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.

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