The news in this publica
tion is released for the press on
the date indicated below.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
NEWS LETTER
Published weekly by the
University of North Carolina
for Its Bureau of Extension.
JULY 28, 1915
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
VOL. I, NO. 36
EdUorlal Board. B.C. Branson, J. G. deR. Hamilton, L. R. Wilson, Z. V. Judd, S R Winters T A wiir ^ ^ —
NORTH CAROLINA CLUB STUDIES
MOVING TO TOWN
When a tenant fanner in Gaston coun
ty move; a family ol' five, into town he
} loses iipon an average $429 worth of sliel-
f ter, food ami fuel that were his on the
farm without the expenditure of so iiiuch
: ^ as a single cent.
■ * In towns, these primary necessities call
r for money, in even larger totals. -
• Sheer t!xistence wants in the country
• called for an average of only 576 in cash
;■ for the whole year. In town, the family
handles more money, hut as a rule .saves
less and owns less at the end of the year | Three of these saiiie far}ners own *and
. than in the country.—Figures from the use co-nperatively an eight hor.-e power
-Federal Farmers Bulletin, No. 635. gasoline engine for running machinery
— , on theij; farms.
A half dozen clover hullers owneil and
oi^erated in this way would double the
clover acreage in Orange in a single year,
and send the county a long way forward
in live stock development.—Dr. Lillian
W. Johnson.
CO-OPERATION IN ORANGE
Co-operative telephones and mutual
lire insurance 4ire well developed features
of country life in Orange county, North
Carolina.
But the other day in our farm-home
survey we found another co-operative en
terprise of interesting sort—a saw inill,
feed mill and cotton gin plant run by a
twenty-two liorsc-pouer gasolint' engine.
] t is owned by eight men who put in 5^150
apiece. It is operated by two of the meu
anl tiie profits are divided annually.
RETARDED PROGRESS
In Durham county. North Carolina,
the farm wealth accumulated up to 1910
amounted to a.little more than $3,500,000.
In this same year the county imported
food and feed supplies, to be consumed
■within its own Iiorders, amounting to
over $2,500,000.
What does this mean? Sinijjly, that
the citizens of Durham county are paying
. out each year for food and feed supphes
almost as nuich Vvealth, in cold cash, as
the farmer.s have been able to accumu
late in-the whole history of the county.
In other words, it means that if the
farmers of Durham county would supply
their home uuirkets with the food and
feed needed by Durham county jieople,
the accunmlated farm wealth of the coun
ty \\ould be doublel in less than two
jears.
KSWAPPING amid STREAM
V/astou county in 1880 had 4S dislilier
^ les; and led the .state in the business pf
'^Iwhiskey pro(hictiou.
'''r In 1914, the distilleries had been dis-
placed by 65 cotton mills with 608,000
spuidles consuming one-fifth of all the
raw cotton used in the mills of the state.
The county now has §14,400,000 worth
of projierty on the tax books; spends
$120,000 a year upon public schools, and
has banking resources amounting to a
half million loIlars, says the Gastonia
€fazette.
Swapping horses amid stream is some
times a good policy, the old adage to the
contrary notwithstanding.
LEADS THE SOUTH
Under the direction of the field agents
of the Federal Farm Demonstration otliee
in Ealeigh, the 7,386 acres of corn in
North Carolina in 1914 yielded an average
of 45.9 bushels per acre.
It is the best showing made in the
South. It is nearly two and one-half
times the average yield of the state-at-
large.
The averages in Caldwell, Henderson,
Buncombe, and Surry ranged from 60.4
bushels to 65.4 bushels.
Our long growing 'season gives the
South an inunense advantage in corn
production. Better methods would easily
double our corn crop, and |iut an end to
our need of imported corn.
Our need in every crop is not a larger
acreage, but a larger yield per acre at a
smaller cost.
THE SOUTH OF THE
FUTURE
The South of the. future is going to
■tje a land of flocks and herds, of corn
fields and silos, oi big l)arns and heavy
machinery, of meadows and pastures,
and all the things which go with live
stock farnung.
This change is not going to come all
at once, of course, Imt very gradually.
