Page Six
THE CAROLINA UNION PARMER
[Thursday, August 8, 1912-
Gaston Farmers' Union
Warehouse Company.
In last week’s issue we had some
thing in regard to the operation of
the Gaston Farmers’ Union Ware
house at Gastonia, N. C., and The
Gaston Progress of last week tells of
a meeting of the stockholders and
directors of this company at which
a 10 per cent dividend was declared
ordered paid in addition to passing
a handsome sum to th esurplus fund.
One of the most interesting and
significant items related in this ac-
Clemmer, Jonas Pasour, W. W. Faires
and E. P. Lineberger.
The co-operative creamery is now
being talked in Gaston, and it is
probable that at an early date a co
operative creamery, such as is being
operated at Newton, will be estab
lished in connection with the ware
house.
The Gaston County farmers are
also interested in telephone develop
ments, and recently the Gaston Rural
count is the fact that for the past
year the company has been on a cash
basis, including fertilizers, acids and
chemicals, which the company makes
a speciality. This warehouse has
been doing business for several years
and sold fertilizer in the old way and
MR. H. L. LINKBEIIGER,
Manager Ga.ston Faiuners’ Union
Warehou.se Company.
when it was first intimated that they
would go on a cash basis, it was eas
ily predicted that it would go to the
wall, and that in short order. The
fact is, the first season has been such
a success that the stockholders are
so well pleased that anything but a
cash business now will not interest
them at all.
The Gaston Farmers’ Union Ware
house has a paid in capital stock of
$6,500, and the plant of the company
to-day is estimated to be worth more
than $10,000. The warehouse is lo
cated within the town limits of Gas
tonia, and has railroad connections.
It is managed by a board of directors
composed of one man from each town
ship.
Mr. R. Lee Falls is president and
Mr. II. L. Lineberger is secretary and
treasurer. The directors are Messrs.
C. P. Robinson, S. L. Kiser, J. F.
Telephone Company has been organ
ized, and although the charter has
not yet been received, they are get
ting ready to build telephone lines
through the county with the intention
of extending the farmers’ lines into
other counties.
EDUCATIONAL MATTERS.
To the Officers and Members of the
Farmers’ Union;
As it is the custom in a great many
sections of our country, especially in
the mountain districts of the South,
for the public schools in the rural
districts to open in August, I deem
this an opportune time to touch upon
a few things relative to the work.
In the first place the school com
mitteemen, or those whose business
it is to look after the employment of
the teachers, should exercise the ut
most care in selecting the men and
women who are to have control of
the boys and girls during the coming
scholastic year.
This is a matter of vital import
ance to the entire district and a mis
take here might seriously cripple the
work of the entire term. The very
best teachers available should always
be selected without fear or favor and
the powers that be shouid be exceed
ingly careful to have no object in
view save the greatest good to the
greatest number. I have known the
school term almost absolutely ruined
over the action of some school com-
miteemen in employing his son or
daughter, or some near relative.
Then, too, I have seen the school se
riously handicapped because some
unfortunate h id enlisted the sympa
thy of the officials. Sympathy is a
most excellent thing, but the public,
and especially the little children,
should not be made to suffer on ac
count of it.
All the duties and responsibilities
though do not rest upon the officials.
The patrons and the friends of educa
tion, too, have their part to perform.
They should see to it that the school
premises are looked after prior to the
opening of the term, that the build
ing is fumigated and the floors oiled,
and that everything needful be done
to make the school life of the child
pleasant. See to it that a number of
pictures are hung upon the walls,
sanitary privies should be provided,
and, if possible, the individual drink
ing cup should be installed. If this
is not practicable, then each family
should be provided with a drinking
cup. Much of the danger of conta
gious diseases can be eliminated by a
proper regard to the rules of health
and sanitation.
Last, but by no means least, I de
sire to call your attention to the im
portance of visiting the schools. You
have no idea how your visits will
cheer and inspire the teacher. Not
only does it aid the teacher for her
patrons to come to see her, but it
helps the children, too.
As I write this my mind goes back
to the days when we tried to teach
the young idea how to shoot, and how
well do we recall the pleasure which
it gave us to have our patrons call
and spend an hour or two. How of
ten does the young teacher feel dis
couraged and how many of them,
doubtless, finally gave up the work
for want of expressions of apprecia
tion on the part of the patrons.
Friends and brethren, if our teach
ers are doing what they can for our
children and our neighbor’s children,
let us give them a token of our ap
preciation. Far too many of us wait
to place our flowers upon the coffin.
How much better would it have been
if, while they were yet with us, we
had let them know that we cared.
What an incentive to attempt still
greater things is a kindly word of
appreciation of that which we have
tried to do. Let us resolve that in
the school year upon which we are
just entering we shall do our part,
and may we have the most prosper
ous year in the history of the work.
