Newspapers / The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, … / May 19, 1887, edition 1 / Page 2
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Mm PROGRESSIVE 'JtoK'SliiFlM 9 tog w vnij , L. L. POLK, - - - - r Editor. P. F. DUFFY, - - Associate Editor. i JOHN'E. RAY, Business Manager. Raleigh, N. C. SUBSCRIPTION: $2 00 FOR ONE YEAR. $1.00 FOR 6 MONTHS POST-PAID. : Invariably in Advance i . , . v . ' Special and Liberal Bates to Clubs. Subscribers will be notified two weeks before their time expires, and if they do not renew,, the paper will stopped promptly. ' -Active agents wanted in every county, city, town and village in the State. Write for terms. Money at our risk, if sent by registered letter or money order. , Advertising Rates quoted on application. -. On all business matters relating to the paper, Address . JOHN E. RAY, Raleigh, N. C. . To Co-respondents: Write all communications, designed for publica tion, on one side of the paper only. ,,' We want intelligent correspondents in every county in the State. We want facts of value, re sults accomplished of value, experiences of value. , plainly and briefly told. One solid, demonstrated fact, is worth a thousand theories. :;':-. Address all communications to '- The Progressive Farmer; Raleigh, K. C. I RALEIGH, N C, MAY 19, : 1887. ' Tlds paper entered as second-class matter at the Post Offlce in Raleigh, N. C., - ENDORSED BY THE CONVEN TION. The following resolution was passed by the Farmers' Mass Convention in Raleigh, January 2Gth, 1887 : Besotted, That The Progressive Farmer, pub lished by L. Xi. Polk, Winston, N. C, be declared the Official urgan or tne JSorth Carolina warmers' Association, and that its Editor, L. L. Polk, be ad mitted to the privileges of the floor as an honorary memoer 01 mis onvenuon. JJWe ask every Grange and Farm ers' Club in the State to send us at once, the number of members in the organiza tion, together with the name and post office address of each officer. PLEASE NOTICE. In writing to this office to change the address of a paper, our subscribers will do us a favor by stating the" office at which the paper is received, as well as the one to which it is desired to be sent. Failure to do this puts us to a great deal of trouble and the necessity of going through a long list of names, involving not only much work, but much loss of time, when time is valuable. SUBSCRIBERS, READ THIS. Is there a Cross. Mark on the margin of your paper? We adopt this as the simp lest and easiest method of informing our patrons that their terms of subscription have expired, and that the paper will be stopped if we do not hear from you. We know "times are hard" on every body, and especially is this true of newspapers, and particularly agri cultural papers. .But we must help each other as best we can. If, therefore, you are not prepared to renew for the whole year, renew for a. part of the time, and this will enabla you to have time to make us up a club, for which you will get , the paper one year free of charge. So if you see the Cross Mark, let us hear from you. . REMOVE THE STUMPS. . ; It is a remarkable thing that so many farmers will permit stumps, stumps by the dozen, stumps by the hundred, to remain in their fields, when every stump is not only an un sightly but a costly encumbrance. In travelling on the railroad a few days ago, but a few miles from Ral eigh, , in a beautiful range of country, just undulating enough for good drainage, we saw a field containing a hundred acres or more, with stumps so numerous and close together v that plowing a straight furrow would be , an utter impossibility. How .long ; these stamps have stood there we do I not know, but, judging from their de cayed appearance, probably many years. How much they have cost the owner of that field in the loss of .time ' in plowing, his land and in the , culti ; vation of his crops, in the wear and j tear of stock,' harness and farm Tmple , ments he will never, know, because he has probably never given the subject a . moment's thought. But it has cost i.him money all the-same, much money i every year, and ' will cost him much .every, year the sffaricL ther(?v They (not only cost him money 'thus directly but indirectly they, cost him . much more, in preventing thorough culture; ; iri taking up much valuable land which fbe profitably utilized, and by prevent- ing . the . ready, ,use,f of improved ; ma- chinery for plowing, cultivating and jfor harvesting the 'ripened crops. '.."e'liye; in arrad age; 'arlage -not'. only bguick .tlipughV but of quic execution. Inventive genius has given us machinery 'which has multiplied 'productive power so that one man now is the equivalent pi scores of men a decade, or;1 two ago.v And inventive genius has not .been idle on -the farm. It has given us machines to do about everything that is to be done upon the farmrom turning the soil to thresh ing the