. - r :
Hertford County Herald
v ,
THE LARGEST WEEKLY NEWSPAPER PRINTED IN EASTERN NORTH CAROLINA.
VOL. 8 . AHOSK1E, N. C.t MARCk 2. 1917^"^^ . NO 7
(Greater Hertford" County Edition of The HERALD
0ULTIIL POSSIBILITIES
' Of JEOTM COUHIT
Hertford County Situated in the Nidat of the Very Beat
Farming Section in the Entire South?Contains Best
Soil to be Found in the United States?Leads
Other Counties in Many Particulars.
By T. E. Browne. Agent State Cora Club Work. Weat Raloifb. N. C.
"The best farming section of
North Caroline," "The bleeaed sec
tion of oar State;" such are the ex
pressions frequently heard' about
Hertford, Bertie, and Northampton
Counties, and they are true. There
is no section of our State where
nature has bean more bountiful,
where the poaribilitiee are greater,
than in this Roanoke-Chowan sec
tion. This section of North Car
olina is "sni generis": the same
kind of folks, the same type of sub
soil, the same climate conditions,
and these counties must progress or
go into decadence tegether. There
can be little seperation of inerest.
Of the three counties Hertford
stands out as pre-eminently the best
farming county. The largest yield
of com ever made upon an aere in
North Carolina was made by Char
lie Parker upon Hertford County
soil, when he produced 235 bushels
of corn, field measurement, which
measured out 196.5 bushels of dry
shelled corn. It is among the first
in average per acre yield of peanuts
in North Carolina, and raises more
peanuts in porportion to its area than
any county in the State. There is
no county in the State which pro
duces a higher quality of peanuu than
doss Hertford County. As a cotton
producing County it ranks among
the best in proportion to acreage
planted. It is rapidly coming into
prominence as a tobacco County.
Ar.d, when it comes to pork produc
tion, it makes more meat per farm
er than any county in the State, in
spite of the Hog Cholera, and open
range.
Do the farmers deserve much
credit for this enviable position oc
cupied by the County? I must ad
mit that they do not. This condi
tion exists in spite of, not because
of, the methods of agriculture
applied. The finest type of soil in
the United States for agricultural
purposes is typical of the predomin
ating soil type in. Hertford County.
Some time ego a soil expert of the
National Department of' Agriculture
was asked what was the best agri
cultral soil in th^ country, and he
replied: "I have visited practically
every section of the United States
end do not hesitate to say that the
beet type of soil for agricultural pur
poses is Norfolk' Sandy Loam and
Norfolk Fine Sandy Loam." These
are the predominating soils of Hert
ford County. A light grey to dark
grey surface, underlaid with red
clay subsoil, is capable of producing
any crop adapted to the latitude in
question. When a man haa that
kind of soil his success as a farmer
is entirely dependent upon his own
efforts. Such a soil, we|| drained,
and filled with organic matter is un
excelled in producing power.
I have often stated that if farm
ers of this section of the State
worked as hard and applied as much
intelligence tq farming as they do
in Piedmont North Carolina, where
conditions are net so favorable,
they would not know what to do
with their money. The people in
leas blessed sections are out strip
ping us because they have to work.
They get in the habit of hustling.
Their crops are distributed through
out the year. Livestock farming is
introduced into their system, and
their natural pace is a hustle. To
an Eastern Carolina farmer this sec
tion presents a gloomy oudbolfcTroi-.
a farming standpoint, bqt; if we
don't "get busy," they are going to
outstrip m.
Some public man has said that
the best index to a section's p*eg
ress is the condition of its public in
stitutions, namely, its School, its
churches, its public roads, etc.
Travel through Guilford, Forsyth,
Rowan, or even the mountain coun
ty of Buncombe and compare these
institutions with those in Hertford
and decide for yourself.
I recently made a trip through
Hertford and not five per cent of
the fields are green with winter
crops, in spite of the fact that, in
our warm southern climate, more
plant food is lost by bleaching and
washing during the winter than is
taken out by the growing crops in
summer. Any kind of cover crop
growing upon the land during the
winter would take up this available
plant food, store it up in roots, and
when turned under in the spring
return it to the soil, in addition to
the large amount of humus or or
ganic matter, that most needed ele
ment in our eastern soils. Why do
we continue this custom in spite of
thousands of demonstrations, and
in the face of the high price of
commercial fertilisers?
