r
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 the University Ex
tension Division.
AUGUST 11,1926
CHAPEL HILL, N C.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS
VOL. XII, NO. 39
EdUortat Boardt
1. C. Branson, S. H. Hobbo. Jr., L. R. Wiloon. E. W. Knisrht. D. D. Carroll, J. B. BnllitL H. W. Odun.,
Entered as second-class matter November It 19H. at the Postofflco at Chapel Hill, N. C.. under the act of August 2t 1913
FARM LAND AND BUILDINGS
FARM LAND AND BUILDINGS
Iowa continues to lead the states in
value of farm land and buildings on a
per farm basis, according to the 1925
census of agriculture. The table which
appears elsewhere shows how the states
rank in average value of farm land and
buildings per farm in 1926. The parallel
column shows the per acre value of all
land classed as farm land, both culti
vated and uncultivated.
North Carolina and Kentucky jointly
share fortieth position in the average
value of farm land and buildings per
farm, the average value in each state
being $3,282. Only seven states rank
below North Carolina in this particular,
all of them being Southern states with
large tenant and negro ratios.
The rank of North Carolina in the
average value of lands and buildings
per farm may appear rather low at
first sight. We have a large and dense
population; we rank high in the pro
duction of crop wealth; we have a
fairly high white farm population
ratio; and rank below the average for
the South in farm tenancy; all of which
would seem to be conducive to higher j
farm values. 1
Small Farms |
The main explanation for the small i—
value of the average farm in this state i we believe, result in larger farm wealth
doing. But in Europe the explanation
lies in a dense farm population; in
North Carolina in the nature of our
crops mainly.
Value Holds Up
The per acre value of farm land has
not decreased much in North Carolina
since 1920. The value per farm has
decreased approximately 18 percent,
but the value per acre of farm land
has decreased only about five percent.
The farmer’s speculative price in 1920
was considerably above the Census
estimate of the true value of farm
land. In very few states has the
average value of farm land per acre
held up as well as in North Carolina.
As a rule the states have experienced
large decreases in land value. But
not so in North Carolina. Our farms
are steadily increasing in number, in
every section of the state. The demand
for farms is not great, but the steady
growth ia farm population exerts a
wholesome influence on the price of
farm land. The western half of the
state especially seems to be holding its
own, tending to offset decreased values
in the eastern counties.
In the aggregate North Carolina is
a fairly rich agricultural state. On a
per farm basis she ranks very low.
Larger farms better cultivated would.
KNOW NORTH CAROLINA
OUR LAND AND ITS USES
The following are the main facts
concerning land in North Carolina
and how it is being used at the pres
ent time.
Item Acres
Land area 31,190,000
Land in farms 18,697,796
Crop land 6,832,320
Harvested 3926 6,648,808
Crop failures 146,038
Fallow or idle 1,137,474
Pasture land 2,818,748
Piowable 881,895
Woods and other 1,936,853
Woodland not pastured ... 7,090,679
Other farm land 1,866,048
Land other than farm land,
—owned by lumber cos.,
federal, state, waste
land, etc 12,692,205
Average acres per farm... 66.6
Crop land per farm 24.0
Crop-land per farm har
vested in 1925 19.6
is the extremely small size of the aver
age farm. The average farm in the
state contains only 66.6 acres of land,
only 24 acres of which are classified as
crop land. One-fifth of our crop land
is not actually in crops but lies fallow.
The average farm in the state in 1926
had only twenty acres planted in crops,
and in this respect we rank last of all
the states, last by several acres in
fact.
The average value of an acre of
farm laud in the state is fairly high,
being $60.02 cultivated and unculti
vated, but the fact that our farms are
so small, especially the cultivated area,
largely explains why the average farm
does not have a high value.
North Carolina contains a land area
of approximately 31,200,000 acres. Of
this area only 6,832,000 acres are
classed as crop land, and only 6,649,000
acres were actually harvested in 1926.
In other words we are cropping only
one-fifth of the land area of the state.
We rank second in number of farms,
but we rank twenty-fourth in crop
land area. Which means that we are in
tensive farmers in North Carolina, the
most intensive in the United States,
and especially so in the cotton and to
bacco belt.
Our farms are small, too small we
believe for most effective agriculture.
We concentrate on too few acres
for
tivate only a fifth of our
when certainly half of it is capable of
being cultivated, even under present
conditions. But it would require an
altogether different system of farm
ing to bring into use a larger acreage
of land. Our hand-made crops of cotton
and tobacco require very little land.
