I
The news in this publi
cation is released for the
press on receipt.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
NEWS LETTER
Published Weekly by the
University of North Caro
lina for its Bureau of Ex
tension.
APRIL 6,1921
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
VOL. VH, NO. 20
saitorisl Boar* • B- O. Briuiaon, L. K. Witaon, B. W. Kniuht, D. D. Oarroll, J. B. Ballitt,
Entered as second-class matter UoTember 14,1914, at the Postoffice at Chapel HUl, N, C., under the act oi August 04,1913.
1 AM THE FARMER
1 am the provitJer for all mankind.
Upon me every human being constantly
depends.
A world itself is buildedupon my toil,
my products, my honesty.
Because of my industry, America, my
country, leads the world. Her prosperity
is maintained by me; her great com
merce is the work of my good hands;
her balance of trade springs from the
furrows of my farm.
My reaper brings food for today, my
plow holds promise for tomorrow.
In war I am absolute; in peace I am
indispensable— my country s constant
reliance and surest defense.
I am the very soul of America, the
hope of a race, the balance wheel of
civilization.
When I prosper, men are happy;
when I fail, all the world suffers.
I live with nature, walk in the green
fields under the golden sunlight, out in
the great alone where brain and brawn
and toil supply mankind’s primary need.
And I try to do my humble part to carry
out the great plan of God.
Even the birds are my companions;
they greet me with a symphony at the
new day’s dawn and chum with me till
the evening prayer is said.
If it were not for me the treasuries
of the earth would remain securely
locked; the granaries would be useless
frames; man himself would be doomed
speedily to extinction or decay.
Through me is produced the energy
that maintains the spark of life.
I rise with the early dawn and retire
when the chores of the world are done.
I am your true friend.
I am the farmer.-James P. McDon
nell.
the rest of the world as dependent up
on us but to the rest of the world as our
best market.
Yes, we are living unto ourselves
with a vengeance; and as a result we
have our wheat and our com and our
wool thrown back upon us with no mar
ket abroad.
Not only that, but foreign products
are invading our country, due solely to
the rate of exchange. When not only
Denmark but Australia and Argentina
begin to ship butter to America it is
high time to sit up and take notice.
When Central Europe is starving for
want of our surplus, which they cannot
buy because exchange is ten or twenty
to one against them, it is again time to
sit up and take notice.
Unless something is done speedily to
create a market for the surplus Ameri
can food and textile products, produc
tion will, of course, be forced down,
and that indefinitely. In the meantime
some thousands of farmers will be driv
en back upon their own resources.
The farmers can, of course, take care
of themselves if they mustj but if they
are forced back upon a self-sufficing
system it will be to the disadvantage
not only of themselves, but most of all
of the general public. If this condition
is to be prevented and if this enormous
surplus is to be handled on a foreign
market that does not exist, our states
men must act quickly and intelligently.
Their problem is exceptionally difficult
because of their long sleep.—The Coun
try Gentleman.
COOPERATION IN BEAUFORT
A NATIONAL CONCERN
The real concern in America over
the movement of rural population to
urban centers is whether or not
those who remain in agriculture af
ter the normal contribution to the
city are the strong, intelligent, well-
seasoned families, in which the best
traditions of agriculture and citizen
ship have been lodged from genera
tion to generation. The present un
iversal cry of • ‘keep the boy on the
farm” should be expanded into a
great public sentiment for making
country life more attractive in every
way. When farming is made profit
able and when the better things of
life are brought, in increasing
measure, to the rural community,
the great motives which lead youth
and middle age to leave the country
districts will be removed. In order
to assure a continuance of the best
strains of farm people in agriculture,
there can be no relaxation of the
present movements for a better
country life, economic, social, and
educational.—E. T. Meredith.
COUNTRY HOME CONVENIENCES
LETTER SERIES No. 47
FARM LIGHTING PLANTS—III
THE WORLD IS IN TROUBLE
During the last year a farmers’ ex
change in Beaufort County, N. C., saved
its members and the farmers in the
community between $75,006 and $100,-
000, according to a report to the United
States Department of Agricultpe.
