Newspapers / The Carolina Union Farmer … / April 3, 1913, edition 1 / Page 4
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r: V ] i ; Page Pour THB CABOLINA UNION FARMER _ “^fic CarounJ ^Vnion Farmer IH Neighborhood Co-operation PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY BY THE UNION FARMER PUBLISHING COMPANY. C. A. EURY, • - Managing Ekaitor. Subscription price, $1.00 per year, In advance; 76 cents In clubs of five, when sent In by the Local Secretary or Agent. Remittances should be made by bank draft, postal or ex press money orders or registered letter. Entered as second-class matter March 21, 1912, at the Post-offlce at Raleigh, N. C., under the Act of March 3, 1887. Watch the Label on Your Paper. It tells the date to which your subscription is paid. If you want the paper stopped, notify the office as soon as your subscription expires, other wise it will be understood that you want the paper con tinued. When Money is Received the date will be changed within two weeks, so that the label will answer for a receipt. When renewing a subscription do not fall to say It is a renewal, and give the name and initials Just as they appear now on the yellow address label. When ordering address changed be sure to give the old as well as the new address. Raleigh, N. C. April 3, 1913. Profit and Loss Q.4L(ES of commercial fertilizers increase by a large per cent every year in North Carolina. 'Where two or three hundred pounds of commer cial fertilizers per acre were applied a few years ago, it is not unusual in many sections of the mid dle and eastern counties, to see applications of from one thousand to two thousand pounds ap plied per acre, and perhaps a top dressing of ni trate of soda besides. It would be interesting to know just what per cent of the increased yields per acre in North Carolina are due solely to ex cessive use of soluble commercial fertilizers in stead of good farming. The result of “fertilizer” farming will show a profit of course, to the fer tilizer companies and dealers who sell that pro duct on time, but as a whole, can a profit be shown in favor of the farmer who depends entirely upon commercial fertilzers, purchased at “time” prices, where proper Interest is allowed on the value of the farm, stock, tools, etc., and a fair allowance is made for the labor of each member of the fam ily who helps produce the crops? A’VE you ever thought about the tremendous waste of idle machinery and implements owned by individual farmers? In traveling through any neighborhood you’ll find under the sheds of farmers implements that are used only a few hours in the year, such as grain drills, plant ers, stalk-cutters, mowers, rakes, etc., that dam age almost as much by rust as by use. Of course the farmer can proudly boast of being the abso lute owner of these things, but isn’t it false pride and false economy to be the sole owner of idle property just for the sake of calling it your own? I The implement trust appreciates that kind of in dividual pride, all right, because it increases its sales and adds millions of dollars profits to be divided among the stockholders. It has been the purpose of The Carolina Union Farmer to keep everlastingly trying to plant some thoughts that will cause farmers to think along economic and business lines and get out of the beaten paths. Neighborhood co-operation—the joining together of two or more farmers in the ownership of farm implements, makes it possible to save millions of dollars in the waste for idle implements, and it also makes it possible to have the use of addi tional labor-saving implements not otherwise available to the individual farmer. 0 Ho'w Shall We Get Them ? NE HUNDRED THOUSAND people, mainly farmers, left the United States in six months last year for the single Canadian province of Al berta, simply because the Canadian government was offering them cheap land. On this subject the Columbia State says: Robbing the Soil tN TRAVELING through nearly all the counties ■L of the State the writer has seen only a field now and then with a winter cover crop of rye or crimson clover. It is probably safe to say that nine-tenths of the fields that are now being plow ed up for cultivation are clean, bare fields. No winter crop was grown on the land to prevent “leaching” and the soil is poorer than it was a year ago. Under such conditions the yields can be kept up only by increased applications of expen sive commercial fertilizers which must be replaced every year at high cost. With all the sermons that have been preached on soil building, it is only now and then that a farm shows evidence of soil building. With the predominating tenant sys tem that prevails in the South, we can hope for but little improvement from that class, but the man who owns and cultivates his own land should see that each acre under cultivation gets better every year. If he has more acres in cultivaton than he can improve, a part of it should be “turn ed out” to reproduce itself with second-growth timber. Condition of the Union TT HAS been the policy of this paper to deal frankly with its readers. We don’t think a bluff or exaggeration is ever justifiable, unless in extreme cases of emergency. As a general policy it is never justifiable, for the bluff will be called sooner or later. With this preface we are going to say that the condition of the Farmers’ Union in North Carolina, the year 1913, is fairly good. [ The numerical strength of the paid members is better than was expected by those best acquainted with conditions and difficulties to be met and over come. There are several hundred delinquent Local Unions. Some of these are being re-instat ed. The membership of hundreds of Local Unions has fallen off heavily, while in some of the older Local Unions a good gain in membership has re sulted this year over last year’s report. The State Secretary informs us that, while he has not yet made accurate comparison, he thinks the paid membership in North Carolina this year will foot up about the