A diversified system with a fair amount
.of consumptive livestock would enable
us to use more acres. The result
might not be as large per acre yields,
but likely it would be a larger per
man yield, which is far more im
portant. We believe that the full
significance of an intensive system of
farming years ahead of the necessity
for it has never been fully analyzed in
this state. One-fifth of North Carolina’s
land area in crops is too little. We use too
much labor and too little land and capital
in our farming. The result is a high per
acre yield, but a small per man yield.
Standards of living are determined by
net income per man, not gross yield
per acre.
Getting Smaller
Although we are rapidly increasing
our nuftiber of farms, we are actually
experiencing a decrease in farm land
area and in crop-land area. The aver
age farm in North Carolina in 1920
contained a total area of 74.2 acres,
while in 1926 it was only 66.6 acres. In
1800 we were cultivating about 37 acres
to the farm. In 1910 the average was
34.7 cultivated acres per farm; 1920 it
was 30.6, and in 1926 it had dropped to
26 acres of crop land per farm, while
only 20 acres per farm were actually
planted in crops. In a few more years
we will be cultivating pocket-handker
chief farms as the Europeans are now
per farm and in higher standards of
family living. We need to use more
than one-fifth of our land area for
agricultural purposes. Too much land
lies idle in North Carolina. Not more
cotton and tobacco, but more pasture
land, more grasses, grain crops, hay
and forage; more dairy cows and more
^ of all forms of consumptive livestock,
in all of which North Carolina ranks
ridiculously low.
The small farm well tilled is the
proper slogan in a state where the
population presses on the land supply.
But in a frontier state the large farm
well tilled is the proper slogan. And
certainly a state with the land and
climatic resources of North Carolina,
with only one-fifth of her land area
being cropped, is a frontier agricultural
state.
in a healthy position is shown by the
fact that our land is valued at almost
the 1920 figure. For the United States
plow land has fallen off 46 percent in
value since 1920, but decline in value in
North Carolina has been less than fif
teen percent.
North Carolina is experiencing
wholesome increase in farms at a time
when the nation’s farms are decreas
ing. Much of the state remains to be
brought under cultivation. There
still an abundance of good farm land
left in the state, and land is still rela
tively cheap. However, we are increas
ing our farms at the rate of about three
thousand a year, and in view of this
large increase it is likely that farm
land will steadily increase in value.
whole there are in the service areas of
all libraries 9,706 persons per library,
while in the service area of libraries in
the state there are 10,616 persons per
library.
North Carolina has only 69 libraries
operated by the public and associations,
while the nation has 6,616. Of the
North Carolina libraries, 32 are tax-
supported and 37 are supported by asso
ciations. In the service areas of the
libraries in the country there are 63,-
244,970, while in the same areas in the
state there are 732,442 persons.
Out of the total 3,066 counties last
year, 222 counties spent public funds
for library service as compared with 12
of the 100 counties in this state.
North Carolina’s poorest showing
however, is made by the fact that 70
percent of the total population is with
out local public library service while
the percentage for the United States
and Canada without library service
is 46. North Carolina’s rural population
is as well taken care of as the rural
population in the United States. How
ever, the dearth of libraries in North
Carolina seems to be in the smaller
towns. There are 47 counties, or nearly
one-half of the State’s 100, which do
not have a public library within their
borders, the bulletin states. Library
service for negroes in North Carolina
is also inadequate, 736,139 of the 7,718,-
300 negroes residing in the South with
out public library facilities making
their home in this state.—News and
Observer.
FARM LABOa CHEAP
Hired farm labor, one of the main
cost items in agriculture, is relatively
cheap in North Carolina, according to
the U. S. Department of Agriculture.
Hired farm labor with board costs upon
average $1.60 per day, or $>29.00 per
month, against the average for all the
states of $1.78 per day, or $34.38 per
month, for April 3926. Hired farm labor
without board is reported at $1.90 per
day and $40.00 per month for North
Carolina, against the U. S. average of
large per man yield. We cul-1 $2.36 per day, and $48.40 per month.
land area lii many states farm labor is scarce.
In North Carolina farm labor is rela
tively plentiful due to the fact that
seventy-one percent of our population
is rural, and only one state has a
larger total farm population. This
makes it possible to engage in forms
of agriculture, such as trucking, which
call for a great surplus of workers
during a limited part of the year.
Groups of two or three hundred people
picking strawberries, all recruited from
the neighborhood, are not an uncommon
sight in North Carolina.
LAND RELATIVELY CHEAP
The U. S. Department of Agriculture,
reporting on the value of plow lands by
states, shows that good plow or crop
land is fairly cheap in North Carolina.
This ought to be of interest to would-be
farmers in other states who are look
ing about for an attractive state in
which to locate. North Carolina ranks
high in per acre production of crop
values, yet our land is valued below
the average for all the states.
