Xhe news in thia publica
tion is released for the press on
the date indicated below.
_ UNIVERSITY of NORTH CAROLINA
NEWS LETTER
Published weekly by the
University of North Carolina
for its 3ureau o( Elxtension.
UGUST 23,1916 —
CHAPEL HIUU N. C.
VOL. n, NO. 39
aitorial Board! B. C. Branson, J. a. daB. Hamilton, U K. Wilson, L,. A.
Williams, B. H. Thornton, (,. m. McKie. Eiieered
as second-class matter November 14,1914, at the.postoffloe at Chapel Hill, N. C., under the act of August 24,1913.
NORTH CAROLINA CLUB STUDIES
WOMEN’S CLUBS
Xhe women’s Clubs of North CaroUna
re planning a busy season this next
•inter. The literary sections in particu-
• are trying to do some real work. Al-
aily registration has begun in the Olub
tudy Courses offered by the University
irough its Correspondence Study Di-
iaion.
These courses are oflfered at a nominal
price and. cover a period of work on
rowning, or Nineteenth Century Litera
ture, and on Latin America. Outlines
nd study suggestions go with the course,
•hile the work is carefully supervised by
irection from the faculty. Further in
formation can be secured by writing to
liss Nellie Roberson, Chapel Hill, N.
~1., who is the Secretary of this work.
The work is indorsed by both Mrs.
ingle and by Miss Windley, and has
een enthusiastically received by club
embers throughout the state.
PROMOTING LIVESTOCK
FARMING
Mississippi proposes to move out of
»rop farming merely or mainly and to
ecupy the next higher level of farm
ivilization, that of livestock farming.
Diversified cropping in a region under-
toeked with farm animals is a sentimen-
notan economic proposition. And
arketing feed crops on four legs is far
head of marketing such crops on four
vbeels.
lu the census year North Carolina was
" 7 ]>er cent below the level of even lightly
tocked farms, which is one animal unit
0 every five acres; and Mississippi was
still further behind.
But in 1916 the increases in Mississippi
farm animals over the numbers of the
-ensus year were as follows: dairy cows 4
’ cent, sheep 6 per cent, horses 12 per
-ent, mules 14 per cent, and awine 25 per
ent. Strange to say the neat cattle de-
reased during this period. But the
gain of 325,000 swine in five years is won-
‘erful.
But the gain iu livestock grades was
ven more wonderful than the gain in
numbers; and in this particular Mr.
Davis and Point Comfort 14 have made
Mississippi famous. Every where we found
he papers commenting upon the impor
tation of high-bred sires.
Indeed, Mississippi impressed us as
awake and alert about this matter of
livestock farming. The bankers-are fi
nancing the Pig Club boys and the Baby-
Beef Clubs, They evidently believe that
livestock is a safe bet.
Nearly half the counties are already tick-
free, and in 1917 Mississippi like Louisiana
under a state-wide tick eradication
law. In the month of May nearly 600,000
cattle were dipped. That is to say, more
than half the cattle in the state were
dipped in a single month.
The state has not done so well iu agri
cultural industries—creameries, conden-
■series, cheese factories, and the like. We
located only 11 butter factories iu the
state, and only one of these was a cooper
ative concern.
This particular creamery is located on
the A. &. M. campus. The college is
campaigning livestock farming, dairy in
dustries, and cooperative enterprises with
rare vigor and w'isdom.
LOCAL PACKING PLANTS
The papers of late are discussing local
jiacking plants in vaiious southern
centera.
This newspai)er discussion grows out of
popular disquietude due to the increas
ing demand for meat in world-wide mar
kets, and the enormous increase in the
prices that consumers are paying. Also,
to the belief on part of thoughtful peo
ple that it is important for growing cities
to stimulate the production of meat and
tnilk supplies in surrounding trade terri
tories.
Meanwhile the livestock farmers of the
Middle West are fiercely demanding that
Congress find out why the farm price of
•neat animals is so low and the farmer’s
profits so small, when the demand is
greater and the prices to consumers
higher. The farmers lose out in spite of
these circumstances, and they want
this mystery unraveled.
Two facts are fundaraental in tlie
outh; First, almost half of the meat con
sumed m tlie country at large is locally
produced. In the South the beef ani
mals are generally small and below grade
in quality. The are clumsily butchered
in ill-equipped slaughter houses. The
price our farmers get for their meat ani
mals is small; but the price consumers
pay for inferior meat is high because the
venders’ prices are boosted by the high
prices of the packers’ products. And
second, our local farmers have little in
terest in producing meat animals because
they must take whatever the local butch
ers offer, and the prices and profits the
producers receive are discouragingly
small.
