home study facilities
Mr. Arthur J. Klein, in a recent Fed
eral Education Bureau Bulletin writes:
^‘Outside university walls, and often
within them, the charge is freely ban
died about that the universities have too
little to offer the world; that higher ed-
u4ation has made itself a little other
world in the skies. Critics who are
-more fair and better informed recog
nize that the university is a great res
ervoir of information and of help im-
■feasurably valuable to the commercial,
industrial, and governmental worlds.
Th(' fundamental defect is that work,
business, and the ties of active life in
home communities, prevent the people
who need the resources of the univer
sity from coming to the campus for
what they want, and in too many cases
the university has had no means of de
livering its services at the doors of
these potential students.”
It is to meet the needs of just such
people that the University of North
'Carolina, through the Bureau of Exten
sion, is offering courses of college credit
to North Carolina citizens. There are
many people in the state who would
like to follow a directed reading course
for cultural purposes or who would like
to continue a postponed college course
which would either give credit towards
a degree or add to their working effici
ency.
Courses Offered
Undoubtedly there are teachers, prin
cipals, and superintendents, in North
■ Carolina who are not satisfied with the
ijresults they are getting in their school
work. They need to revive their knowl-
e(fee of the function, management,
p^gram ef studies or internal equip
ment of the high school. A course in
Education, prepared by an expert in
the field, is offered to teachers by the
Home Study Division.
Many people who have been denied
the privilege of attending college are
now engaged in business or teaching
professions which require a knowledge
of writing correct English. They are
handicapped because they do not know
how to dictate a convincing letter or
to frame an article for the newspaper.
For such people the Home Study Divis
ion offers a course in English Composi
tion.
JOr, for the man or woman who de
votes the evenings to beneficial reading
there is a course in English Literature.
Bacon has expressed the purpose of
such a course in these words: ‘ ‘Studies
serve for delight, for [ornament, and
for ability. ’ ’ In the same essay he has
said that reading maketh a full man
and writing an exact man. In this
course opportunity is given to read
some of the best expressions of the
ablest English writers from Elizabeth
an times to the end of the nineteenth
century.
(The Great War stimulated an unparal
leled interest in history which may be
satisfied by a course in either American
or European History, prepared by men
peculiarly fitted to make the study en
tertaining and beneficial.
ICourses in Latin, Mathematics, and
Economics, are ready for those students
who have been compelled to leave col
lie temporarily but who wish to con
tinue working towards the degree; or
for those who wish to teach these sub
jects and feel the necessity of intensive
sf^idy along these lines.
■ (For further information address the
Home Study Division, Bureau of Ex
tension, University of North Carolina,
Chapel Hill, N. C.
larger rural schools.
Part 2 treats of Government and
Community Problems of our Towns and
Cities. Every city superintendent should
lay the project and questions outlined
in this chapter before his teachers of
civics. A text book on civics already
in use in schools could be greatly sup
plemented and even discarded in toto if
the teacher knows how to handle the
subject. There is enough material in
this chapter alone to occupy a full year’s
work in the study of community civics.
Part 3, which treats of Government
and Community Problems of County
and Open Country, could well form a
year’s work and be profitably substi
tuted for any reading circle book now
on the list; especially for teachers hold
ing the higher grade of certificate.
Superintendents and principals could
very well take Part 4, Government and
Public Service of the State, as a year’s
work in professional study. They would
be better executives and have a better
insight into the government and its ad
ministration by making such a study.
The University Press has published
nothing in recent years that can be
more helpful in our educational life than
this number which treats of Construct
ive Ventures in Government.
Superintendents, principals, and
teachers who are seeking guidance in
teaching community civics, will find
this publication exceedingly helpful.—
North Carolina Education.
SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLARS PER
A COMMUNITY CIVICS TEXT
Dr. Howard W. Odum of the Univer
sity of North Carolina has recently pub
lished, through the University Press, a
very valuable aid for the study of com
munity civics. The title of the volume
is Constructive Ventures in Government.
