Newspapers / The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, … / Feb. 2, 1887, edition 1 / Page 1
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WOGtEISIYIl 77 INDUSTRIAL AND EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS OF OUR PEOPLE PARAMOUNT TO ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS OF STATE POLICY. Vol. 1. OUR FARMERS CLUBS. What our Farmers are Doing and How the Work of Organizing is Progressing. TRINITY CLUB. Subject Eastern Farmers Competing With the West. Dr. Parker. In this age of cheap rates and rapid transit, the farmer of the Eastern States comes in direct competition with the fresh, rich lands of the great West. The average of the fertile lands put in wheat and corn is increasing every year Thousands of new farms are opened annually. Millions upon millions of bushels of grain are ship ped east every year from this great granary of the world. Out there on the rich prairie levels one man with a team can cultivate 65 acres in corn and make from 30 to 60 bushels to the acre. That many acres cannot be managed here by one man, on our rough, uneven lands, neither will our soil produce any thing like as much as that out west, unaided by manure. But admit ting all this, shall we give up rais ing our own wheat, corn and meat ? Never, sir; no, never! The western I farmer in many respects has the ad vantage of us in grain production and stock feeding, but taking into i consideration every thing, our chane ; es for successful farming are about -. u YoXns his. There they have to i contend wfttrW;uf and severe win 1 ters, and deep snows. stojJi vjill out door larm work lor several nionvV They havt cyclones, blizzards, grass hoppers, the Cdloruilg n)Uiio beetle. h og c h o 1 e ra , p Ie u ro-p ri c urn o nla, a n d many times the most blighting drouths necessitating the driving of stock longdistances to water, besides numerous other ills with which we do not have to contend, and if we do it is in a milder form here in our more agreeable climate. We have immense territories of forest, plenty of timber, with no scarcity of fuel and building material, and water the sun does not shine on a land more blest in this respect than this middle section of North Carolina. Such springs of cool and never fail ing water! The rivers and other streams affording power enough to turn every spindle of all the mills. But you say our lands are poor ! Yes, and the lands west will be as poor as ours when the present generation move on still further west and in like manner skin and despoil those rich fields. It is our business to follow in their wake to repair the damage done, It is a big job, but it must be done or the world will wake up some morning with nothing to cook for breakfast. This despolia tion and robbery has been going on ever since man quit .eating wild fruits and lizzards and undertook making a living for himself. From the Euphrates in the East to Bettie McGees creek in the West this wick ed havoc has preyed upon the world's beauty and fruitfulnes. We must permantly improve our lands if we would over hope to have good crops and increased profits. We must put in our work more skill, push and economy. This old lubberly, cold-headed, wasteful way of doing things must give place to better methods and better work. Calculate, plan and look ahead now, and thereby save time in the busy season. Be ready to "make hay while the sun shines." You see we will have to make only about one third as many bushels of corn to have as much money value as the western farmer he gets 15 to 25cts per bushel, while we can realize right here from 60 cents to SI. with ' no freights or commissions to pay and no delay for returns. As a general rule our wheat is better, and I know that our corn is a great deal better than the western raised. Our pork and bacon is vastly more palatable and more wholesome, and we can make it as cheap as they do, if we would try. The fault is in us, not in the climate or in the hog. In the west they suffer severe losses from hog cholera here we seldom see a case. We have farmers right here in this community who have the feed and ample facilities for feeding stock to as much profit as any where west. Raise , clover for your land and for stock feeding and we will soon have land rich enough to make farming easy and profitable. Dr. J. Bird. It is true that the eastern farmer is burdened by mort gages and debt. There is much an xiety among our own farmers about their future prospects, as adverse seasons, short crops and low prices have been disheartening. But the East is not any worse off than the West in these respects. Thousands of the western farmers are strug gling under heavy mortgages on land and farm implements held by eastern capitalists. Admitting that they make more grain per acre then we do, they are so far from market that the freight and commissions to middle men and the grain sharks gulp up the bulk of the smaller farm ers. And even if they do ship such large quantities east their margin of profit is so small that they are but little benefited. We have the ad vantage of them in the great variety of products that we can grow, and market in their crude state. The western farmer is compelled to feed his hay and gran and make beef and pork that can be marketed at a dis tance. We can make pork and beef and clover as cheap as they can with their corn by feeding very little gcain, -We. have a variety of mon jiv' ' cwh i5';Sv hi!;-jl,hoy have but few-" the ev extant in if- vheat and western ejurii Oumiyprx)ducts, orchards I andV mU1rttif that jextimd'througb the entire Tear. There is ready Kile for these near home. And we also have a good market for our surplus wheat, corn, hay, potatoes and poultry. Dr. M. Payne. An old aphorism says, ''Competition is the life of trade." This is true in the main. The person who strives to excel is on the high road to success, and will make it if health and life be al lowed him. Competition has built railroads in close proximity to and parallel with navigable streams. This increases trade by reducing the charges of the common carrier, and