The news in this publi
cation is released for the
press on receipt.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
NEWS LETTER
Published Weekly by the
University of North Caro
lina for its University Ex
tension Division.
JUNE 21, 1922
CHAPEL HHX, N. C.
VOL. Vm, NO. 31
Bditorial Bi>ard
E. C. Branson, S. H. Hobbs, Jr., L, R. Wilson, E. W. Knight, D. D. Carroll, J. B. BuUitt, H. W. Odum. Entered as second-class matter November 14,1914, at the Postoffice at Chapel Hill, N, O., under the act of Augoat ..4, Itilh.
IMPORTED FOOD SUPPLIES
WHAT NEXT FOR CAROLINA! |
I for the young man’s state, the state in
u i whose heavens fortune has hung a
A fifty dollar prize, ^ * | rainbow that pledges wealth to every
j, W. Bailey to the writer o e es - ^ success to every seeker!—
essay on What Next for North Caro-;
lina, open to members of the North
Carolina Club or to students in Rural
Social Economics in the Summer School
or the regular term of the state Uni
versity; the essay to set out what next
the people of North Carolina should
undertake collectively for the progress
of the commonwealth; each essay to be
submitted by November IB in type
written Mss., with a sealed envelope
attached thereto containing the name
of the writer; the award to be made at
the close of the fall quarter of the reg
ular term.
There is a wide range of subjects for
consideration. Independence will be
appreciated and of itself it will not
count against the essayist. The award
will be determined by the significance
of the measure advocated, its funda
mental relation to commonwealth de
velopment, and its feasibility, general
conditions and the temper of the people
of the state considered. /
If, says Mr. Bailey, the prize proves
a source of stimulation to the students,
I shall be glad to give it each year so
long as I live and provide for its main
tenance after my death.
The distinct purpose of the prize it
to arouse in students a deep interest in
the Mother State, to appeal to inter
pretative insight, and to stir the facul
ties of constructive thinking about the
future of the Commonwealth.
To know North Carolina today and to
be a maker of North Carolina tomor
row, in Mr. Bailey’s opinion, is a large
—perhaps the very largest—result of
college culture that is genuine.
Address inquiries to E. C. Branson,
Chapel Hill, N. C.
A YOUNG MAN’S STATE
The Old North State is the young
man’s state. As we recently pointed
out, this is so because she has just begun
to specialize in making millionaires, be
cause she manufactures 3,000 kinds of
articles, because in the inexhaustible
gamut of her climatic, industrial, and
agricultural variety there are founda
tions for any sort of a career that a
man may care to build.
But she is also the young man’s state
because the North Carolina spirit is the
spirit of the young man. For a con
tinuous, dramatic, and ^beautiful defini
tion of this spirit, consult the Univer
sity News Letter, not this week, not
occasionally, but ail the time, every
week. The News Letter is Tarheelia’s
true gospel. It is a picture of the way
Tarheels do things, of the way they
think, of their ambitions and ideals. It
dwells on North Carolina’s astounding
achievements, not in idle boasting, but
because it finds in them charted routes
to still bigger things. It tells of her
defects, not for the pleasure of witty
scolding, but because it desires to save
the people from prolonging evils that
can be done away with.
It is edited by E. C. Branson, the
man who in compiling the North Caro
lina Year-Book, prefaced it with this
quotation from James Russell Lowell.
“Material success is good, but only as
the necessary preliminary of better
things.’’Through its every issue runs
the note of optimism, the call of cour
age, the challenge to excel. It is elo
quent with the conviction that North
Carolina can beat the world, that North
Carolinians, with their hands on the
treasures of a limitless abundance, will
make life lovelier every day by their
devotion to principle, idealism, and
spirituality. It is instinct with the spirit
of youth; it makes the reader conscious
of his invincible nobility.
Subscribe to the University News
Letter. It goes to any North Caro
linian free of charge. Read it! It is
true gospel for Tarheelia, great guid
ance for you who have to do with Tar
heel problems. It touches Tarheel life
on its every facet and in its every
phase. The city and the village, the
life of community, family, and indivi
dual, profit to be had, losses to be a-
voided, the needs of mind and soul—
upon them ail it throws the helpful
light of facts and figures that inform
and convince. All this it does in a way
to answer best every Tarheel’s every
day question: “How can I make the
most of myself, my community, and my
state?” Strong stuff! Inspired saying
FARM OWNERS NEEDED
The Univei-sity News Letter presents
an interesting and informing article on
the question of state-aid to farmers.
W. E. White, of Cleveland county, and
Miss Alma Cato, of Gaston county,
says the News Letter, read papers be
fore the North Carolina Club telling
what other counties and some of the
states in this country have done in this
respect.
