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1 . 4 -- . THE INDUSTRIAL AND EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS OF OUR PEOPLE PARAMOUNT TO ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS OF STATE POLICY. . , - " ' : : : : ' : ' ' " .. ; J Vol. 2. RALEIGH, N. C, SEPTEMBER 15, 1887. No. 30. j OUR FARMERS' CLUBS. What our Farmers are Doing and How the Work of Organizing is Progressing. Beaver Dam, N. C., Aug. 30, '87. Grove Springs Farmers' Club was organized today and elected J. C. Hamilton, President ; M. L. Little, Vice-President ; J. A. Marsh, Secre tary and Treasurer. Executive Com mittee : J. C. Edwards, A. R. Ed wards and J. P. Hamilton. J. A. Marsh, Sec'y. Madison, N. C., Sept. 2, '87. Our club was organized July 30th, 1887. We have 50 members ; Col. Jno. M. Galloway, President ; C. A. McGehee, Vice-President ; G.W. Mar tin, Treasurer ; D. W. Busick, Secre tary. Postoffice for each one is Madi son, Rockingham county, N. C. Yours truly, D. W. Busick. EDGECOMBE FARMERS CLUB. The central Farmers' Club met in Tarboro on the 6th inst. Gen. W. R. Cox was made a member. The pres ent officers, Col. Carr, D. H. Barlow, J. C. Powell and H. L. Leggett, President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer, . respectively were elected. The matter of holding a farmers' institute is in the hands of a committee. ETdgecombe can and ought to have. as good institute as any county in the State. THE WAY THE IREDELL FARMERS DO. At a meeting of the Iredell County Club on the Gth inst., Col. Julian Allen, President; gave an interesting talk on his trip, as a delegate, to At lanta, and other speeches were made. Among other things it was decided to hold a wheat fair in Statesville on the first Wednesday and Thursday in August, 1888, and to offer the follow ing premiums : For the best quality and largest amount of wheat raised on two acres, $10 ; second best, " $8 ; third best, $4 , fourth best, $3. On one acre : First best, $6 ; second best, $4 ; third best, $3 ; fourth best, $2. On one-half acre : First best, $4 ; second best, $3 ; third best, $2 ; fourth best, $1. UNION COUNTY FARMERS. A most cheering letter to hand from Mr. Jos. M. Austin, Secretary of Euto Farmers' Club, in Union county. The club was organized on the 9th of April last and now has a membership of 48 wide-awake working members. W. H. Austin, President ; Jno. M. AustiD, Vice-President ; Joseph M. Austin, Secretary ; Ashley Baucom, Treasurer ; J. B. Brantly, W. A. Bau com and W. A. Tarlton, Executive Committee. ; This club is at work ; it is growing and one of the sensible things it has done is to admit the ladies as honorary members. They want instruction and help from our department of agricul ture as to the best" methods of organiz ing the farmers. The clubs of Union will hold a grand mass meeting on the 8th at Watson's church, when they expect to have a genuine-good time.,, ; (--" AUBURN FARMERS ALLIANCE. This alliance, at its meeting on the 3d inst., transacted some important business, and among other things, de cided to have a comfortable hall for its meetings and connected with it a good, commodious and comfortable school room. The site was selected and agreed upon and subscriptions in tke meeting, were made, amounting to $200. The membership at the two last meetings was increased by the reception of twelve new members, and the outlook is that it will not be long before every f armernn this community will belong to the order. May the good work go on until all the farmers may see how much benefit to himself and . to his fellows he may be by joining us. - We would be glad to see in The Progressive Farmer reports from our brethren of other alliances. Fraternally, Belli e M. Smith, Secretary. " llARNETT COUNTY ALLIANCE. The subordinate alliances of Harnett county met on the 23d ult. and organ ized a county alliance by electing N. J. Olive, President ; Rev. P. J. Wray, Vice-President ; D. H. Senter, Secre tary ; H. Y. Smith, Chaplain ; J. S. Gardner, Lecturer ; T. E. Smith, As sistant Lecturer ; Jesse Tulor, Door keeper, and A. B. Patterson, Assist ant Door-keeper. Our next regular meeting will be held on the 1st of October, and we want every alliance in the county to be well represented, as important mat ters - are to be considered. We cor dially invite our brethren of other counties to be with us. The farmers of Harnett are waking up, and they are organizing a thing that should have been done twenty years ago. We would l)e glad if our brethren of the alliance would write and let us know through The Progressive Farmer something of their