Our farms in the South can produce all
the meat required for local consumption,
but they are not likely to do it until their
livestock enterprises are amply rewarded
With profits in the nearby markets.
The Obstacles
At present the obstacles are, (1) the
lack of well-organized stockyard mar
kets in the South. For instance, hogs
on the hoof demand nearby markets.
Unlike cattle they cannot be safely hauled
long distances to far away stockyard cen
ters. (2) The extended area of tick in
festation. (3) The lack of railway
arrangement, conveniences, facilities, and
advantageous rates. (4) The lack of muni
cipal abattoirs as in Paris, Texas. (5)
The lack of packing facilities in connec
tion with our local abattoirs. (6) The
local supply of meat animal Ls small and
inferior in size and quality. (7) The un
willingness of our farmers to attend to
meat animals four times a day for 365
days in the year. (8) The lack of organ
ized, widespread interest in livestock
breeds, cooperative shipping, and cooper
ative creameries and cheese factories.
These—to say nothing of the obstacles
that lies in the competition of the big
packing concerns.
The South will grow into livestock farm
ing slowly under the most tempting cir-
cum.«tances. A farm civilization must be
bred to the business of livestock farming,
and it takes a generation or two. Beef
production and abundant home-raised
feed usually precede dairying in a farm
region.
But livestock farming is a superior type
of farming. It requires and supports di
versified cropping, crop rotations, and
home-raised food and feed stuffs. But
it is a forward movement that somehow
th South must make—first of all, as a
side line on every farm.
Centers of Interest
Paris, Texas, owns and operates its
own abattoir. Thirteen other cities have
invested in such municipal enterprises.
Paris is about tt> add a packing business
to its abattoir. [
Moultrie, Georgia, has established a
joint stock butchering and packing busi
ness, Recently some six thousand peo- ^
pie gathered in Moultrie to attend the
cattle show and to organize a great tick
eradication campaign in soutli Georgia. ,
A similar meeting was held in Tampa,
Florida, Jacksonville is establishing a'
stockyard and packing business. The
Armours are also netting up a packing
plant in that city. ' ^
Memphis already has such establish
ments owned by the Big Packers; but a
movement has been started there for a
livestock enterprise locally owned and
operated.
Atlanta has a privately owned stock
yard and packing business. Raleigh has
a municipal and Charlotte a joint-stock
abattoir. Wilmington, Greensboro and
Washington are discussing the mat-
ter. And Augusta, Georgia, has already
organized a *100,000 packing business.
Orangeburg is getting ready for busi-
ness, and Greenville is considering it. .
Encouraging LivestocK
Farming '
So much for the unrest and the eflorn
to stimulate and encourage the local pro
duction of beef, pork, and mutton.
'There are 200,000,000 idle, wilderness
i acres in the South; and as the business of
i raising meat animals in wholesale way
' moves out of range conditions m he
' West, this immense unused acreage in the
'South can be turned to profit m meat
i production under fann conditions.
The business is changing from big-sca e,
range production back to small-scale.
the NATIOII’S seed-bed
Henry W. Grady
A contented rural population is not
only the measure of our nation’s
strength, an assurance of its peace
when there should be peace, and a re
source of courage when peace >vould
be cowardice, but it is the nursery of
the great leaders who have made this
country what it is. Washington w^as
born and lived in the country. Jeffer
son was a farmer. Henry Clay rode his
horse to the mill through the slashes.
Webster dreamed amid the solitude of
Marshfield. Lincoln was a rail spliter.
Our own Ben Hill walked between
the handles of the plow. Brown ped
dled barefoot the product of his patch.
Stephens found immortality under the
trees of his country home. Toombs
and Cobb and Calhoun were country
gentlemen, and, afar from cities’ mad
dening strife, established that great
ness that is the heritage of their peo
ple.
The cities produce very few leaders.
