I
ARMER
0
Vol. 2.
OUR FARMERS' CLUBS.
What our Farmers are Doing and How
the Work of Organizing; is
Progressing;.
IREDELL FARMERS.
A private letter from a friend in
Iredell informs us that there are ten
clubs in' that county and a County
Club. They propose to hold a Wheat
Fair in August, and are expecting to
hove a Farmers' Institute as early as
practicable.
The Scotland Jfeck Democrat makes
a stirring appeal to the farmers of its
vicinity to have a " rousing meeting
and dinner" in the near future. "With
the zeal and energy of the Democcat,
and the perseverance of those farmers
combined, it can be made an occasion
that will be talked of by their children
for many a year to come. Go ahead,
Bro. Kitchen, and make it a grand
occasion. , .
The Annual Fair of the Catawba
Industrial Association will open at
Hickory on tle 25 jjist. and hold four
davs. Gov. Vance, Gov. Scales and
L. L. Polk are announced to make
speeches. A public marriage will take
place and numerous bridal presents
will be contributed. The programe
throughout' is full of interest and fun,
and we doubt not that . President
Keinhardt is correct when he says: "It
will be the best fair ever held in West
ern North Carolina.
The farmers of Cedar Spring neigh
borhood met Sept. 24th, 1887, and
organized a farmers' club' and elected
B. F. Clegg President, and D. M. Mc
Leod Vice-President, and J. TV. Cole
Secretary and Treasurer. Executive
Committee : A. B. Harrington, R. M.
McRae and T. E. Crutchfield. The
Club will be known as Cedar Spring
Farmers' Club, of Hitters township,
Moore county, X. C. Postoffice of
President is Quiet, X. C.
J. TV. Cole, Sec'y,
Carthage, N. C.
MOUNTAIN CREEK FARMERS CLUB.
The motto of this Club is still "up
ward and onward." On the 3rd inst.,
at its regular meeting, the members,
male and female, had a little fair.
They showed cotton, corn, potatoes,
squashes, beets, onions, amber cane,
cabbage, turnips, &c, &c. Next year
they will enlarge and do better. This
is right. TVe have not heard much
from this Club recently, but upper
Richmond will ere long begin to show
the impress of its energy and go-ahead
progressiveness. It is made of good
material.
The farmers of Pender county or
ganized at Burgaw on the 22nd inst.
by electing
Thomas J. Armstrong, Esq. Presi
dent. R. T. Williams, Esq. Vice-President.
Robert I. Dunham, Esq. Secretary.
R. N. Collins, Esq. Assistant Sec
retary. R. H. Murphy, Esq. Treasurer.
The following gentlemen were rec
ommended as an Executive Commit
tee :
Grant towTnship Luke H. Mc
Clammy. Holly W. J. Player.
Holden Pettigrew Moore.
Union Dr. W. C. Murphy.
Columbia A. C. Ward.
Caswell James F. Moore.
Caintuck D. J. Corbett.
Lincoln James F. Bell.
Rocky Point D. H. Armstrong.
Me ssrs. G. F. Walker, John R. Ban
nerman and E. McMoore were ap
pointed a committee to draft a con
stitution. Reported, and a constitu
tion adopted.
A committee was also appointed to
prepare by-laws and regulations.
Adjourned to meet at Burgaw, at
11 o'clock a. m., on Saturday, October
22,1887.
T. J. Armstrong, Pres't.
R. I. Dunham, Sec'y. .
THE INDUSTRIAL AND EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS
It is proposed to organize in War
renton on the 2nd Saturday in Octo
ber, a club of the farmers of the
county. As a matter of course they
have enough intelligence and are alive
enough to their own welfare to know
what their interests are, and will act
accordingly. It is evident to every
intelligent man that the farming in
terests of Warren county, and as to
that, the whole South, need advancing.
It would be highly gratifying to see
old Warren take the lead in this direc
tion. Warrenton Gazette.
For .The Pbogressiyb Farmer.
Charlotte, N. C, Sept. 28, '87.
A County Farmers' Alliance was
organized at the court house here on
the 27th of this month with the fol
lowing list of members : R. B. Cald
well, J. S. Davidson, J. M. Caldwell,
TV. TV. Rankin, S. B. Smith, " S. B.
Alexander, S. F. Query, TV. Gibbon,
R. B. Trotter, E. TV. Lyles, Robt. Mc
Donald, Chas. McDonald, TV. TV.
