Modern Methods of Montgomery Farmers 



HTvN .a neat little waterworks system is' built for them, 

 with a big- wind mill and a cemented surface cistern, 

 wdien their food is cut and chopped for them by specially 

 built machinery, when practically the whole farm has been laid 

 out for their advantage and their benefit, it would seem that 

 the horse, the cow, the hog and the sheep are coming into their 

 own in the agricultural economy of a prairie plantation of 

 Montgomery County. 



This is the condition on the Hunter Vaughn place six miles 

 southeast of Montgomery. There cattle of all sorts are given 

 the highest sort of consideration. There is money, much 

 money in cattle in Montgomery County, more than most farm- 

 ers realize, but the money making possibilities of stockkraising 

 is fully appreciated by the energetic and intelligent proprietor 

 of the big farm. 



He has built round little cement pools in his great pastures, 

 and these little pools are for all the world like little fountains. 

 They are more like fountains because of the iron posts fixed 

 to the bottom of the pools', and through which iron chains are 

 run. These iron chains and pools are not, however, for the pur- 

 pose of ornamentation. They are there to keep the cattle 

 from taking a bath when they should only take a drink. 

 These cemented pools rising from the green Bermuda pasture, 

 are more than mere details. They are symbols of the high 

 standing of stock and cattle on that particular farm. They 

 are symbols that the great monopoly of cotton upon the lands 

 of Montgomery County has been broken, that at least some 

 of the tentacles of the royal octopus. King Cotton, has been 

 broken loose. . • 



Where cotton raising has full swing, everything else is sub- 

 ordinated to it. Cattle and other things are mere side issues 

 to be brushed aside if they interfere in any way. 



REIGN OF COTTON DISPUTED. 



And if the main sway of cotton can be successfully dis- 

 puted on prairie acres and prairie plantations, why it can be 

 disputed and set at naught in any section of Alabama. 



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