Almost'every great man in our history
formed his character in the leisure and
deliberation of our village or country
life, and drew his strength from the
drugs of the earth even as a child
draws his from his mothei’s breasts.
by
at
its
UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
LETTER SERIES NO. 87
BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS
Probably the most effective work yet
done in the campaign for better rural
schools has been the impetus given by the
National Conference for Better Rural
Schools held at Nashville, Tennessee,
November 17, 1915 Delegates were in
attendance from over 30 states. Com
missioner Claxton delivered the principal
address at this Conference, taking for his
subject, “A More Efficient School >Sys-
tem.” He stated that the purpose of
this campaign for better schools is to
bring equal opportunity of education to
every boy and girl in America, in the
country as well as in the town. As a
means to this end the Commissioner
pointed out the necessary agencies as
follow's:
What the Country Needs
1. A school tprm of not less than 160
days for each child.
2. A sufiicient number of teachers ade
quately prepared for their w’ork.
3. Consolidation of rural schools w'ith
an average area of about 12 square miles
for each school.
4. A teacher’s home and a demonstra
tion farm from five to fifty acres as a
part of the school property.
5. An all-year session adapted to local
conditions.
6. A county library with branch,
libraries at the centers of population,
with the schools used as distributing
centers.
7. Community organization with the
school as the intellectual, industrial, edu
cational and social center.
8. A modern high school education
for every boy and girl in America, in the
country as well as in the town.
The Bureau of Education issues a series
of news letters in which the eight subjects
named above will be thoroughly discussed
for the purpose of giving the rural
schools a square deal.
The University News Letter will re
print them for its reading public.
The rural school problem is the biggest
problem in American education. It de
mands the best thought and effort of
educators, business and professional men
if it is to be rightly solved.
farm production; and in this transition
period the South occupies a position of
distinct advantage. We have unused
acres in abundance—22,000,000 iu North
Carolina—mild winters, unlimited hay
and forage possibilities, and water every
where.
However, the prol)lem is complicated.
The best exhibit of the situation is by
Tait Butler in The Progressive Farmer,
Dec. 4, 1915. People here and there who
are interested in local meat and milk
production will do well to read it.
It seems clear that municipal abattoirs
and packing plants have the best chance
to survive, because they can operate on
receipts that cover bare running expenses
and interest on the investment. Private
concerns must have profits as well or
they go quickly out of existence.
The Raleigl abattoir shows a clean
balance sheet from year to year, but no
profits. It is falling howev'er to stimulate
meat production in the surrounding farm
regions. And this matter ought to be
looked into and remedied, if possible,
the city authorities.
Wilmington Industries
Wilmington has long been sitting
the seat of custom. Like Duluth,
business for long years has been the toll
ing of passing trade, the swapping of
dollars, and, in no invidious sense, the
clipping of coins. An export trade in
naval stores and cotton, a big banking
business, and merchandising on a large
scale have long been the main supports
of city enterprise.
And they are insufficient for large
growth and great prosperity. The city
needs (1) a tremendous expansion in
manufacturing enterprises, and (2) it
stands in urgent need of being the center
of a well-developed food-producing
region.
The 1914 Federal Census shows 71
manufacturing establishments in Wil
mington with $3,699,000 invested in cap
ital stock, employing an average of 1,733
wage earners, paying an annual wage bill
of $857,000, turning out products worth
*5,026,000.
The five-year increase in establishments
was only 7, but the increase in wage
earners was 42.9 per cent, in capital 82.9
per cent, in wages 82.2 per cent, and in
the value of products 67.2 per cent.
These are creditable increases. VVilmiug- j
ranks beyond Raleigh, Asheville and
Uiefiicburo, but lags behind High Point,
Charlotte, Durham, and Winston-Salem
in the value of manufactured products. :
There is great wealth in Wilmington,
but lending money on safe security and
merchandising for profits do not furnish
a basis for community expansion like in
vesting in productive industries. New
Bern, Raleigh, and Wilmington illustrate
the first idea, while High Point, Greens
boro, Charlotte, Durham, and Winston-
Salem illustrate the second.
MAROONED
Wilmington is not the center of a well-
developed food producing area. Its im
mediate trade territory consists of ten
counties into which the railway lines of
the city spread out like the ribs of a fan.
There are4,911,000 square miles in these
ten counties. The soils and seasons are
the best in the state for farming in gen
eral, and trucking and livestock farming
in particular. And yet less than a fifth
-of this valuable farm area is under culti
vation. More than four million of these
acres are an idle wilderness area. Seven of
these counties are in the tick infested re
gion . Some of them are free range areas
without stock laws. These two condi
tions'mean an understocked farm region,
with small, scrub meat and milk ani
mals for the most part.