The organization, formed to aid po
tato growers, has shown high profi
ciency in cooperation. Last season its
activities were confined to the purchas
ing of branded barrel covers and the
selling of potatoes. Thirty-five thous
and barrel covers were bought at a sav
ing of $700, and 126 carload lots of po
tatoes were sold with a saving of $50,-
000.
A great growth in cooperative mar
keting and purchasing has been one of
the outstanding results of extension
work in the South. County agents, as
sisted by marketing specialists, through
marketing demonstrations and by in
struction and advice, have aided local
and county associations of farmers in
the cooperative selling of many kinds
of farm produce and livestock, and in
the cooperative purchasing of a great
variety of farm necessities.
Farmers have gained knowledge of
methods and acquired confidence in
their ability to do business on a cooper
ative basis. They are beginning to un
dertake definite business organizations
on a county-wide and even state-wide
scale for the marketing of their mam
cash crops, such as cotton, tobacco, and
peanuts.
Owing to the cooperative work in cot
ton grading, classing, and stapling and
information given as to the market val
ue of the various grades and staples
by extension workers, it is estimated
that between $1,000,000 and $2,000,000
were saved to the cotton farmers of
Texas during the year in increased re
turns.
A cable has been received from John
H. Patterson, industrial leader and
president of the National Cash Register
Company, in which he urges America
to wake up to conditions in Europe be
fore it is too late. Mr. Patterson is in
Europe studying business conditions,
problems of capital and labor and for
eign exchange. He also attended sev
eral meetings of the League of Nations
at Geneva and spent some time investi
gating the work of the league. His
cable follows
The world’s business is in trouble.
Some nations cannot sell their surplus
of agricultural industries and minerals.
Other nations greatly need them. Plenty
of idle ships to carry them. Millions of
people out of employment.
Nations are still ^spending money for
war like drunken sailors. The world’s
business has no directing head. It needs
an association of nations whose object
is to do good to all the people, to stop
war and fight with brains, not with bul
lets, to stop bolshevism, to extend in
ternational credit, to prevent disease.
Civilization is at stake. Wake up,
America, before it is too late.—News
and Observer.
AMERICA FIRST
Even Congress has at last seemed to
wake up to a realization of the fact
that we have lost our European mar
kets. Europe must be composed with
the least delay possible in order to save
our foreign markets.
Our presidential campaign was con
ducted upon the principle of America
first, meaning that we should take care
of ourselves and let the rest of the
world\do the same. We have done it
with supreme indifference not only to
FARM COOPERATION
Thq farmers of Wisconsin own and
operate 2,000 cooperative producers
societies. They own 718 cheese fac
tories, 380 creameries, 437 telephone
companies, 214 insurance societies, 160
livestock shipping societies, 4 packing
plants, 2 laundries and 7 fruit ex
changes.
The farmers of Minnesota own and
operate 2,960 cooperative societies in
cluding 643 creameries, 360 elevators,
400 livestock shipping societies, 52 cheese
factories, 102 stores, 950 telephone com
panies, 69 fire insurance and 290 other
societies. They did a business in 1917
of $118,710,000.
The farmers of North Dakota, Ne
braska, Kansas, California, Washing
ton and other states have organized
thousands of other cooperative societies
and do a business running into the hun
dred millions ' annually. -Frederic C.
Howe, in The Survey.
operative enterprise in Russia: consum
ers’, producers’! savings or credit, and
insurance cooperative societies. The
local consumers’ societies are united in
to regional unions, some of which build
and conduct their own factories. The
regional unions unite into an All Russian
Central Union of Consumers’ Societies.
