The news in this pubii-
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 the University Ex
tension Division.
FEBRUARY 16, 1927
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
the university of north CAROLINA PRESS
VOL. XIII, No. 14
Editorial Hoard: E. C. Branson, S. H. Hobbs, Jr., L. R, Wilson, E. W. Knight, D. D. Carroll, J. B. Bullitt, H. W. Odum.
Entered as second-class matter November 14, 1914, at the Postofiice at ChapeJ Hill, N. C., under the act of August 24, 1912.
HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES
The table which appears elsewhere
shows how the counties of North Caro
lina rank in white public high school
graduates per ten thousand white popu-
tion. The data are for the year 1926.
It will be seen from the table that
Pamlico ranks first with a rate of just
above one hundred and seventeen white
high school graduates per ten thousand
white population. Her graduates for
the school year closing in 1926 numbered
sixty-eight. Caswell ranks last with
only twelve graduates, and her rate is
thirteen graduates per ten thousand
white population.
The state total of white public high
school graduates last year was 9,166,
giving a state average rate of forty-
seven graduates per ten thousand white
inhabitants.
Boys versus Girls
A fact worthy of note is that girls
graduating from high school outnum
bered boys two to one. Of the total
graduates 3,381 were boys and 6,785
were girls. The girls graduating from
high school outnumbered the boys in
every county in the state except two.
In both exceptions the total number of
graduates was small. In many cases
the girls outnumbered the boys more
than three to one. In only a small num
ber of counties did the number of male
graduates practically equal the number
of female graduates; From choice or j
necessity the boys in great numbers j
drop out of high school to work. There j
does not seem to be any distinction j
that can be drawn in this tendency |
between urban and rural counties.
East versus West
The geographic distribution of white
high school graduates is r.ather inter
esting. If the table be divided into four
approximately equal groups, two above
and two below the state average, the
following are some of the results that
will be apparent.
First, that almost all of the counties
falling in the first group are in the
Coastal Plains region. There are two
groups of these high-ranking counties,
namely, the northeast Tidewater group
and another centering around the Sand
Hills. Perhaps the main explanation is
the presence of Chowan College in the
first group, and Flora McDonald in the
second. Only four counties of the first
group lie in the western half of the
state, or Piedmont area.
The counties falling in the second
group lie mainly in the southern half of
the Piedmont country, and around the
edge of the combination cotton and
tobacco belt
Below State Average
The counties falling below the state
average of forty-seven white high
school gra.iuatfes per ten thousand white
population lie in two distinct arenas,
namely, the combination cotton and
tobacco belt centering around Wilson,
and the tier of counties along the Vir
ginia and Tennessee border stretching
all the way from Person to Cherokee. In
other words, this group includes all of
the nortnern Piedmont counties except
three, Guilford, Alamance, and Orange,
and all of the counties west of the
Blue Ridge except Buncombe.
The explanation for the rank of this
last chain of counties stretching from
Person to Cherokee is not hard to find.
They are all excessively rural and pos
sess relatively little wealth. Further
more, they have only recently caught
the education fever.
But the low rank of the combination
cotton and tobacco group of counties is
harder to understand. Only one county
in this group, Wayne, has a high rank.
This group of counties leads the United
States in the production of crop wealth
annually. But it ranks low in white
high school graduates. Lying around
its outer fringe we find this area
completely circled by counties that
produce far less wealth but comprise
practically all of the counties that fall
in the first division in high school grad
uates. Perhaps the main answer for
the low rank of the combination cotton-
tobacco counties lies in the astonish
ingly high ratios of farm tenancy in this
great cash-crop belt.
Urban and Rural
Another very striking fact is the
high rank of many excessively rural
counties, and the unexpectedly low
rank of many urban counties. The first
seven counties in the table are all ex
cessively rural with no large amount of
wealth. But they manage to turn out
many high school graduates. Guilford,
ranking twenty-second, is the first
urban county to appear in the table.
Buncombe ranks thirty-third, Mecklen
burg thirty-seventh, Gaston forty-
ninth, Forsyth sixty-sixth, Durham
next, while New Hanover comes
eighty-fourth, probably due in part to
the fact that her high school runs
through the twelfth grade. The urban
counties have by far the best public
schools, but they are outstripped by a
large number of rather poor rural coun
ties in high school graduates per unit
of population.
