The news in this publi
cation is released for the
press on receipt.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
NEWS LETTER
I Published Weeldy by the
University of North Caro
lina for its University Ex
tension Division.
JUNE 7, 1922
CHAPEL erui,, N. c
VOL. Vlil, NO. 29
Editorial Board . 3- 0. Bransoii, S. H. Hobbs, Jr., L. B, WUson, E. W. Knlet t, D. D. Carroll, J. B. Bullitt, H. W. Odum. Entered as second-, lass matter November at the Postoffice at Chapel Hill, N. C., under the act or August 24, IBIS.
OUR LIVESTOCK LEVEL
North Carolina has less than one-
third of tKe farm animals she ought to
have in order to be even a lightly stock
ed farm area. A lightly stocked farm
area, we may say, supports one animal-
unit on every five acres of land; and an
animal-unit is one work-animal or one
dairy cow, or two other cattle, five htigs
or ten pigs, or one hundred fowls—so
considered because they consume about
the same amount of feed as a work-
animal or a dairy.cow.
Livestock units and farm acreage
considered, we were on a 31 percent in
stead of a one hundred percent level
in 1920. Our livestock ought to be
trebled in number and greatly improved
in quality. It would take increases of this
sort to rank Nortli Carolina with Iowa
and Wisconsin as a livestock state.
The livestock ratios range from 21
percent in New Mexico to 91 percent in
Iowa. See the table elsewhere in this
issue.
- Forty-three states make a better live
stock showing than North Carolina, and
only four make a poorer showing.
Among the cotton-belt states that
outrank us are Louisiana, Arkansas,'
Oklahoma, Mississippi, Alabama, Geor
gia, Florida, and South Carolina—all of
them boll-weevil states.
The boll weevil is famous for revising
farm systems. We'd have starved in
Mississippi, said a Jackson banker in
1915, but for cattle and pigs, grain,
hay, and forage crops, truck farming,
and cooperative market associations.
Mississippi is still producing cotton—
813,000 bales last season; but Mississippi
farmers are now producing it on a
home-raised bread-and-meat basis—not
entirely so but in larger measure year
by year, and the state is more prosper
ous today than ever before in her entire
history.
Horses and mules are one-third of the
total animal-units of North Carolina;
meat and milk animals ~ beef cattle,
dairy cows, sheep, pigs, and poultry—
are barely two-thirds of the total. In
the number of work-animals we are far
above the average of the country-at-
iarge; but in meat and milk animals we
are far below it. In consequence im
ported beef, pork, mutton and poultry,
butter and eggs, cheese and condensed
milk and the like take millions of dol
lars out of the state every year.
Since 1860 we have doubled our corn
crop, but we have halved our produc
tion per inhabitant; and we have treb
led our wheat crop, but the mouths to
be filled have also trebled. Meantime
our cottdn crop has increased 2,000 per
cent and our tobacco crop 2,500 percent.
Which explains in a word why we had
fewer cattle other than milk cows in
1920 than we had seventy years ago,
fewer by 78,000; and fewer swine, few
er by 221,000; and fewer sheep, fewer
by 451,000. When compared with the
population to be fed in North Carolina
in 1920, the decreases are as follows:
milk cows, 60 percent decrease; other
cattle, 70 percent decrease; swine, 69
percent decrease; and sheep, 92 percent
decrease. Our meat and milk animals
are greatly improved in quality but
they are greatly decreased in number
as compared with oUr population in
1920.
Three Steps Up
Live-at-home farming in North Caro
lina means three things in an ascending
scale: (1) bread-and-meat production
sufficient to feed the farmer’s family
and the farm animals—at least in the
standard, staple farm and garden pro
ducts, (2) surpluses of these sufficient
to feed the 740 thousand town and city
dwellers of the state, and (3) still lar
ger surpluses for the markets of the
world-at-large.
1. Many or most of the land
owning farmers in the sixty counties
outside the cotton and tobacco belt of
North Carolina are already feeding the
farm family and the farm animals first.
They handle little money, but they live
well. Low prices for cotton and tobac
co have not bankrupted them. Not so
with the average farm owner and the
run of farm tenants in the eastern cot
ton and tobacco belt. Here hard times
have hurt land owning farmers, farm
tenants, and absentee landlords, be
cause they are cotton or tobacco farm
ers mainly or merely, and food farmers
incidentally or accidentally—or so as a
rule.
