INSPIRATION
WESTOVER,
March 14, 1907.
Mr. Percy Johnston,
Heart-of-Egypt, Ill.
MY DEAR Friend:--We were delighted to receive your interesting
letter of March 2, describing the Farmer's Institute. I have been to
two such meetings in Virginia, but they are devoted to fruit and
truck and dairying, and no one seems to know much about our soils. I
appreciate more and more every year the absolute knowledge you
helped me to secure concerning Westover, where we had been working
in the dark for two centuries. I am sure you will succeed on
Poorland Farm,--just as confident as any one can be in advance of
actual achievement; and I expect to see the time when Richland Farm
will be a more appropriate name.
I only wish you could see my alfalfa. I have been seeding more every
year and now have sixty acres. It has come through winter in fine
condition and it will be a fine sight by Easter. Here's a standing
invitation to take Easter dinner with us, or any other dinner, for
that matter, if you ever come East.
I am planning to sow about forty acres more alfalfa this year. A
writer for the _Breeder's Gazette _visited us last summer, and he
said some of our alfalfa was as good as any he had ever seen in
California. He said ground limestone was plainly what we need for
alfalfa at Westover, but he thought some phosphorus would also help
on the less rolling areas, where the alfalfa is not so good as where
you found more phosphorus.
Lime and raw rock phosphate make the difference between clover and
no clover.
I can get ground limestone for $2.90 a ton now, delivered at Blue
Mound in bulk in carload lots. We are hoping to get it still lower,
and I think we will, for some of the big lime manufacturers, such as
the company at Riverton, are making plans to furnish ground
limestone; and the railroad companies are likely to make better
rates, or the State will do so for them.
It is truly a lamentable situation, when our hills and mountains are
full of all sorts of limestone, and our exhausted lands are crying
for that more than anything else. We understand, even better than
you, that everybody is poor in a country where the land is poor; and
it should be to the greatest interest of the railroad companies as
well as to all other industries, to unite in an effort to make it
possible for every landowner to apply large amounts of limestone to
his land,--the more the better,--and no one should expect any large
profit from the business; but wait till the benefit is produced on
the land,--wait till the farmer has his increased crops, and some
money from the sale of those crops. Then the railroads can make
profit hauling those crops to market and hauling back the necessary
supplies, and even the luxuries, which the farmer's money will
enable him to buy and pay for. Then the factory wheels will turn;
for, as you told us, the Secretary of Agriculture reports that
eighty-six per cent. of all the manufactured products are made from
agricultural raw materials.
There is no danger but what the railroads and manufacturers and
commercial people will get their share out of the produce from the
farms; but it is absolutely sure that, when the farms fail to
produce, then there is no profit for any of them, and the last man
to starve out will be the farmer himself, for he can live on what he
raises even though he has nothing left to sell.
We are all well. My son Charles is still bookkeeping for a Richmond
firm, but he is becoming greatly interested in my alfalfa, and says
he sometimes wishes he had taken an agricultural course instead of
the literary at college. His grandmother says she reckons the
agricultural college could give him about all the literature he
needs keeping books for a hides and tallow wholesale company; and I
am coming to believe that she is about right. I still remember that
the dative of indirect object is used with most Latin verbs
compounded with _ad, ante, con, in, inter, ob, post, pre, pro, sub,
_and _super, _and sometimes _circum; _but it would have been just as
easy for me to have learned forty years ago that the essential
elements of plant food are carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen; nitrogen,
phosphorus, and potassium; magnesium, calcium, iron and sulfur; and
possibly chlorin; and I am sure that the culture of Greek roots and
a knowledge of Latin compounds have been of less value to me during
the forty years than the culture of alfalfa roots and even a meager
knowledge of plant-food compounds have been during the last three
years.
Adelaide is teaching; Frank is in the academy; and the younger
children are all in school.
We shall always be glad to hear from you.
Very respectfully yours,
CHARLES WEST.
"That is an exceptionally good letter," said Mrs. Johnson, as Percy
finished reading.
"Not for Mr. West," he replied. "His letters are always good, always
helpful and encouraging, almost an inspiration to me. Mr. West is in
many ways a very exceptional man. If he had not been tied down all
his life to a so-called worn-out farm of a thousand acres, he might
just as well have been the Governor of the State. Even in spite of
himself he has been practically forced to accept some very
responsible public offices, but the financial sacrifice was too
great to permit his retaining them very long. I never realized until
I was nearly through college that the trustees of our own University
devoted a large amount of time to that public service with no
financial remuneration whatever. They are merely reimbursed for
their actual and necessary travelling expenses."
"Well, if I were a young man about your age, this letter would be an
inspiration to me," said his mother.
"You mean his suggestion about changing the name of our farm?"
"No, I mean his possible suggestion about changing the name of his
daughter."
Percy was silent.
"How can I tell anything from your blank face? Why do you not
speak?"
"You will have to show me," said Percy.
"Will you accept his invitation?"
"Oh, Mr. West always closes his letters with an invitation for me to
visit them if I ever come East. There is nothing exceptional or
unusual in that."
"The letter is very exceptional," she repeated, "insomuch that if
there is no understanding there is no misunderstanding, and if there
is some misunderstanding there was no intention. When Mrs. Barton
says: 'Do come over when you can,' there is no invitation intended
and no acceptance expected; but when Mrs. McKnight says: 'Can't you
and your son come over and take supper with us Thursday
evening,'--well that is an invitation to come. In the case of Mr.
West's letter, perhaps you had an invitation to spend the Easter
vacation at Westover when his daughter will be at home,--and perhaps
not."
Percy was silent and his mother quietly waited.
"In any case," he said, "I cannot afford to go this spring. We never
were so short of funds. I almost begrudged the railroad fare I paid
to go to the Institute."
"I have agreed to agree with you regarding the matter of hiring more
help on the farm if you need it," she said; "for it is easily
possible to lose by saving. There are some things which should never
be influenced by financial considerations. It is more than three
years since your Eastern trip. You need a rest and a change. It
would be entirely commonplace for you to spend the Easter time in
Virginia. You ought to see the country in the spring; and you ought
especially to be interested in Mr. West's sixty acres of alfalfa.
Expectations are always followed either by realization or by
disappointment, either of which my noble son can bear."
Her fingers passed through his hair as she kissed his forehead.
"The only question is, whether you would enjoy a visit to Westover,"
she continued. "You have insisted that the Winterbine deposit
remain in my name, but I have written and signed a check against
that reserve for $100, and you have only to fill in the date and
draw the amount at the County Seat whenever you wish. If you go,
express my regards to the ladies, and especially remember me to the
grandmother."