Newspapers / The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, … / March 20, 1888, edition 1 / Page 1
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' f r :.! V a ? - . . f ' i ..1' ' 1 hi J THE INDUSTRIAL AND EDUCATIONAL IttTEQESTS OF OUR PEOPLS PARA LI OU NT TO ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS OF STATE POLICY. J : i r i '. Vol. 3. RALEIGH, N. p., MARCH 20, 1888. No. 5 - .-- it f V i DIRECTORY OF FARMERS ORGANIZATIONS. FARMERS NATIONAL ALLIANCE . AND CO-OPERATIVE UNION OF AMERICA. - President C. W. Macune, Texs First Vice-President L. I. PoikHN. C . Yice-Pres't for Ala, H. P. Bone. Vice-Preset for Ark. Moore. Vice-Prea't for Fla. Oswald Wilson. Vice-Pres't for Ky. S. B.' Irwin. . Vipe-Pres't f or La. Linn Tanner. Vice-Pres't for Miss. R T. Love. , Vice-Pres't for Mo. A. B. Johnson: ; Vice-Pres't for N. C S. B. Alexander. Vice-Pres't for Tenn. I. II. McDowell . Vice-Pres't for Tex. M. D. K. Taylor. Secretary E. B. Warren, Texas. Treasurer A. E. Gardner, Tenri. Chaplain Rev. J. C Jones, La. -Lecturer Ben. Terrell, Tex. Asst. Lecturer J. A. Tettsy La. Door Keeper Newt Gresham, Ala. Asst. Door Keeper H. C. Brown,. Ky. Serg't-at-Arms T. E. s Groom, Miss., NORTH CAROLINA FARMERS' STATE ALLIANCE. President S. B. Alexander, Charlotte, N. c. ; . Vice-President T. Ivey, Ashpole, N.C. Secretary L. L. Polk, Raleigh, N. C. Treasurer J. D. Allen, Falls; N. C. Lecturer Geo. Wilcox, Carbonton, N - C Assistant Lecturer D. D. Mclntyrey Laurinburg, N. C. Chaplain Rev. E. J. Edwards, Cedar Creek, N. C. Door Keeper W. H. Tomlinson, Fay- etteville, N. C. Assistant Door Keeper R T. Rush, Mt. GileadyN.C. r Sergeant-at-Arms J. S. Holt, Chalk Level, N.C. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF TIIE NORTH CARO LINA FARMERS' STATE ALLIANCE. - . f Elias Carr, Chairman, Old Sparta; N: ; C; Thadeus Iyery, Ashpole, N. C. Third place to be supplied. '(, JHE NOBTII CAROLINA FARMERS ASSOCIATION; President Elias' Carr, Old Sparta, Edgecombe county. B. F. Hester, Oxford, Secretary; S. Otho Wilson, Vineyard, and W. E. Ben bow, Oak Ridge, Assistant Secretaries. STATE GRANGE PATRONS OF HUSBANDRY. - W. R. WilliamsFalkland, Pitt county, Master. R. T. J. Ludwig, Mt. Pleasant, Secre tary. NORTH CAROLINA STATE BOARD OF AGRICUL TURE OFFICERS. John Robinson, Commissioner. T. K. Bruner, Secretary. Dr. H. B. Battle, Chemist and Director of Experiment Station. John T. Patrick, General Agent Immi gration. N. C AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. W. G. Upchurch, Raleigh, President; John Nichols, Raleigh, Secretary. NORTn CAROLINA HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. President J. Van Lindley, Pomona. Secretary s. Utho v nson, v meyara. OFFICIAL ORGANS OF FARME ALLIANCE. RTan National Alliance Southern Mer cury, Dallas, Texas. Alabama Alliance Banner, Athens. Arkansas State Wheel Enterprise, Little Rock Mississippi The Farmer, Winona. North Carolina, The Progressive Farmer, Raleigh. Louisiana ihe Union, Choudrant. Tennessee and Kentucky 7 he loihr, Union City, Tenn, Free Speech, Beaumont, Texas, of the counties of Jefferson, Orange, Tyler, Hardin, Chambers, Liberty. Florida, Farmers1 Florida Alliance, Marianna, Fla. JTor The Progressive Farmer. SOME PLAIN TALK BY AN OLD FARMER. Edixor Progressive Farmer : As farmers are cordially . invited to ex press themselves in your paper (our organ), I take the liberty of writing you some things concerning us as farmers and our community. Alliance clubs have been busy at work lately, trying to see what guano could be bought for I mean the low est rates for good, reliable brands. I don't think they have been able to do much in this direction, because so many things have happened to reduce the price this season that it is as low as it can bo sold, take the risk and Jivtf o say our merchants. Various causes, outside, qfihe Alliance, or any other: fwnttCB organization, have re duced it from 360 pounds of middling cottonto 300, 287 pounds, &q. One main cause ; in bur. community . is tho springing up of a : little inland tori somewhere dtfwn in Nash "or Franklin county by the name ; of Spring Hope, I believe. Well, Spring Hope had to hav,e a living and a trade from some where, r and. of course, looked east of the' Raleigh & Gaston Railroad route, back rof Wake Forest and Youngsville foritl To obtain it and make a trade, , they dropped - guano to 300 pounds of cotton. . .1 can assure you the Alliance had nothing to do with it.4nd?R .aJwaXs e very hard for faTtterytrjjco-operate and ac complish anything, , for there is al ways something that haa caused