atkinson’s berrv at 20 cents a quart and product, they took pains to make sent to market in three-pound G uld have sold a-great many more the berries attractive to the eyes boxes. Juice was pressed from , uniform price They were*of^customers.* Betries*were put up lower grades and was purchased at me un ^ • , gladly, mostly by persons who came for it, at $1.50 a gallon. The Atkinsons produce and sell many other variety products, such as pears, pecans and vegetables. This year they have planted 125 acres in corn and only 12 acres in cotton. Their variety farming is so successful that their place is visited* regularly by agricultural specialists in the U. S. Department of Agriculture, who go there to learn rather than to advise. The Atkinsons keep abreast of all de velopments in scientific agriculture and closely follow and keep step with consuming tendencies. TOO FAST By Albert T. Reid >.UTP<^STE«. WHA-rcHA HUNTING S0P9Y? ? s' — 4 4 MAT -EE-EE jujJT SEE?. It Yf rO fcUB, AI NT YA £V£jg feONN [e*!>c>ESSV^ / 6tt / TBLLAH AT YC-B Aat an' not a single) \CCOMPuSHMENT To Y£B' C££DIT/ J ^ go our am Bl6 , BEFORE ya too oU> / 4 WMAtjTA »PEA ALWAYS STANDING A ROOM ; - ^SAVIN' NCfTHlNO,OOIN NOlUlNj i A 4 0 ^ A Sj. l/ V THINKS OF BUYING MORE LAND TO LOWER INVESTMENT COSTS “Hogs probably have kept me from losing what I had put into land purchased in 1920 when values were at their peak,” says J. Mit chell Edens of Dalzell, who now is thinking of buying more land while it is cheap, not primarily because he wants to expand operations but for the purpose of lowering his capital costs per acre. Until a year or two ago, Mr. Ed ens depended almost wholly on cotton, of which he usually gets large per acre production on his rich land, for getting along as a young farmer. Last year he sold | about $2500 worth of cotton and Iseed and about $950 worth of hogs, which he began to raise for mar ket in 1928. “The drop in the price cf cotton might have wrecked me but for the hogs, which gave ?ne a fairly good return for grain,” says he. He now uses hogs in balancing his farming between grain and cotton, having made considerable cut in the acreage given to the lat ter. Usually he plants corn on his be§t land. ‘*The higher the per acre yield of corn used in fattening them, the more profitable are hogs to me,” he says. He lets * hogs graze much of his oats and corn as well as velvet beans, and does comparatively little trough feed ing. “Hog raising is just the thing for a lazy man,” says he with a smile. “Hogs can take care of themselves in large part.” He keeps about a dozen purebred Po land China sows, which deliver to him 75 to 100 pigs twice a year. “A spring crop of hogs is of great help in financing the pitching of a crop,” he declares. ^ ANIMAL PRODUCTS RUN APACE WITH RURAL WEALTH GROWTH Statisticians find close relation between production of animal pro ducts per $100 of crops on farms and the amount of calculable wealth per country dweller in var ious communities. For example, >n the fifteen States where wealth per rural dweller is highest $81.30 worth of animal products are pro duced for each $100 worth of plant ! crops. In the eleven Southern States production of animal pro ducts per $100 of crops averages only $27.12 in value. South Caro lina ranks only third from the bottom on the list of Southern States in that regard. Hence the promise of increased rural wealth in the expanding interest in the oroducing of hogs, cattle and ^poul try in various sections of the State. The rearing of every animal raised on a farm adds to the real value of the land from which it draws sus tenance. X TOO MANY GOVERNMENTS When I was a student in Amherst College, and my father wa& preaching in Chicago, I used to go home for Christmas on the Erie Railroad. The trip consumed two nights^ and a day; but this was the golden age when some kind hearted railroads were allowed to presnt ::ree passes to clergymen and their families. Now the Erie makes fast time, and there are no passes; but the memory of those old slow trips is pleasant. My mother would pack a shoe-box full of sandwiches and hard boiled eggs and bananas, and I had a glorious time; never thinking that it was any hardship to travel slowly, but thanking my lucky stars that I was able to get home at all. On one of the days preceding last Christmas," so I am told, eight sections of America’s swellest trains were required to leave New York to hurry the youngsters home from school: It hurried them home for what? So that they could bestow a run ning kiss on their parents, shed their day clothes and change into evening clothes, and be eff on a series of parties. This is the world we live in. This is the tempo of modem life.