It is a sparsely settled farm area, Robe
son excepted, the counties are all below
the state average in rural population per
square mile, Four have fewer tlian 20
country people to the square mile; in five
more the averages range from 20.U to 32.5.
Deficient in Meat Animals
The farm area immediately surround
ing Wilmington is an undeveloped farm
region, particularly in meat animals. In
1610, the cattle per 1,000 acres were only
14, the hogs only 54, and the sheep only
6. In Iowa where the packing business
is well developed the meat animals are;
cattle 90 per 1,000 acres, hogs 153, and
sheep 23.
The cattle on hand when the census
was taken taken in 1910 in the nearby
trade territory of AV'ilmington were 65,-
213. But only 16,973 calves and cattle
were sold and slaughtered during the
census year for a population of 237,777.
They were only 26 per cent of the cattle
on hand. The beef produced amounted
to about one-fourteenth of a carcass or
only about 14 pounds per inhabitant.
In other words here is a minimum beef
ration at present.
There could not be therefore any large
number of cattle available for a pack
ing plant in Wilmington. The cattle
in this area must be greatly in
creased in number, size, and quality, or
shipped in over long distances, if a local
packing plant turns out beef products in
amounts large enough to yield any profits,
a
As for the sheep there were only 28,685
in all these ten counties; only 188 each
in New Hanover and Robeson! Only
5,774 sheep and goats were sold and
slaughtered. A person must live forty
years in this territory to have a chance af
a whole carcass of mutton! We do not
know about dogs in this area, but roving
hound dogs everywhere make the devel
opment of a sheep industry impossible.
Lines of Progress
This territory as a whole needs a larger
farm population. It needs the drainage
of wet areas and the general lowering of ■
ground water by tiling and ditches. The
land needs to be cleared and made ready
for crops by new farm families. Com
fortable farm houses must be ready for
occupancy; and liome-ownership made
possible on the basis of reasonable prices,
interest rates, and periods of payments.
It needs stock laws, dog laws, and tick
eradication. It needs livestock associa
tions interested in breeds; high grade
bulls, boars, and rams; cattle shows and
tempting prizes.
It needs the active assault of the busi
ness men of Wilmington upon the local
market problem.
A City Enterprise
The development of the farm civihza-
tion in Wilmington’s trade territory de
pends first of all upon fair prices and
profits to the farmers. They will raise
food and feed crops, meat and milk ani
mals, if they can turn bread and oneat
products, milk and butter, poultry
and eggs, into ready cash and reasonable
profits in Wilmington; and not otherwise.
This in a word is the city marketj)rob-
lem, and it is a city proposition much
more than a private enterprise on part of
any one or any half dozen business men.
Duluth as a city has undertaken to
promote agricultural prosperity in its
trade territory, and Wilmington needs to
do the same thing A local packing plant
will thrive in a region well stocked with
farm .animals. Meat production and
dairy farming demand home-raised feed
and forage in abundance. They require
and reward crop diversification. They
lift it above idle sentiment and establish
it upon a business basis. The future of
Wilmington, depends to be sure, on in-
This territory made a better showing '
in hogs in 1910. The total was 265,510, 1 prosperity in her trade
and the number sold and slaughtered
territory.
was 181,483 or 68 per cent of the stock t ^hat Paris, Texas, or Moultrie or Au-
on hand when the census was taken. Tne Wilmington can do. She ha«
pork produced averaged about three-1
fourths of a carcass per inhabitant per
looking business men.
year. If the animals averaged a hundred
pounds on the hoof the home-raised prod
uct was about 75 pounds per p^on. If
the hogs averaged 200 pounds the pork
produced was around 150 pounds per
person. In the first case the pork ration
was too small; in the second case it was
too large, and a surplus is indicated. A
local packing plant must reckon upon
surpluses.
But also it must count upon superior
grade and quality, and hogs from -a free
range territory are apt to be below the
OUT OF PRINT
Our Country Church Problem, the Uni
versity Extension Bureau Circular No. 1,
is already out of print. A thousand cop
ies were issued, and mailed out in tea
days, in answer to calls for it within and
beyond the state.
We are therefore giving extracts from
it in next week’s issue of the Uiiiversitiy
News Letter.
The calls for Our Carolina Highland
ers, the University Bureau Circular No.
grade of hams, shoulders, and bacon of- ^ 2, have been almost as many. Fewer than
fered in competition by the Big Packing tw’o dozen of these Circulars are left on.
Concerns. I hand at present for free distribution.