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 Press for the Univer
sity Extension Division.
AUGUST 29, 1923
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
VOL. IX, NO. 41
Editorial a E. 0. B-aaso.i. S. H. Hobbs, Jr., L. R. Wilson, E. W. Knijfbt, D. D. Cirroll, J. B.Bullitt. H. W. Odum.
Entered as second-class matter November 14,1914, at thePostofficeat Chapel Hill, N. C., under the act of August 24, 1918
VIII-THE BLACK FOREST FARMERS
[ For 'ten days or so I have been ex
ploring the Black Forest of what was
once the Grand Duchy of Baden. And
what I have been seedng is-the farjn
and forest life of a unique people.
There are other Black Forest regions in
South Germany, but what I came_to
study in particular is the Black Forest
that Auerbach’s stories made vivid to
me in my boyhood days. To be sure the
geese and the goose girls are gone.
Goose Girl Elizabeth is no more except
in the remote spots of this mountain
region, and the regional dress of the
men has disappeared except on festal
occasions; but the women folk are still
garbed in the quaint costumes of the
long ago days. The form-fitting cor
sets and the fantastic fashions of Vogue
are unknown in the Black Forest. Or
what is more likely, the young girls are
more interested in the ancestral chests
of family finery. These 'treasures of
dress are too rich to abandon and too
charming to discard. And so, from gen
eration to generation, they proudly
wear the costumes of their particular
valley and village. Some characteristic
variation of headgear or shawl or apron
advertises the family wealth and rank
of the wearer, but rich or poor these
Black Forest people are manifestly sat
isfied with their land and their lot in
life.
BlacK Forest Styles
There is no end of homespun Black
Forest styles, but the one common detail
of feminine fashion is the broad, black
hat ribbons. The number, the length, |
and the richness of the silk of .these
ribbons tells the story of family impor- j
tance. But the last word about this'
matter is proclaimed by the silk, satin,
brocade frocks, and the hand-wrought
gold or silver triangles set into the odd
little bonnets perched on the topknots ^
of hair. Last Sunday was Fronleich-
nam day, the day of our Lord's Body,
the greatest day of the year in the Cath
olic. calendar of this region. Freiburg
is the open gateway into the Black For
est country and the Black Forest peo
ple were a large part of the great
crowd. I moved into the minster be
hind a Black Forest grandmother, and
a seat ju5t^across the aisle gave me a
rare chance to study her handmade and
perhaps homemade brogan shoes, the
common footwear of the Black Forest
women young and old, her rich silk
frock and figured silk apron, the moire
silk ribbons seven in number streaming
over her back and shoulders to the
ground, and the elaborately wrought
triangle of gold set into her little bon
net-all of them treasures of household
wealth inherited from her grandmother,
to be worn in turn by her own children
and children’s children to the last gen
eration.
What They Symbolize
These Black Forest costumes aTe
quaint and captivating, and I am send
ing photographs of them to the seminar
library of Rural Social Economics at the
University, not because they charm the
eye but because they keep one’s mind
busy puzzling at the civilization they
symbolize—a farm civilization prosper
ous, satisfying, arid free from the rest
less discontent that is progressively de
populating the country regions of
America—a civilization of home-own
ing farmers and foresters with a well
developed social life of their own—a
civilization as innocently unaware of it
self as a child is, with no uneasy sense
of inferiority, no rebellious front to the
outside world, no organization against
imposition, and no look beyond their
own industry and thrift for better mar
ket prices and credit accommodations.
B^ack Forest Homes
Along with other photographs, and
for the same reason, I am sending pic
tures o^ the Black Forest homes—not
the water colors and paintings that fill
the artshops but well selected post
cards. Many of these farm houses are
two hundred years old, some are even
older, but all of them look good for
another century or two. The new houses
follow the plans pf the old, because
they as perfectly fit the farm condi
tions of this region as a turtle-shell
fits a turtle’s mode of life. They are
larger than the houses of thejlow-
lands of South Germany, so because the
Black Forest people are livestock farm
ers with more domestic animals to
shelter than the Wurtemberg farmers
need in the cultivation of small patches
of grapes, fruits, and vegetables. Like
the peasant farmers of all Europe they
live with their animals under the same
roof. Occasionally a Black Forest farm
house is as large and as many storeys
high as the Saunders building at the Uni
versity of North Carolina; which means
that the owner is rich, with more cat
tle, sheep, and pigs than his neighbors
possess. And th^y are self-sufficing
livestock farmers who learned long ago
that livestock cannot be profitably pro
duced on bought feeds. Or so they
profoundly believe. The grain, hay,
and forage and almost everything else
they need they produce on their own
farms, and the Black Forest farmer
who spent money for what, he could
produce at home would be run into the
nearest insane asylum by his own wife
and children. It is John D. Rockefel
ler’s secret in the Standard Oil busi
ness, and the economists appear satis
fied that Mr. Rockefeller is not fooled
by comparative advantage as an eco
nomic doctrine.
