THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
e news in this publica-
l^|H is released tor the press on
feipt.
NEW
TTER
Published weekly by the
University of North Carolina
-»V,
for its Bureau of Extension.
)VEMBER 17,1920
CHAPEL HHuL, N. C.
VOL VIL NO. 2
hori.l Bo®rd i B. O. Branson, L, B. Wilson, E. W. Knight. D. D. CarroU, ,J. B. BniliW.
Entered as second'.elass matter November 14, 1914. at the Po.stoffloe at Chapel Hill, C., under the act of August 24, 1912
POPULATION GAINS AND LOSSES
L C. CLUB SCHEDULE, 1920-21
he North Carolina Club at the Uni-
sity of North Carolina is this year
oting its attention to North Caro-
a: Industrial and Urban.
|;frhe Club officers were duly elected
9n Oct. 18, as follows; President; Dean
Hfancis F. Bradshaw; Secretary; S. H.
Bibbs, Jr.; Steering Committee; E. C.
fcanson, H. W. Odum, J. B. Woosley,
iff. J. Matherly, E. E. Peacock, D. D.
rroll, Thorndike Saville, and W. W.
rson; Membership Committee; C. J.
Jliams and W. H. Bobbitt; Publicity
mittee; Lenoir Chambers and J. Y.
Hick.
:'he program of investigations and
ports is as follows;
October 18. The Cityward Drift in
irolina; The extent, causes, consc
iences. Is it well or ill for the state-
- large? The Outlook.—C. J. Williams,
ibarrus county.
November 1. ■ Small Town Develop-
ent in Carolina; (1) The increase of
lall towns in number and population
nee 1900, (a) in the Tidewater and
astal Plain mainly as market towns,
id (b) in the Hill country mainly as
ill villages, (2) Small-town Problems,
Iventory, analysis and discussion. L.
Martin, Nansemond county, Va.,
nd H. B. Cooper, Vance county.
November 15. The Developing In-
ustries of Carolina; (1) Extent and
ariety, (2) Why more rapid than in
try population increased at a 9= 4 percent
rate, while the U. S. as a whole actu
ally lost farm population, 227,266 all
told—this, for the first time in the his
tory of America. At present barely
more than one-third of the people of
the United States live in the country,
engaged in the business of producing
farm wealth. What shall we eat and
wherewithal shall we be clothed has
become a critical national problem.
At present we have 491,066 people in
our cities, 239,352 in our small incorpo
rated towns, and 1,826,078 in the open
country—a vast multitude dwelling for
the most part in solitary farmsteads and
in social insulation.
In 1910, our open country dwellers
were 76 percent of our total population;
in 1920 the ratio falls to 71 percent.
Which is to say, North Carolina is still
dominantly rural.
County Increases
Eighty-two counties increased in pop
ulation, in ratios ranging from less than
one percent in Gates and Perquimans to
38.3 percent in Gaston and 63.3 percent
in Forsyth which heads the list. Thirty-
seven counties ran ahead of the state
increase of 15.9 percent. Nearly all of
these accelerated increases are in our
leading mill and factory counties or in
the counties with brisk, prosperous
trade and banking centers. Here we
have an illustration of the lure of cities
and the city-producing power of indus-
,her Southern states. (3) The signifi- I trial enterprises.
ince. (4) The Outlook. —M. M. Jerni-j Forty-four counties suffered retarded
an, Sampson couhty. j increases; that is to say, increases less
November 29. The Mill and Factory i than the excess of births over deaths,
enters of Carolina; Advantages and j which is nearly 18 percent in ten years
Ssadvantages, problems, and social ac-1 in North Carolina against about 11 per-
Wvities.—B. W. Sipe, Gaston county, cent in the United States. These coun-
||kd Miss Beulah Martin, Georgia. ties are almost without exception agri-
December 13. The Future of our cultural counties, or counties in remote
Sraall-Towns; Town Planning for (a) [ areas with deficient railway and high
way facilities, in the Tidewater, the
our Market-towns, (b) our Mill Villages,
(c) Noteworthy leaders and achieve
ments.
January 10. Town and Country In
terdependencies; Board of Trade Poli-
ies and Activities.
January 24. City Problems in Caro-
a; Economic, Social, Civic; Inven-
ry. Analysis, Discussion.
February 7. City Planning in Caro-
ina, in view of ascertained Common
eficiencies.
February 21. City Government in
[arolina; Forms of. Efficiencies and
eficiencies.