progress. X. J. Olive, President. D. H. Senter, Secretary. On the 3d inst the farmers of Cataw ba had a grand rally and among the many good speeches delivered was one bv Rev. J. C. Clapp D. D. His sub ject " the Improvement of the farm- the all Important Object of the Farmer." His speech was full of inter est. Among other good things he said : " We ve got to reclaim land already cultivated and which has washed out in red gullies. It can be done and must be done Look at Pennsylvania and Maryland. What was once the worn out land is now the garden spots of the world. Is ow their cribs are full of corn, granaries full "of wheat and money in the pocket. Our larfd is better by nature than that of Maryland or Pennsylvania or Massachusetts and can be improved at infinitely less expense." Speaking of our duty he said: " We are moral. Wre call ourselves moral. We owe it to posterity as well as to ourselves to improve and take care of it. Wre have no moral right Xo plow Lup and down these hills to be washed into gullies for those who are to follow. We are to leave these farms to our own posterity, and Christianity de mands that we improve them and not rob what God lends us to be delivered to our descendents." FORSYTH COUNTY FARMERS CLUB. Our county club has passed the first mile-post. It was organized on the 11th of August, 1886, and we look back with pleasure and satisfac tion to our record. It was the first county club to organize in the State. It issued an address to the farmers of the State through The Progressive Farmer, which did much to arouse them, to a sense of the situation and to induce them to organize. It was the first to issue a call for the great mass convention of farmers, which assemb led in Raleigh on the 2 Gth of last January, and demonstrated to politic ians tha power of determined, organ eranized men. The work of that con vention inaugurated a new industrial era in our history, and we may hope also, that it inaugurated an era of a more self-reliant independence among our farmers. The organization in our county is in a good healthy condition. Since the work season is over there is an awakened and quickened zeal and in terest among the subordinate clubs. They discuss all matters affecting their interests and are bringing it down to practice, and we have yet to find a single man in all the county who expresses any regret at having joined us. : i f v i.t iW Wre had quite an interesting and harmonious meeting. The officers elected are : President, A. W. Bevil ; 1st Vibe-President; E. T. Lehman ; 2d Vice-President,; J. L Pratt ; Secre tary, E. C. Dull j Corresponding Seer retary, Wr. Pratt ; Treasurer, A. B. Mock. --"-. . - A number of resolutions of a local character were adopted ; among them the following offered by A. D. Hulin, President of the Pleasant Ridge Club. "Resolved, That we, the organized farmers of Forsyth county, have no agents to transact any business per taining to the farmers' clubs, unless said agent be a number of the same." The club then adjourned to meet in Winston on the 4th Saturday in Oct. next. E. C. Dull, Sec'y. Aug. 27, 1887. -- " GREEN MANURING. Number 3 A farmer is supposed to be practic ally acquainted with everything con cerning agriculture, and to know what is best to do under all circumstances in order to obtain remunerative crops; but the fact is that no one farmer in an average life-time can try enough experiments to know everything, and he must embrace every opportunity to find out and to study the recorded ex periments of others, The information regarding when and how to break land, and when to turn under sod or stubble, or a crop grown for manure, has come down to us from our ancestors, and has not been verified by ; experiments. One farmer continues tjo break the stubble land in October, another always burns off the weeds and stubble in February, v and then breaks the land for corn or cotton, and each thinks his plan right because his father did so. v ery few have experimented to find whether there is not a better plan. Many of r a. our ideas have been received from Northern farmers and writers, where the conditions of climate are quite the reverse of those existing in the South. If tlie plowing is X not done in the Northern States beiore October it can not be done until after the first of May, as the land is covered with snow or bound fast with ice. The Northern farmer often breaks his sod land in September, and either sows wheat or expects the freezing and thawing weather of October to pulverize and to prepare the land to receive the annual covering of snow, and with it a supply of ammonia, which