Gaither and F. S. Neal.
Officers elected : N. Gibbon, of
Derita, N. C, President ; R. B. Cald
well, Charlotte, Vice-President ; F. S.
Neal, Charlotte, Secretary ; Capt. E.
TV. Lyles, Charlotte, Treasurer ; Capt.
S. B. Alexander, Secturer ; R. E. Mc
Dontdd, Assistant Lecturer ; J. M.
Caldwel, Chaplain ; S. B. Smith, Door
Keeper ; TV. TV. Rankin, Assistant
Door Keeper.
J. M. Caldwell, R. B. Trotter and
R. B. Caldwellwere elected delegates
to the organization of State Alliance,
to be held at Rockingham, Richmond
county, on the 4th of October next.
TV. TV. Rankin, S. B. Smith and S. F.
Query were elected alternates.
Moved and carried that The Pro
gressive Farmer, of Raleigh, N. C,
be adopted as the official organ of this
Alliance.
Moved and carried to meet at call
of President.
F. S. Neal, Sec' v.
For The Progressive Farmer.
Charlotte, N. C, Sept. 28, '87.
The delegates representing the dif
ferent Farmers' Clubs of Mecklenburg
county met according to appointment
at the court house, in the city of
Charlotte, on the 27th day of Septem
ber, and organized a county club. Mr.
Renfrow, of Morning Star Club, being
nominated and elected temporary
chairman, and f. S. Neal, of Crab
Orchard Club, temporary secretary,
the meeting was ready for business.
Air. Elliott, representing the Farm
ers' National Alliance, being present,
was introduced by the chairman to
the meeting and made a very interest
ing and instructive talk on the organi
zation and workings of that body.
7 Col. Polk, of The Progressive
Farmer, of Raleigh, N C, then ad
dressed the meeting in the interest of
farming and farmers' clubs, which was
well taken by our farmers.
The following permanent officers
were then elected for the term of one
year : N. Gibbon, of Derita Club,
President ; T. J. Renfrow, of Morning
Star Club, Vice-President ; F. S. Neal,
of Crab Orchard Club, Secretary and
Treasurer. E. J. Funderburg, of
Morning Star, E. TV. Lyles, of Crab
Orchard, S. H. McCall, of Derita,
and J. E. Lemon, of Clear Creek, were
placed in nomination for an executive
committee and all elected.
Moved and carried to meet at Hick
ory Grove church, at 10 a. m., on the
second Saturday in October next.
Moved and carried that a committee
of three be appointed to draw up reso
lutions and by-laws for the County
Club. C. B. Cross. F. S. Neal and J.
M. Caldwell, all of Crab Orchard, were
appointed.
Moved and carried that the city
papers be requested to publish the
prices of cotton in Charlotte and sur
rounding markets.
Moved and carried that The Pro
gressive Farmer, of Raleigh, N. C,
and the city papers be requested to
publish the proceedings of this meeting-
The Chib then adjourned to meet as
above appointed.
F. S. Neal, Sec7y.
OF OUR PEOPLE PARAMOUNT TO
RALEIGH, N. C, OCTOBER
For The Progressive Farmer.
JOHNSON FALLING INTO LINE.
There has been four sub-alliances
organized in Johnson recently, as
follows :
No. 1, Penny Alliance, TV. R. Long
President, and R. S. Penny, Secre
tary. No. 2, Leachburg Alliance, A. D.
Taylor, President, and C. H. Holland,
Secretary.
No. 3. Clayton Alliance, J. C.
Ellington, President, and R. H.
Gower, Secretary.
No. 4, Archer Lodge, J. R. Reaves,
President, E. B. Christman, Secretary.
Your correspondent was appointed
by Bro. J. B. Barry as organizer for
Johnson county, and would like to
say to the farmers through your valu
able paper that I am ready to organize
them whenever called upon (if it is
not asking too much.) I wrould like
to organize the county within the
next thirty days. I would also like
very much to see every farmer in the
grand old county a member of the
Alliance and a subscriber to The Pro
gressive Farmer. By the way, it is
passing strange that while almost
every farmer in the county is a sub
scriber to one or more political papers,
that so few are subscribers to the only
agricultural paper in the State. In
my travels and lectures through the
county I shall not forget to say a word
for the organ of the Alliance.