The average value of all plow land in
the state is put at fifty-five dollars per
acre.
The average for all the states is
$67.20. Good plow land is valued at
$74.00 per acre in North Carolina,
against the U. S, average of $78.47,
and poor plow land at $38.00 per acre
against the U. S. average of $41.96.
Iowa plow land is reported at $131.00
pet acre, yet North Carolina ranks far
ahead of Iowa in pet acre value of
crops. In Illinois and California land
is more than twice as expensive as in
North Carolina.
That North Carolina’s agriculture is
A GREAT BEGINNING
“The most important election in any
county in North Carolina this year,
says The News and Observer as quoted
in the University News Letter, “was
the election in Haywood county where
the people voted $100,000 to build a
county hospital and an annual tax suffi
cient to maintain the county hospital-
Haywood has long been recognized as
having a population far above the
average in appreciation of the higher
things in life and in the duty of the
citizen.”
That is not only a deserved tribute to
the first county without large wealth
and a rich city to take such a step, but
it also is a challenge and an inspiration
to all other counties in the state to fol
low its example. It is a great begin
ning in a public health movement des
tined to bring untold blessing to North
Carolina. No county will go broke by
spending money to preserve and im-
PRAI5ES THE STATE
It is not news that North Carolina
today is the outstanding state of the
South, but it is a fact. It has made
greater industrial strides than any
other in the past 10 years, has gone
farther and faster in educational and
political development, has shown a
greater community spirit and a stronger
sense of solidarity.
It would be mere repetition to cite
the facts of the state’s growth in
population, in manufacturing, in agri
culture; of the amazing expansion in
the piedmont district; of the develop
ment of the state’s resources. The
figures can be got from the almanacs,
the chamber of commerce boosting
pamphlets, and the publicity experts
who infest the various administration
departments. One way of summing
it up is with the broad, general, but
incontrovertible statement that North
Carolina now pays more internal revenue
taxes to the federal government than
any other state save New York, Illinois,
Pennsylvania, and Michigan. Another
way is by contrasting the $160,000,000
bonded debt of North Carolina with the
$6,000,000 owed by Georgia and the
relatively small debt of the other
Southern states.
In the matter of state debt, North
Carolina is so far in the lead of the
rest that she can hardly be seen. By
those whose debt is small this is re
garded as a foolish eminence. By
North Carolinians it is held to be the
mark of wisdom and progress. It is
all in the point of view. In North
Carolina the people have reached a
state of mind where they will adopt
almost any sort of bond issue with a
whoop. The difficulty is to hold the
legislature down. In Alabama the
trouble is to get it up. It ia hard work
in that state to get through a bond
issue for good roads, new schools, or
anything else. There is a popular and
political reaction toward running into
debt and increasing taxes.
In North Carolina in the last four
years they have spent $100,000,000 on
roads, taking care of interest, sinking
funds, and amortization out of a four-
cent gasoline tax and automobile
licenses, the burden of which is scarcely
felt and arouses no complaint. By the
end of this year the state will have
three modern trunk roads running east
and west from the Atlantic coast to
the Tennessee mountains, and three
running north and south from the
Virginia line down into Georgia and
South Carolina. The $100,000,000 has
been spent without a whisper of graft,
a tinge of politics, or a well-based
charge of waste, inefficiency, or un
fairness.
That is an almost incredible thing.
Certainly no one in Pennsylvania will
believe it, but it is so. At the close
of the war, when the big industrial
impetus came to North Carolina, Gov
ernor Bickett sent for Frank Page,
born in the state, and a brother of the,
late Walter Hines Page, also born there.
He was placed at the head of the system,
given a free hand and real control. He
used both and got real results. Nor
have they stopped in North Carolina.
They are crazy about good roads down
there. They want more of them and
the idea of going into debt, from which
they seem to shrink in Alabama and
Georgia, is enthusiastically embraced
in North Carolina.
In Georgia and elsewhere in the
South there is noticed a disposition to
criticize the plunge of North Carolina
into the public debt pool. They point out
that the pay-as-you-go plan in Georgia
and Virginia is the sounder and saner
way; that the North Carolina plan
borders on economic recklessness.
One answer to this in North Carolina
is that they have the roads and that
other states have conspicuous gaps in
their systems. As to the economic
unsoundneas, it does not show either
in the tax rate or in the financial
statements of the state, or in the
continued cordiality with which it treats
corporate and individual wealth. Nor
is the idea of economic recklessness
easy to associate with the capable,
hard-headed, rich, handsome and suc
cessful business man type of governor
the state nowhas—Angus McLean. Also,
it is equally hard to associate any policy
of wild expenditure and reckless
extravagance with that name. He
holds them down all right.—Frank R.