every thing for farmers! .before they, will or can do anything for themselves. All merchants have the good of farmers and the working -class at heart, and will always do for them rather than see them go to the trouble 'of organ izing and holding meetings of any sort (except their. church meetings). Farmers are slow to take hold of this sort of thing, for most of us really believe it is against 'the laws of Our country, to have secret meetings, and try in any way to benefit ourselves against monopolies and moneyed.men of our . land. The idea of an old farmer's expressing himself about any thing that hV thinks is for the good of the sons of toil, or that would ben efit the country at large, r is simply ridibitous. ' Alll'he 1 ought to do is to work for merchants,' doctors, .&c., and vote as the. lawyers and politicians of his. county tell him , ist right. . Farm ers 'are nofrebfoeiv and - it is not" be coming in any of us to be too for ward. First thing we know we will be put down, and our moneyed lords will have laws made to take away what few privileges we. now enjoy. I see in your paper that it has been suggested that there are farmers in our State that would grace the chair of Governor. How absurd to think about such a thing! I would just like to know how an old farmer would look in the new Jarvis mansion. We have had cyclones and earthquakes, but what would happen next, no one could pre dict. Our farmers are sowing oats, plough ing up cotton stalks, and getting ready as fast as the weather will permit for another crop. If, in the meantime, we can manage to buy less and give Wpr mnrtnrflfrps we will, in the course of time, come, 1 hope. 3 " O O 7 ' x I did not think of saying so much, and will only mention the public roads, with a few suggestions, .as it seems to be one of the leading questions of the day. It is a fact that for the past twenty years we have grumbled and quarreled over our roads, and not withstanding it all, they have contin ued to grow worse each year; and it really seems that the time is t not far distant when we will have to abandon them, or at least, stay at home during the winter season. What can and must be done is the question for us to decide. A great many ideas have been advanced for the past ten years, as to how they might be improved. In the first place, however, I would notice that most all of the fuss made over roads from persons who do not have to help keep the roads in order; it is very seldom that you, or any one, 'hears an old farmer com plaining about the roads; but he sim ply, when asked by his town f aiend how the roads are, answers that they are bad. The row is from men who have nothing to do but ride about and cuss, when his last meal is settled by some rut or stone in the road. But as farmers, we all want better roads, and how to get them is the thing for us to consider. The roads are worked according to law by men who, as a rule, have no wagons or horses, mules or oxen, to haul and cut up the roads; the most they do is to walk them, and of course ought to help keep them in order, and as: a rule are willing to do it. But is it surprising to find that we have bad roa s when they are to be kept up entirely y a set of men who do not have to iisft; hem much, and who feel that what rTDrk they are doing is for somebody fife's pleasure or bene fit? Is it rightftor us to expect it? As the law notvJjBxjsts, it exempts all over 45 years from road duty, and this excuses most all who use the road most. 1 know tit is not a popular idea, but it strikes me that the only plausible one for us to pursue, is for us to work our roads by taxation, and let every man bear his burden accord ing to his worthy It is nothing but right; and then jf we certainly would have better roads. Let's have a fund for it,- and have in .each section of the road one hand! or more if needed, whose business icshall be to stay on the road and work iJjust as the section of a railroad is kept tip. This force can see that no place in nis road becomes bad, and by not letting any one place get in a bad conditidn, he will be able in the summer seaspns to do a great deal of work on his section that will be of lasting good to the road, and at this season all of the! working class could be called out to $elp put our roads in first-class order. I do not pretend to know what is constitutional, but this much I am certain of, that every work ing man would much prefer paying a reasonable tax tlian to be harrassed and bothered as he is now. We are all bound to admit that the present system is a .failure, and not more so than we, could