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CAROLINA
Vnion
Vol. VII.—No. 16
RALEIGH. N. C., APRIL 17, 1913.
One Dollar a Year.
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TAR HEEL SKETCHES.
BY J. Z. GREEN.
Editor Ashcraft, of the Monroe
Enauirer, says: “Congress has a
its hands in finding ways and
'“ean^rreduce the high coat of liv-
ing and at the same time make things
we have to sell bring a
When you come to think about it,
that is a pretty big job to undertake,
isn’t it? If reducing the high cost of
living means 8-cent hen eggs, l^-cent
bins 6-cent cotton. 12-cent hams
etc for farmers, the sooner we
the high cost of living alone the bet-
Jer it will be for the country.
m * *
For the life of me I
seen anything in the high cost of 1
ing for farmers to worry
thit too many ^he
take the profits of the farrn.
consumers of the city can help rem
edy the trouble if they will organize
afconsumers and establish closer re
lationship with the farmers, pay
cash for their purchases, dispense
with small deliveries or ’phone or
ders etc. This economic proposition
isn’t a legislative question.
eity consumer, who is in his right
^ind will deliberately pay 65 per
cent of the value of a product for
the simple process of transferring i
frnm nroducer to consumer, would he
Liltify himself by contending that
"government’’ should come to his re
lief?
is interested in better live stock. He
ordered a 12 5-pound pig from Ten
nessee and the express company
charged him nine dollars ($9) for
transporting that pig a distance of
about three dundred miles, or a little
over seven cents a pound. Last year
I ordered a Guernsey calf shipped
from Virginia and the express com
pany held me up at this end of the
line for sixteen dollars and ten cents!
When I noticed a statement from an
official of an express company the
other day that the establishment of
the parcels post had hit the express
companies a hard lick, I was wonder
ing how many folks had been hit
hard licks by the express companies.
* * *
* * *
T Inst an oat crop last year because
rtidn’t put in my seed until the lat-
J part of October and first of No-
^ mher I had always seeded my oat
about that time of the year and
IZ without exception l-ajveeted
“ nH crops. But the winter of 1911-
frtas so cold and there was so
nh rain that it caused the oats to
“fin the ground and I got no stand,
[“relate this experience to call atten-
lon to uncertainties which are not
“ with in other occupations,
i® ‘^“plemenT of uncertainty • due to
weather conditions, over which farm-
ifave no control, make it impos-
siUe to succeed by any fixed rule and
regardless of the knowledge of farm-
f®! the man who depends upon the
must, at times.-meet with partial
losses and sometimes total losses on
account of unforeseen adverse weath-
Ir conditions, and there is no way to
entirely avoid them.
♦ ♦ ♦
A young farmer who lives near me
“It’s unlawful to lend money in
North Carolina for more than six per
cent, but it’s lawful to swap the
money for merchandise and charge
fifty per cent interest on the mer
chandise payable in money,’’ said a
farmer in a small town in the eastern
part of the State. The thought was
suggested by a groupi of wagons at
the side door of a “time’’ mercantile
establishment. It isn’t anything un
usual for a time merchant to charge
50 per cent interest on his merchan
dise, and it doesn’t affect his stand
ing in the Church just a little bit.
We may be making a little advance
ment in some respects morally, but if
there has been any reform in the
“business morals” of the country it
isn’t indicated in commercial trans
actions.
♦ * *
While we are talking about “rural
credits” it might be well to conduct
a little educational campaign design
ed to teach farmers to use their own
cash assets intelligently. It is a well-
known fact that a large per cent of
our farmers do not know what to do
with surplus money when they hap
pen to get a little ahead. So they de
posit it in the banks at four per cent.
The banks in turn lend it to the time
merchants and the time merchants,
being law-abiding citizens, refuse to
lend it to less fortunate farmers in
violation of the six per cent interest
law, but invest it in groceries and
then lend the groceries to the needy
customer at the modest rate of from
30 to 50 per cent interest. Beautiful
system, isn’t it?—for the time mer
chant.] Under this “system” the few
farmers who, by denying their fami
lies of many comforts and conven
iences' of life, manage to acquire a
little cash surplus immediately turn
it over to the time merchant to capi
talize his private money-making busi
ness. This kind of “rural credit” sys
tem stands very much in need of re
form.
With our very indefinitely defined
purpose, and with numerous failures
and much misdirected effort in trying
to build co-operation from the top
downward, it isn’t anything but nat
ural that in many localities there
should be a falling off of members.
In some rural vicinities peculiar en
vironment and a lack of efficient lo
cal leadership make it impossible to
maintain a local organization, and as
a matter of course some Local Unions
are on the suspended list. But I have
been agreeably surprised this year to
note the splendid growth in member
ship of some of the oldest Local Un
ions in the State. I confidently be
lieve that if the State official family
will get together upon the purpose to
use the funds available for the pro
motion of local co-operative enter
prises, organized upon a purely co
operative basis. North Carolina will
not only hold the lead in all the
States, but will take the lead in con
structive Co-operation.
The mongrel goose is generally the
result of a mating between a Canada
gander and some dark colored do
mestic goose, usually an African or
Toulouse. Sometimes these goslings
are termed “mules” because of the
fact that they are sterile. It is oc
casionally true that a mongrel goose
when kept for two or more years will
lay a few eggs, but there is no re
cord that goslings have ever been
hatched from eggs laid by a mon
grel goose. It is difficult to fatten
mongrels properly until the cool
weather of fall when they fatten
readily. They are never sold as
green geese, being reserved for the
Thanksgiving and Christmas trade.
The poultryman who follows a
practical system does not complain
of the work. System is a great labor
saver in all occupations, and espe
cially so in raising poultry. The man
who has no regular method causes
himself extra and unnecessary work,
and it always “seems to pile up on
him” at an inopportune time.
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