In 1918 its membership consisted of 500
federations, comprising 40,000 local so
cieties, and about 12,000,000 individual
members. The producers’ societies are
organized for the marketing of eggs,
butter, flax, hemp, etc. These local
societies are members of central bodies
organized -according to their general
specialties. Credit societies exist that
the farmers may have a place to de
posit their savings, or that they may
obtain credit to make improvements on
their homesteads. The various cooper
ative societies also make use of the
credit societies to carry on their busi
ness. These credit societies are also
organized on the regional union and cen
tral head plan. The Moscow People’s
Bank’is thus owned and controlled by
the unions and local societies. Cooper
ative insurance came into existence dur
ing the war, and has already been man
aged on a large scale by cooperative so
cieties.
The educational activities of the co
operatives include courses of instruction
to prepare young people to become in
structors, lecturers, book-keepers, etc.,
while the peasant universities teach
agriculture, home economic?, and civics.
The success of the Russian cooperatives
seems assured and permanent, since
even during 1918 over $5,000,000,000
(par) worth of goods were handled.
The movement is deeply rooted in the
history of the country, and is not hos
tile to any political system which will
simply leave it alone.—A. J. Zelenko,
in the Federal Monthly Labor Review,
June, 1920.
RELIABILITY
We have discussed in the last two is
sues the first cost and the attention re
quired for the operation of farm light
ing plants. Having settled these two
points we naturally turn to the question
of reliability and the advantages each
type of plant offers. Of course it is im
possible to give a detailedjdiscussion as
a book might easily be^writtenjon this
subject. Therefore we will attempt
only to give a few outstanding features.
If you went to a horse sale and were
picking out a horse, what is the first
thing you would do? Quite simple, isn’t
it? You would look at his mouth and
tell by an inspection of his teeth how
old he is. This will give^an indication
of the number of useful years of work
that can be expected of him, or in other
words his reliability. The same is true
in selecting a lighting plant. It does all
right while it is going but its life is
short.
On the score of reliability and assum
ing well-made apparatus properly cared
for, either the acetylene or electric
plant should insure an ample and un
failing supply of light at any time on
demand. Reliability of course depends
on well made apparatus. There are
both acetylene and electric plants offered
for sale that are cheap, trashy, and full
of trouble. Either‘system gives a good
light. The electric type has the advan-
RUSSIA’S COOPERATIVES
Russia is over twice as large as the
United States, with fully 93 percent of
its population rural and only 7 percent
urban. Due to the strenuous climate
and lack of means of transportation,
the people have lived in small commu
nities and the spirit of cooperation has
always been present.
There are four modern types of co-
LOOKING BACKWARD
I am not anxious to accelerate the
approach of the period when the great
mass of American labor shall not find
its employment in the field; when the
young' men of the country shall be
obliged to shut their eyes upon exter
nal nature, upon the heavens and the
earth, and immerse themselves in close
and unwholesome workshops; when
they shall he obliged to shut their ears
to the bleating of their own flocks up
on their own hills, and to the voice of
the lark that cheers them at their plows,
that they may open them in dust and
smoke and steam to the perpetual whirl
of spools and spindles, and the grating
of rasps and saws.—Daniel Webster.
are ample proof of this foundational be
lief.
Take Kansas, for instance—a state
that has in it almost exactly seventeen
hundred thousand white inhabitants,
which, by the way, is right around the
white population of North Carolina.
Her corn, wheat, and livestock farmers
are in distress just like our cotton and
and tobacco farmers; but that does not
seem to stay the march of college edu
cation in Kansas. Her legislature, now
in session, has just appropriated one
and a quarter million dollars to her Ag
ricultural College and another one and
a half million dollars to her University
for 1921.
The Kansas State University alone
gets a larger fund than the legislature
of North Carolina voted to the eleven
state institutions of learning all put to
gether. The University of Kansas has
a working income three times as large
as that of the University of North Car
olina. The Kansas Agricultural College
has a working income more than four
times as large as that of the A. and E.
College at Raleigh. -
The Kansas farmers may be in trou
ble, but they are not minded to cure
their troubles by stinting their Univer
sity or their Agricultural College. On
the contrary, they are greatly increas
ing their investment in these two insti
tutions.