Recent Progress
The public high schools of the state
have made remarkable progress within
recent years, both in the quality of
work as well as in the number of^
students enrolled and in annual grad
uates.
In 1912 the enrollment in all public
high schools in the state totaled 14,401,
while the fourth-year students num
bered only 818. In 1916 the students
enrolled in public high schools numbered
16,783 while the fourth-year students
numbered 1,313. In 1923 the enrollment
was approximately 64,000 and the
graduates numbered 6,317. In 1926 the
enrollment in high schools totaled
around 73,000 and white high school
graduates numbered 9,166. Eight hun
dred white graduates in 1912; 6,317 in
1923, and 9,166 in 1926. That is progress,
remarkable progress. But we are told
by school officials that North Carolina
still ranks at or near the bottom in
percent of all students enrolled in high
school, and also in high school graduates
in proportion to the school population.
This is not hard to believe when we
recall that the number of white grad
uates from public high schools last year
was less than 1.4 percent of the total
white enrollment in all public schools!
S. H. H,, Jr.
BOOKLAND TRAILS
* Books are like trails, cut by ad
venturous spirits into all the strange
and unexplored parts of this ex
panding world of human interests.
In the pages of a book you may
travel anywhere. You may go to
all the lands of the earth and be
young three thousand years ago on
the history trail. You may change
identities with fair women and brave
men on the highroads of romance in
fiction and poetry. In the nature
meadows you may find trees and
flowers and stars growing familiar
and friendly. You may go trea
sure hunting with practical business
books. You may travel the biog
raphy path, and meet the Great
Ones walking there. And you may
turn giant and Lilliputian with the
scientist and see the whole world
both inside and out.—Selected.
It is no longer necessary for the boys
and girls to live in isolation, removed
from cultured associations—schools,
churches, library, lectures, theater, and
other features so essential to content
ment and civilization: all of these things
are within a five-minute drive from the
remotest farm in Venice.
We do not know how exaggerated this
account may be, but it describes a de
velopment that ought to be in progress,
not only in Florida but in North Caro
lina and in every other Southern state.
It should be undertaken not primarily
as a commercial undertaking, but as a
demonstration of an improved agricul
tural community. We do not know
what is the motive back of the Venice
development, but if it is true that “the
whole program is permeated with the
idea and conviction that a Christian
Order of Industry is possible,’’ and that
“cooperative assistance is practiced with
all investors, farmers-and home build
ers,” we wish it success. The Brother
hood of Locomotive Engineers has never
yet failed in its undertakings, and we
shall watch with interest this project in
community building.
6. He must keep a constant ear to the
ground, listening for newly discovered
facts that will open the door to greater
efficiency on his farm.
Tf agriculture is to continue on a
competitive basis, ’ concludes Professor
Bear, ‘only two classes of farmers will
be able to survive: those with low stand
ards of living, who have a prodigious
capacity for hard manual labor; and
those who keep pace with the advance
of scientific agriculture, organize their
farming on a long-time basis, and use
modern business methods. —Southern
Cultivator and Farming, quoted by
Guy A. Cardwell, A. C. L. Industrial
Agent.
HOME FOR TB. CHILDREN
On January 1st the new Children’s
Building at Sanatorium was ready to
receive its first little folks to cure and
to build up their resistance against
tuberculosis. This is the first building
provided by the state to care for tuber
culous children.
It is a three-story building and of the
most modern fireproof construction
throughout. It has wards for both boys
and girls to accommodate fifty little
patients. Specially constructed porches
will enable the children to take helio
therapy or sun treatment. A school
room with an experienced teacher-in
charge will give those able to attend
school an opportunity to keep up with
their grades while they are curing their
disease and building up their resistance.
The entire third floor is given over to
isolation rooms where children suffer
ing from contagious diseases will be
treated.
The building is wired for radio head
phones for each bed. Everything to
facilitate the comfort of'the children
and to make them satisfied and happy
in their surroundings has been pro
vided.