Manv thanks, Bro. Polk, for vour
kind words and assistance at Archer
Lodge. Fraternally,
C. E. McCullers,
Gulleys Mills, Wake Co.. N. C.
Sept. 24, '87.
The average condition of the corn
crop for the .entire country is 72 1-3
on the basis of 100 as a full average
crop Bat the district which furnishes
the corn of commerce promises little
more than half of a full crop. This
fact will leave a controlling influence
on prices far out-weighing the rela
tive high condition of the crop in 24
states of the Atlantic Gulf and Pacific
coast, where the average is 9 1 . There
is very little change in wheat, and it is
probable that that product will not
fall more than 5. or 6 per cent below
the 1886 crop; but this means a short
age sufficient to raise prices. Potatoes
have the poorest prospect for yield
ever noted by the Department of Ag
riculture, except in the-South and on
the Pacific coast, and on the whole it
will be one of the smallest crops on
record. The apple crop will be short
in every section where extensively
grown. Only in New England and
New York has the been at any time
a prospect of even a medium crop, and
there its condition has seriously fallen
off and now stands at 62 in Maine,
Connecticut 88, New York 75, Massa
chusetts 86. None of the Gulf states
will have any fruit for export, and
some states will have to import apples
for home consumption, lne same is
true from Ohio westward, except that
Michigan has a crop but slightly under
the average of non-bearing years.
These facts from the September report
of the Department of Agriculture
should be heeded. Now is the time to
keep posted. To sell crops to the best
advantage is now the problem before
xis. Farm and Home.
FATTEN HOGS EARLY.
Three bushels of corn will make
more meat and lard fed in warm and
mild weather than four bushels fed in
cold, winter weather.
Hogs need a shade when the sun is
hot and uncomfortable, and a warm
shelter when frost bites and pinches
all living flesh. Fresh water to drink
with ashes and salt all they can eat, in
addition to corn, peas, barley and
oats, cooked, make a great deal of
pork in the northern and eastern
States.
Skim milk, whey and butter milk,
and many vegetables are fed to swine
at small expense by many farmers.
Hogs require attention and should not
be neglected, in regard to regularity
in feeding and watering. Tennessee
Farmer.
ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS OF
6, 1887.
GREEN MANURING.
Number 6
The best information that we have
been able to obtain confirms the belief
that a crop grown for the purpose,
and then plowed under, furnishes the
cheapest and most practicable mode of
manuring the land for the next crop.
TVe have also come to the conclusion
that it is not rest from producing
crops that is needed by the land, but
it is rest from being cultivated and
from being exposed to the sun during
so large a portion of the year.
A crop that can be sown broadcast,
and one that will furnish a dense
shade, will give the land the needed
rest from the sun, also the wind and
rain, for a number of months.
A crop of cow-pea vines can be
grown at a cost of about one dollar
and a half per acre, and will weigh in
the green state from twenty-five to
thirty tons and will produce enough
peas to support two hogs per acre for
one month, which pasturage will be
worth to the farmer at least three dol
lars. The vines and the manure left
by the hogs can then be returned to
the land with a certainty of increasing
the value of the succeeding crops. No
farmer can afford not to grow cow
peas on his resting land. It is cheaper
than to permit it to grow up in weeds,
which will seldom weigh more than
from ten to fifteen tons per acre, and
are worth nothing for stock.
The next question, and one of very
great importance is, When shall a
green crop be turned under, in order
to obtain the best results ? Two
points have been well established by
many experiments. One is, that a
crop should never be turned under
unless another crop is made to take its
place at once ; there is one exception
to this rule : if a crop of weeds is
allowed to grow during the summer,
they can partially be turned under
while in blossom during the month of
August ; the ground should then be
harrowed and a crop of grass be al
lowed to cover the land and protect it
during the fall and winter months,
and then be turned under for the crop
of cotton or corn. I should prefer,
however, to cut the weeds with a
scythe or cotton stalk cutter in August,
.and let them lie on the land until
ready to plow under in the spring.
The other point 'is, that a crop of
any kind, including peas, millet, oats,
wheat stubble or grass, is of great
value, and it can be turned under at
any season of the year, provided an
other crop is made to grow at once on
theiand. A.
Drought continues in southern Ohio,
Indiana and Illinois, rendering the soil
too dry and hard for plowing, in con
sequence of which a diminished area
will be planted to winter wheat.
