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 Press for the Univer
sity Extension Division.
OCTOBER 24,1923
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
VOL. IX, NO. 49
BiitorUl
3i>ardi E. G. Braason. 3. H. Hobba. Jr.. L. R. Wilsoa. E. W. Knight. D. D. Carroll. J. B.Ballitt. H. W. Odum.
Entered as second-class matter November 14.1914, at thePostofficeat Chapel Hill. N. C.. under the act of August 24. 1911
A LAND OF BOOK FARMERS
XV-
LIVING WITH THE DANISH FARMERS
kept busy waiting on the farmers all
day long and never a minute of the
time without Wouter Van Twiller pipes
hanging from their teeth to their equa
tors. They hitch and unhitch horses,
tilt up shahs and unhinge wagon tong
ues to save yard space, button the rain
covers over seats and bodies, and sweep
the court between times, their pipes
bobbing the while against their belts.
What they need is four bandseach, but
they get along with two, in ways that
are marvelous to me.
Outside of Copenhagen and the tour
ist resorts on the ocean fronts, there is
no way to live in Denmark without liv
ing with the farmers, or none that I
have yet discovered. Expensive hotels
were written into the Jutland itinerary
prepared for me by the English-speak
ing Danes in the state offices at the
capital. But when I get to these hotels,
most of them fine and fit as a fiddle
^even in the little country towns. I find
them filled to overflowing with farmers
come to market, farm delegates meet
ing to represent some one or more of
the five thousand cooperative societies,
and agents of farm enterprises as keen
ly bent on business as Dicken's bagmen
or Duke’s tobacco drummers. Twice I
have walked a Sabbath-day’s journey to
find a vacant room, and twice a Land
man’s Hotel or Hotellet has saved me
from sleeping on a park bench. Land-
man being Danish for farmer.
A Farmer’s Hotel
Now a farmer’s hotel in America
one thing, but in Denmark it is quite
something else. In Viborg, for in-
Listening In
The farmers, their wives and their
daughters, are just as well dressed as
the towns people I see in the streets
and stores and office buildings. If you
can distinguish the farmers from any
other business men in a Danish town,
you are rarely endowed with discrimi
nating senses. And while they smoke
and drink beer and consume incredible
quantities of smear-bread in the hotel
eating spaces and around- the cafe
tables in front, they discuss farming
from Peter Rice to Colophon—not
stance. We’ve nothing left but a room merely crops and seasons and livestock,
on the court, said the room clerk, who
is also headwaiter, bookkeeper, cashier,
and business manager all in one. It
will do—anything will do, was the re
sponse of a winded traveler. And I
am ushered into commodious, immacu
late quarters on a second-story back.
I find myself in a room outfitted with
beech and white marble furniture, a
luscious couch that comforts every
weary bone, on the floor a rug hand
somer than I can afford in my bedroom
at home, on the walls photogravures
of Danish scenes, electric lights over
head, a dainty restful bed with the us-
. ual feather bed-covers, and at the head
of my bed a table lig’ht and a push but
ton. These, in the back room of a
farmer’s hotel in Denmark, and all for
three kroner a day, which is fifty-four
cents in American money! I was in
fact so comfortable that I stayed on
there three days to study the coopera
tive creamery and cheese factory, the
egg-packing plant, the curb market,
the agricultural high school and the
Heath Reclamation Society that Dal-
gas established in the eighteen sixties.
Meantime I made little journeys in all
directions on trains and in motor cars
to see the homes and farms of a region
that was held to be worthless and hope
less fifty years ago. Today there is no
discoverable sign of anything but pros
perity either in Viborg or in its sur
rounding trade territory.
From My Study Window
Speaking of my back room in the
Landman’s Hotellet, I may say that
my window acquaintances were as in
teresting as ever James Russel Lowell’s
were. His were birds, mine were
farmers in the court below. And nev
er a Jay among them. Off and on from
daylight till the court was cleared a-
round ten at night, I studied these
farmers, their wives and children, their
dress, their market wagons and loads,
and their teams of horses fat and slick
as butter balls. A few of the farmers,
not many, drove into the courtyard in
high state in Ford cars, but most of
the vehicles were the regulation market
wagons of the heath country. They
look for all the world like Ford trucks
set high on stout springs with very
broad seats and very high backs. Not
a few of the seats and backs are cush
ioned-in bright colors and rich mater
ials. The bodies are deep, and the
sides have sloping top-pieces hinged to
bold expanding loads off the wheels.