Kent, in Baltimore Sun.
VALUE OF FARM LAND AND BUILDINGS
Per Farm and Per Acre, 1925 Census
In the following table, based on the 1925 Census of Agriculture, the states
are ranked according to the census value of farm land and buildings on a per
farm basis. The parallel column gives the census value of all farm land, culti-
prove irs health, because every dollar j yated and uncultivated, per acre.
thus spent saves many other dollars | j(,„a janks first in value of farm land and buildings per farm, with. $23,245,
that would have gone as the cost of j value of farm land per acre. Alabama is last in value of farm
poor health, inefficiency and inability , farm, with $1,748.
to work. j North Carolina and Kentucky together are fortieth in rank, the per farm
With the development of the county 1 (jf igpij gpj tmiiijings in both states being $3,282. North Carolina ranks
hospital plan, will come the psychopa-: twenty-third in the per acre value of farm land, cultivated and uncultivated,
thic clinic in each county or in each i 550,02. In farm land per farm we rank low, and in cultivated
group of counties knit together by geo- fpppj pjpi; j^st, thus largely accounting for our low rank in value
graphical situation. Health campaigns ^p ^ tpj.jp basis.
that take no care for mental health are |
but fifty percent effective. ,
The chief difficulty in dealing with 1
nervous and mental ailments arises j
from the popular fear of the ‘disgrace’ i
of insanity, as if it were incurable or |
the result of criminal or shameful con- [ Rank
duct by the individual so afflicted. The j
way to get rid of this relic of medieval 1 ^
superstition is to found the psychopa- j ^
thic clinic within easy reach of all the |
people, to educate them in the real j ^
nature of nervous and mental sickness, j
and to teach them that, if such illness j “
is subjected to treatment in its initial |
stages, it can be remedied in an enor-' '
mous majority of cases.-Asheville. °
Citizen. upM
United States average value of farm laud and buildings $7,776, per farm.
S. H. Hobbs, Jr.
Department of Rural Social-Economics, University of North Carolina
State
LOW IN LIBRARIES
In spite of North Carolina’s progress,
the state, which has more than two'
percent of the nation’s population, and
which pays the fifth greatest amount
of federal taxes among the states, has j
only a fraction over one percent of t'ae j
public libraries of the country, accord- j
ing to figures compiled by the Ameri- i
can Library Association and printed
in the current issue of the North Caro
lina Library Bulletin.
Not only that, but in the nation as a
20 Indiana..
21 Florida..
Land and
Value
Land and
Value
buildings
farm
Rank State
buildings
farm
per farm
land
per farm
land
per acre
per acre
....$23,246...
..$149.06
26 Massachusetts..
$7,611...
..$107.63
... 23,179..
... 114.70’
26 Utah
.... 7,403...
.. 38.62
.... 19,766..
... 60.04
27 New York
.... 7,260...
.. 71.01
.... 18,636..
... 136.79
28 Maryland
.... 7,047.,
... 77.78
.... 18,066..
... 44.89
29 Michigan
6,696..
... 71.41
.... 17,671..
... 16.03
30 Texas
6,663..
... 27.83
.... 13,407..
... 29.67
31 Pennsylvania...
6,871..
... 72.20
.... 13,344..
... 13.02
32 Delaware
6,861..
... 66.83
.... 13,262..
... 60.27
33 New Mexico
6,473..
... 6.21
.... 12,730.,
... 79.76
34 Oklahoma
5,324..
... 33.34
.... 11,113..
... 9.26
36 Vermont
4,940..
... 34.98
11,039.
.... 43.71
36 Virginia
4,687..
... 61.63
10,208.
.... 24 61
37 New Hampshire 4,147 .
... 38.62
9,921.
.... 67.65
38 West Virginia
3,957..
... 39.80
9,836,
.... 86.94
39 Maine
3,943.
.... 38.20
9,666.
.... 13.86
40 Kentucky
3,282.
.... 42.60
9,213.
.... 46.93
40 North Carolina.
3,282
.... 50.02
8,837.
.... 136.23142 Tennessee
3,016.
.... 42.64
8,726.
.... 110.69
43 South Carolina.
2,654-
.... 43.07
8,667.
.. 85,20 ! 44 Louisiana
2,467.
.... 36.97
8,111.
.... 80.86
1 45 Arkansas
2,442
.... 34.66
8,110.
.... 103.26
46 Georgia
2,366.
.... 26.83
7,941.
.... 87.44
47 Mississippi
1,788.
.... 28.64
7,730.
.... 61.70
48 Alabama
1,748
21.32