expect when we force a set of . individuals to keep up the roads whj ' are not interested in them, and who do:not want1 tb do it, Yat least all of at; .If all wqre"asj willing to take hblcL and help, ase! are to quarrel, xr& could and would! ' - ''- Hoping that our next Legislature may be compoised of men who will not be afraid to tackle roads, dogs, or anything else that will benefit the farming and working classes, I am, . Respectfully yours, A Farmer. t- For The Progressive Farmer. A GOOD SYSTEM OF DRAINAGE. In company with Mr. W. G. Up church, Mr. S. C. Pool, and several other excellent farmers, I recently vis ited Mr. Priestly Mangum's farm, about one and a half miles from Wake Forest, N. C. Mr. Mangum is a farmer by birth, by raising, by natural choice, and a good one, too. I had long heard that in regard to one of the prime essentials of good, farming his meth ods were not equalled in Wnke county. That essential point is drainage ! Mr. Mangum became convinced twenty five years ago that unless some prac tical method could be devised to pre vent the washing of land, that first rate success so far as farming is con cerned in Middle and .Piedmont North Carolina, was, impossible. This de structive waste taxes the farmer se verely. One heavy rain is liable to carry off in the swollen waters of the creek the treasured compost, the ex pensive, commercial fertilizer, the growing crops, which are the pride of the farmer's heart, and last, but most important, the soil itself. Under the old slave system, when immense bodies of land were fre quently owned in one plantation, al though there were many good farm ers, now, and then one would be ex travagant. A remark made by one of these magnates in Wake has passed into a proverb. He said his rule was, " To clean out, to work out, to cut out" That of course was not a good rule, even in those days of " land plenty." Land is an inheritance, which should be improved, not wasted, and the same land may be cultivated for ages, and left in better condition than at the beginning provided, always, that it is tended aright. By good farming, and the use of careful methods, the soil on Mr. Man gum's plantation is better to-day by far than it was when a large part was cleard from forest growth of sixty years' standing, and the remainder in herited from his ancestors, and to-day there is not a wash in his cultivated lands. His methods are not extrava gant, but are within easy reach of all good farmers. I will not mention the successive experiments, with varying experience, by which the above re sults have been reached, but will tell of his farming land as we found it. Mr. Mangum had perhaps the best system of hillside ditches in Wake county. A few years since,, when he read of the level terrace system prac ticed to some extent in Georgia, he tried it fairly, on . twenty-five acres, and found it would not do for his farm, which is a good representative traet of Middle and Piedmont North Carolina land. Finailly, Mr. Mangum worked out the scheme of the Modi ified . Terrace which we saw, and which I will briefly describe: He utilized his hillside ditches, plowing down the upper bank several times, using hoe& where necessary, al lowing the lower embankment to re main. In front of this, where the ditch was, is a space of ten feet on a dead level, and about twelve inches below the embankment. This level drain has a fall of one and one half inches to thirteen feet four in ches. . . The guide row. is then staked off, and horizontal furrows run, plowing through this level drain, and the em bankment jusCas; they chance , to go. To rim these terraces, a spirit level set in a light frame thirteen feet four inches wide is used, and of course, as much judgment is needed to make them as to prepare a good system of hillside' ditches. Plowing 'down the -hillside, across the 'ten foot level drain, anbtlightly over. the eitibankmeiitjttie -wAter,- is;, .distributed uniformiynrl slowly ' andin - jthe - severest 'rain -win never overaaw-Yv neyer ea iment or soil' washes dOwn is saved, the terrace gradually gaining more soil, and becoming the richest part of the .field. We saw land which had formerly ravines and gullies,! now presenting a beautiful and uni-' form slope ; the very site of the gullies, as in case of the terraces, pre senting a better show of crops than other parts of the field. Now as to the advantages, or at least, some of them. A larger crop is made, as the entire field is culti vated; the soil is preserved and added to; fertilizing and compost matter are fully utilized, as the soil has enough