While it is prepared primarily to give
aid to women and women’s clubs in the
study of citizenship, it offers sugges-
,|||ons in the project method for teaching
community civics that can be of tre-
iiiendous value to superintendents, prin
cipals, and teachers.
|Parts 2, 3, 4, and 5 are especially ap
propriate for the city schools and the
Seventy-five dollars per acre was the
average value of farm land in North
Caraliua on the first day of last March,
as reported by the Bureau of Crop Es
timates of the U. S. Department of
Agriculture.
This handsome figure surprises nobody
who knows North Carolina; who knows
that the greatest natural resource of
the state is now, and has always been,
our soils and seasofis, and not—distinct
ly not—our mines and quarries; who
knows anything about current .market
prices—the exchange or transfer values
of farm land as it passes from hand to
hand in country real' estate sales from
day to day in North Carolina.
And not even today, when cotton and
tobacco prices are skidding toward the
bottom, will $75 buy much farm land
anywhere in our 52 cash-crop counties
—except at-forced sales. Actual trans
fers of farm land have well-nigh stopped
of late. Little or nothing is doing in
country real estate deals; but market
values still remain right around $75 an
acre, in 10 counties right around $100 or
more an acre, and in our four choicest
tobacco counties right around $200 an
acre.
The high rank of Carolina among the
farm states in annual crop -values is due
to a simple, single fact, namely, our
remarkable per-acre production of
wealth in the five most valuable stand
ard farm crops known to man—tobacco,
cane sirup, sweet potatoes, peanuts,
and cotton; we are naming them in or
der from high to low. Any one or two
Or all five of these" crops can be pro
duced in commercial quantities in the
52 coastal plain and tidewater counties
where the market values of farm land
are highest. And even at the present
low prices of' these standard crops an
acre of land in these 52 counties will
produce from three to four times the
crop values yielded by an acre of land
in the rich prairie states of the Middle
West.
We said crop values per acre. In crop
values per worker the middle western
farmers beat us hands down; because
they cultivate larger farms with horse
and machine power; which means small
er values per acre and larger values
per worker. Which also means smaller
production costs and wider margins of
profit. And notwithstanding the smaller
crop values per acre, they not only
make more than our cotton and tobacco
farmers but they save more per farm
worker.
Here is the explanatibn of why the
bread-and-meat farmers of Iowa alone
have a larger total of bank account sav
ings than the cotton and tobacco farm
ers of the entire South—ten million dol
lars more in 1916. Not even 40-cent
OUR BEST INVESTMENT
Governor T. W. Bickett
North Carolina is the richest state
in the South.
North Carolina spends less on its
children than any other State, save
one. '
This State can no longer point
with pride to the fact that it spends
less on its government than any other
State.
I believe in the saving grace of
education. Ignorance is the mother
of poverty and the hand-maiden of
The best investment that the State
of North Carolina can make is in the
hearts and minds of its people.
In two and one-half centuries this
State has spent only fourteen million
dollars on college equipment. The
peanut crop of the State for a single
year would pay for this equipment.
Last year we spent two and one-
half million dollars on our thirty-one
colleges, and we spent over twenty
million dollars on the upkeep of au
tomobiles. We have spent thirty-
six and one-half million dollars on
automobiles or one hundred thousand
dollars per day,
Last year there were 10,585 stu
dents in our 31 colleges, but 2,608
were turned away.
It does not become us to plead that
poverty is knocking at the door.
cotton and 62-cent tobacco have availed
to wipe out this overwhelming contrast
in bank account savings between the
bread-and-meat farmers of the West
abd the cotton and tobacco farmers of
the South.
Our Rank Is 29th
Here is the explanation of why the
market price of farm lands in 11 middle
weitern states is higher upon an aver
age than in 11 southern states. In these
11 bread-and-meat states farm land sells
at prices ranging from $80 per acre in
Kansas to $255 in Iowa; in these 11 to
bacco and cotton states the per-acre
prices range from $38 in Alabama to
$75 in North Carolina. Wealth produc
tion per farm worker creates higher
farm values than crop production per
acre. Gross yield per acre is one thing
and net profit per worker is another. A
canny farmer sees the difference in
stantly. A dull brother of the clod
never does.