In Hertford Cotnty practically all
summer and winter legumes grow
luxuriantly, added organic matter
equally valuable per pound as stable
manure, the Nitrogen which makes
this high value being taken from
Nature's store house, the atmos
phere. It is almost impossible
to get commercial potash for any
growing crops. There are thousands
pounds of this element stored up in
the subsoils of Hertford County,
unavailable of course, but if these
lands were broken deeply in the
fall, the clay turned up to the
weathering process, and mixed with
organic matter our farmers would
be independent of the German
mines.
Of course in the sandy soils, with
out the clay subsoil, the potash
could be partly supplied by adding or
ganic matter. Knowing this fact
as we do, one can drive through
the good County of Hertford and
he will not find five per cent of the
land broken for 1917 crops.
There are in North Carolina more
than seventy Farm Demonstration
Agents and forty odd Hotne Demon
stration Agents. Tbe major por
tion of the money for their services
is from State and National appropia
tiona. AH the people of the coun
try pay their pro-rata share of this
fond. More than one hundred
thousand dollars "are being spent in
this educational propoganda alone
in North Carolina. It is recognized
by all the leaders of the country as
thegreatest agency for rural better
ment ever inaugurated. Only about
I thirty counties of the State are not
taking advantage of this opportun
ity to secure the service of a train
ed man or woman to help the farm
ers and farm women solve their
problems. Most' of these counties
are along the sand-banks of the
ooast and some of those mountain
oounties where little farming Is
done. Hertford. Bertie and North
ampton rank with the above named
counties. These counties are help
ing to pay the salaries of agents
for other counties in order that
they may get ahead of us.
When Hertford County wakes up
to the possibilities, puts in whole
time County Agents for the farmers
and their wives, joins the ranks of
other progressive counties by voting
the "No-Fence" law, Instead of
having it by common consent, as is
so often the case at present; utilizes
its wonderful opportunities for
stock-raising, with dozens of the
PRESENT CONDITIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR
GREATER PROGRESSJN PUBLIC EDUCATION
A Synopsis of Educational Advantages Offered by the
Schools of Hertford County?Suggestions by One in
Authority for the Future Development of
Better Schools for This County.
By N. W. Britton. Superintendent of Schools lor Hertford County.
I want to congratulate the Editor
of this paper and ail concerned in
the effort being put forward to
make our county a greater county,
although great in many respects
now. And as the proper education
of the boys and girls is the founda
tion stone for all true greatness, I
feel it a privelege to have an oppor
tunity to present in this short article
a statement of present conditions
and some suggestions for the future
of our educational policy in Hert
ford County.
School Census.
The material with which we have
to work is five thousand seven hun
dred boys and girls between the
ages of six and twenty-one. What
power is stored up in these, and
what a force and influence for good
they will wield if heart and hand
and head are proportionately and
properly trained!
Our aim this session is to leave
no stone unturned to get svery one
of these into some school and to
keep them there. One thing espec
ially looked after at our teachera'
meetings is whether the teacher in
each district can account for every
one of school age in that district.
Be it said to the credit of not a few
of the teachers that they know the
where-abouts of every one in their
district. It takes not only a live
teacher to do this, but a wise one,
and one who is willing to work.
We call upon the parents and friends
of the children to come to our help
in trying to keep down illiteracy at
this end of the line.
School-houses.
We have seventeen houses that
are reasonably well suited to school
worn, several 01 inese oeing as gooa
as can be found in moat counties,
but the remaining fifty are woeful
ly inadequate. The county has
built seven new houses within the
last two years, which are, for the
most part, well equipped, and are a
credit to the county. That is, we
are building at the rate of three
and a half houses a year. That is
very good as far as it goes, but has
finest pasturage crops, and a mar
ket in easy access, then [indeed
may our section be called the gar
den spot of North Carolina. Then
we shall have in place of one-teach
er schools the larger type of modern
school with a plot of land, probably
a teacher's home, where agriculture
and Home Economics are taught by
teachers who believe in the country
and recognize that plants and ani
mals, the nature world about us,
are the best instruments possible
for training our boys and girls for
the larger duties of rural citizen
ship. Then shall our farmers real
ize that our first duty after God
has permitted us to make a profit
upon the soil he has let us use for
a season, is to make our houses
* 4.-1.1- I -44 4l I ?
comioriaoie ana attractive as possi.
ble for our mothers and wives, and
boys and girls, that they may stay
In the country to enrich our coun
try life. It is our duty to use some
of this money for the encourage
ment of all those agencies which
mean a richer, a more wholesome
and a more satisfying rural life.