And their distress is shared by the
merchants and bankers. For two years
now the towns and the countryside of
Eastern Carolina have faced bankruptcy
together. But the boll weevil will change
this system of farming—just as certain
ly in this state as in the states south of
us.
The Local MarKet Problem
2. As for producing ample surpluses
of bread and meat for the nearby town
dwellers, our farmers will never do it
under present conditions. Peddling food
products from door to door is piddling
business and the stomach of robust
farmers rebels at it. Our towns and cities
must provide local market arrange
ments, conveniences, and facilities for
home-raised food products, just as for
cotton and tobacco. The local market
for home-raised food and feed products
means regional stockyards, shipping
facilities and advantageous freight
rates; abattoirs, chilling and packing
plants; warehouses, warehouse certifi
cates, and bank loans on these -certifi
cates; open-air curb markets, and well
managed free public market houses in
the larger cities; camping yards and
sheds, rest-rooms, and so on and on.
But even more it means the marketing
habit on part of housewives and mer
chants, along with fair prices and prof
its for the farmers. It means town-
and-country cooperation, and the lack
of such cooperation spells inevitable
failure. ^
Unless farmers are willing to take
the first step up, and unless farmers
and local city consumers can together
take the second step up, the state will
continue to send around 200 million dol
lars out of its borders year by year for
food products we ought to raise at home.
The bills for imported food and feed in
1920 will be given county by county in
an early issue of the University News
Letter.
3. The first two steps taken, the third
is easy. But easy or not, we’ll take all
these steps up when the boll weevil gets
busy in North Carolina. Boll-weevil
logic is dynamite logic. In countryside
Georgia, Hobson’s choice is “Pro
duce what you consume on the farms
or starve, ” and in Georgia cities it is
“Encourage and reward farmers in di
versified farming or go into bank
ruptcy.”
Crop Farmers Mainly
The table of livestock levels shows
that on the whole we are crop-farmers
mainly or merely and that meat and
milk animals are an incident or an acci
dent; so (1) because cotton and tobac
co mean ready cash—enormous ready
cash in good years, (2) because more
than two-fifths of our farmers are ten
ants, croppers for the most part, and
southern tenant farmers sis a rule lack
the disposition or the opportunity to
own or to care for meat and milk ani
mals, and (3) because under present
conditions there is too little money in
food crops, livestock, and livestock pro
ducts.
Cash-crop farming based on tenancy
and supported by supply-merchant cred
it is a success in wealth production, but
it fails in wealth retention. The farm
ers produce it and somebody else gets
it. North Carolina produces it and the
Middle West gets it. Our farmers will
never be self-financing until they are
self-feeding.
The Way Up and Out
1. A few food animals on every farm;
(1) at least one milk cow, two hogs,
and fifty laying hens, (2) along with
food and feed crops sufficient to sup
port the farm family and the farm ani
mals, and (3) uniform refusal by Caro
lina banks to discount crop-lien paper
that does not specify these details of
self-support. Note this last condition.
The banks of the state could, if they
would, force the supply-merchants to
force the farmers to feed themselves,
and thereby save millions of cotton and
tobacco dollars in this state every year.
2. Effective attention by city cham
bers of commerce to the local market
food problem, to the specific end of
bringing city consumers and local food
producers together, and rewarding the
farmers with more money for their pro
ducts, and city consumers with more-
products for their money.
Released week beginning June 5
KNOW NORTH CAROLINA
In the Sandhills
The great asset of the Sandhills
is the climate. This permits,a wide
variety of farming, and particularly
the production of peaches, of w’hich
in quality the Sandhill country ex
cels probably any other area on earth,
while in quantity the output is al
ready large and growing so fast that
1922 will see 1,500 carloads sent to
market. The peach orchard is an
opportunity in the Sandhills. So is
the tobacco farm, for the Sandhills
bright leaf brings a ppremium. Cot
ton, grain and general farming re
spond to the stimulation of the cli
mate and the light soil, while pro
duce and poultry bring the farmer
much money from the winter resort
towns of the region.