And it is not goii'g to come at all un-
t!l larmers i-ealize a*other l)ig fact:
that feeds must come before livestock,
and that the grass will not bo sowed
nor the legumes planted to supply the
horses and cattle and hogs and sheep^
but that these animals will be grown
an fed because of the abundance of
feeds and the pniftts to be had by
utilizing them.
system of livestock farnung aud
the profits that come from livestock
farming are alike impossible without
and abundance of feeds. At the very
founelation of stock husbandry are
grass-clad fields and well-filled hay
mows; and'until these are liaii, any
large development of the livestock in
dustry will he profitless, if not impos
sible.—E. E. ]\Iil!er in the Banker-
Farmer.
our increasing attention to cotton and to
bacco, and our crop-lien, fann-tenancy
system of raising these crops.
In 1914 our tobacco was 14 times, aiul
our cotton crop 24 times these crops in
1850. Farm tenancy imder the crop-lien
system is a negation of diversification
and sufficient food production:
UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
LETTER SERIES NO. 37
NORTH CAROLINA LEADS
North Carolina leads tlie Union in the
manufacture of chewing and smoking
tobacco, with a record of 104,329,283 lbs.
fr the year ending June 30, 1914.
Nearly 74 million lbs. of the total were
manufactured in the 5th district. The
^tal internal revenue taxes collected in
tlii-i district amounted to nearly six and
one half million dollars. For the whole
’ state the amount was nearly tweh't^ mil
lion dollars.
MOORE’S EDUCATIONAL
‘PROGRESS
In 1907 her total school property was
. worth 122,720.
In 1915 it is worth ?^100,000.
In 1907 her total expenditures for all
, purposes was $20,365.
In 1915 her total expenditures for all
imrposes A\'as nearly $50,00Q.
lu 1907 she had 108 one-room school
houses, and many of these were of logs.
Today she has but 65 one-rooin buildings
' and not a single one of logs. In 1907 the
average length of school term was 80 days
while last year it was 119 days. In 1908
She had but 10 local tax districts includ
ing her \'illages, while she now has 34 in
which the average length of school term
a little more than 150 days. In 1907-
1908 the average salary paid white teach
ers was *29.36, in 1914-1915 it is $41.11
■»|rom the general county fund, exclusive
. of local taxes which supplemented all the
the way u]) to $75 per month in the rural
schools and above that in t?ie villages.
Two towns paid $1,200 each.
In 1908 she had but 12 public school
libraries, now every white school except
fl^'ehasa library, and about one dozen
colored schools. A number of these li
braries have been supplemented several
tinies, and now contain a fine selection of
juvenile books.—Supt. J. A. McLeod,
Moore County News.
WHERE DOES RANDOLPH
STAND?
Randolph county is composed almost
entirely of rural conununities, and the
backbone of her civilization is her farm
ing capacity. There are no large cities
in the county and but few manufacturing
industrie.s of note.
And the fact that the county is one
hundred and thirty-one years old is sig
nificant. Why? First, because the farm
wealth accuhuilated in the county during
these years amounts to 17,800,000; and
second, because the food and feed im-
portc'd, for consumption within tlie coim-
ty, in 1910 was $1,150,000.
This means, of course, that-every seven
yeai’s, the people of Kandolph send out
of the county for supplies that could easi
ly be raised at home, more wealth in
actual cash than the farmers of the coun
ty have been able to accumulate in 131
years.
Of course, this is a little better showing
tTian some oi' the other counties in the
state are making, yet it is not a very
good showing, and the farmers of the
county ought to wake up and get busy.—
G. W, ISradshaw.
TAX RETURNS IN THE
UNITED STATES
Heal property and ini]>rovements there
on are listed for taxation at rates varyuig
from 11.7 percent of their true value in
Iowa to 100 [>er cent, or at their full
value, in New Hampshire and Wyoming.
In North Carolina, such properties
must be listed for taxation at their true'
and actual value in money when sold for
cash in the usual manner of selling.
Howe\-er, these properties appeared on
our tax books in 1912 at an average of 60
cents in the dollar of their true value,
says a recent report of the Census Bu
reau.
M'e ai'e next to the bottom iii per capi
ta wealth, but near the top in tax assess
ments. Only fifteen states made returns
at a higher and thirty at a lower per cent
of actual valuation.
The rates at which real property and
improvements thereon werc^ tHxed in the
various states in 1912 was as follows:
liauk State Per Cent
TEACHER FOR NEXT YEAR
Children ought to have the very best
teachers and committeemen ought to try
to get the very best that can be had for
the money apportioned to their district.
How Teachers Are Elected
The school couuuittee that is on the
job always has a special meeting for tlie
purpose of carefully lookiiig into the
qualifications of ap[>licants; and, if pos
sible, the committee will have a personal
interview with the applicant before
election.