The wealth and rank of the farmer are
patently set forth by the number^ size,
and breed of the horses he drives, by
the harness he uses, the seat robes and
load covers, and the air of assurance
with which he descends, bands the
reins to the stable boys, and hurries
out to business. The ancestors of these
farmers were all peasants seventy-five
years ago, without property, vote or
voice, little differing from the Saxon
churls I used to read about in Ivanhoe
in my boyhood days, but now they have
something like the port and poise of
the few remaining Danish noblemen.
And the stable boys were interest
ing. The three were all old men who
LIVING A WHOLE LIFE
The criterion of the American state
university is not a matter of the vo
cation, but whether in making the
student efficient in his vocation' it
has focused through his studies its
own inner light so as to liberalize
him as a member of democratic so
ciety.
It is not the function of the uni
versity to make a man clever in his
profession merely. That is a com
paratively easy and negligible uni
versity task.
It is also to make vivid to him
through his profession his deeper re
lations—not merely proficiency in
making a good living, but product
ivity in living a whole life.—Edward
Kidder Graham, Inaugural Address,
1914.
but market prices and foreign exchange
rates the world over. Just now the
talk is all about exchange rates, and
no banker in town knows more
than the farmers about the pur
chasing value of the krone in the coun
tries that sell them margarine materi
als, seed cakes, coal, gasoline, and fer
tilizers. I am quoting the local Ford
car agent, an English speaking Dane
who interprets for me the Babel of
voices in the hotel lobby. Their com
plaint is that the krone is down to
nearly six for an American dollar and
more than twenty-six to the English
pound. Danish money, they say,
not on a gold basis; nobody doubts the.
ability of Denmark to pay for imports,
but in a pinch she could not settle ad
verse trade balances in gold,, and so in
this day of crazj currencies in Europe,
their own rich country is paying a
heavy penalty for the disturbed busi
ness faith of the world; Denmark must
get on a gold basis; the krone must be
boosted, the powers-that-be must get
busy. And so on and on.
I have an idea that the powers-that-
be will get busy, for the lightest whis
per of the farmers sounds like thunder
in Denmark.
tween the farm organizations and the
middlemen. They work together with
mutual advantage. Both are prosper
ing and both are satisfied. Neither
dares-to treat the other unfairly, for
sharp practices spell bankruptcy for
the farmers and the dealers alike. As
for the superfluous middlemen, they
disappeared from Denmark long ago,
or most of them, for the farmers beat
them at the game, hands down.
mills increase in number and magni-
Some clays can be made more valuable
A Genial Northern Climate
Book-Farming the Rule
A common saying is that a Danish
farmer would rather do without his
breakfast than his morning paper. The
saying does not overstate the fact. The
Danes are farmers, but even more they
are business men, engaged in big dis
tributing businesses of their own, and I
am assured that they are easily equal
to the bankers and brokers in discuss
ing foreign situations and domestic
consequences, trade policies, and eco
nomic laws in general. They are book-
farmers and newspaper readers, with
headpieces. The farmer sitting beside
me yesterday on the train gave an hour
to the news of the world, the market
reports and the financial tables, all the
while figuring on his knees with his
pencil. This morning I was the guest
of a gaarman or middle class farmer,
in his nearby country home. His news
paper rack looks like the file of a com
mercial club in America, and the books
on his library shelves are as many as
mine in Chapel Hill. I understand,
said he, that the farmers of the United
States do not think much of book-farm
ing; we have learned better than that
in Denmark. My interpreters were
two fine young fellows from the offices
' of the Heath Reclamation Society, and
they smiled as they handed me our
host’s compliment to the farmers of
America.
My travels in Jutland are giving me
a chance to see peninsular Denmark
from the German frontier to Skagen,
which by the way is in the latitude of
Greenland’s icy mountains. But Den
mark has something like the oceanic
climate of the British Isles, and, even
in the far North, the growing season is
around one hundred and fifty days in
average years. Which explains, at
least in part, the grain crops, the green
pastures, the plump dairy cows, beef
cattle, and horses I see in the fields all
along the way to Frederickshavn and
almost to Skagen where Denmark dives
into the North Sea.