the Southern farmer must buy in commercial fertilizers or obtain by growing a green crop for manure. In the South the conditions are quite different. September is a hot month; October is frequently almost as warm. Drying winds sweep the bare fields ; winter rains wash the cotton and corn lands into gullies, and all the elements seem to conspire to rob the soil of nitrogen. How can this great loss be pre vented ? Cannot the farmer, to some extent at least, cover his land with manuring crops which' will shade and protect the land from sun, wind' and washing rain until he is ready to plant the spring crop ? This covering, after serving the purpose of shading the land for sev eral months, and in that way improv-r lug the condition of the soil, will 'be equal in value, when turned under, to many wagon loads of manure per acre, and will go far towards improving larger and more profitable crops. A. DEPRESSION IN AGRICULTURE. From a Grange Standpoint. "The prosperity of the South is without doubt confined' almost exclu sively to the cities. The farmer's con dition does not improve. V ? j - This item from a Southern paper really gives the condition of affairs over the whole country. As proven by the U. S. Census and all later sta tistics, the depression ef agriculture is growing greater with every passing year. The value of the farm and its crops is constantly shrinking. And yet the country was never increasing in wealth so rapidly as now. "Why should agriculture be the only interest that is going - backward ? What are the causes ? - .What the remedy ? .These , are questions ; that should be discussed by every Grange in the land Would it not help if farmers were as well organized as the manufacturers and other citv interests? Would not " protection " for our products in proportion to the protection given other industries and made them pros perous, would it not be well to build up agriculture in the same way and put good tariffs on fruits, hides, eggs, vegetables and other products now admitted "free" and larger tariffs on hay, lumber, potatoes, wool, tobacco, sugar, etc.? True we have a large surplus revenue now. If more than is needed for expenses of the National Government, why not divide it up among the States to run the State governments (as was done when An drew Jackson was President) and so save State taxes, or, if necessary, divide again among the counties and so save county taxes. Some recom mend P'ree Trade, but would it help farmers to pull manufacturers down to the farmers' depressed almost Free Trade basis ? To protect her farmers, France has a tariff so high on beef, pork and grain that it is prohibitory ; and last winter the French Congress increased the tariff on raw sugar at the very time our Congress was discussing "free" raw sugar (and, all "free" raw ma terials.) Spain increased her tariff on cereals last winter 25 per cent. Statis tics tell us that over sixteen million aozen oi ioreign eggs (largely irom France) landed in this country last year and free of all duties. If France and Spain, by tariff, close their mar kets for our beef, pork and grain, let us close ours in the same way against their pauper hens. Let us try a tariff of 78 per cent, on eggs (the average on manufactured goods) and see if you cannot build up this " American In dustry." Mortimer Whitehead. A TRULY SELF MADE LADY. "You seem to be much attached to your wife," said the Governor of Ar kansaw, addressing an old negro who had just paid a tribute to the ruler of his household. "I is, sah, powerful. Dat lady is one ermong er thousand, an' does you know dat she's self-made lady ?" " A self-made lady ?" " Yes, she, she's a self-made lady. When we fust maird, she was a sorto' helpless critter. Been raised 'round de house 'mong de white folks, an didn't gin much o' promise det she would eber 'mount ter much an' I wuz sorter slow 'bout maim her, I wuz, 'case I'se putty much o'er bizness man merse'f. An' fust it was erbout ez much ez she could do ter draw er bucket o' water, but 'stead o' flingin' stumblin' blocks in her way, I 'cour aged her, I did." ' How ? By drawing the water yourself ?" the Governor askfed. "Oh, no, sah; by gittin, er smaller bucket dat she could han'le, Ef I had er drawed de water merself she neber would er been er self-made lady. She'd er tied er red han'kerchu 'round her head an' sung er lonesome song in de back yard, an' I does think, sah, dat de song o' er 'oman dat has gin up hope is de lonesomest thing in de wor'. Yas, sah, I got de lady er smaller bucket, an' ter show her how fur I wuz f rum throwin' stumblm' blocks m de lady's