March 7. City Finance and Financial
jllethods in Carolina.
March 21. Public Utilities in Caroli
na Cities; Common Utilities, Utilities
fiiat are Commonly Owned, Franchise
Pjplicies, etc.
[April 11. Home Ownership and the
Housing Problem; The Facts, their
Social Significance, Constructive Sug
gestions.
I April 25. Community Life' and Or-
■ ganization in Carolina; (1) The Rarity
of Country Communities and why; the
il^onsequent Social Problems, (2) The
l.^ost Promising Agency of Social Inte
gration in Rural Areas and why; (3)
Social Engineering in Mill and Factory
i.^lenters; (4) Outstanding Achievements
[in Carolina.
May 9. Training for Public Service
in Carolina; Agencies and Activities,
tffiublic and private.
V May 23. Municipal Accounting and
Auditing.
OUR CENSUS INCREASES \
North Carolina moved up to 2,556,486
; in population during the last census
iriod, again of 350,199 or 15.9 percent
ainst 14.9 for the United States as a
whole. In *1910 sixteen states stood
•ahead of us, but in 1920 only 14. In
the South only Georgia and Texas now
have larger populations than North Ca-
.rolina.
Our increase was absorbed as follows;
iil) Our 67 census-size cities of 2,600 or
lore inhabitants received 172,682, (2)
lur 414 little incorporated towns and
illages 20,870, and (3) our open coun-
y 166,747.
I Our cities grew at a 64 percent rate,
ainst 28.8 percent in the country as a
whole; our small towns grew at a 9.6
percent rate against 21.6 percent for
ihe United States; and our open coun-
COMING BACK TO LIFE
A perfectly good region inhabited
by perfectly good people may be
come discouraged, despondent, de
cadent, owing to nothing more seri
ous than the inheritance of obsolete
traditions of agriculture and social
relationships, and to discour^ement
due to a long continued shrinkage of
population.
But just as a discouraged and mor
ally decadent individual may come
back to life and to achievement
through a personal crisis of some
sort—the kindling of a new friend
ship, religious conversion, or the
breaking out of war—so a rural com
munity which is given over to remi
niscence and lethargy may, by a
proper adjustment of its economic
life and a proper stimulus to its civic
imagination, begin- once more to
function with as much exhilaration
as the very immigrants and pioneers
themselves. — Erville B. Woods,
Dartmouth College.
COUNTRY HOME CONVENIENCES
LETTER SERIES No. 35
FARM LIGHTING SET STORAGE BATTERIES—III
to the utmost as trade and banking cen
ters comfortably related to the sur
rounding trade areas, and they must
organize town spirit sufficient to make
their little home towns the best resi
dence towns on the face of the earth.
Or, second, they must establish indus
tries with increasing weekly pay-rolls.
As we stated in the first letter of
this series, the question as to how long
a storage battery will last is a good
deal like the question. How old is Ann?
We have known storage batteries to
last over ten years and we have also
known them to go to pieces in that
many weeks. Each of these instances,
however, and especially the latter, is
hardly a fair sample of the average
battery.
Batteries Are Made
How
' Before venturing an opinion as to the
length of time a farm lighting set bat
tery should be expected to last it may
be well to explain briefly the construc
tion of a storage battery, with particu
lar reference to the farm lighting set
battery. The battery consists of six
teen cells, as they are called, each cell
consisting of a glass jar containing two
groups of lead plates. The plates of
one group are separated from the plates
of the other group by thin wooden or
rubber insulators. The cell is filled
with a weak solution of sulphuric acid
so that the plates are coveredjwith at
least one half inch of the solution.
From the standpoint of the life of
the cell the important feature lies in
the construction of these plates. Each
plate is made of a lead grid or lattice
like box, the lead being alloyed with
some metal so as to make the grid stiff
and strong. When the battery is fully
charged, the pockets in each plate of
lower Coastal Plain, and the Mountain
regions.
Population Losses
Sixteen counties suffered an actual
loss of population. Eight of these are
in the Tidewater country, one in the
lower Cape Fear, two in the heart of
the state, and five in the Mountain re
runs. It is fair to say that Cumber
land, Watauga, Caldwell, and Mitchell
lost population because of territory
surrendered in the formation of Hoke
and Avery counties in 1911. Meanwhile
38 counties decreased in the number of
farms, five of these being in the Tide
water, five in the lower Cape Fear, lb-
in the hill country east of the Ridge,
and 12 in the mountains. - “
Here is an illustration of the .expul
sive power of loneliness in our country
regions. These losses all occur in sparse
ly settled rural areas, and mos^largely
among tenant farmers who have been
unable to resist the attraction of week
ly cash wages in the mill centers at
home and/abroad. Our cotton and to
bacco counties, as we foresaw, have
held their farm populations because of
the high prices of cotton and tobacco;
but in other counties during the last
ten years the negro farmers in large
numbers have moved northward into
the great industrial centers. The chances
are that the ratio of negro population
has greatly decreased during the last
ten years in North Carolina.