Agricultural Trade Center
The rest of the explanation lies in the
keen wit of the Danes. They have de
veloped an agriculture perfectly adjust
ed to soils and seasons, and with equal
genius they have cashed-in the oppor
tunities of a geographical location.
Look at Denmark’s place on the map,
Copenhagen commands the Baltic on
the east, Gedser on a south shore taps
the Berlin market, Elsinore looks over
into Sweden across a strait that the
ferryboats span in twenty-minute trips,
in the north Frederickshavn faces Nor
way, and on the west Esberg reaches
London and Manchester with Danish
farm products. Denmark is in the
center of a trade area of 150 million
consumers.
tude.
Commercial Agriculture
Now, domestic agriculture is one
thing, and commercial agriculture is
another. To a Dane, farming on a
commercial basis means (1) crops to
feed the farm family and the farm ani
mals, (2) livestock to convert crop sur
pluses into milk and meat products, (3)
farm industries to convert these pro
ducts into fit forms for final consumers
—creameries, cheese factories, bacon;
factories, egg-packing plants and the
like, owned and operated by the farm
ers themselves, or their experts and
business agents, (4^ sales agencies and
financial institutions of their own, on
a cooperative basis, and (6) a state
whose service agencies are all busy in
behalf of agriculture.
Possible Only to Farm Owners
Commercial farming is the last word
in farming. It is a kind of farming
that is possible to farm owners alone,
and to intelligent farm owners—never
to farm tenants and never to farm
regions cursed with widespread illiter
acy. There are no farm tenants in
Denmark, or too few to count, less
than ten percent in fact. And there
are no illiterates except the feeble
minded. Danish illiterates are only two
in the thousand of population against
180 per thousand in the country regions
of North Carolina in 1910.
Any Dane of character can own a
home or a farm. The state is expend
ing in the present three-year period
twenty-two million kroner, or nearly
four million dollars in American money,
to help tenants and farm laborers into
the full ownership of homes and farms.
Danish tenants are few, but Denmark
means to have none at all if it is hum
anly possible to put every man into a
home of his own.
Education an Essential
And any child can have any kind of
education it wants and in any amount.
Education is as free as the air in Den
mark. For instance, I find 600 scholar
ship students in the University of Co
penhagen. A scholarship student pays
nothing for his room and meals, and he
wins scholarship by merit in the schools
below.
as ceramic clays by the addition of cer
tain other soils or chemicals. Only an
analysis of the soil or clay can give the
information as to their applicability as
a raw material or what other materials
are needed to give a certain type of
ceramic ware. Due to the multitude
of glazes and coloring substances used
in the industry, control of their appli
cation must be in the hands of one
versed in the knowledge of their com
position and properties.
Our State Industry
Peasant Farmers As Leaders
Commonwealth Building
In North Carolina at the present time
there are 103 ceramic plants 92 of which
make brick and tile, four make stone
ware, two crockery, and the other five
make pottery in addition to crockery.
Four of the brick yards make sewer and
drain tile, clay roofing and terra cotta
in addition to brick. A crockery plant
making a very small output was start
ed as early as 1867 in Monroe, Union
County. The first large plant to be in
corporated was the Pomona Terra Cotta
Company of Pomona, in 1885, which is
now one of the largest in the state.
The number of plants increased from
five in 1890 to twelve in 1900, to twen
ty-five in 1910, to forty-seven in 1918
and to one hundred three in 1920. That
the state is recognizing the possibility
of this industry is evident from these
figures.
The total amount of capital invested
in ceramic plants in North Carolina is
close to $1,760,000; the plant valuation
1,500,000, and the yearly output is
valued at about $6,976,000. One thous
and forty workmen received $1,410,000
in wages in 1920 in this industry alone.
The ceramic plants in the state are
small, only eleven having an invest
ment, plant valuation, or production
value above $50,000. Ample opportun
ities exist in the pottery and crockery
industry. In 1920 there were only elev
en pottery and crockery plants in the
state. They had a combined capital of
only $10,000, employed 17 men and
turned out $16,000 worth of products.
Suitable clays are available in abund
ance in North Carolina. Our need is
for trained men who can turn our raw
products into valuable finished wares.
F. C. Vilbrandt, Professor of Industrial
Chemistry, University of North Caro
lina.