same as last year. The mem bers are “stiking” best in those Locals and coun ties where there is most co-operation, .in business transactions and where warehouses and other enterprises are under construction or operation. The annual meeting of the North Carolina Far mers’ Union will be held in Shelby, August 26th This meeting will take the place of both summer andvwinter meetings and will be considered the an nual meeting. It is very probable that the an nual meeting will be held in August each year instead of December. The Use of School-Houses TN A recent issue the Progressive Farmer express- pressed surprise that school-houses in one lo- ity had been closed against the Farmers’ Union. To those of us who have been down in the trenches, forcing the organization into new locali ties, the refusal of the use of school houses for the Farmers’ Union is no new impediment. The writer remembers at least two counties that or ganizers left because county superintendents of education stubbornly and almost Insultingly or dered the local organizers to stay out of the school houses. These Instances, however, are not com mon. They never would have occurred anywhere if county superintendents were elected by the peo ple instead of being chosen by partisan political boards. As a consequence of this kind of usurped power and domination brave Farmers’ Union men have in some localities, come together and built halls of their own. A narrow partisan official can’t defeat a worthy set of farmers who are made of the right kind of stuff. “Iowa lost 300 white farmers recently within ten days, and the worst of it is that this was only the beginning of a yearly spring migration from that State to Canada. Most of these men are householders of some means, sprung from good stock and of a thrifty habit. That few of them, moreover, are illiterate we may take for granted, upon the assurance of the census bureau that among lowans ten years of age and over literacy averages 98.9 per cent. These are in short ex actly the sort of people South Carolina needs. “Here, as we ourselves well know, they would find congenial associations, familiar ideals and customs, reasonably good church and school op portunities, fertile lands which may be had in I quantity at low price, and, distinctively, a mild, equable climate. This last would mean to them the growing of more than one crop per year, free dom from interruption of outdoor work by cold, and relief from the necessity of making special and expensive provision for winter in the items of fuel, clothing and housing. “But instead of coming here they go to Can ada, where the long winter practically interdicts outdoor work, limits crop-production to one sea son, makes necessary the sheltering and artificial feeding of live stock for a quarter of the year, and requires, for the family, extra food, fuel, clothing and housing; where, also, not churches and schools only but nearly all other social ac tivities, are interfered with considerably by the cold, and in the outlying districts a stagnation of community life almost amounting to hibernation is of annual recurrence from the same cause. “Why is it that these sensible folk make the worse choice, as between Canada and Carolina? I Assuredly it is not from intention based on full information. The answer is easily found. The farming householder of the Northwestern States is continually under enticement, through newspa per advertisements, seductively designed publicity work of other forms and expert personal solicita tion, to ‘ Come up into Canada”; whereas he re mains uninformed concerning the attractions which this Southern country, specifically the Caro- linas, may hold for him—unless indeed he seek the information on his own initiative. "We can not hope to divert to our own section any consid erable share of this desirable immigration, unless we make the attempt with something like the en ergy , enterprise and thoroughness exhibited in Canada’s behalf by railroad and other agents from that country. All of this, or the substance of it, has been said often before in Southern newspa pers, but occasion for the saying of it again is presented at this time in the spring resumption of the movement into Canada coincidently with the formation in Baltimore of an association, the Southern Settlement and Development Organiza tion, having for a principal object the procure ment for the South of this very class of settlers. Some missionary work among Northwestern far mers is already being done by State bureaus, rail roads and Chambers of Commerce in the South, but the sum of all such work falls far short of meeting Canadian competition.” Hundreds of people are yearly leaving North I Carolina for Southern Georgia and other points because land is cheap. Every county in North Carolina is begging for immigrants, yet many of them make the mistake of turning population away by shooting up land values. It is popula tion, not land, that makes wealth. The so-called increase in wealth due to the rise of land values is no increase at all in real wealth. It is simply a transference of money from part of the com munity to another part. 'WTiat we need to do is really to discourage the increase of land values so that population will come in and produce the w'ealth than will make the community rich.—The State Journal. The purest treasure mortal times afford is spotless reputation.—Shakespeare. a meeting of the Wake County in the library of the Masonic The modern majesty consists in work. What a man can ao is his greatest ornament.—Carlyle. There will be Farmers’ Union Temple Friday, April 11th at 11 o^'locra.^'m7fo^ the purpose of discussing the warehouse proposi tion. Every member of the Union who is interest ed in the organization buildng a storage ware house, cotton gin or oil mill in Raleigh, should at tend ^this moeting.
The Carolina Union Farmer (Charlotte, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
April 3, 1913, edition 1
4
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