Why Change Teachers?
One great draw'-back to progress and
efficiency in our schools is the constant
changing of teachers. A teacher who
was in the school last year is allowed to
drop out anfl an untried teacher is
l)rought to take her place. Next session
she gives way to another strautrer and
year by year this changing goes on, and
the children at the opening of each ses
sion begin their work under a teacher
who knows nothing of their personal
traits, peculiarities, or natural ability,
aud hence they cannot move off from the
first as easily and smoothly as they would
were their former tc^acher back af*iier
post.
Young Blood in Teaching
The principal of a prosperous hiah
school used to say that lie preferred to
employ as teachers young men just from
college—young men of scholarship, vim,
and energy, young men who wished to
teach for a few years only and then 'j-o
into some other profession for their life
work. He said that in this way he got
young blood, energy, and ejithusiasm in
his corps of teachers. This is true, may
be; but it is certainly true that he dil
have in his school young teachers who
had no permanent interest in teaching,
no professional pridc' in their^work, and
no enl:husi*astic desire to become leaders
in education. The young blood which
we need in our schools is that which
comes to stay and to build for th(> future.
Keep Last Year’s Teacher
hast year’s teacher knows more about
tlie boys and girls in the school, knows
more about the relation of the school to
the community, than any new teacher
can know, and is far better prepared to
push forward the school interest of the
neighborhood than any new teacher pos
sibly can.
A Great Loss
This constant change of teachers is a
great loss in efficiency in schoolroom
work aud tlie children are the loseis.
The time is coming when the public will
demand aud require that there be as few
changes in the teaching foive ff the
school as possible, that the teachers be
well paid, that they be kept from year to
year, and made to feel that they are to
be not only the teachers of the children
but promoters of'the best interest of the
community in which they teach.
Aud by the way, how uiauy new teach
ers will you have in your school next
year?
in 1860
in 1914
33.0 bu.
24.6 bu.
4.8 bu.
3.1 bu.
14.5 bu.
3.6 bu.
13.7 bu.
12.3 bu.
.65 p:
.29
.55
.07
1.9 .
.58
NORTH CAROLINA IN 1860
AND IN 1914
Food Productio
Corn, per jiersou
\\’heat, per j)erson
I’otatoes, sweet and
Irish, per person
Oats, per work-
animal
Cattle, per person
Sheep, per i)erson
I logs, per person
IMilk cows 1 to every 4.4 persons 7.5 per
sons
Our production of corn, wheat and oats
nearly doubled during this interval; but
our population increased nearly exactly
two and a half times over.
Less Bread and Meat
Peanuts, hay, and forage excepted, the
per capita production of food and feed
stuffs was less in 1914 than in 1860; corn
a fourth less, wheat nearly a third less,
potatoes three-fourths less, beef more
than a half less, pork nearly two-thirds
less and mutton nearly seven-eighths less.
And Why?
In tlie main, the explanation lies in
1 'W'yomiiig loo
1 New Hampshire lOO
3 ilassachusetts 90.6
4 Ohio 90
5 Idaho 85
6 Khode Island 75,2
7 Wisconsin 75
8 JIauie 73,8
9 Kansas T.. 72.4
10 ^'ermont 70
11 Connecticutt.. \ .. 66.7
11 New York 66.7
13 ilaryland 65.8
14 Oregon 63.5
15 Kentucky 62.2
16 Tennessee 60
16 North Carolina 60
18 ^Michigan 58.7
10 Pennsylvania 58.6
20 Delaware 56.7
21 Mssissippi 54.8
22 New Jersey 54.1
23 Georgia.... 52.5
24 Virginia .- 50.8
25 Arizona 50
25 Texas 50
27 West Virginia 49.7
28 South Dakota 46.2
29 California - 45.1
30 Indiana 45
31 5Iontana,... 43.5
32 M'ashington 42.3
33 Alabama 40
33 Missouri 40
3'i Louisiana .' 40
36 Minnesota 37.1
37 Florida 35.5
3S Utah 33.3
38 South Carolina 33.3
40 Nevada 30
41 Arkansas 28~
42 New Mexico 25.7
43
43
\A5
46
47
4K
Colorado 25
Oklahoma 25
Illinois 18
North Dakota 17.2
Neliraska 15
Iowa XI,7
HOW MUCH WE EAT
Few people hax'te any exact notion of
the quantities of the various articles of
food consumed per family or per person
per year, or what the annual food bill
amounts to; how much coffee, tea, flour,
sugar, beef, pork, poultry, butter, milk,
eggs, fruits and vegetables are consumed
[ler person in the run of a year, or the
cost of the same.
Quantities and costs will vary, of
course, with the income, the standards
of living, the flut'tuating jirices, and the
methods of (lurchase.
The Biggest Item in a Small
Income
In general, $405 of a thousand dollar
income goes for food alone. In the South
Atlantic States in 1913, the average cost
of the food consumed per person in the
run of a year was around §84. In Gas
ton county, in 55 farm homes, it was $89.
This total varies froui year to year with
the rise or fall of market prices. ■ Food
and shelter are the biggest totals charged
against a small income.
The telephone and deli\ ery wagon add
nearly 40 per cent to the cost of pantry
supplies; that is to Bay, public markets
and the market habit on part of house-
wi\-es reduce the cost of paTitry bills to
this extent; or so it was found by a group
of people in W^ashington City a little
while ago.
The country over, the average annual
consumption per [terson is 48 lbs. of but
ter, 13 poultry, 17 1-2 dozen eggs, 152 lbs.
of meat all told, 6'bushels of grain; in.the
Southern States, 4 bushels of wheat.
Meat Diet Below the Average
In 55 farm families in Gaston county
in 1413, these averages were 6.8 lbs. of
coffee per person per year; jwultry 11.5
fowls; milk and buttermilk, 119.2 gal.;
sugar 62 lbs.; flour 313 lbs.; pork 122lbs.;
beef 2 Ibs^; butter 41 lbs.; eggs 27 doz.;
apples 3.5 bu.; and potatoes 5.6 bu.
Compared with 51 farm homes in Iowa,
the Gaston county farmer consumed .more
flour, butter, milk, vegetables and fruit;
but less coffee, sugar, jwrk and beef,
eggs, apples and potatoes.
Food Consumed in Worh-Gangs
Food supplies are bought for logging
camps and road building gangs upon the
following basis of consumption per labor
er per year;
Beaus 52 lbs.; fresh meat 547 lbs.; cof
fee 30 lbs.; dried fruit 30 lbs.; canned
fruit 91 gals. ;«igar l-i2 lbs.; corn meal
55 lbs.; flour 365 IIis.; potatoes 4S6 lbs.;
other vegetables 219 lbs. ; tripe 20 lbs.
Not all these things are served every day
of course. The totals indicate the daily
ratios per man.
Keep Tab on the Home Pantry
I Iousewi\ es interested in pantry supply
totals and averages will be furnished Upou
application with record blanks by the
Department of Kural Economics and
Sociology at the University.
UNANIMOUSLY ADOPTED
WHEREAS, The Summer School teach
ers of the University of North Carolina
recognize the great need of a higher pro
fessional standard for public school^t(^ach-
ers, and
AVIIEREAS, We believe that this
standard should be uniform throughout
the state; therefore, be it
KESOl.VED. 1. That we hereby en
dorse the Bill ])resented to the last Legis-
iature known as the Teachers’ Uniform
I''xaniination and (Certification Bill.
2. That we reipiest Prof. E. E. Sams,
State Supervisor of Teacher Training, to
have similar resolutions read before all
the teacher,^ attending the institutes in
the state with a recjuest for endorsement.
3. That we request all teachers attend
ing the several summer schools through
out the State to endorse this Bill.
4. That all such resolutions be proper
ly presented to the Committee on Educa
tion in the next General Assembly.
4. That a copy of these lieto’utions
sent to the state press.
Committee: I. C. Griffin, Mrs. J.
Beam, Miss i'lary Kilpatrick, L.
CRiwford, J. II. Gentry
be
A.
R.
VERY FEW RICH PEOPLE
The Federal Government collected in
come taxes from individuals in North
Carolina amounting to $46,566 for the
year ending June 30, 1914.
Eight Southern states paid more and
only three ]>aid less—Arkansas, South
Carolina and Mississippi. Only 1991 in
dividuals in North Carolina had incomes
of $2,500 and over; 237 enjoyed incomes
of 10,000 and over; 28 had incomes of
$20,000 and over; one^had an income be
tween $250,000 and $300,000; and one,
an income between $300,000 and $400,000.
In 1913, North Carolina collected ui-
come taxes amounting to $52,710. In 33
counties not a single individual had an
income of more thau $1,250.