I have long held and I still hold that
the fundamental social ills of North
Carolina are excessive tenancy and
overweening illiteracy. The future of
the state depends on the universal dif
fusion of intelligence and the universal
ownership of homes and farms. The
Commonwealth must be built on char
acter, culture, and home ownership or
it will be built in vain.—E. C. Branson,
Frederickshavn, July 31, 1923.
OUR CHEMICAL INDUSTRY
Ceramic Industries
Only Necessary Middlemen
The Danish farmers market their
you see, and they know the
own wares, .
distribution game from A to izzard
from farm to table as they say over
here. The middlemen do not get the
bulk of the consumer’s money, the
farmers get it. I find plenty of middle
men in Denmark, but they are the nec
essary middlemen, and the farmers
have sense enough to know that they
are necessary. There is no quarrel be-
What the Danes needed was export
able farm surpluses, adequate harbors
and port facilities, rapid-transit train
and boat services; and what they need
ed they set about securing with clear
heads and rigid wills. They saw no
obstacles, they saw only the opportun
ities, and when timid statesmen wav
ered the farmers took charge of the
government and organized the state for
agriculture on a commercial scale.
There was nothing else to do, for Den
mark has no forest wealth, no coal, no
oil, no iron, and no mineral ^deposits of
any sort except clay, sand, pebbles and
marl. The way ahead in Denmark lay
in agriculture, not in manufacture.
But what the drowsy town dwellers
and the placid big-estate owners could
not see in two hundred years, the new
ly freed peasant farmers came to see
in less than fifty.
The first thing they did was to lift
farming from domestic to commercial
levels, the next thing waa'.to take the
commerce of Denmark into their own
hands, and their last move>as to take
over the state and organize itjfor farm
prosperity. Which is proper|enough in
a country that is purely agricultural,
as Denmark is. It is another matter
in a state that can be agricultural
or industrial, or best of all both, if it
but have the wisdom to save its farm
life from decay and death, while its
Few people ever stop to wonder
where the articles or materials with
which they come in daily contact are
produced. Take, for instance, the build
ing blocks, the common bricks, the
ornamental terra cotta, the crockery or
even the china ware. It is interesting
to know when you are using a product
of Carolina clays made in our native
state.
The general procedure involved in
ceramic ware manufacture is as fol
lows. A clay or mixture of clays suit
able for ceramic ware is aged, thorough
ly mixed, worked, moulded into the
shape desired and then slowly dried in
the open air under roof or in tunnels
heated by the waste gases from the
kilns or ovens. The dried articles are
then carefully packed in the kilns and
'fired at the proper temperature until
they are thoroughly burned. Such ma
terial is porous and is known as biscuit
or bisque; as such it is not available for
use unless the biscuit is a brick, a com
mon tile or similar article. The finish
ing treatment consists in applying cer
tain chemicals to the biscuit which will
produce a glaze on heat treatment.
When the article is moulded like a plate
and a pretty design painted on it with
the chemicals, a plate results. The
shape into which the article is moulded
determines the shape of the finished
product.
But any kind of clay will not make
INFANT DEATHS FEWER
North Carolina is a safer state to be
born in than she was a few years ago.
The chance of living through the first
year following birth in 1921 was 26 per
cent better than in 1917. The first
year of life is a hazardous one. In
1917 out of every 1,000 children born
100 died during the first twelve months.
In 1919 the mortality rate was eighty-
four, while in 1921 it had been reduced
to seventy-five. Both races have
shown marked decreases in infant
mortality.
The mortality rate for white babies
under one year of age has decreased
from eighty-five per one thousand
births in 1917 to sixty-six in 1921.
The mortality rate for negro infants
under one year of age has decreased
from one hundred thirty-three to nine
ty-five per one thousand births. Our
infant death rate is now considerably
lower than the average for the United
States, for both races.
We think that this large reduction in
infant mortality rates for both races is
due to the splendid work of our state and
county health officers. North Carolina has
a state health department unsurpassed
in the United States. It is teaching
our people the principles of sanitation
and how to prevent sickness. It is re
ducing our death rate and preventing
an untold amount of sickness and suf
fering. Other states and many forei^Q
countries have sent delegations here to
study our health department. A dele
gation of eminent doctors represent
ing several countries belonging to the
League of Nations is now in North Ca
rolina making an intensive study of her
state and county
health work. All
any or all kinds of ceramic ware, nor j praise to our health officers and their
will some clays be available at all. \ health service.