in the end benefits the producer. The retail merchant, these fast times, can sit at his own desk and make purchase of drummers, and have the iroods on his shelves in less time than it took in former times, to go and purchase them, and save ticket fare both ways. This is a benefit to the consumer. Drummers are net such nuisances as rated by some. Farm implements can be had the same way, not only saving freights but the charges of middle men too. Were it not for the rivalry of the common carriers they would extort by their shrewdness about all the profits of the producers, and reduce the masses to a species of serfdom, and beget classes in our population as in China and some other countries. This in turn would place education facilities in reach of only the favor ed few, and do but little other good than keep the sciences alive. Put all upon an equality by competition, then those who by choice become serfs have no grounds for complaint. All sections have their advantage. If one section by development outstrips another it is certainly in titled to the benefits. If the north west with a limey soil to aid availa bility of plant food by reducing all refuse matter to humus, and her level plains always exposed to the sun, (another favorable thing for wheat growing) can produce more bushels than wTe, then we must look about for our advantages. We find we can make a better wheat berry than they; one that will make more and better flour. . We also have sources of plant food that they have not. We have more forest growth to supply material for humus than they have. With proper care we have as good a country for the cultivated grasses as they, and likely many other undeveloped ad- WINSTON, N. C, FEBRUARY vantages from which we can in crease our fertility. Now with the advantage in quality and climate and equal facility for producing plant food, need we, can ive com pete with them? Good sense answ ers, yes. Our hills that seem to ex pose the land to destruction by wash ing may be utilized to aid drainage and be sources of profit. Cofnpetition and development are kindred terms. Where the former is the latter am. There is no com petition with impossibilities, but hovv are we to set a limit to them ! Where do they begin or end? Maine does not compete with Fiorida in cotton. It is impossible one would say; neither does Florida compete with Maine in ice, another will say. Florida cotton makes Coat's six cord spool thread, used in Maine; and Maine ice will kill the wiggletails in the malarial districts of Florida. An exchange with each other appears to be a necessity, but science has it otherwise. Some scientific person, likely from Maine, has invented a refrigerator that will produce ice down in Florida, at a small cost, that beats Maine ice two to one in convenience. Necessity is a powerful incentive to genius. If ice had no demand where the seasons are too warm to freeze, yankee in genuity would never have construct ed a freezer for warm latitudes. The North being the producer of ice by natural means, brought out the ma chine. Now it is iwith the South .who are better . skilled with fibrous material to! disebveromethin that bsjteam Then' would the Mrtinea- ppits, SuXPuianiiiiliichmond Mills place of cotton. Impossibilities are i ore rarer than m a nj : t h i 1 1 k ; : To say it is impossible to compete success fully with the Northwest in raising wheat may turn out like the ice business to be unfounded, in fact, when thought and science get to gether on the subject. It is to cul tivate these human traits that we are or ought to be concerned about. Get them together on the wheat subject and the first you know we will be making as many bushels to the acre as the Northwest, and have the advantage in quality. This is no stretch of fancy, but living possi bility that ought to nerve us to make the effort. AH of us are-ready and willing for such results to come about, but the penacea will remain in the distance unless most of us take hold and work for it. It is found by computation, made on scientific principles, that the great falls of Niagara would run the machinery of the world if it was ap plied properly. No one knows but this awe-inspiring cataract may yet be harnessed and by the transmis sion of its power with manilla rope and endless chain belts span this continent, running through North Carolina, furnishing power sufficient to run every vestige of machinery needed for sationary purposes, turn ed to any angle by loose -pullies, idlers, snub-pullies and carrier pul lies to guide it, and do away with Atlas-Corliss and all other engines and save the fuel for other purposes. (It would take all the coal consumed in the world to make such a power find a competitor that they would dread, and North Carolina fine wheat be converted into as fine a flour as ever entered human lips, and all the crowned heads and nobility of the world become our purchasers, and all power needed for domestic pur poses, furnished on the line from the sewing machine and churn to the mammoth saw, grist, iron and cot ton mills. The moral of all this is the cap italist who makes the venture to utilize this power, and succeeds will place his name higher up on the scroll of fame than any American predecessor has hitherto done, or than any successor will be likely to have an opportunity to do. What is fraught with more dis taste and version to the uneducated than to see a tyro figuring on the black board for the solution of a dif 2, 1887. ficult problem, and what is more en thusing to the mathematician than to see the mysteries of a perplexing problem unraveled by the same process. The same disparity exists between the progressive farmer and the botch. It seems as if ignorance and intelligence antagonize on this important matter. No surprise then that a neighbor who is a good farm er should make this remark that 'D ned ignorance will ruin this country." The day is coming when the Northwest will have worn out their lands, and be forced to renovate them. Let us be up and doing so that in time they may fall in behind us in yield. There is some consola