To find the little folks who need to
take treatment at the new building the
Extension Department of the Sana
torium has put on a series of clinics in
cooperation with local school and health
authorities. Because of limited clinic
facilities only three groups of children
who are most likely to be infected, with
the tubercle bacilli are examined.
These three groups are:
1. Children 10 percent or more under
weight.
2. Children who have symptoms of
tuberculosis.
3. Children who have been exposed to
persons with the disease.
If for any reason you are afraid your
children have tuberculosis by all means
see that they are examined by their
family physician, in one of these clinics,
or sent down to the Sanatorium for
examination, and if they have tubercu-
I losis trouble have them treated in the
! new Children’s Building there. —Con-
! cord Times.
COMMUNITY BUILDING
The current issue of Manufacturers
Record describes a Florida development
which is unique in at least two respects.
In the first place this development at
Venice, on the west coast, is owned and
is being developed by the Brotherhood
of Locomotive Engineers of America.
This is the oldest and wealthiest labor
union in the country, and it has been
successful in several ambitious coopera
tive ventures, including banking and
manufacturing.
In the second place, the development
at Venice is essentially an agricul
tural colony with a town in the pro
cess of construction at the center.
Venice, as the town is called, is zoned
and laid out and planned by John Nolen,
the famous landscape architect of Cam
bridge, Massachusetts. Already 186
homes have been built and are being
occupied. A large amount of pavement
has been laid, sewer and water mains
put in, and pov/er and light lines in
stalled. A theater, a hotel, a railroad
station, and numerous homes and stores
are under construction. A boulevard
200 feet wide extends from the business
section to the beach.
It is the farm development, however,
that interests us. Venice properties
comprise about 60,000 acres, with seven
miles of shore line on the Gulf of
Mexico. According to the report, four
thousand acres of land have been
cleared and grubbed ready for the plow,
and twenty-two miles of drainage canal
have been dug. The soil is a dark gray
and chocolate sandy loam, well adapted
to diversified farming of an intensified
order. Five- and ten-acre farms are the
rule. The tracts are sold cleared,
grubbed, and with a flowing well drilled.
One 160-acre dairy farm is established,
with 100 grade Guernsey cows, brought
from Wisconsin. * Numerous poultry
farms are in operation, and others are
being started. A 40-acre semi-tropical
nursery of ornamental trees, plants,
shrubs, and vines is well under way.
Each farm has a frontage on a good
hard road, and with electricity available.
WHITE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES
In North Carolina per 10,000 White Population in 1926
In the following table, based on information supplied by the State Depart-
ment of Education, and adjusted population figures, the counties are ranked
according to the number of white children graduating from public high schools
in 1926 per 10,(J00 white population. The parallel column shows the number of
white children graduating from public high schools last year.
Pamlico, with 68 graduates, leads with a rate of 117.2 white high school
graduates per 10,000 white population. Caswell, with 12 graduates^-comes last
with a rate of only 13 high school graduates per 10,000 white population.
State total white public high school graduates in 1926 was 9,166, or an aver
age of 47 per 10,000 white population. ■ Of these 3,381 were boys and 6,786 were
girls, or nearly two girls per one boy.
S. H. Hobbs, Jr.
Department of Rural Social-Economics, University of North Carolina.
SAFE FARMING
The young men and boys who stay on
the farms will,'before many years have
passed, find themselves in charge of the
business. Will they be able to manage
it successfully? ‘The extent to which ;
young farmers will succeed will depend
on their ability to formulate long-time
programs of farm management and soil
improvement, and to carry them through
in spite of occasional depressions that
are sure to come,’ says Professor F. E.
Bear, of Ohio State University. He
forecasts that the next two-score years |
will bring a considerable increase in
America’s population, increase in value
of farm products and of farm lands,
recurring cycles of high prices suffi
ciently above the average cost of pro
duction to make high yields profitable,
and better stabilization . of prices in
periods of excessive production because
of cooperative marketing development.
Tf these predictions' are accepted as
more than mere possibilities, it would
seem logical to make definite prepara
tions to realize on them. ’
The successful program calls for five
essential principles, which he gives as
follows: ^
1. A farmer must specialize in some
one phase of his work—potatoes, fruit,
hogs, or dairying~in addition, to his i
general crops and livestock.
