McCormick messenger. (McCormick, S.C.) 1902-current, July 30, 1931, Image 7
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
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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