t grain. It has given: us the sulky plow upon which the farmer sits and rides at his ease while -.ho' plows his land,- instead of ; trudging along wearily between the handles of the plow -It has given us the suiky cultivator- constructed j upon the same principle upon which the driver rides. Ifhas given us the mower upon which .the farmer sits while his waving-fields ! of grass fall before the swiftly moving scythe, and-the self-binder which cuts and binds the ripened grant fthd Jays : it aside ready; 4f or the stacker. . With all of -these the work of manyV. hands is speedily and effectually done by a few. It is thus that marvelous pro ducts of the grain-growing west have become a possibility; machinery takes the place of men, and the acreage and product are multiplied. With a cou ple of teams, equipped with this ma chinery the western farmer will culti vate a hundred acres or more in wheat, oats, corn, grass, potatoes, . &c, keep a considerable number of cattle, and hogs, and have reasonable time for rest and recreation too. But he couldn't do it if he had to contend with an army of resisting stumps. These make the effective use of ma chinery an impossibility and effectual ly block the path of progress. If the removal of them was a labo rious or costly undertaking that might be a reason why they are permitted to remain. But it is not. They may be easily removed with explosive agencies, burned out with oil. dug out or pulled out with machinery devised for that purpose, and sold at a price that any ordinary farmer, with stumpy fields can afford to pay, and which could be purchased at an insignificant sum to each if several farmers having such fields were to club together and buy one in common; or a man of me chanical turn of mind could easily contrive an apparatus which with the use of a couple of oxen or horse or mules would answer the purpose very well. The time and the money spent in eradicating these costly nuisances will be both well invested and even work done upon the farm for the time taken and money spent will pay the farmer better. ONLY AN AGENT. A correspondent of one of the Northern papers, writing from Reids ville, describing the distress that pre vails in some portions of that county, says that a waggish farmer told the story of the cause in his own quaint but forcible way. 'He had just dis posed of a load of tobacco for thirty dollars when a friend met him and said: "Hello Tom! what did you get for your tobapco ?". "Thirty dollars for the load. But that's all right. I'm only agent .any- iway. : - , -.! t'ii ,v:.--: ' "An agent! Why, I thought you owned a plantation." - ' t;"."'' . Oh, they do say so; but the fact is, I'm only an , agent, Bill. Now look here. 'See them mules ? They came rom Tennessee ; :,the harnes3 oh 'em was made; in HagrstSwii Jjjid.;' this wagon ;came from Kentucky; this bar rej of flour from Richmond; this ship- stuff from West Virginia; thjs bacon irom umcago. iviy nai came irom New York and my, clothes from Phil, adelphia, and I'll be eternally smashed if I've got on anything inside or out side oi nie,1 that" wa raised in r" North Carolina!" ' ' , , ' : . Only an agents . Not many words, , but whatatyolumo of - meaning. TJni fortunately ' for1 'North Carolina, : and Kb'oi pearly; t. not 1 all I ofJthese Southern States there is not only one such agent but there are thousands upon thousands of them. But fewdf them; however, have discovered as he did the fact that they are "only agents," or have his candor to acknowledge it.T- How few of these agents live, live in the true sense of .the word, (not merely subsist) as men, especially farmers, should live:- How few of them have the ordinary comforts of life much less the luxuries. They struggle on, toil on from early dawn till late at eve, wearing themselves out, growing prematurely old, or drop ping into premature graves, broken down in body and in spirit in pursuit of that exacting, tyrannical m&cailed "money crop." There are thousands upon thousands of graves in North Carolina, the graves of farmers, where this epitaph might be appropriately inscribed. "Run to death by tobacco" or cot ton. Suicides, who killed themselves without suspecting that they were do ing it. . ' We have seen plantations containing hundreds of acres of good land, whose owners seemed to live and live only to raise cotton or tobacco. They bought their stock, the feed for the stock, they bought their meat, their bread and sometimes even the vegetables they ate. Grass was an unknown quantity on these farms, cows as scarce as white elephants, milk a novelty and butter" if found, probably imported from some - Northern oleomargarine factory. Fresh meat of any kind sel dom broke the tri-daily monotony of fried bacon, and western bacon at that. Grass, cows, milk, -butter, home-raised bread and meat were in the estimation of these infatuated followers of the one crop delusion small