Since 1909, says Mr. White, Austra
lia has been settling farmers and farm
laborers on farms and in homes of their
own, on long-term loans at low rates
of interest. Small annual repayments
carry the interest and cancel the debt
in thirty-odd years.
In four states of the Union—Cali
fornia, Oklahoma, North Dakota, and
South Dakota-direct state treasury
loans are being made for the j purchase
and equipment of farms and country
homes; and in eight states—Arizona,
Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Maine, Mis
souri, Montana, and Oregon—treasury
funds are being invested in farm mort
gages.
With tenancy on the increase the
need for action to help more farmers
into land owning is rather evident. The
plan might at least be attempted in
this state on a small scale as an ex
periment.
The Federal land banks will loan
money on land. That serves a useful
purpose to be sure, but why should all
the assistance be given to the man who
already has land? Is it not just as im
portant to aid the landless in acquiring
land as it is to aid the owners of land to
hold it and make it more productive?—
News and Observer.
CHATHAM TO THE FRONT
Chatham has won out ahead of forty
mid-state counties before the Farm
Tenancy Commission appointed by the
State Board of Agriculture. This com
mission consists of B. F. Brown of the
State Bureau of Markets, Clarence Poe
and C. C. Wright representing the
Board, C. C. Taylor of the State Col
lege of Agriculture and Engineering,
and E. C. Branson of the State Uni-
versity.
A thousand farms of owners and ten
ants will be studied by field workers in
Chatham, Edgecombe, and Madison, a-
round 350 in a typical township or two
in each of the three counties. The sur
veys will begin in a few days. The ex-
jtense is borne by the State and Federal
Departments of Agriculture, the State
A & E College and the University. They
cost the counties nothing.
There are twenty-three million idle
acres and 117 thousand landless, home
less farmers in North Carolina. In
Chatham-there are 332 thousand idle
acres and 700 landless, homeless white
farmers.
This state and this county need more
home-owning farmers and our waste
lands need to be brought into profitable
Released week beginning June 19
KNOW NORTH CAROLINA
Tidewater Carolina
Joseph Hyde Pratt
The reclamation of swamps and
overflowed lands in North Carolina
has proved to be most successful in
every respect and must be considered
one of the big accomplishments of
the state.
Of the two and one-half million
acres of original swamp lands in
eastern North Carolina, approximate
ly 600,000 acres have been reclaimed.
These reclaimed black lands are
the most productive soil in the state.
They are now an asset to the state,
because they are highly productive
and greatly increased in value. Where
formerly these lands were on the
tax books at an assessed valuation
of $25 to $50 an acre they are now
valued at $50 to $150 an acre. These
black soil lahds are favorably located
to railway, highway, and waterway
transportation facilities, and when
settled and brought into the highest
state of cultivation they will make
eastern North Carolina the greatest
agricultural region of the whole
country. Two crops a year can be
grown on most of the area, and as
this fact becomes known, these
lands will be in great demand.
New drainage districts are con
tinually being surveyed and estab
lished, and more and more acres of
these black soils are being made
ready for cultivation. There is an
other million acres that should be
reclaimed.
In the reclamation of the over
flowed lands of the piedmont region
of the state, 60,000 acres or more
have been made productive and are
adding each year their quota to the
state’s production of farm products.
Their reclamation has also elimina
ted chills and fever, and malaria in
those districts.
North Carolina has a very satis
factory drainage law that will en
able any community to reclaim their
swamp and overflowed land.—Joseph
Hyde Pratt, secretary state Geo
logical and Economic Survey.
If these three counties had roads,
schools, and banking facilities adequate
to their needs, and swift, easy trans
portation to the market centers, they
would quickly be the wealthiest farm
counties in this or any other state. They
are now on the safe side of the dead
line, and they will be wise to hold on to
this advantage as they move into
modern contacts with the outside busi
ness world.
In not one of the ninety-seven deficit
counties of the state do the bank capi
tal, surpluses, and undivided profits
accumulated in fifty years equal the
bill for imported farm and pantry sup
plies in a single year.
And let us say again that these food
and feed deficits are minimum figures
(1) because they cover only standard,
staple farm and garden products, not
extras, dainties and luxuries of diet,
(2) because the values used in the figur
ing are farm values and not retail prices
at the stores, else the deficit in each
county would have been at least twice
as large in 1920. Also that the method
of figuring for each county follows the
method used in reckoning the deficit
for the state-at-large, as exhibited in
detail in the University News Letter,
Vol. VIII, No 20. .