But it is the winter visitor and
winter home-maker of the Sandhills
that gives the greatest activity to
this section of the state. Pinehurst,
Southern Pines, Knollwood, Lake-
view and other resort-towns are the
product of the climate, and it is like
ly .that in a few years the area em
braced in the boyndaries of these
villages will widen into one b'ig com
munity of perhaps more people than
in any other single community of
the state. Pinehurst is already the
foremost golf center of the United
States, and thousands of people are
attracted to the Sandhills in the win
ter from all the states, and even
from abroad. This is developing a
busy activity in all the lines that go
to make up a populous center.
The opportunities found in such a
.place are the opportunities found in
every center of many people. Skilled
workers, professional and busi
ness men, clerks and superinten
dents, farmers, orchard and live
stock men, almost every occupation,
is called on for help in the Sandhills.
Opportunities for the individual who
will build for himself a business are
on all sides, depending largely on
the man himself, for where there
are thousands of people as in the
Sandhills, and a large proportion of
them peo))le of means, money awaits
production or service in practically
every line. It is a reasonable guess
that a few years will see in the Sand
hills a permanent population of prob
ably 50,000. The building of such a
community, the expansion of
farms and orchards, and the sundry
functions that go with all these tell
plainly enough of opportunity.
Opportunity in the Sandhills is
limited exactly by the ability of the
man looking for the opportunity.—
Bion H. Butler.
It is a hard problem; but the solution
of it is not impossible. The lack of
such attention to local food production
costs Mecklenburg $9,866,000 a year,
Forsyth$9,293,000, and Guilford $9,255,-
000—or so it was in 1920. The bill for
imported food supplies in these three
counties in 1920 was nearly thirty mil
lion dollars. And these thirty millions
went out of these counties for standard,
staple farm and garden products; not
for extras, dainties, and luxuries, but
for beef, pork, mutton, poultry, butter
and eggs, grain, hay and forage, that
their farmers could have produced at
home—and didn’t produce because un
der present conditions there is little or
nothing in it for food-producing farmers
with surpluses for sale. And nobody
knows it any better than the farmers.
Poor City Finance
Think of it—in seventy-five years,
Charlotte, Winston-Salem, and Greens
boro have managed to accumulate bank
capital, surpluses and undivided profits
amounting to thirteen million dollars
all told, and in a single year thirty mil
lions go out of Mecklenburg, Forsyth,
and Guilford for imported food sup
plies.
If these three counties were self
feeding, th% banking capital of their
capital cities could be doubled and their
business in loans and discounts twenty
times multiplied in a single year.
The local market for home-raised food
and feed supplies is the biggest eco
nomic problem that our growing cities
have to solve. And the commercial
club secretary who is not working at
town-and-country interdependencies and
mutual prosperity has not even begun
to learn the abe’s of his job.
He serves his city’s business best who
best serves the farmers in the trade
territory. .
GOOD WORK IN IREDELL
Here are the results of the school
and farm home demonstration
officials in Iredell county, N. C., during
the school year 1921-22. Has your coun
ty done better? If so send us the f^cts.
We want to advertise your county also.
231 debates in the school for the year.
931 children debated in the school*? of
the county.
58 schools observed Clean-up-Day.
613 homes observed Clean-up-Day.
$3646.86 was raised in the schools for
all purposes.
52 schools had school or community
libraries.
$270.75 was raised'to purchase books.
$62.98 was raised to purchase pictures.
45 traveling libraries were received
in the county.
Iredell county leads the state in the
number of traveling libraries used.
41 schools oiled the floors and used 438
gallons of oil.
8 schools bought maps or globes.
20 schools bought shades.
12 schools painted the outside or in
side of school house.
25 schools bought curtains.
608 desks bought in the schools.
1330 square feet of blackboard pur
chased.
47 teachers encouraged children to
drink more milk.
$2077.10, amountof labor given by the
patrons of the schools in improving
schools and grounds.
157 entertainments have been given
in the schools.
36 teachers announced their intention
of having a commencement.
33 teachers encouraged athletics.
43 teachers had physical culture exer
cises in their schools.
19 teachers observed “Better Schools
for Iredell County Day.”
167 people read “Better Rural
Schools” through the influence of the
teachers.
9233 books read in the schools of the
county by the children.
320 school children have savings ac
counts.
47 electric light plants have been in
stalled in the school communities.