matters with which they couldnot afford to waste the precious time which that one crop relentlessly demanded and submissive ly got. .No man, who would do him self, , his wife and children justice would or should victimize himself and them thus. . He should not enslave himself nor themj in the vain effort to grow rich in an impossible way. Even if he could it would be better to .' i i earn fewer dollars and to have some of the comforts of life if he did not aspire to the luxuries, to oheer his daily toil. . ' WAKE COUNTY CATTLE SHOW. The display of blooded cattle maole by the Wake County Cattle Club on on the' 12th xinjt. was superb, and was in every way worthy the efforts of the public-spirited gWitlemen who com pose the club. Te, display was an honor to Wake cou: We regret that wa have not the space to notice individually the splen did animals on exhibition, and men tion each, by name. Jeseys, Hol steins, Guernseys and Short Horns, with the Jerseys largely predominat ing, made up the collection. 'Several single herds, were well worth spend ing a day to see. Mr. W. G. Upchurch had on ex hibition eleven cows and one bull1; 'Mrs Wm. Grimes, fifteen Jersevs: Capt. B. P.Williamson, seven Jerseys ; Dr. Wm. Hawkins; four Holsteins and one Jersey; Maj. R. S. Tucker, seven Jerseys ; Mr. C. M. Hawkins, two Jerseys ; Dr.'R. H. tiewis, four Guern seys, one Jersey ; T. H. Murray, five 'Holsteins, one Jersey V N. W. West,, one Jersey "cow with twin calves j ;Maj. J. W. Crenshaw, five Jerseys V Capt. A. B. Andrews . two Jerseys ; D. S. Hudgingsf irbhe Holstein, two Jerseys ; Dr." J. McKee, five Jerseys ; C. H. Belvin, two. Jerseys ; R. B. Rainey,-, two Holsteins, one J ersey ; Capt. J. B. BurwelV two short horns and three Guernseys and ijuite a num ber of others of excellence and merit. Eleven hundd.dollars would buy a snug little farm in many counties, but Mr; W.- G.' Upchurch refused thai; sum for Rosa SMla1;an im-rrted Jef sey?f our years ; old,' and' which, gives 50r l-2 pounds of rich ! milk per -day. Everybody: said " cheap : enough,'? when Mr. Everett, of Ldurinburg, rbid off her bull calf, 10 months old, at seventy-five dollars. Sales were.made to buyers from Winston, Laurinburg, Henderson and other points. Mr. J. C. Buxton, one of the most enterpris ing men.o the State, , and a lpyer, and judge of fine stock, was delighted with the general V display, but when he reached the herd of Capt. B. P; Wil liamson, he. acted as though he had found what he wanted, for there were hardly a dozen "Words, exchanged before- he had: paid $150 for a Jersey heifer 13 months old, that might well have been mistaken for a doe at a short, distance.' Numbers of the' Jerseys and Holsteins were' pointed' out'to us with milk records ' ranging :f rom 2 0 to 26 1-2 quarts ' per day. !.Maj. Tucker's imported cattle attracted much attention so ' "of 0 the . splendid Holsteins of Dr. Hawkins and T H. Murray. The Guernseys of Dr. R. H. Lewis, that, could they talk, could learn us more than we have ever read of ensilage, showed high living, and were elegant animals. "Let me show you a present," said our old friend Maj. Crenshaw, as he led us to the stall of King of Carolina. This bull was presented to the Major by W. P. Hazard, of Westchester, Pa., one of the finest cattle 'breeders of this country. The Major is proud of him and ought to be. Since attending this exhibition and watching the. interest manifested by our people, we are thoroughly satisfied that there are dozens of counties in our State which would be immensely benefited by a' similar enterprise, and we hope that our enterprising cattle breeders in all parts of the State will take the matter in hand, and that in a short time we may see dozens of county cattle shows in our State. CLEAN SEED. It is a matter of greater importance than most farmers think, to have pure clean seed. It is important in all crops, but especially so in wheat. In our travels we see in our wheat fields a quantity of rye. This should no be pulled up or clipped off. We one field where cockle was so abund ant that we could easily see the blooms from the car as we rode along on the rail. Now is the time to destroy it, as it can be easily seen by the brilliant bloom. It is a work that .can be effectually done by children and wo men, if the men are too busy with their other farm work to give it atten tion. ' No good farmer will harvest a crop of cockle with his wheat and thus ruin . the market value of his flour, when it can be so easily avoided. And in this connection we want to say to those of our farmer friends who de sire to have clean seed, that we know of no better investment he can make than to buy the Tate Victor Separator, the best and cheapest grain separator and cleaner we have ever seen. We hear much complaint of wild carrot and what is popularly known as sheep sorrel, . infesting our "clover fields. These, noxious and worthless