An Important Matter
The home-production of food and
feed is an important detail of state
economy, because it is directly related
to the critical matter of wealth-reten
tion; and wealth-retention is far more
important than wealth-production—at
least to the producers. The farmenfs
share of the consumer’s dollar is the
main thing, the farmers considered.
And at last it is a main matter for all
the people of the state and the nation, |
are involved in it, but for southern
farmers at present the most important
factor is the production of cotton and •
tobacco on a bread-and-meat basis. If
they cannot or will not learn this lesson,
it is hardly worth while for them to
learn any other.
For instance, in 1919, our cotton and
tobacco crops turned loose in the state
320 million dollars in cash, which was
90 million dollars more than the state’s
bill for imported food and feed sup
plies. But these ninety million dollars
shrank at once to forty millions when
our fertilizer bills were paid. The cot
ton and tobacco money left in North
Carolina—supposing that the cash-crop
farmers had it—was just $16 per farm
family, or around $3.00 per farm inhab
itant—and this in the prosperous year
1919. It is safe to say, that it was a
great deal less in 1921 or nothing at all;
and when the cotton and tobacco balan
ces are nothing at all or worse, then
local merchants and country bankers
are in dire distress along with the farm
ers.
The Lesson of History
For a half century we have tried to
get rich raising cotton and tobacco and
buying farm supplies with cotton and
tobacco money, and we have tried it
long enough to know that it cannot be
done—that as a matter of fact it has
not been done by any county of the
state. We lead the South in the per-
acre production of cotton and tobacco
values and we stand ahead of thirty-
eight states in the per-acre production
of gross crop values, all crops counted.
But in the per-worker production of crop
wealth thirty-one states make a better
showing and only seven states are poor
er in the per capita accumulation of
wealth in farm properties—farm lands
and buildings, livestock, farm imple
ments, and the like.
Near the top in farm-wealth produc
tion and near the bottom in farm-wealth
retention—that’s history in North Caro
lina. V
When a farm people are worth less than
per capita after two hundred and
because the farmers will not forever go - fifty years of history, it is high time
on living ‘at a poor dying rate.’ And | they were doing some first-class think-
if they quit, and they are quitting in j ing. And it’s high time merchants and
large numbers in every state every j bankers were helping them to think the
year, America will someday be asking, j problem clear through to the end and to
What shall we eat and wherewithal' think straight.
shall we be clothed, and how shall we | No city can safely live unto itself a-
command the wherewithal to pay for ; lone. In sheer self-defence it must
existence necessities? ! take generous thought of the country-
Now, the retention of farm wealth is j side that supports it. That city is
a complicated problem. Many factors I richest whose trade territory is richest.
IMPORTED FOOD AND FEED SUPPLIES
Bills for 1920
/
Based (1) on the 1920 census of quantities and values of bread and meat
produced in each county, (2) on the consuming population of folks and farm ani
mals, (3) on standard staple farm and garden products —not extras, dainties,
and luxuries, and (4) on the per capita averages used in the University News
Letter, Vol. 8, No. 20.
State bill for imported food and feed supplies $229,000,000.
The self-feeding counties of the state are three—Currituck, Alleghany, and
Camden; the restare all deficit counties, or so they were in 1920.
W. T. Anderson, Jr., Wilson, and R. W. Proctor, Lumberton.
Department Rural Social Economics, University of North Carolina.
. How to help men to own farms is
what this Fafm Ownership Commission
is trying to find out; how successful
farmers succeed; how hard working,
long-headed tenants have become farm
owners in the last 20 years, why the
others have failed, and so on and on-
these are some of the things that are to
be studied and reported to the next
legislature in January. Seventeen
states have passed laws concerning
state-aid to farmers. If this state con-
siders such laws, our legislature will
need to know what the facts are in rep-
resentative counties.
Messrs. Gibbons, Dickey, and Branson
laid the Chatham survey before the
county commissioners and the board of
education on Monday of last week and
spent the rest of the day getting the
advice of leading citizens, gathering up
county maps and information, and m
general getting ready for the field trips
of the surveyors.
We are passing on this item of news
to our readers so that they may under-
stand what is proposed, what these
field workers are doing in the county
during the three summer months, and
why they are asking so many questions
as they move from home to home.
They are trying to put Chatham to
the front on the map—for that will be
the result if our farmers are willing to
give these men from the State Univer
sity the information they are seeking
from each farmer.
Nobody need hesitate to answer any
question they ask. . No blanks, filled out
by any body will be given to the public
in the committee report. What is want
ed is the averages for the county and
we want the best possible averages for
Chatham.
We know well enough that Chatham
is the best county in mid-state Caro
lina, but it will be worth something to
us for everybody else to know it.