THOUGHTS FOR FARMERS.
TVe are sometimes considerably
amused at the vast amount of splen
did (?) free advice given to farmers by
newspaper editors and long-winded,
more-gass-than-brains correspondents.
It is a very easy matter to tell what
the farmers ought to do, but they all
fail to tell the poor farmer how to do
with nothing to do with. It is splen
did advice to tell him he' omght, by all
means, to get out of debt, and then
stay out of debt. It is a very smart
way of covering up a vast amount of
swindling, rascality and villainly, now
that the farmer has been reduced to
poverty, debt and wretchedness, to
tell him that he is a lazy, shiftless,
spendthrift, who, on account of his
own want of energy and push has
brought all this poverty and distress
upon himself.
The gentlemen wdio roll in luxury
and affluence on the money of which
they have virtually robbed the farmer,
have frequently enough pure, unmixed
cussedness in them, to set up and tell
the poor, ragged, fiopped-hat farmer,
that he should be more economical,
that he should retrench home ex
penses ; in a word, they give him a
general " rounding up," and wind up
with a bushel basket full of this cheap
STATE POLICY.
No. 33.
advice and a little 4 taffy," suaet the
honest-hearted, trust-everybody farnres"
goes off feeling that this same ctcss
who has legally robbed him and tlWra
made fun of him to his face is hisvOTy
best friend.
And then there are a host of fellows
who perhaps never did an honest day's
work in their lives, and have not om
ounce of practical experience in farm
ing, who take a great deal of pains to
tell the farmer that he must, if he
wishes or expects to succeed, quit
raising so much grain and raise mom
stock ; or that he ought to demote
more attention to his gardera ami
potato patch, or that he ought tbuilt5
a great big barn, which womld cost
$2,000, when the poor fellow hasn't
money enough to buy lumber to build!
a good decent chicken coop.
We will quote a few samples of
"advice to farmers" from soiae cf
our exchanges. "More extensive
farming is wThat we need. One acre
ought to be made to produce what it
takes three or four now to do ; and
farming never will pay until this
change is effected." Again : "Their
only way out of this trouble is to turn
over a new leaf and become more
thinking, industrious, reading farmers
Look first to the renovation of their
soils, etc." Now listen again. " TVe
honestly think that unless farmers let
up on grain growing, and give more
attention to stock and grazing, they
will continue on the down road of ad
versity." Now wThy don't these men
who feel so much interest in the farm
ers tell them that they ought to organ
ize, that they may protect themselves
against this legalized wholesale rob
bery that is now going on ? Why
don't they tell the farmers that garnb
ling on futures, wuombinationsof money
power, close corporations, and the
great swarm of stemwinders, dead
beats, and penny thieves, who have
stationed themselves in a long line be
tween the producer and the consumer
are the farmers' wTorst enemies in
that, that they are heaping enormous
and unnecessary taxes upon him?
Why don't they advise the farm
ers to establish their own cotton
agencies, and handle their own
cotton and thus save this unnecessary
tax that they are now paying to others
to handle it for them. Why don't
they tell the farmers that they ought
to organize and' work to each other's
interest as all others have done ? Why
don't they tell the farmers that the
Farmers' Alliance is a move in the
right direction and that every farmer
ought to join it ? The truth of the
whole matter is that much of this silly
twaddle shot out at the farmer is
simply to cover up the inwardness
and to make him believe that these
fellows are his best friends. . It may
be true that farmers need a great deal
of advice, but we are of the opinion
that it should be given by men who
know something of practical farming,
and who are identified with and hence
feel an interest in them. Southern
Mercury.
Forty-five years ago there was not
a postage stamp in the United States.
During the last twelve months 1,968,
341,000 stamps were utilized by peo
ple of this country.
After two years and a half - of con
tinuous residence in this place, after
taking repeated testimony from distin
terestered parties especially those
who had visited the most noted resorts
in the South after spending some time
here after watching the wonderful
effects of this climate upon three mem
bers of our own family, we do not hes
itate to say that we believe this to be
the best resort for invalids anywhere
in the South. Here is a climate which
is a genuine specific for throat and
lung diseases; the tortures of rheuma
tism yield to its mild influence; even
dyspepsia lays aside its terrors; puny
little children grow up strong and well,
and the aged and feeble have many
years that are well worth living added
to their allotment. Southern Pines
Pine Knot.
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