Then we shall see country homes
with running water, electric or ace
tylene lights; well painted and taste
fully adorned with native shrubs
and flowers, and with all those
agencies which tend to eliminate the
isolation of country life of the past.
Then, indeed, shall we be proud of
our rural heritage, and glad that
we may live in the open country in
close touch with nature's God. -
. m'n'Aif Vii . *
any one atopped to think how long
at this rate it would take to supply
the county with comfortable school
houses for the children of the en
tire county? It will take not less
than fourteen years. How long
before the thinking people of -Hert
ford will rise up.'in their might and
do away with the more than barn
like structures in which a large por
tion of our children have to spend
from six to seven hours a day
through such winters as we are now
passing? When one of these unfor
tunate children is seized with pneu
monia or grip and dieB, we wonder
why the Almighty has taken away
the little one, wh^ji the cause may
lie at our own doors.
Local-tax Districts.
There are only six of these dis
tricts ill the entire county, but the
desire to establish graded schools
seems to be in the air. ' One com
munity voted recently "and lost, but
it will try again with success next
time, no doubt. An election in an
other disstict is pending, and sever
al more communities are circulating
petitions. This is fine, for it is the
only hope for better houses, better
equipment, more efficient teachers,
and longer terms of school. We
are especially proud of the six grad
ed schools which we now have on
account of the splendid work they
are doing and for the example they
are setting for the others to follow.
Some one has said that "Truly it is
a back-woods section that would
vote against a small tax to establish
an up-to-date school." I do not
put it in such words, but I an sure
that if the people of a community
will open their eyes and see the
progress which North Carolina ami
other states are making along edu
cational lines, they will feel that
they cannot linger any longer in
ruts, but must come out and join
the ranks of progress. Our watch
word is a special tax for every dis
trict of sufficient sire and properly
laid off, and thus help hasten the
time when Greater Hertford shall
be realized.
School Districts.
We have a number of districts of
sufficient size and properly arranged,
but there are yet too many small ones.
The best schools can never be real
ized until there is a consolidation of
these one-teacher schools into larger
two and three-teacher schools with
suitable houses and adequate equip
ment. There are many people who
yet seem to think that there should
be as nearly as possible a school
house at every man's door. Good
roads are the things we need, in or
der that the children may get to
and from school dry-foot. Then it
will be good for any healthy boy or
girl to walk one and a half or two
miles to school. 1/ the distance
should be too fcreat, it would be in
finitely better to arrange for con
veying the children to school at pub
lic expense than to have little school
houses here and there over the coun
ty. It would be cheaper to the
county, to say nothing of the ad
vantages the children would receive.
Officer's and Teachers'
Meetings.
There are two meetings of this
kind each year for general purposes
relative to our school work. These
meetings are of prime importance.
They bring to-gether teachers, com
mitteemen, attendance officers, and
the Board of Education to make
plans and arrange to execute their
plans in a proper way for the best
interest of all concerned. The real
good these meetings do cannot be
ever-estimated. To undertake to
run the schools of a county without
a system, or with a system, and
that system unwisely planned and
just as unwisely carried out, is well
nigh a waste of time and a waste of
the people's money. In the humble
judgement of the writer, there is
great wisdom in the coming togeth
er of the people that they may ex
change ideas on a matter so impor
tant aa the training of the boya and
girls committed to their care.
It is ernestly desired that these
meetings may continue to create
broader and deeper enthusiasm for
carrying out plans for the adminis
tration of the public school system
of the county.
Also there are group meetings of
teachers-Cpr the purpose of profess
ional study/^vjhere are four such
groups in the county. Of courte
these meetings are not supposed to
take the place of special training
which every teacher should have at
schools prepared to give proper
training for general school work.
There is an idea abroad that any
one who has a little book-learning
can teach school, but the day is ap
proaching when this error will be
seen and corrected; when no intelli
gent parent will allow a makeshift
to undertake to teach his childrer
any more than he would allow c
j quack to treat them for pneumonit
i or typhoid fever. The time ha;
| been when the quack was admitted
I to the home, but now he is shut
out by the intelligent people, an<
may the day speedily come when n<
person shall enter a school-room a:
a teacher until he shall have hah
special training for this most impor
tant work of developing the wholt
child and of giving him the chancf
that God intended he should have.