Six other counties want this survey,
and if our farmers do not want it they
have only to turn a cold shoulder to
Messrs. Dickey and Gibbons and they
will promptly begin work in some other
county. We needn’t have it if we don’t
want it.
Do we want it?
The editor thinks we do. What do
other people think about it?
Please let this paper know at once.—
Chatham Record.
IMPORTED FOOD BILLS
In fifty years the people of North
Carolina have been able to accumulate
170.million dollars in bank-account sav
ings in banks of all sorts, state and
national.
In a single year-the year 1920-we
sent 230 million dollars out of the state
in cold cash for bread and butter, hog
and hominy, hay and forage that we
could have produced at home.
The bills for imported food and feed
supplies range from five thousand dol
lars in Northampton to more than nine
million dollars each in Guilford, Forsyth,
and Mecklenburg. See the table else
where. . „ J.
Only three counties are self-teedmg
J-Camden. Alleghany, and Currituck.
Rank
Counties
Deficit
Rank
Counties
Deficit
1
Currituck—surplus..
. $298,849
51
Chatham
$1,742,350
2
Alleghany—surplus...
107,472
52
Person
1,752,923
3
Camden—surplus ...
32,239
53
Madison
• 1,819,897
4
Northampton ;.
$ 5,381
54
Stokes
. 1,841,373
5
Alexander
69,109
55
Moore
1,862,120
6
Hertford
81,827
56
Bladen
. 1,946,359
7
. Pamlico .
143,981
57
Haywood ...
2,003,050
8
Tyrrell
159,397
68
Randolph
2,023,881
9
Chowan
236,223
59
Sampson
. 2,073,043'
10
Clay
265,400
60
Burke
. 2,248,941
11
Caswell
290,754
61
Beaufort
. 2,376,516
12
Hyde
383,373
62
Harnett
. 2,530,450
13
Graham
432,555
68
Wilkes
2,576,569
14
Bertie
437,793
64
Franklin
. 2,577,584
15
Gates
471,447
65
Edgecombe
. 2,670,801
16
Washington
628,924
66
Union
. 2,711,884
17
Perquimans
662,054
67
Iredell
. 2,738,453
18
Polk
777,191
68
Catawba
. 2,778,886
19
McDowell
789,171
69
Davidson
. 2,829,509
20
Watauga
818,210
70
Columbus
. 2,873,328
21
Dare
826,462
71
Stanly
, 2,895,978
22
Transylvania
908,525
72
Granville
. 2,921,210
23
Davie
936,646
7a
Richmond
. 2,990,367
24
Mitchell
942,135
74
Cleveland
. 2,990,634
25
Hoke
956,366
75
Anson
. 3,019,961
26
Pender
960,255
76
Lenoir
. 3,035,617
27
Avery
968,728
77
Rutherford
. 3,060,791
28
Martin
. 1,016,281
78
Vance
.. 3,098,340
29
Jackson
. 1,065,524
79
Surry
. 3,109,144
30
Jones
. 1,073,009
80
Warren
. 3,222,212
31
Yadkin
. 1,107,170
81
Alamance
. 3.416,639
33
Yancey
. 1,120,671
82
Craven
. 3,652,123
32
Pasquotank
. 1,131,808
83
Wilson
. 3,691,703
34
Carteret
. 1,148,795
84
Rowan
. 3,772,829
. 1,195,618
85
Cumberland
3,799,525
36
Greene
. 1,246,589
86
Johnston
. 3,864,591
37
Orange
. 1,293,937
87
Wayne . i
. 3,953,057
38
Montgomery
. 1,344,703
88
Nash.... .\. •...
. 4,445,786
39
Cherokee
. 1,357,114
89
Pitt
.. 4,448,095
J rvrt
. 1,374,380
90
Halifax
.. 4,597,768
41
Swain
. 1,398,394
91
Robeson
.. 4,857,828
42
Lincoln
. 1,408,166
92
Rockingham
.. 6,117,162
43
Scotland
. 1,425,075
93
Durham v....
.. 5,796,265
44
Henderson
. 1,523,822
94
New Hanover
.. 5,823,409
45
Qabarrus
. 1,657,098
95
Gaston v..
.. 6,529,856
46
.•Macon
. 1, BBS, 981
96
Buncombe .
.. 6,688,580
47
/ Onslow.....
. 1,619,896
97
Wake
.. 8,850,155
48
Brunswick
. 1,661,708
98
Guilford
... 9,255,165
49.
Duplin
. 1,668,502
99
Forsyth
9,293,696
5d
Caldwell
. 1,733,7H
100
Mecklenburg
.. 9,866,217
C
'Fii