tion in store for us if we persist in improvement. The farmer who has rundown land and can see his way out of the muddle without feeeding it is a wiseacre not entiled to any sympathy. D. M. Payne, Sec'y. LEWISVILLE CLUB, NO. 1. This club, whose place of meeting was torn down and rebuilt,met again Friday night 21st ult, and .reor ganized with a membership of 18, The club met again Thursday night 27th ult., and two new members were added to the roll. The officers elected" at the meeting of the 21st are :President T. J. Ket ner, Vice-President W. C. Jones, Secretary and Treasurer, John E. Holder. The executive committee are D. A. Brindle. F. M. Hire, and E. T.Wright,. . The subject under discussiou at mitintf on 27th-vnsr 4i if i, s''i cor , rThelniaiwUy.orihe afe believed that it wajmndviJb't-' to reduce the acrearefrbut u, titie the crop more care and try-to pro duce a better article. The club ad- journed to meet again Thursday evening the Feb. 3rd. The meetings will be held weekly. John E. Holder, Sec. HARMON GROVE CLUB. Lewisville N. C, Jan. 24 1887. The Club, met January 14th, in regular meeting and owing to the fact that there were a goodly num ber of members of other Clubs pres ent, the discussion of the question before the Club was deferred in order to nve visitors a chance to address the Club and others present on the importance of the Farmers' Club. Interesting addresses were delivered by A. W. Bevel, Esq., and Mr. S. A. Alspaugh, of Ceder Grove Club, and E. C. Dull, Esq., of Spanish Grove Club and others. Five new members were added A meetintr was called for January 22nd i MINUTES OF MEETING HELD JANUARY 22, 1887. The question for discussion was: "Shall we abandon the cultivation of tobacco"? Eev A. W. Craft. I believe that any farmer raising corn or wheat or tobacco or any other one crop to the exclusion of everything else will bankrupt himself in ten years. I do not think that we should abandon the cultivation of tobacco but it -should not be our only crop. - Wpi can not prosper witn our smone house and corn crib in Chicago and our meadows in Va. or Mass. We should raise all our supplies at home and then cultivate all the tobacco we can cultivate thoroughly. Gener ally the man that has one acre in tobacco makes more clear money than the one that has five. J. P. Binkley. The farmers who raise tobacco are not prospering compared with the manufactures, I saw a crop sold recently for one cent a pound. The farmers are to blame to a certain extent in letting the cultivation of tobacco absorb all their time, energy and every thing else, neglecting to raise their supplies at home. If we are to continue as we have been going I answer yes to the question. I have seen a large amount of tobacco almost ruined by the owner being No. 51. overcropped. And then the man ufactures are somewhat to blame also. Notwithstanding the tax has been reduced several times within the last fifteen years, the price of manufactured tobacco has been reduced but very little if any. There were other speeches made but about on the same line. There were three new members added. We now number 23. D. A. Binkley, Secretary. C. AND B. COUNTY LINE FARMERS' CLUB. The farmers of Western Catawba and Eastern Burke, according to ap pointment, met at Hart's school house Friday night, Jan. 21st to organize a farmers' club. After sev eral rich, rare and racy speeches as to the importance of farmers organ izing, they proceeded to organize by electing J. F. Click, President, A. Cook, Vice President, and W. B. Jones, Secretary and Treasurer. By unanimous consent the constitution and by laws, as published in the Progressive Farmer were adopted, together with the following amend ments viz: The ministers who labor within the bounds of the club may L be elected as honorary members, and that all difficulties between members be settled by abritration and not by law, if possible. By motion the club will meet again next Wednesday night at brick-yard school house in Burke county. , The question for discussion is "the benefit of clover and how to grow it successfully," , The interest manHHtod ftta tiering and -it is 4cr j ' . , , ItEPoitTKit." ' wannn itvs. Ucrt. tet prise. ( 4.' ORGANIZING AT JACOB S IX)RKS. The farmers living between Hen ry's and Jocob's Forks will meet at Minerva School House an Saturday February 12, 1887, to organize a Farmers' Club. Piedmont Press. NEW CLUB IN JOHNSTON COUNTY. At meeting of the farmers in and around Earpsboro, this county, on January 15th, a farmers' club was organized with the following offi cers : President AVyatt Earp. Vice-President J. S Atkinson. Treasurer Jos. Bunn. There was a large turnout, we learn. The club meets twice a month. Much interest was mani fested in the meeting. We believe much good will result from the .meetings of this club. Every neigh borhood in the country should have a farmers' club. Every profession and trade is organized, why not the farmers ? Smithfield Htrald. A NEW CLUB IN CHATHAM. A new club has been organized at Green Spring in Chatham county, of which John P. Bridges is Secre tary REJOICES IN THE PROSPECT.X We rejoice in the prospect of the early establishment ofa State agri cultural and industrial school. We believe such an institution is the great need of thetimes and have little doubt tbathe beneficial effects to be derived from it will be felt in a very few years lifter its establish ment. The fme has come when we can no longer afford to import the skilled labor that we require. Wc must fit ourselves to take charge of our industries and elevate the stand ard of our agriculture or be content to let strangers reap the benefit of the superb resources nature has bestowed upon us and to remain hewers of wood and drawers of water for our smarter brethren. The people of the State are wise in insisting on the establishment of the school and they are wise not a bit too soon. . News and Observer. i it
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
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Feb. 2, 1887, edition 1
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