Many of the teachers are show
a fine interest in these group meet
ings and group study. They see
the importance of such study, and
they are applying themselves in a
very commendable way. Such men
and women are the ones that will
be called for future service, and I
predict that adequate salaries are in
store for them.
Public High Schools.
It would be interesting to write
of the splendid work done in many
of the short term schools, but space
forbids. We are justly proud of
our public high schools, because of
of the fine record and progress they
have made since they were establish
ed. They are intended to furnish
instruction free of charge for all
j pupils in the county that have fin
1 iahed the work belo n that of the
high school.
Ahoskie High School has just
completed a splendid new building
which was much needed, as the
school had out-grown the first one.
The buildings seem now sufficient
for present needs except, perhaps a
dormitory for teachers and boarding
pupils.
Winton High School is sorely in
need of a new building out right,
A plan suggested, if not on foot,
seem to be meeting with favor to
turn the old house into a dormitory
to accommodate teachers and board
ing pupils, and to erect a new up-to
date school building. This would
be a fine step for the school. path
schools should have domitories as
soon as practicable.
Co-operation.
No more important word is found,
snd no finer spirit can&^jct-than -A
that of Co-operation on tihe part of
all people for the common good.
Let every Hertford County citizen
how by word and act that he
itands for such a spirit.
With a county so rich in splendid
mung man-hood and young woman
lood, with middle-aged and elderly
.o iipe in experiencs of life's duties
ind obligations, with a class of busi
less and professional men whose
hility is recognized on every hand,
vith an abundance of as good farmi
ng lands as can be found, with
seventeen thousand people pos
lessing an amount of wealth equal
to the average state?with all these,
what possibilities there and what
opportunities are ours for training
the rising generation of this good
county, if we but use all these
forces in the spirit of owoperation!
If you knew how much print
paper cost you would never kick on
paying $1.50 for a news paper the
size of the Hertford County Herald.
TIRemembwrC
I That every added safe- I
vpsss/l
1
Chowan College for Girls and Young Women
ONE OF THE OLDEST AND MOST PROMINENT EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTES OF EASTERN NORTH CAROLINA
The Chowan College for Girla
and Young Women ia one of the
beat known educational institu
liana in Eastern North Carolina
and, in fact, in the entire State.
Established in 1848, this college
has always maintained the highest
standard of excellence, and a di
ploma from "The Murfreesboro
College" is indisputable evidence
of good training and a finished ed
ucation. During its nearly seven
ty five years of existence the
school has been the means of fit
ting hundreds of youug women for
the duties and responsibilities of
life, and in all that long period it
lias never deviated from the high
standard established at its organi
/
zation.
This School, located in the
town of Murfreesboro, Hertford
County, is located in the midst of
a beautiful campus; {the surround
ings are homelike, and the most
careful supervision is exercised
over the student bodv. It is a
Rsplict denominational college be
ing operated by the Chowan and
West Chowan Associations. Stau
ard courses are taught leading
to B. A. and B. S. degrees.
Diplomas in Piano, Voice, Art
and Expression. Excellent courses
are given in Pedagogy and Public
School Muskv The school oper
ates its own farm and dairy, and
every care is taken to make the
cuisine wholesome, appetizing and
sanitary.- In fact, the environ
ment, and the courses of instruc
lion are all that could be desired
by the most fastidious, while the
rates are roost reasonable. There
is an annual enrollment of about
one hundred and thirty-five stu
dents, principally from North Car
olina and Virginia* but also includ
ing young ladiea from more dis
tant states.
There is nothing more import
tarn to the welfare and stability of
a Commonwealth than the
education of the future mothers of
its citizeary, aud the utmost care
should be exersised in selecting
the persons entrusted with this,
duty. Prof, G. E. Lineberry, the I
President of Chowan College, is a
man eminently fitted for tbe work
he has in hand- He has been en
gaged in educational work for a
number of years, and for the past
three has been the head of the in*
stitution under discussion, during
which time most excellent results
hare been achieved. Pres. Line*
berry is a man of tbe highest char
acter and of proven ability as an
educator. Tbe interest nearest
bis heart is that of the young wo
men under his supervision, and
under his administration no effort
has been, or is being, spared to
maintain the high standard of the
institution, and to iatoovs and
better the conditioet these where
possible.