plants were brought to our State, doubtless,, with seed brought fronx the., North, and our farmers should make arrange ments now, while" the crop is growing, to get their, clover seed from our best and most reliable clover raisers at home We are gratified to know that the demand f 6r native clover seed is , increasing each year, andw6shorrto see an increased effort on the part of oureople to meet this demand. ; WHY THEY DID IT. " On the morning of the 8th inst: the body of anegrp, on the 26thof April last,; near' Tarboro ' Edgecombe ;; county, . assaulted a little girl, and was arrested ;:and r. confined for safe keeping' m the. jail at Wil niingtonj - was fpunb! nangig near the scene of bis crime.,. party of lynch- i ers u secured a , train, aiiietlv wftnttn or M saw the place in the' night, took h; . , - - . ' uui brought him back, and did the work' leaving the following card attached to his body : . " We hang this man, not in passion but calmly and deliberately, with a due sense of the responsibility we as sume. We take executive power in this case and hang this man in accord ance with the unwritten law of the land,' - because the law provides no penalty adequate to. the crime. And be it understood, we who ' have done "this act will repeat it under similar circumstances. People's Committee. THE SLUMBERING RESOURCES OF THE SOUTH. There are various 'sources of ini. mense. wealth in the South which within the past few years, have been made known, and 'theyWbeing con. stantly brought : to" light.X The follow ing shows one, oi which the farmers of the South did not dream twenty years ajgo. ' The New York Sun says : " Twenty years ago cotton seed was burned or destroyed " on Southern farms. Then it began to be used as a fertilizer or stock food. Last year $5,000,000 .worth of crude oil "was taken out of 500,000 tons of seed without injuring its value for other purposes, which oil was refined up to a value of perhaps $20,000,000. This enormous industry, which as yet treats but 500,000 tons out of 3,000,000 tons of the full crop of cot ton seed, has lately attracted the at tention . of Northern capitalists, it is said, especially the Standard Oil Com pany, and a remarkable company has been formed; Last season produced acid seed, very unfavorable for oil purposes. The mills, which had been making immense profits, lost money. Several of them applied to New York for money. Others were offered for sale. The American Cotton Oil Trust was organized. A score of mills were pooled, and agents of the company went to buying up until out of the 150 oil mills in the country the company owns about 126. These mills represent a cash value of $3,000,000. The stock of the company is $3 3, 0 0 0, 0 0 0. It is listed .'in the . New York Stock Ex change, and is now selling at about 60, so that the $3,000,000 worth of mill erty . now has a selling value of ;ooo,ooo." THE AGRICULTURAL AND ME- W.CHANICAL COLLEGE. The Fayetteville Observer presents some exqelleht views on industrial training "and omvlndustriil College. It says : ' "It will cost no Httle money to equip the college withll the applian ces necessary for 3xperiments. It should be put upon a permanent and satisfactory basis. Don'tdo things by halves,, and thus bring censure and - disrepute upon the institution. r a more thorough education in mechanic arts, and our advantages have been exceed ingly limited. Northern men are far ahead of us in invention and other matters because they have had the opportunity to develop their natural gifts, , which are not by any means superior to ours: :W had no machine shops in which to educate our boys, and the want has long been felt. Now, if this institution is furnished, not only with books, but with appar atus, both theoretical and practical in formation may be acquired. Hereto fore : nearly Hilt of our educated men have: chosen professions, and our farming interests have not advanced in a ratio proportionate to the intelli gence of the age. L' It has been the opinion 'that almost any man could "farm, but it is one of the fallacies of the times. We all see each otherTs faults and can give advice, but the remedy for most of the faults will be. found in thorough agricultural training. Here the farmer's boy can learn to do all sorts of work black smithing, repairing and building ma chinery, Carpentering, etc. He will also be abie.to test the soil, to find its needs and ; what is necessary . for the plants he grows in fact, receive a thorough ; training that will revolu tionize in a measure the present sys tem; . f or v his mental faculties developed in the right direction. The importance of " such a school for the trainj of bur young men is not to be disputed." V: Lv "V' : : The cotton crop in sight is 0,196,199 bales. V ' " - ; A
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
May 19, 1887, edition 1
2
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