In the earlier days the Black Forest
farm house was built against a moun
tain slope with a southern exposure.
A roadway and bridge lead into the. at
tic storey. Here the hay and forage are
packed for use during the long winters
of this latitude, and dropped through
chutes to the cattle on the floors below.
The mountain-side end of the house is
devoted to the farm animals, farm wag
ons, tools and utensils, farm feed and the
like. The other end of the house is oc
cupied by the farm family. The upper
storeys are frequently reached by out
side stairways, leading up to one or
more long balconies, protected from the
weather by a steep roof with eaves
four or five feet wide all the wa^ around.
These eaves shelter the winter supply of
firewood, the manure pile, the beehives,
the poultry house, the pig pen, the wash
pot, and other accessories of open-air
housewifery. The big kitchen is on the
first floor alongside the wagon and tool
room. Sometimes it is next to the cat
tle quarters. Connecting doors make it
convenient to care for the farm animals
without exposure in all seasons and
weathers. The bedrooms are all the
space that happens to be left of the
storeys above. The kitchen is the cook-
room, dining room, laundry room, living
room, and general reception room of
the family, and centuries devoted to
fashioning homely devices, comforts,
and conveniences have made this room
the wonder of housewives and the de
spair of artists in every land. It was into
simple homes of this sort that Bismarck
and von Moltke retreated from time to
time when sick of folks and the deadly
routine of official life.
Their Arts and Crafts
Like all the rest of South Germany,
the Black Forest is thickly set with
farm villages, one or more in every
cove, a quick succession of them in
such valleys as the Hoellen, and in the
ampler open spaces between the gently
rounded mountain crests. We traveled
the other day from Baden-Baden up
the Murg valley for an hour in a motor
car looking down into the hillside and
river-bottoni pasture lands without
seeing a single farm house, when sud
denly we rode into a typical farm vil
lage at the head of the valley, followed
by another and many others on the
ridge and in the valleys- along the re
maining forty miles to Freudenstadt.
So it is all over the Black Forest. These
farmers are What we call covedwellers
in Western North Carolina, but they do
not live in solitary farmsteads, they
live in farm communities that develop
social'virtues and graces, and that also
offer a background for remunerative
household arts and crafts like wood
carving and weaving, and for family
factories turning out artistic pottery,
clocks and the like. The display of
Black Forest art products in the shop
windows of Freiburg is one of the
charms of that lovely little' city,
BlacK Forest Scenery
And now a word about the land these
picturesque people live in. The Black
HARDING’S CREED
Remember there are two sides
to every question. Get both.
Be truthful.
Get the facts. Mistakes are in
evitable, but strive for accuracy. I
would rather have one story exactly
right than a hundred half wrong.
Be decent. Be fair. Be generous.
Boost—don't knock. There’s
good in everybody. Bring out' the
good in everybody, and never need
lessly hurt the feelings of anybody.
In reporting a political gather
ing, get the facts; tell the story as
it is, not as you would like to have it.
Treat all parties alike. If there
is any politics to be played, we will
play it in our editorial columns.
Treat all religious matter rever
ently.
If it can possibly be avoided,
never bring ignominy to an innocent
woman or child in telling of the
misdeeds or misfortune of a relative.
Don’t wait to be asked, but do it
without the asking.
And, above all, be clean. Never
let a dirty word or suggestive story
get into type.
I want this paper so conducted
that it can go into any home without
destroying the innocence of any
child. — The Newspaper Creed of
President Harding posted in the of
fices of the Marion Star.
Forest of Baden is a mountain area a
hundred miles long north to south and
fourteen to forty miles wide east to west.
It reaches to Switzerland on the south,
and the Rhine plain separates it from
France on the west. Its distinctive
name is due to the forests that cover
something like half its mountain side
and ridges and even more to the abun
dance of thick-set c’one-bearing trees
that admit no sunlight into their
depths. The darkness of night is in
the heart of these hemlock woods in
the day time. They are Black Forests,
so called by the early Germans who
peopled these ghastly shadows and un
canny silences with gnomes and elves
and skrats. These fanciful folk have
vanished, but the name remains and
no fitter name could be invented.