Feeble Small Town Growth
A word about our 414 small towns.
They have increased in population in
ten years around 21,000—an average
gain of only five inhabitants apiece per
year. During the ten years 67 new
towns sprang up, 17 moved over into
the class of census-size cities, while 40
surrendered their charters and went
out of existence as incorporated towns.
Ninety-three, or nearly one-fourth of
them all, suffered an actual decrease
in population.
Our little towns in North Carolina
are not growing, take them all in all.
When country people move, they do not
as a rule move into the small towns;
they move into the larger cities of the
state. Our small towns have two per
fectly clear choices which it is well for
people to consider who own real estate
and operate businesses in them.
First, they may deliberately make up
their minds to develop their home towns
sary to move them over into the class
of census-size cities, as seventeen of
our little to-wns have done in the last
ten years.
Failing to do one or the other of these
two things, our little towns are in im
minent danger of droppjng into stagna
tion and disappearing from the map.
Elsewhere in this issue appears a
table ranking the counties of the state
from high to low according to the ratios
of population increase or decrease. This
will be followed in the next issue by
another table ranking the counties ac
cording to the ratios of open country
dwellers to total populations. It is a
significant table, because the more ru
ral a county is the surer it is to lose
population or to suffer a retarded in
crease; and folk depletion sooner or
later means folk degeneration and de
cay.
lead, and the pockets in the other group
of plates are packed with sponge lead.
The Chemistry of It
Now when the battery begins to dis
charge, as it does when you turn on an
electric light, or start your washing
machine or your vacuum cleaner, or
when the automatic pump on your
water system goes to work, what the
chemists call a chemical reaction begins
in the battery. This reaction turns the
lead oxide and the sponge lead into what
is called lead sulphate. As more and
more current is drawn from the battery,
more and more of this lead sulphate is
formed until we finally get the battery
into a discharged condition.
To re-charge the battery you start
your engine and send tbe current back
through the battery in the reverse di
rection. This changes the lead sulphate
back again .CO that when the charge is
complete you have just what you start
ed with, namely, lead oxide in the pock
ets of one group and sponge lead in the
pockets of the other group.
During the process of discharge the
weak solution of sulphuric acid is all
the time getting weaker because some
of the material out of which the lead
sulphate is formed is taken out of the
acid. When the battery is charged this
material goes back into the solution
which gets stronger until it also is in
just the same condition as it was at the
start.
The really importantjpoint, however,
is that the material in the pockets
changes back and forth from lead oxide
and sponge lead into lead sulphate.
Just how this affects the life of the bat
tery we shall see in our next letter. —
P. H. D.
BLEAK SCHOOL GROUNDS
Ugly school buildings and bleak school
grounds will be a thing of the past in
North Carolina if the bureau of exten
sion of the University of North Caro
lina has its way. The bureau has or
ganized a division of design and im
provement of school ^ grounds and has
set to work to help schools all over the
state make the most of their surround-
POPULATION INCREASES AND DECREASES
In North Carolina Counties, 1910-1920. Based on the 1910 and 1920 Censuses
Miss A. B. Pruitt
Rural Social Science Department, University of North Carolina
United States, increase 14.9 percent; North Carolina, increase 15.9 percent;
total increase in North Carolina 360,199.
Total
Pop. 1920
Rank County
mgs.
At the head of the division will be
Dr. W. C. Coker, Kenan professor of
botany at the University and director
of the university arboretum. Miss
Eleanor Hoffman will serve as secretary
and field worker.