- Any of us old folks who decry it are merely dating ourselves as be longing to a passing generation. Yet, I personally feel a little sorry for these headlong youngsters. Somehow it seems to me that in travelling so fast they miss an awful lot. I remember the Christmas when my father presented me my first watch—a big silver affair that he himself had carried for years. I was ten years old, and the gift amazed me. It had never occurred to me that I should ever own a watch until I was twenty-one. I remember how my wife and I saved up patiently to buy our first- car—a second-hand Ford. I remember our first antique, which we loved for months before we could filially acquire it. And the joy of' seeing a savings account grow slowly; and the thrill of building a li brary, one book at a time. Now the kids smash up a dozen watches before they are six. And they start life with cars, and with furniture; and at twenty they have rushed through all the emotional experiences that lasted us leisurely through forty years. Don’t mistake me. I’m a booster for the new generation. They are healthly, direct, and fine. Only sometimes I wonder— I wonder when, on my way home at night, I pass a big house in which lives one of New York’s famous neurologists. It’s an expensive house, paid for by nerves. Limousines are always stacked up in front of it. It would seem almost as if the prize of life in America is to own a limousine and park it in front of a nerve specialist’s door. Every one seems to be racing to get there. THt L4NIIY ' DOCTOR JOHN JOSEPH GAINES, M.D. A SUGAR REVIEW My patient readers may be possibly amazed at some of the ideas here advanced. Let me say at 'the outset that I very seldom peddle the ideas of others—at least I seldom quote; but much of the thought herein expressed is borrowed from current literature. An authority from Vienna attributes “strikingly favorable results” in the treatment of heart disease and stomach ulcers, with table sugar. If I had these sort of complaints, I’d consult my doctor as to how to use the sweet. You know, sugar is one of our staples. The value of sugar “in relieving fatigue and supplying quick energy^ also has scientific endorsement. The Vienna authority is believed to be the first to suggest the use of sugar in the treatment of certain widely prevalent diseases. He, (Dr. Rocht) claims to have used sugar in the treatment of stomach and duodenal ulcers, with good success. He noticed increase of appetite, with better food-tolerance, in an in creased supply of mucous, flavored by the sugar. He saw improvement in the habitual constipation in such cases, with notable gain in weight. Too, remarkable increase in nerve-forces, less melancholia, and more happy disposition in the gloomy victims. The relief was not immediate, but gradual and lasting. He says, “sugar is the most important nutritional element of the heart, in that it lowers blood-pressure and stimulates the liver and kidneys.” Dr. Donald A. Laird, of Colgate University, contributes to a scientific sym posium on sugar: he states that sugar contributes to restful sleep. This argues, almost, for a chocolate at bedtime, doesn’t it? Dr. Laird also declares it to be valuable in curing “vague feelings of fatigue, so common among physicians’ patients.” A remedy for “that tired feeling,” so commonly met. In short, if sugar helps relieve mental and physical tire, and favors restful sleep, then it certainly is; among our nost valued foods. may be in a fire, water, ligating, velt propose. sewer and sidewalk district, in County government in general is which case there are ten layers of not very satisfactory anywhere in government,” said Governor Roose- the United States. - It is natural velt. Similar conditions exist in every that people give their first atten tion to their local, town, village or- state. Most of the work of admin- cit y government. They do not, in One reason for the rapid increase of taxes is in the increasing num ber of governments and govern ment officials which the tax-pay ers are called upon to support. Governor Roosevelt of New York recently pointed out that no citizen of that state can live under few er than four governments, and many of them live under no less Mian ten different sets of public officials. There are the Federal, State, county and city governments, as a minimum. “If one lives in a town outside of a village he is under five istration could be done by half as many people as are employed at the public expense, merely by merging the different governmenc- many sections, have occasion of ten to come in contact with their county governments. If all the functions now delegated to local* al units. Dr. C. J. Galpin, socioiog- communities became the business: ist of the U. S. Department of Ag- cf the county as a whole, perhaps riculture, suggests the consolida- the effect would be beneNcial not tion of townships, small villages only in making county , officials., and even of counties. This is nec- more responsive to public opinion 1 essary in many rural districts, he * n lessening the burden of mul-- says, if adequate modern facilities tifarious taxes and superfluous. for education and other commun ity enterprises like hospitals, li braries, oarks, playgrounds, fire companies, churches and the like are to be available. He estimates that it takes a community of at public officials. Of course, the professional poli ticians will resist anv novement of this sort. They will always resist any movement which reduces the: number of office-holders and so re number of prizes they least a thousand families to sup- duces the layers of government: Federal,! P ort up-to-date facilities of such can hang up for their partisans to State, county, town and school. If j kinds. If he is right, then there is scramble for. But local govern* no way out for small communities ment ought not to be the plaything except such a merger of interests of politicians, and the time wilL as Dr. Galpin and Governor Roose- come when it will not be. he lives in an incorporated village another layer is added. If he lives in a town outside of the village he