2. He must make the best use of
Nature’s methods to gradually and con
tinually improve the soil. Legumes,
inoculations to insure stands of legumes,
and winter cover crops are a few of the
keys to Nature’s storehouse.
3. He must invest time, labor and
money in improvements that nature
cannot perform. He can profitably drain
wet land, lime acid soil, use commercial
fertilizer on soils lacking organic matter
and fertility, use varieties and strains
of crops that resist the attack of dis
eases and insects, terrace the washing
land and build a manure pit or covered
barnlot to prevent leaching of the
manure’s best fertility.
4. He must use every acre of his farm
for crops, pasture or forest.
Number Rate
white per
Rank County high 10,000
school white
graduates pop.
1 Pamlico.-,.. 68 117 2
2 Washington 62 106.0
3 Moore T68... 103.2
4 Warren 77 96.2
6 Northampton £6 91.6
6 Jones - 47 81.0
7 Gates 44 80.0
8 Iredell 236 74.0
9 Craven 107 73.3
10 Alamance 198 73.2
11 Montgomery 83 72.8
12 Robeson ; 183 70.4
13 Bertie 76 70.2
14 Pender- B1 69.0
16 Perquimans 38 66.8
16 Hertford 42 66.6
17 Granville 9? 65.8
18 Cumberland HO 65.7
19 Catawba 217 65.4
20 Richmond HO 64.8
21 Scotland 38 63.4
22 Guilford 434 62.2
23 Wayne 165 61.7
24 Chowan 33 61.1
26 Currituck 28 69.6
26 Nash H8 68.6
27 Polk 46 68.6
28 Carteret 80 68.4
29 Anson ,••••• 83 68.2
30 Bladen 72 66.6
31 Beaufort 109 66.6
32 Cleveland 168 66.0
33 Buncombe 327 64.4
34 Orange 72 64.2
35 McDowell 86 63.4
36 Union 163 63.2
37 Mecklenburg 318 63.0
38 Pasquotank 64 61.9
39 Franklin 80 51.6
40 Davidson 175 61.6
41 Burke 108 61.2
42 Hyde 26 61.0
43 Chatham 84 60.8
44 Duplin * ^04 60.7
46 Rowan 190 60.6
46 Lee 66 60.0
47 Pitt 121 49.8
48 Hoke 26 49.3
49 Gaston 227 48.6
60 Stanly 126 48.4
Number Rate
white per
Rank County high 10,000
, school white
graduates pop.
61 He'nderson 84 48.3
52 Edgecombe 82 48.0
63 Lincoln 77 47.6
64 Wake 236 47.6
66 Wilson 103 46.8
66 Lenoir 83 46.1
57 Person 61 45.6,
68 Camden 16 46.4
69 Columbus 94 44.7
60 Rockingham 162 44.0
61 Yadkin 68 43.0
62 Sampson 109 42.7
63 Halifax 81 41,6
64 Vance 68 ...41.6
65 Watauga 66 41.4
66 Forsyth 246 41.0
67 Durham 129 40.3
68 Avery 44 40.0
69 Onslow 42 39.6
70 Alexander 46 39.3
71 Transylvania 34 39.1
72 Davie 46 ...39.0
.73 Randolph 108 38.7
74 Martin 46 38.3
76 Haywood 90 37.6
76 Clay 18 36.8
77 Harnett 83 36.6
78 Johnston 146 86.5
79 Rutherford. 98 34.6
80 Macon 41 32.0
81 Caldwell 58 31.3
82 Alleghany 22 31.1
83 GreeneC, 27 31.0
84 New Hanover 77 29.6
86 Dare 14 28.6
86 Surry 87 27,7
87 Yancey 43 26.6
88 Mitchell 30 26.1
89 Swain 34 26.3
SO Cabarrus 73 23.7
91 Tyrrell 8 23.5
92 Cherokee 34 22.1
93 Wilkes 67 21.2
94 Jackson 26 20.9
96 Madison 40 20.2
96 Ashe 38 17.7
97 Stokes 30 16.2
98 Brunswick 15 16.6
99 Graham 7 14.6
100 Caswell 12 13.0