Dr. Coker has had long experience in
landscape gardening. The present ar
boretum at the university, by all odds
the most beautiful section of the cam
pus, is a monument to his work. A few
years ago it was a swamp; now it is '
filled with rare trees and shrubs, taste- I g^
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
25
27
, 28
i 28
' 28
jSl
I 32
; 33
Percent
Increase
Forsyth 63.3
Gaston 38.3
Stanly 37.8
Guilford 31.0
Wilson 30.2
Lenoir 29.8
Transylvania 29.4
Buncombe .28.8
Cabarrus...) 28.5
Richmond 27.9
Harnett 27.7
Swain 27.1
New Hanover 26^8
Moore 25.7
. 25.4
.25.0
.23.9
.23.8
.22.2
.21.7
.21.2
fully arranged, an object lesson in what
can easily be done anywhere. The new
Presbyterian church grounds in Chapel
Hill are also partly his work. j
The division will issue a bulletin
which will contain more than twenty
designs of actual and imaginary school
grounds, together with photographs of
various illustrative plantings, such as
the university arboretum, private
grounds, mills, community houses; and
also plans of walks, arbors, and other
beautifying agencies. The text of the
bulletin will consist of suggestions as
to planting, description of trees, shrubs,
and flowers, all picked out for the various
climates and parts of the state.
Miss Hoffman, the field worker, will
be available, the bureau announces, for ,
trips to communities or schools that i
wish advice and suggestions for design. |
No charge will be made for her work
beyond the traveling expenses. The
bulletin will be sent to any one, upon
application to Dr. W. C. Coker, Chapel
Hill, N. C.—Lenoir Chambers.
Pitt
Yancey
Greene
McDowell....
Wayne
Nash
Catawba ....
Rockingham ,21.1
Mecklenburg 20.4
Sampson 20.1
Davidson 19.7
Durham 19.7
Clay 18-9
Duplin 18.8
Orange 18.8
Wake.. 18.8
Edgecombe 18.7
Johnston 18.3
Lee 17.8
Rowan 17.4
Vance 17-4
Martin 17.0
Cleveland 16.2
Halifax 16.2
Polk 15.6
Alamance.. 14.0
Craven 13.9
Jones 13.7
Henderson 12.2
Haywood 11.8
Anson 10.9
Rutherford 10.7
Iredell 10.6
Ashe 10.1
Bladen 9.7
Person 9.3
77,269
51,242
27,429
79.272
36,813
29,555
9,303
64.148
33,730
25,155
28,313
13,224
40,620
21,388
46,569
15.093
16,212
16,763
43,640
41,061
33,839
44.149
80,695
36,002
35,201
42,219
4,646
30,223
17,895
75,166
37,996
48,998
13,400
44,062
22,799
20,828
34.272
43,755
8,832
32,718
29,148
9,912
18,248
23,496
28,334
31,426
37,966
21,001
19,761
18,973
Rank County
Percent Total
Increase Pop. 1920
Surry , 9.3
Burke 8.8
Union 8.3
Franklin 8.0
Cherokee 7.8
Wilkes 7.8
Granville 6.9
Columbus 6.7
Yadkin 6.2
Caswell 6.1
Warren 6.0
Pasquotank 5.9
Macon 5.7
Dare 5.7
Hertford 5.4
Alexander 5.3
Robeson 5.3
Chatham 5.2
Randolph 4.6
Lincoln.. 4.3
Onslow 4.1
Bertie 4.1
Northampton 3.9
Washington 3.3
Brunswick .3.1
Jackson 3.1
'Graham 2.6
Stokes 2.1
Scotland 1.5
Davie 1.4
Gates 0.8
Perquimans 0.8
Percent
Decrease
Beaufort t
Madison 0.2
Watauga 0.6
Cumberland 0.6
Carteret 0.8
Montgomery 2.4
Caldwell 2.9
Pender 4.4
Alleghany 4.4
Camden 4.6
Hyde 5.1
Currituck 5.5
Chowan 5.8
Tyrrell.. 7.1
Pamlico 9.1
Mitchell 34.6
32,464
23,297
36,029
26,667
15,242
32,644
26,846
29,907
16,391
15,759
21,487
17,670
12,887
5,115
16,275
12,212
54,674
23,814
30,856
17,862
14,703
23,993
23,184
11,429
14,876
13,396
4,872
20,575
15,600
13,578
10,537
11,137
30,876
20,083
13,477
35,064
13,660
14,607
19,984
14,788
7,403
5,382
8,386
7,268
10,649
4,849
9,060
11,278
{Decrease of 1 inhabitant in ten years.
Avery, 1920 population 10,336; Hoke 11,722; these two counties were formed
in 1911 and are not in the 1910 census.
Mitchell, Watauga, Caldwell, and Cumberland all suffered population losses
because of losses in territory in 1910; and Robeson has a retarded increase for
for the same reason.