C. C. WRIGHT,
Chairman Educational Com.
Hunting Creek, N. C., August 2,
1912.
THE READJUSTMENT OP AGRI
CULTURE.
We are all by nature standpatters.
We like to think along old familiar
lines. We like to do things to which
we are accustomed, and to do them in
the same old way. We are all natur
ally lazy and like to move along the
lines of least resistance. If we are
accustomed to puting the right foot
first when we start out in the morn
ing, it is hard to accustom ourselves
to putting the left first. If we are in
the habit of putting on the left shoe
first, it is hard to accustom ourselves
to beginning with the right. If from
our childhood we have used the left
hand most, it is very hard to learn
how to use the right hand.
If we are accustomed to growing
corn and small grains, it is hard to
start to growing grass. If we are ac
customed to one-crop farming, noth
ing but necessity will compel us to
follow diversified farming. Our
grandfathers were accustomed to
using the cradle. Nothing but neces
sity compelled them to use the reap
er. They were experts in swinging
the scythe, and would not get a mow
er until they were forced to do so.
They were accustomed to pitching
hay on the wagon, and nothing but
necessity made them use a hay
loader.
If it were not for the fact that na
ture is geared on the principle of
change, we would continue to be
standpaters politically, agricultural
ly, religiously, to the end of our days.
The scarcity of labor compelled us to
use the reaper and the binder, to dis
pense with the old-fashioned thresh
ing machine and get a modern, up-to-
date implement. The law of nature,
is change, evolution, some call it,
which continually forces us to consid
er new things and adapt ourselves to
new conditions.
And yet there are some things
about farming that are as stable as
Mount Siani or the eternal laws o
right and wrong; for example,
movement of water in the soil, the
laws of heredity, the necessity
balanced rations. And yet these id
mutable laws compel us to do things
differently. For example, the grea
demand for milk and hutter codP® ®
us to observe the law of heredity d
breeding dairy cows instead of dua
purpose cows; while the closing up e
the ranges compels us to grow dua
purpose cows where we used to gro^
beef cows. The laws that govern the
movement of water in the soil cofflp®
us to farm one way in the humid see
tion and in an entirely different way
in the semi-arid section. The chang®®
in the price of feeds and their rela
tion to the price of meats compel uS.
while following the invariable la-W o
balanced rations, to make our ration
out of different materials.
From time to time farmers have
readjust their methods. They do
unwillingly, hut sooner or later the^
have to come to it. They were cod
pelled to use a drill instead of sowiu^
broadcast. It took us long years to
this simple proposition; that drib®
grain, speaking generally, was bett ^
than broadcasted, because it
forms to the laws of nature. Farder^
were accustomed to forking their d^
nure on a wagon, dropping it in pn®^
and scattering it afterwards. It to
us long years to persuade thed
oK
to
use a
manure spreader. Fard®
were accustomed to growing corn
for
the grain alone. They are still do
ing so, at an enormous waste of t®
values. It will take us years to P®
suade them to harvest all their cor
crop, and our persuasion would be
terly useless, if it were not that o
ture is working with us in compel"
them to do so. ^
We can no longer farm as we uS
to. We can not be satisfied with t
acres to a cow for summer past® ,
We must make one acre do the b®®’.
ness. We can no longer be sat
in the best corn states with betw
een
to
thirty and forty bushels of corn
the acre on an average. We
have from fifty to sixty, or see ®
land yield us less and less io®®
from the investment each year.
\Vc
We must learn to use the silo,
must learn to use better macbd^^^ ^
and more horse power, because ^ ;
price of labor compels it. We ^
learn to balance the ration so
make more pounds of beef or P^^^g
from a given amount of grain, or
see hard times. jg
It is a good thing that natur®^^
geared up In the line of progre®®
If it were not so, we would staSb^^^,
For no matter to what we are
tomed, sooner or later nature ® jj
pels us to see that we have not
doing exactly right, and that we
do differently; and so this neces
for readjustment will go on in
ture as it has in the past,
imagine we have got the right t
the best thing possible for us
time, but bye and bye we will ha
be shown by hard knocks
all it is not absolutely the best
The present is better than the P jj,
but there is a still better
store. In agriculture, as in pg^ul-
we must take the position of jy
who wrote: “Not that I have a r
obtained, or am already
feet, . . . forgetting the
which are behind, and stretchiae^^j.g,
ward to the things which are ,»
I press on toward the goal • ' gt}
It is hard to change our not
any subject, but we will /’yguts-
to change them by the logic of ®
and thus be brought to
after all we are never sure
have the absolutely best in hett®:
“For every blue there is a
blue.’’ We hope the time ^ gopsi*^'
when the farmer will not jjpS ^
ered in good standing unless ^
manure spreader, a grain dr »