The Citizens Journal - Atlanta, Texas
Thursday, September 28th, 1933

Earnest Kennedy's Farming Experience

Full of Romance

The extent to which a farmer may succeed in the business of farming in Cass county is demonstrated by Earnest Kennedy, who lives in the Unity community on the highway from Atlanta to Shreveport. Mr. Kennedy has made an outstanding success of farming and his accomplishments are not so different but that they might be achieved by any farmer in Cass county who is willing to pay the price in sound thinking and industry.

Kennedy's success has been made early in life, as he is only thirty six years old. He married a daughter of Dan Jones sixteen years ago. The first year of their married life they bought a farm on the credit without paying a cent on it. It was bought on faith, determination and industry. Today, Kennedy and his wife own a beautiful home that is unencumbered. It is modern, attractive and is being enjoyed every minute by the Kennedys. They have the home modernly furnished, an attractive two story garage located to ..............but was paid for from earnings from the Kennedy farm.

Kennedy's success has not been accidental, but has been the result of sound thinking and good management. He has not put all of his eggs in the same basket, and the old adage states. He has grown about 15 acres of cotton every year, and is a good cotton farmer, averaging more than a 1-2 bale per acre over a period of years. He has a ribbon cane patch every year and sells from 100-200 gallons of syrup every year. He specializes in growing watermelons, and realizes a substantial income from this source. This year he grew a melon that weighed 183 lbs. He has a block of 100 white leghorn hens, housed in a modern shed type poultry house, that pay a profit. He realizes a good income from his poultry. He has a home orchard that he prunes and sprays regularly, from which the home is supplied with an abundance of delicious fruits.

Since the installation of the Atlanta milk plant, Kennedy has started growing into the dairy business, and has three of "the best Jerseys in his community, from which he is selling nine or ten dollars worth of milk every month. He states that he wants two more good cows, and to care for his cows, he is now constructing a modern dairy barn.

All of Kennedy's land is terraced. He is an expert in terracing, having attended night schools and special terracing schools taught by George Holland, Teacher of Vocational Agriculture in the Atlanta High School. He has terraced a number of his neighbors farms. Using a definite cropping system, his land is more productive today than it was when be bought it.

Where the average Cass County farmer boys feed almost every year, Kennedy has never bought any feed, except a part of the concentrates for his laying hens, which he could not raise on his farm. He sells corn every year, and always has peas for sale. While his cotton acreage average 15 acres, his feed crops average about 20 acres.

Instead of buying a large amount of land, employing tenants, and trying to get rich, has has only 110 acres of land, cultivates his land himself, and has tried to make a living. He has improved his small farm, has made it one of the best in the country, with an abundance of pasturel and that is well watered with live springs.

Kennedy's success can be attributed to a very large extent to his good wife. Born and reared in the Jones family where she learned the very valuable lessons of thrift and industry, she has economized, worked diligently for their success and today she enjoys the comfortable home that she and her husband have built. She cans an abundance of fruits and vegetables, always providing the family table with a large assortment of home grown vegetables and fruits.

While the success of the Kennedy's has been the result of hard work, sacrifices and industry, the building of it has been a romance to them. Still in their youth, they will be able for many years to enjoy the fruits of their labors. They have a set a mark at which the young married couples of today may shoot. Born and bred of the sturdy stock of people who pioneered this country and made it great among the nations of the earth, they have set an example that may be very profitably followed by Cass county farmers.