North Carolina is making a great step
forward this year. The annual support
fund of her eleven institutions of liber
al culture and technical training has
been more than doubled; the rise has
))een from seven hundred thousand to
one million four hundred and thirty
thousand dollars a year. But we are
not yet in sight of Kansas nor any
other western state. We are headed
the right way, and we are moving fast
injcollege education, but we shall have
to quicken our gait immensely or be
hopelessly outstripped in the running.
These blarsted western Yankees believe
in college culture—no doubt about that.
We say we do ourselves. We have
said and sung this belief for the hun
dred years, and meanwhile we have
starved our colleges, church and state.
A pocket-book faith is a convincing
faith in anything, secular or religious.
What we spend our money fop tells the
tale far better than stump speeches and
songs about The Old North State.
tage in that lights can be controlled by
switches located at convenient places
and that different sized bulbs can be
used interchangeably with the same fix
ture.
One disadvantage of the acetylene
plant is that in cold weather the pipes
and generator if not properly protected
are apt to freeze and give trouble.
Uses
But the greatest advantage the
electric plant has to offer is in the va
riety of uses to which it can be put.
The acetylene plant is limited in its
uses to the production of light, the op
eration of an iron and to cooking. How
ever, cooking by acetylene usually in
volves an expense that the owner finds
too high. This is also true of the elec
tric plant. On the other hand the power
furnished by the small electric plant is
sufficient to operate chums, washing
machines, iron, pump, vacuum cleaners,
cream separator, milking machine, fan
and many other time and labor saving
devices conducive to comfort and hap
piness in the rural home. It would ap
pear that the electric plant does every
thing as well as the acetylene type and
many other things beyond the power of
acetylene.
The present and future requirements
of the home should determine in large
measure the selection of a suitable sys
tem.-W. C. W.
WESTERN COLLEGE SUPPORT
There is no doubt about the belief of
the people of the Middle and Far West
in college education. Their college
plants and their annual support funds
THOMAS WALTER BICKETT
In the matter of State building Thom
as Walter Bickett.^who retired from the
office of Chief Executive of North Caro
lina on January 12, has much marked
up to his credit which lays the state he
so splendidly served under tribute to
him and furnishes him memories of
things accomplished which will ever be
cause for happiness to him.
We will not attempt a catalogue of his
many activities. But we will remember
in the years to be that his voice rang
sincerely and clear for a finer state to
live in. He was a friend to the unfor
tunate and delinquent. He held it to be
his high privilege to break down the is
olation and cramping limitations of the
countryside. He carried the fight
against disease deep into enemy terri
tory. He underwrote a system of pro
fessional training for teachers and the
lengthening of public school term from
four to six months. And with a courage
and statesmanship rarely exhibited in
North Carolina political life he became
the flaming evangel of equality in tax
ation for every son and daughter of
North Carolina.
Two other things splendidly written
into his record are: His voice as our
representative beyond the borders of the
State was always heard with respect,
and the fact that his hand was at the
helm while the destinies of the State
were being tried by.the fires of the world
conflagration, gave assurance and hope.
As Thomas Walter Bickett takes up
anew the work of a private citizen, the
good wishes of The Review and Alma
Mater go with him. — The Alumni Re
view.
A TWO HUNDRED DOLLAR
PRIZE
A two hundred dollar scholarship has
been offered to rural school teachers by
Kenyon L. Butterfield, president of the
American Country Life Association,
Amherst, Massachusetts.
The prize goes to the rural school
teacher whose essay best describes an
effective elementary school taught by a
country school teacher. Effective means
adapted to the needs of American coun
try life, in curriculum, in community
enterprise, or in community relation
ships, in any one or in all these particu
lars.
The essay must be based on actual
personal experience of the writer, and
it may include practical plans for future
country school development. The con
test is limited to country school teachers
actually working in the country, and
the scholarship means two hundred dol
lars to the winner for further prepara
tion in rural school work in any normal
school or college.
The time limit for this essay is Au
gust 15, 1921. For detailed information
write to Dr. Kenyon L. Butterfield,
Amherst, Massachusetts.
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