Likenesses and Contrasts
It is a mountain region just about
the size of Western North Carolina be
tween Buncombe county and the Geor
gia-South Carolina line. And very
like it in scenery. It has gorges as
wild as that of The French Broad from
Asheville to Wolf creek, valleys as
wide and smooth and green as the Little
Pigeon river country in Haywood coun
ty, and views that call to mind
our own Unaka mountains; but no
where have I found such scenery as
Blowing Rock or Chimney Rock affords,
not even from the top of Feldberg
which is the most famous view point in
all the Black Forest. Like our Land of
the Sky it is a well watered country.
Rich verdure covers all its gorges, val
leys, slopes and crests. It has a lower
altitude but a higher latitude, which
explains the abundance and variety of
the spruces, firs, and hemlocks we see
in black masses set in the lightA- greens
of the hardwood trees. Many of these
cone bearers are new to me and their
beauty sweeps me off my feet. I miss
the grand virgin trees and the majestic
granite headlands or balds of our moun
tains at home. But also I miss the
disfiguring scars of vast areas devast
ated by timber butchers, forest fires,
and mountain floods.
Forest Protection
The explanation is simple. For some
thing like a hundred years no landowner
anywhere in Germany has been allowed
td cut down a tree even on his own estate
without planting another in its place.
Most of the Black Forest is state prop
erty, and it is carefully patrolled, care
fully trimmed and tonsured, carefully
cut and re-planted, and carefully ad
ministered by a little army of state
foresters of varying grade and rank.
No tree looks neglected. The Black
Forest is as trim as the fields of
the Black Forest farmers. Forestry
has been a learned profession in Ger
many these hundred years or more, and
around 260,000 people are busy every
day preserving her forest lands. Ger
many is never likely to go the way of
Asia Minor, Greec^, Italy, and Spain-
all of them blasted by the savage
destruction of their timber areas long
years ago.
We have had warnings without num
ber in North Carolina, but we are slow
to heed- them.—E. C. Branson,
Freiburg, June 2, 1923.
ASSEMBLING RECORDS
The University Library is interested
in completing back files of North Caro
lina periodicals, documents, reports,
proceedings of societies, etc., for the
North Carolina Collection. Some of
the files of proceedings and reports of
societies and associations to be com
pleted are listed below. The Librarian
will be glad to hear of available issues
of these publications.
Reports Needed
American Cotton Manufacturers’ As
sociation Proceedings. Any years.
Bankers’ Association of N. C. Pro
ceedings. Issues for 1901-1907, 1911,
1920.
Colonial Dames of America (N. C.
Chapter) Minutes. Issues for 1893-1897-
1899-1906, 1909, 1911-1920.
Cotton Mannfacturera’ Association of
N. C. Proceedings. Issues for 1906-
19l5.
Masons (Grand Lodge of N. C.) Pro
ceedings. Any years.
N. C. Audubon Society Report. Issue
for 1910. ^
N. C. Building and Loan Associations,
League of. Reports. Any before 1912.
N. C. Association of City School
Principals. Issue of 1909-10.
N. C. Dental Association. 1906-1913,
1920-date
N. C. Equal Suffrage League. Issue
for 1916.
N. C. Federation of Women’s Clubs
Year Book. Issues for 1904-6, 1916-17.
N. C. Pharmaceutical Association.
Issues for 1886, 1909.
N. C. Press Association. All issues
before 1881, and issues for 1884, 1886,
1889, 1890, 1893, 1897, 1904, 1911, 1918.
N. 0. State Grange of Patrons of
of Husbandry. Any issues.
N. C. Tuberulosis Association. Any
issues.
Odd Fellows Proceedings. Any
issues.
Rebekah State Assembly. Any issues
before 1913.
Teachers’ Assembly. Issues for 1885,
1886, 1888-1907.
Pen and Plate Club of Asheville Pro
ceedings. Any issues except 1906.
Tri-State Medical Association Trans
actions. Issues for 1900, 1901, 1902,
1903, 1904.
United Daughters of the Confederacy
Minutes. Issues for 1897, 1898, 1901,
1906-13.
OUR CHEMICAL INDUSTRY
Cottonseed Oil Products
In these days of chemical achieve
ment,'we must not overlook what the
chemist has done for the South in add
ing to its wealth by converting former
undesirable waste material into many
valuable products. The conversion of
the cottonseed into many valuable oils,
soaps, and'foods constitutes anindustry
in North Carolina almost on a par with
her cotton milling.