way, I greased de win'lass. I let it run erlong dis way erwhile; an' den I put on de big bucket.', "Then she went right along, sup pose?" " Ez sweet ez er pie, sah. An' ergin, at fust she made. er. mighty, bad out at choppin' wood. She didn't take kin ly ter de ax, but I wa'nt de man ter fling stumblin' blocks in de way o' my own wife." - , , " You relieved her of that laborious duty, then I suppose ?" ' ' Yas, sah, I liebed her might'ly. I got her er ax dat wa'nt nigh so heaby. Den she dun powerful well; 'prubed so fas dat it waVt long till she could han'dle de heaby ax monstrous fine. But yer otter see dat lady now, guV ner. She ken fetch in er log bwood ez well ez any pusson, an- out ini the fiel' she ken make er mule powerful tired 'fore de sun. goes down. Oh, yas, she's er se' made lady, but I knowl edges dat she would'n be such er fme pusson ef I had acted mean anT flung stumbin' blocks in her way." Arkan sas Traveler. What paper should a farmer take? THE PROGRESSIVE FARMER AND ITS FRIENDS. It is known that we started this paper under most disadvantageous surroundings. It is not known how we have toiled and labored " in season and out of season '" day and night, to place it beyond the breakers. We confess with pride and with gratitude to our friends, that it has succeeded beyond our expectations. It has made strong and true friends. It has enjoyed the courteous kindness, if not co-opera-tion, of the press of the State, for which it expresses its pro found appreciation . Kind words of en dorsement and encouragement are borne to us by almost every mail. For all this we feel gratified. But we desire to speak a few plain, earnest words to our subscibers. Ours is an agricultural State. Our people are supporting over one hun dred and fifty newspapers and jour nals. Over one hundred of these are political papers. The Progressive Farmer is the only agricultural paper (weekly) among them all. It is de voted exclusively to the interests of industrial classes. Is it unreasonable to claim that of the one hundred and ten thousand subscribers to all ' our papers, a majority of whom must be farmers, that The Progressive Farmer ought to have ten thousand subscrib ers ? This would be an average of but a fraction over one hundred to each county in the State. Are there not twenty counties in the State that with little effort on the part of our friends would give us five hundred each by January next ? Are there not fifty other counties that would give us two hundred each ? Are there not twenty others that would give us from fifty to one hundred each ? If our friends in these counties will kindly give us their help and will give half the number named by the first day of January next, we believe we can safely guarantee to run the list up to ten thousand'by the first of June next. It would enable us first, to reduce the price of the paper to the uniform price of one dollar. Second. It would enable us to increase the size and give our readers the model agricultural weekly of the South. Third. It would enable us to employ constantly the best edi torial talent in all its departments, and lastly, it would give us a paper that could and would wield a tremend ous power in our State. Is not this true? If it be true, is it not worth an effort on the part of our friends to accomplish it? Who will give us their aid in securing five thousand subscribers by the first of January ? ' Look at these rates ? to clubs : 1 subscriber and under five, 1 year, $2.00 5 subscribers and under ten, 1 year, 1.65 10 subscribers and under fifteen, year, '. . . n . . . i 1.50 15 subscribers and under twenty, 1 year, . . ... 1.25 20 subscribers, or more, 1 year, , . 1.00 tSrtctly cash in advance "Who will be the first to send us a club? Remember that for any one of the above clubs, you get the paper free for one year; Will you not make up a club in your neighborhood in yonr Grange, in your Club, in your Alli ance How, many of our friends will join us in the effort to get . the five thousand ? . Write to us for blank subscription list and sample copy of the paper. Who wm neip : n you can't do it, can you not get some one. to do so? ' Show the paper to your neighbor take it with you to your Club, Grange or Alliance and show it to your brethren and get them to take it. Who xciU write first for the blank ? Join us in the work, and let us have, by the beginning of next year, the very best paper in the whole South f or ourj farmers. ;.. . I 1 .1 O C J i 5
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Sept. 15, 1887, edition 1
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