On the whole, we produce greater
■gross crop values per aote in the South;
they retain greater crop wealth per
worker in the West. This one fact has
always stood in the way of migration
southward. Not the southern negro in
excessive numbers, but the prevailing
farm system of the South, is the essen
tial fact that has turned the migrating
farmers of the North and Middle West
away from the Southland and sent them
by the millions into Canada and the far
western states.
In the table published elsewhere in
in this issue it will be seen that the av
erage market price of farmlands is
greater in 28 states of the Union than
in North Carolina, and less in only 17
states, almost all of them southern.
The table in detail appears elsewhere
in this issue.
The organization of the Division of
Country Home Comforts and Conven-
ien ces was completed just about one
year ago. During this time the coun-
tty people of the State have had the
benefit of the expert advice of the fol
lowing members of the engineering
faculty of the University: Professor P.
H. Daggett, director; Professor J. H.
Mustard, Electric Light and Power;
Professor J. E. Lear, Rural Telephones;
Professor Thorndike Saville, Water
Power, Supply, and Sanitation; and
Professor E. C. Branson, Rural Social
Engineering.
The other member of the engineering
staff of the Division, Mr. W. C. Walke,
has spent about half of his time in the
field making surveys and stream gaug-
ings for individuals who have had prob
lems which needed expert attention on
the spot. All of this advice and assist
ance, we want to emphasize again, is
absolutely free of all expense to those
who need it. All that is necessary is
to drop a line to the Division of Coun
try Home Conveniences at Chapel Hill.
If we can’t solve your problem for you
by mail, Mr. Walke will gladly pay you
a visit and go over the matter in per
son. i
Since the work was started we have
had problems referred to us by one
hundred and seventy-six people in the
state. These have been classified as
follows: Inquiries about General Pow
er 103; Water Povrer 44; Water Supply
24; Telephones 3; Housing 2.
Summarizing in a general way the
work done on these projects, we have
made 101 Personal Visits, 27 Surveys,
27 S tream Gaugings, Furnished Plans
for 32 projects, and submitted 72 Cost
Estimates; 78 calls have been satisfac
torily answered by mail,.and we are
still working on 24 Incompleted Pro
jects.
These calls have been distributed
over 68 counties ranging from Cherokee
to Chowan and Ashe to New Hanover
as indicated in the following table.
Alamance ■
Alexander
Ashe
Avery
Beaufort
Bertie
Bladen
Buncombe
Burke.
Caldwell..
Carteret..
Caswell ,
Chatham
Cherokee
Cho wan
Cleveland .
Columbus .
Craven
Cumberland.
Davidson
Davie
Duplin
Durham'
Edgecombe ...
Forsyth
Franklin
Gaston!
Gates
Guilford .
Halifax
Harnett
Hertford
Haywood
Henderson
Hoke
Iredeli
Johnston
Lee
Mecklenburg .
Montgomery ..
Moore
Nash ... ■.
New Hanover.
Northampton .
Orange
Person
Pitt
Polk
Randolph
Robeson
Rockingham ..
Rowan
Richmond
Rutherford ...
Sampson
Scotland
Stanly
Stokes
Transylvania ..
Union
Vance
Wake
Warren
Watauga
Wayne
.Wilkes
Yadkin
Yancey
2
11
3
3
2
1
1
1
1
2
4
2
1
2
1
4
2
1
5
1
4
2
2
1
3
1
1
2
4
1
4
1
1
2
3
1
5
1
2
2
3
1
3
S
3
3
1
1
1
1 ■
2
2
1
8
3
1
5
1
3
1
are greatly multiplied in the 1920 tax
books—how greatly will appear in de
tail in the table we shall be publishing
in next week’s issue. In 1919 the per
acre tax value of land in 64 counties of
the state was less than $10—it was less
than $6 an acre in 12 counties. Evident
ly there were righteous reasons, for
higher figures on the tax books.