From the time the Mississippi laws in
1867 provided a fine for throwing cot
tonseed into drinking and fishing water
courses, the chemists have been study
ing the utilization of the undesirable
cottonseed. From time to time new
uses have been added, and to date the
chief demands for cottonseed products
are: the oil used as a food in the form
of Orisco, Wesson Oil, oleo, etc., when
refined; the crude oil for paints and
soap; the seed cake for fertilizer and
dairy food; and the linters for nitrocel
lulose production:
Processes of Manufacture
From the seed as dropped from the
gin to the marketable products is a far
cry. First, the seed from the cotton gin
must be de-lintered, and the seeds then
chipped up fine. The hulls are next
separated from the meats by passing
them through a series of screens and
reels. The former are mixed with oil
cake to make a cattle food. The meats
are digested with water to break up
the oil cells and then dried carefully to
get rid of the water. The mass of
dried meats is then placed in huge
hydraulic presses, which express the
liquid from the meal. The oil cake is
marketed as a cattle food or sold to the
fertilizer factories to mix with other
substances so as to produce a proper
fertilizer.
The crude oil is dark in color and
unfit to use as such for most purposes.
The oil is shipped to refineries or refined
in the plant itself. The refining pro
cess consists of heating and agitating
the oil in tanks with a caustic soda-oil
mixture, which settles and drags out
the coloring matter from the oil. The
light yellow oil resulting is pumped off
and more of the soap permitted to settle
out. The foots which settle to the bot
tom are drawn off and used for soap
stock. The yellow oil is then mixed
with fuller’s earth, agitated and filter
pressed to obtain an almost colorless
oil which can be used as it is for table
use, or can be chilled to get out some of
the less soluble substances and produce
a very fine grade of winter oil. If
other products are desired, special chem
ical treatment must be accorded the oil
to produce such substances as Crisco,
vegetable shortening, salad oils, oleo
margarine, etc. From the nature of the
refining operations it is seen that the
cottonseed industry is entirely a chem
ical one, its past accomplishments and
its future success depending upon men
skilled in and understanding the va
garies of chemistry.
A Big Business
There are at present forty-six plants
entailing an investment of over $12,-
000,000, a plant valuation of $28,000,000,
and a yearly output of $133,600,000,
or more than the farmers of the state
receive for the entire cotton crop in
cluding the seed! The 2,360 employees
draw salaries aggregating $1,666,000 a
year.
The first cottonseed products plants
were incorporated in 1889 by the South
ern Cotton Oil Company at Wadesboro
and Gastonia, and by theNewBern Cot
ton Oil Company at New Bern. The pro
gress of the industry is indicated in the
following summary: In 1900 there were
four such plants; in 1910, twenty-two;
in 1918 forty; and in 1922, forty-six.
The largest single corporation, is the
Southern Cotton Oil Company with
plants scattered through the eastern
section. The only plant making the
vegetable cooking and other highly re
fined products is the Swift Company at
Charlotte.—F. C. Vilbrandt, Professor
of Industrial Chemistry, University of
North Carolina.
UNIVERSITY EXTENSION
Due to to the heavy demand by the
people of the state for the extension
service of the State University at
Chapel Hill, Mr. George B. Zehmer
has just been added to the staff of the
University Extension Division as asso
ciate director and head of the depart
ment of extension teaching.
Mr. Zehmer is a graduate of William
and Mary College and has a master’s
degree in education from Columbia
University, New York City. For four
years he was county superintendent of
schools of Dinwiddle county, Virginia.
When selected for the important post
in North Carolina, he was associate
professor of education at the College of
William and Mary, and assistant direc
tor of extension work.
In the University Extension Division,
as head of the department of ex
tension teaching, Mr. Zehmer will
supervise the work of the follow
ing bureaus: Correspondence and class
instruction, short courses and insti
tutes, lectures, and public discussion.
Miss Mary Cobb, Phi Beta Kappa
graduate of the University, is secretary
of the bureau of correspondence and
class instruction, and has as assistants
Miss Elsie Lewis and Miss Mary
Dantel. Professor H. D. Meyer is chief
of the bureau of short courses and in
stitutes. George V. Denny will have
charge of the lecture bureau this fall.
Miss Nellie Roberson, another honor
graduate of the University, is head of
the bureau of public discussion. The
services of this bureau include: pro
grams for women’s clubs and parent-
teacher associations, package library
loans, home reading courses, and gen
eral information. Miss Adeline Den
ham, the assistant in this bureau, is
also a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the
University.