29 acetylene gas plants have been in
stalled in community homes. —Miss
Celeste Henckel, Home Demonstrator.
THE RURAL MINISTRY
Here and there in Indiana is to be
found a young man with a big vision
of the future of country life, who has
consecrated his own life' to the cause
of his country church, and considers
this field to be more worth his effort
than any other. Two such have come
to our notice recently and have been
mentioned in these columns. They are
Rev. Chas'. Shake, of Vanderburg coun
ty, and Rev. J. C. Stamm, of Crawford
county, Indiana. There are doubtless
a few others to be found in the state.
We do not include here young minis
ters who are merely making their start
in rural pastorates, expecting to' use
that as a stepping stoie to a better pul
pit in some city parish, .but young: men •
who have accepted the rural field for a
life work and are making an earnest
study of all the peculiar needs of coun
try folk and laying foundations for a
broad program of rural uplift that in
cludes every phase of country' life.
These two men are not merely preachers;
they are ministers in the fullest sense
of -the term.
Their work includes much that ordi
narily fails to the lot of the county a-
gent and the county superintendent of
schools. But they are in a p'sition to
do much that these two cannot touch.
And with these services we believe lies
the complete program of rural activity
that is going to make over our communi
ty life.
The man who comes to your church
once a week, or even once a month to
preach, can do something for his peo
ple. But the man who moves in and
lives with you, gives his time to organ
izing social activities along wholesome
lines, to setting up recreational, musi
cal, literary, and other organizations;
who studies your children and helps you
fit them into a useful place in the com
munity, this man can do wonders, and
will.
Where such, a rural minister is found
working in harmony with the county a-
gent and the school superintendent,
there we find a new conception of life
beginning to make itself felt. Such a
community is to be called blessed. And
such a young man is to be respected and
revered. —Indiana Farmers Guide.
MUSIC AT THE UNIVERSITY
The students and faculty at the Uni
versity are anxious to build up next
year a band and an orchestra that will
represent the best musical talent in the
State. In order that these groups may
be organized promptly at the beginning
of the fall term, it is requested that in
formation about men of ability along
these lines be sent to Mr. Paul J. Wea
ver, Chapel Hill. If you know any men
who will be at the University next
year, please send Mr. Weaver their
names and a statement of what they do
musically.
The University will offer next year
private instruc^tion in voice, piano, and
practically all of the band and orches
tral instruments.
LIVESTOCK LEVELS IN THE U. S.
Based on the 1920 Census
States ranked from high to low, in percents of a lightly stocked farm area.
A lightly stocked farm area supports one animal-unit on every five acres of land
in farms. An animal-unit is one work-animal or one dairy cow, or two other
cattle, five hogs or ten pigs, or 100 poultry—so considered because they consume
about the same amount of feed.
Average for the United States 44 percent; for North Carolina 31 percent.
Rank of North Carolina 44th; only four states make a poorer showing, numbers
alone considered.
Livestock levels in North Carolina counties, next issue.
L. D. Summey, Gaston County ,
Department Rural Social Economics, University of North Carolina
Rank
State
Percent
Rank
State
Percent
1
Iowa
91
24
Florida
49
2
Wisconsin
89
24
Tennessee
49
3
Illinois
71
27
Kentucky
45
4
New York.
69
28
Nebraska
43
4
Ohio
69
29
Oklahoma
42
6
New Jersey
66
30
Alabama
41
6
Pennsylvania
66
30
California
41
8
Indiana
65
30
Washington
41
9
Nevada
,. 63
33
Kansas
39
10
Michigan
62
33
Maine
39
10
Vermont
62
33
New Hampshire
39
12
Rhode Island
61
33
Oregon
39
13
Connecticut
59
33
South Dakota
....... 39
14
Idaho
58
38
South Carolina
38
14
Massachussetts
58
39
West Virginia
37
14
Missouri
58
40
Georgia
36
17
Minnesota
56
40
Virginia
36
17
Utah
66
42
Colorado
34
19
Arizona
65
43
Wyoming
33
20
Louisiana
64
44
North Carolina
31
21
Maryland
53
45
Texas
29
22
Delaware
62
46
North Dakota .. ,
27
23
Mississippi
50
47
Montana
22
24
Arkansas
49
48
New Mexico
21