We have always found that the farm
ers as a class are fundamentally honest;
but for them as for the rest of us, it
has not been easy to know big subjects
like taxation in simple ways, and there
fore to think on high levels of rectitude
in the matter of taxpaying.
Nevertheless, without the farmer-
vote in North Carolina it would have
been impossible to put two and a third
billions more on our tax-book and to
pass the constitutional tax amendments
by a majority of nearly 200,000 votes.
No other state of the Union in all
the history of this country has moved
upwards so far and so fast in establish
ing a reign of righteousness in the
realm of taxation.
In fundamental ways it is the great
est single chapter of history that North
Carolina has ever written.
Land Values And Tax BooKs
The average market value of farm
land in North Carolina in 1920 is $75 an
acre, but the average tax value is only
$39 an acre. Which is to say, our farm
ers are paying taxes on land at hardly
more than half the market value the
state over.
Competent students have known all
the time what the farmers have not
generally understood, namely, that
farm lands under the revaluation law
are not listed at 100 percent of their
current market value. As a matter of
fact, allowance was properly made for
the inflated values of a war period, and
a level reduction of about 60 percent
was made practically everywhere in
the state.
At the same time, farm land values
FARM LAND VALUES IN THE UNITED STATES
Average Per Acre on March 1, 1920, with the Percent of Increase over
March. 1, 1919. Based on Bulletin No. 874, U. S. Department of Agriculture
Aug. 23, 1920.
Department of Rural Social Science, University of North Carolina
United States, $99.24 per acre
21.1 percent increase.
! .f ■
Rank State
Value
Perct.
Rank State
Value
per Acre
Inc.
per Acre
Inc.
'■'k
1
Iowa
...$255....
32.8
26
Connecticut
...$86....
26.8
M-'
2
Illinois
204....
24.3
25
Kentucky
... 85....
4.9
3
California
190....
-12.8
27
Kansas
... 80....
15.9
'ft,'
4
Arizona
185....
42.3
28
Tennessee
... 77....
18.4
■'1 ■*
' 1
6
Utah
160....
15.3
29
North Carolina ..
.. 75....
59.5
6
Washington ...
160....
30.4
29
South Carolina...
... 75....
41.5
•I;.
7
Indiana
146....
20.8
29
Colorado
... 75.'...
13.6
- -V
8
Nebraska
....135....
28.5
32
Florida
... 72....
20.0
■ IV'
9
Wisconsin
....130
19.2
33
Texas
... 69....
26.4
9
Ohio
....130....
19.2
34
Virginia
... 68....
13.3
11
New Jersey ...
....126....
10.6
35
Louisiana .......
... 65....
51.1
12
Idaho
....126....
28.8
36
New Mexico
... 62....
00.0
S ■■
13
Minnesota
....124....
31.9
37
Wyoming
.... 60 ...
20.0
S'."--
14
Oregon
....120....
26.3
38
West Virginia...
... 68
13.7
15
South Dakota .
....no....
37.5
39
Georgia
... 67....
26.1
I
16
Missouri
....l04....
26.8
40
Oklahoma
...66....
26.4 ■'
17
Massachusetts..
....100....
25.0
40
Arkansas
... 55....
30.9
18
Rhode Island...
.... 95....
5.5
42
Vermont]
... 63....
12.7
19
Delaware
.... 94....
20.5
43
Maine
... 52....
10.6
20
Pennsylvania..
.... 92....
16.4
43
New Hampshire.
... 52....
15.6
i
21
Maryland
.... 91....
31.8
46
North Dakota'...
... 50....
16.2
Jf .¥
22
Nevada
.... 90....
00.0
46
Mississippi
... 45....
40.6
!a^ "
23
New York
.... 88....
17.3
47'
Montana
... 42....
7.6
24
Michigan
.... 87....
8.7
48
Alabama
... 38....
31,0
i >.