Another well-wisher suggests that we change the words on the title page from Farm, Horse and Home to The Southland—her land and her life. That is not bad, either. We publish this to let you know that we appreciate all such suggestions. We feel that you would not do it if you did not like us. And that is what we are here for—to get you to like us.
And here let us say that the next issue of Trotwood’s will inaugurate a long-cherished idea of its editor. Under the heading of “Trotwood’s Travels through the South,” in a special advertising departure we will visit various sections of our great Southland and tell what we saw. We wish to show to the world just what we have here in the newly awakened South, with all its natural wealth and its old ideals. Nor will we take this space from the body of Trotwood’s—it will be additional. Our first visit will be to the beautiful valley of the Tennessee, at the growing little city of Florence, Ala., the head of the Mussel Shoals. Last week the President signed a bill permitting a five million dollar company to harness the waste waters of the great shoals, giving power to the towns and cities within a radius of two hundred miles of it. We will show what that means and what chances there are in Florence, with all her resources. For the June number the cantaloupe-raising industry of Lawrenceburg, in Lawrence County, Tenn., has been selected—Lawrence County, where one hundred dollars and more per acre were cleared last year in her newly discovered improvement in the Rocky Ford cantaloupe, and lands are trebling in value. From issue to issue we will take different sections of the South, from Georgia to Texas. And as we go we propose to tell the history and the romance of it too. For what is a land without its romance? A woman without a love affair is more interesting.
Business Department
There is hardly a day but we receive from one to half a dozen letters from our subscribers telling us how they appreciate Trotwood’s Monthly and Trotwood. His stories seem to please the people, and they are all loud in their praise, but we do not recall having received anything of a complimentary nature regarding his writing—with a pen. We often have to translate some of his letters for people who fall down when they try to read them, but the following letter written to Mr. Sterling C. Brewer, principal of the Link School, Thomasville, Tenn., seems to hold the record:
The above is a facsimile of the letter written by Trotwood.
Mr. Brewer writes as follows.
“When I received Trotwood’s letter I saw at once that it was a rather a tough proposition, and I turned it over to one of my pupils for translation. She called her chum and they studied it very diligently for awhile, and to make sure that none of it escaped, wrote it down, and it came to me in a small vertical hand as plain as print:
“‘Dr. M. Braver: