The news in this publica
tion is released for the pre?s on
the date indicated below.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
NEWS LETTER
Published weekly by the
University of North Carolina
for its Bureau of Extension.
SEPTEMBER 1,1915
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
VOL. I, NO. 41
Editorial Boardi^, K. C. Branaon, J. G. deB. Hamilton, I,. R. Wilson, L. A. Williams.
Entered as second-class matter November U, 1914. at the postoSloe at Chapel ni", N. C., tbp ■\'>t of A-inist I"'!'’
NORTH CAROLINA CLUB STUDIES
NORTH CAROLINA LEADS
North Carolina agaiu leads the South
‘in the amount of raw cotton consumed
and in the total value of manufactured
«otton goods.
\)ur 1914 crop was 970,479 bales, and
■sthe cotton consumed by our own mills
sduring the year was 918,192 bales, or just
52,2S7 bales les.- than the entire crop of
4he state.
Our 378 cotton mills, cordage, and
knitting mills with their 3,814,000 spin
dles easily consume all the cotton our
Jarmers now raise in average years.
' NEAPLY INDEPENDENT
An increase of 80,000 acres in our hay
and forage acreage vvoul 1 save us from
-Shipping into the state 100,000 tons of
ihay and forage next year and end our de-
j)endence upon western hay makers.
An average increase of a third acre per
farm would make us independent of this
particular; or a little more attention to
■these crops upon our present acreage
would do it.
This year we have raised all the wheat
■sve need and have a small surplus to mar-
'iket abroad.
Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee
R: and Arkansas with a slight effort could
i easily be independent in the matter of
plray and forage.
We are wondering which of these states
■will win out nr.?t.—Figures from the Fed-
Lsral Farmer’s Bulletin No. 677.
A farArer of this sort, tenant or owner,
is self-feeding and self-supporting. There
fore, he is a good credit risk, no matter
what the price of cotton may happen to
be. His crop-lien is good collateral at
the bank.
The Banhers Did It.
The Texas bankers are deliberately
forcing the supply-merchants to force the
farmers into diversified farming in order
to hold down in Texas the 155 million
dollars that has lieen going out of the
state year by year to pay for Western
corn and corn products, hay and forage,
salt-poriv sides, ham and bacon.
The bankers in any cotton or tobacco
county in North C’arolina can do more
in a single year to promote diversified
farming tlian our 53 farm demonstrators
can do in a whole life time.
It is good sense and good business poli
cy on part of the bankers.
0U8 COTTON OIL MILLS
In 1914, tliey numbered 885, 66 of them
in North Carolina, and all but six being
In the Sou til.
They cruslied 5,780,000 tons of seed and
l^urned out 832,400 bales of linters.
Here is a business peculiarly Southerii
[ in nature, Imt also peculiarly conditioned
for success or failure by outside influ-
•suces.
During the year ending with last June
we exported 65 per cent more tharr dur-
f-ing the previous year. The increase in
' walue was nearly as great, 58 i>er cent.
Tlie ocean freight cliarges were enor-
iinously irrcreased, but we got there with
■the goods just the same.
Southern Cotton Oil Mills ought to
have closed the year with confortable
■ dividends.
But did they ?
MORE CRIMSON CLOVER
The Crimson clover seed importeil into
sthe United States ui 1910, mainly from
France and Austria, amounted to one
,and a half million pounds. This year the
iimount imported was twelve million
pounds.
The cost of crimson clover seed is high.
From thirty to seventy per cent of it will
not germinate. Good .seed, by the way,
-are a bright greeiiish yellow; poor seed
•are brownish in color.
The price, and the ditiiculty of securing
good seed and good stands, keep our
farmers from growing this valuable for
age croji more extensively.
Clover hullers are too expensive for the
individual farmer to own individually.
Here is a chance to bunch up, buy and
«se a machine co-operatively; secure
abundant home-grown seed cheaply; and
■increase our clover acreage at a rapid
rate.
HALF-AND-HALF FARMING
IN TEXAS
The expression means half the acreage
'ui money crops, and half in food and
feed crops.
Taking for illustration a 40-acre, 2-horse
farm supporting a family of tive, it means
20 acres in cotton, 12 acres in corn, 5
acres in forage crops, 2 acres in winter
cover crops, and 1 acre in vegetables. It
«alls also for 4 i)igs, 50 laying hens, and 2
snilk cow.“.
A supply-merchant can discount at the
bank a crop-lien that meets these speciti-
o.aljions; otherwise not. A farmer who
orops his farm upon this system can get
credit from the supply-merchant; other
wise not.
A LONG WAY TO GO IN
THRIFT I
Eleven million, one hundred thousand!
thrifty people had nearly fi\e billion dol-!
lars in the 2,100 banks of the'United j
States on June 30, 1914. That is to say.
one person in every nine had something
laid away against a rainy day. The av
erage savings deposit was $444.36.
In North Carolina 56,199 people or only
one person in every forty, had money on
savings account in our 28 Savings Banks,
the a\ erage account being jtl83.'^6 and
the total ^10,338,466.
The increase over 1913 in the number
of savings banks in North Carolina was
2; in the number of deposirors, 12,138;
and in the amount on deposit, $2,779,000.
In the number of savings banks, North
Carolina ranked 12th; in a\ erage account
per depositor, our rank was 36th; in to
tal tleposit-s, our rank was 26th.
How Cotton and Tobacco
States Save
Including the savings deposited in the
so-called savings banks of Alabama, Ar
kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, the South
ern States made tlie following showing in
the last report of the Comptroller of the
Currency:
Total Deposits Av. Acct.
GIVE HIM A CHANCE
The tenants of our county should be
encouraged to buy theirown homes.
If is a sad picture to see a good man
spend his life on a farm as a tenant,
with a large family aud no way for
him to provide an estate for his chil
dren and for himst'lf and wife in old
age.
Gi\'e the tenant a chance in'the race
of life. Sell him land at low rate of
iidercst. This will encourage him to
make the first payment, and after
that IS done the way will be open for
him.
There should always he a strong tie
between landlord and tenant. The
children of the latter should be gi\-en
a chance to make strong men and
women.
Nobody knows \^hat the future has
in store for these jioor boys and girls
when they are given a show.
Don’t let them have to say “I ain't
never had no chance. ” Come to their
rescue today.—The Columbus County
News-Keporter.
UNIVERSITY school OF EDUCATION
LETTER SERIES NO. 41
1.
Lous i air a
117,650,833
1279.44
2.
Tennessee
16,079,166
220.75
3.
Georgia
12,491,633
228.17
4.
South Carolina
10,873,392
300.56
5.
Virginia
10,784,314
244.60
North Carolina
10,338,466
183.96
7.
Texas
10,019,781
8.
Alabama
9,971,424
9.
Kentucky
7,361,257
157.29
10.
Mississip])i
4,908,623
320.20
11.
Arkansas
3,798,011
12.
Oklahoma
3,306.565
13.
Florida
1,580,615
166.27
The total deposits
on savings
account
in these
894,135.
13 Southern States was SllS,
How a Food and Feed State
Saves
The single state of Jowa, which is main
ly a farm slate well developed in live
stock industries, had $217,038,520 in her
savings banks; or nearly twice as much
as the savings of the entire South.
We have a long way yet to go in thrift.
A SORRY STATE OF AFFAIRS
Wlien war broke out in Europe in
August of last year we had in sight the
largest cotton crop ever raised in the
South, more than 17 million bales.
Middling cotton dropped from an av
erage of 13 ;49 cents a pound in August
1913 to 7.94 cents in August 1914.
All told the crop was nearly six million
bales more than the crop of 1909, but it
was worth 95 million dollars less. It was
ne^arly two million bales more than the
crop of 1913, but was worth 385 million
dollars less. North Carolina’s share of
the loss was around 14 million dollafs.
V^hy this Enormous Loss
We did not believe that European mills
in a time of war could use their custom
ary nine million bales. We did not be
lieve that w'e could command bottoms
enough in which to ship this amount
abroad.
We knew that considerably more than
half our crop was distress cotton raised
)jy tenant farmers and small farm owners
who could not hold it off the market,
and in this way hold market prices upon
a fair level. Loss of confidence threat
ened wholesale bankruptcy in the South,
and cotton prices went to the bottom.
We estimated that foreign takings
wouid be four and a half or five million
bales at the utmost, that domestic con
sumption w^»uld call forfi\'e iniilion bales
more, and that our left-over cotton would
be some seven million bales at the very
least.
The End of the Story
It now turns out that for the year end
ing in June. 1915, we .shipped abroad
8,426,143 bales bales or within a few
hundred thousand bales of the usual
amount; that Southern mills consumed
3.163.000 bales, or more tfian ever be
fore; that Northern milli? consumed 2,-
618.000 bales, and the entire world 14,-
134.000 bales.
'S^'ith our left-over cotton and the 12,-
000,000 bales in prospect in our fields,
we will have this fall barely more cotton
than the world consumed during a year
of war.
The Meaning of It
If we had been li\-e-at-home farmera in
the South, self-feeding and self-flnancing
for the most part, we might have stored
our cotton, toasted our shins comfortably
by the winter fires, a)id waited till the
clouds rolled by.
We would have received some i}i400,-
000,000 more for our cotton. More than
that, we could ha\ e held down at home |
the 936 million dollars that goes out of |
the South into the Middle West year by |
year for grain, hay and forage, beef, pork,'
and mutton, and the like; or the larger,
portion of it. j
Without immensely larger food and |
feed crops we can never hope to have
permanent farm prosperity in the South, |
and to establish stable business conditioiis |
for landlords, tenants, supply-merchants,
bankers and business people of all sorts.
A Heroic Rally
Last year was a year of hardship in the
South, l)Ut we have come through this
period of adversity with 1,834,000 pigs
and 300,000,000 bushels of corn and other
grains more than we have raised on our
farms at any time since the war.
The South can easily win a safe eco
nomic freedom, if only she is driven to it
by pinching necessity; the only school
master that ever yet taught such a les
son to any people.
IMPORTED CHINESE EGGS
The egg crop of the United States last
year was worth 700 million dollars; or
nearly as much as our seventeen million
I bales of cotton.
{ Neverthrless the eggs produced were
I fewer than we needed for home consump
tion. For instance we imported 3,600,000
dozen eggs at 15 cents a dozen from
Shanghai, China, some 540 miUion dol
lars worth. It cost just a little more than
1 1-2 cents a dozen to land them itr
America.
North Carolina with her mild, short
winters has a great advantage over the
North and West in the production of
THE LESSON OF THE MOON-
LIGHT SCHOOLS ^
The state is forging ahead in its efforts
to wipe out illiteracy aud five hundred
more teachers who work all day in the
schools with the children have volunteer
ed to work at night free of charge with
the illiterate adults who are ignorant of
the enlightening power of the twenty-six
little letters in our alphabet.
Illiteracy a Disease
At least it has been called such, and if
so it is a disease that is contracted in ear
ly life. Our self-sacrificing teachers are
heroically risking their fives' in night
work to effect a cure.
An Ounce of Prevention
It is the heaviest and most effective
ounce that was ever put upon the scales.
We vaccinate against the small pox, not
to cure it but to prevent it, and the doc
tors are now successfully fighting the
dread disease typhoid fever with a pre
ventive rather than with a cure. They
tell us that the way to “stamp out” ty
phoid fever is to prevent it, and hence
free anti-typhoid treatment may be had
for the asking only.
Prevent Illiteracy
This should be the cry of every crusad-
it out forever, as with small pox and ty
phoid fever, is to prevent it. The cry
“prevent illiteracy’■ should he heard in
the day school and in ■■ the night school,
in the pulpit, on the rostrum, at the
street comer and along the highways.
Compulsory Vaccination
Against jllliteracy
Is successfully accomplished the very
moment we compel our children to at
tend school every day In the term. Theie
should be no absences. If we had com
pulsory school attendance in every county
in the state \ve sliould soon have no il
literacy in North Carolina.
Why Compulsory School Taxes
On the ground that ignorance and il
literacy are a disease, and a danger why
let the childreii stay out of school at wid
and gro«- up ignorant and illiterate and
thus later on iii life increase the enroll
ment in the moonlight schools of the
future?
From Moonlight to Sunlight
Let’s prevent illiteracy in the youth of
today and thus avoid ha\’ing to treat it in
old age when the disease is chronic.
Let’s fill the sunlight schools of today
with children of the land and there will
be no need of moonlight schools in the
er against illiteracy. The way to stamp j future for any of the grown up peop!.
eggs. They are a by-product of the home
and farm worth far greater attention than
we are giving to tlie matter at present.
DRAWN BATTLES WITH
WHITE ILLITERACY
Between 1900 and 1910, three counties
spent UKiney liberally oir public schools
and struggled bravely with the problem
of illiteracy, only to find that they had
almost exactly as many white illiterates
at the end of the census period as at the
beginning of it, as follows:
In Cabarrus, the white illiterates in
1900 were 1653; in 1910 they were 1652,
Caldwell had 2130 white illiterates in
' 1900 and exactly the same number in
' 1910.
I Carteret had 1143 white illiterates in
j 1900 and 1144 in 1910.
i This state of affairs calls for more
school money, better schools, and a still
braver struggle.
I And they are equal to the task. In
1904-5, the total public school fund in
; these counties was 5'61,858; five years
; later, it was nearly J100,000; in 1913-14
it was nearly 1160,000.
roads upon native white illiteracy, the
decrease in namber of white illiterates
being around SO per cent in each county.
In Alleghany the white illiterates in
1900, ten years old and over, were 1029;
in 1910 the> were 524.
Bertie decreased her white illiterates
during this period from 1131 to 559; Cur
rituck, from 465 to 298; Dare, from 670
to 238; Gates, from 802 to 3S7; Graham,
from 950 to 318; McDowell, from 1515 to
to 794; Perquimans, from 501 to 279; and
Person, from 1719 to 870.
Splendid records!
WAGING A LOSING BATTLE
Six counties of the state during the last
census period led a sort of forlorn hope
in the war against white illiteracy.
In spite of the activity of teachers,
school officers, and tax payers, there «’ere
1708 more v\Iiite illiterates in these coun
ties in 1910 than in 1900, as follows:
Ci>lumbus in 1900, white illiterates
2267; in 1910, 264^t.
Gaston increased from 2665 in 1900 to
2934 in 1910.
Guilford, from 2241 in 1900, to 2606 in
1910.
Pamlico, from 455 in 1900, to 492 i^i
1910.
Rutherford, from 2002 in 1900, to 2590
in 1910.
Scotland, from 876 in 1900, to 948 in
1910.
New IMexico alone excepted. North
Carolina made greater inroads upon white
illiteracy during the last census period
than any other state in the union.
But these six counties lost instead of
gaining ground in the war upon white il
literacy ; and a knowledge of the fact may
serve to stir the jieople of these splendid
counties to greater efforts than ever be
fore.-
During the last five years of the last
census period, the total school fund of
these six counties was nearly doubled. In
1913-14, the total school fund w'as $587,-
411, or more than treble the total in
1904-5.
CONQUERING WHITE ILLIT
ERACY
Between 1900 and 1910, nine counties
of North Carolina made remarkable in-
FERTILE BRAINS AND POOR
SOILS
Jim Kai, a Chinese coolie, farming in
California, spanned the gap from ]>enury
to competence in six years—agoing horce
to China with lji24,000. Portugese far
mers raise crops on steep hills, apparently
impossible to cultivate. An Italian far
mer, when he takes a load of produce to
town, never dri\'es the empty wagon
home, but brings manure. A'.fapanese
truck gardener made lj>2,500|clear in one
year on two acres.
The American can do all the'aliens are
doing. He can substitute his mental
suppleness for the foreigner's instinctive
cuniiing. Business men and others, new
to farming, are doing it in California to
day.—The Banker-Farmer.
GERMANY’S GREIVANCE
During the year'ending with June 1915,
business firms in the Uniteil States ship
ped to Germany and Austria-Hungary
30 million dollars worth of goods and sup
plies of all sorts; but to the rest of Eu
rope they shipped nearly 1800 m'llion
dollars worth.
Our trade with France, Italy, and the
United Kingdom of Great Britain was
more than doubled during the y^ar, but
with Germany and Austria-Hungary it
fell from 367 millions the year before to
30 millions in 1914-15.
And thereby hangs many a tale. Fig
ures from the last report of the Bureau
of Foreign and Domestic Commerce at
Washington.
WHY NOT?
The Housewives League in Goldsboro
is offering two hundred preiniLuns for ex
hibits of houselwld arts and crafts at the
the Fair in October—preserves, jams,
jellies, breads and cakes of all kinds, sew
ing, crocheting, embroidery, fancy work,
etc.
We expect to see the country fiomes of
Wayne carry off' most of these i)rize,s.
Why not?