basis and humus to digest them to ad vantage. So here we have and the im agination is not drawn upon to support the facts land which is getting richer, land which is producing greater crops without strain, and both at a less cost, than under the old hillside ditch sys-. tern. Again, the hillside ditches have al ways been a kind- of catch all; 'grass, which the farmer endeavors to weed .out always finds a welcome lodgment on the ditch bank, and without Jet or hindrance flourishes. As soon as the seed of this self-improvised grass plot is washed out or is blown out by the wind, by a species of grim humor, it takes revenge on the farmer for en deavoring to rice it by spreading itself on the slope below. The terrace system rids the field of grass. Every foot of land is under cultivation. Grass weeded out finds no piece of lodgment, and dies. In a particular cotton field of Mr. Man gum's, where it has been necessary from the rapid slope to have frequent j hillside ditches, which have now been fer about two. years converted into terraces, I found out that by the pres ent method one-sixth more land is in cultivation. The waste of the ditches is saved. Of course this would not amount to quite so much in a field where modified slopes render ditches less fre'quent. The saving of the land occupied by the ditch is but a small part of the result gained. As before remarked, the best crops are on the terrace, i. e., the ten foot level and the embankment. Then, too, one gets rid of grass to a great extent. "Mr. Mangum employs certain excel lent methods in farming which should be used by all good farmers, such as composting, making good use of clo ver, rotation of crops, &c, &c, but he is thoroughly convinced of the great saving which comes to him by the modified terrace system. The past two years have, in this section, been wet years in certain crit ical seasons, yet his terraces have stood the test, and are now in fine condition. Mr. Mangum raised last year, with all the disadvantages of the season, a bale of cotton, and twenty five to thirty bushels of wheat to the acre. ? The excellent farmers with me were also convinced, and six other farms, and splendid ones at that, will here after be cultivated under this system. The farm of the Agricultural Col lege; near Raleigh, during the last year, was terraced partially, and will be completely. 1 have mentioned the utilization of this kind of waste at length, as I consider it a most impor tant matter. It is impossible to explain with en tire satisfaction, the simplicity and efficiency of this system, either orally or on paper. It must be seen in ope ration to be fully appreciated. l am convinced that the system of the "Modified Terrace," so patiently and intelligently worked out by Mr. Mangum, will - attract the attention sooner or later of thousands of farm ers, who will thank him for the ser vice he has done to the most impor tant class of citizens in North Caro lina. W. S. Ppimrose. For The Progressive Farmer. OUR NEXT GOVERNOR. Ll0ijJpojiA,Stat.em,as, great cor poration, governed by a Constitution and lawtoadeliiliKee it. The stockholdersriir this corooration elect its omcers to manage u. xne largest tax-payers are the farmers, not only in numbers, but in the amount of money paid into the .firm, they there fore are justly entitled 'to have a con trolling voice in selecting officers to run this great machine; thus it can be seen that the farmers have the con trolling power not only, in our own State, but in all other States of the Union. Then the question arises : Why don't they use it ? .' I leave this question for the farmers , to answer. And I will ask them an other question: How long has it been since a farmer was elected Governor of North Carolina ? Is there any one in the ranks of the farmers, or any other profession old enough to remem ber when. such an event occurred ? Now, brothers of the farm, the time has come when we ought to speak out boldly for our rights and privileges, because if we don't do it, we may rest assured that no one else will do it for us. This is the year to elect State officers, and many distinguished men have already been recommended as suitable candidates for the office of Governor,among them only one farmer, S. B. Alexander, of Mecklenburg, a man eminently qualified to fill the office. His name is now prominently before the people. Now, brother farmers, he can be nominated, and he can be elected, if we do our duty. Let us unite, therefore, as a band of brothers, determined to win the vic tory next fall, and make our distin guished friend and brother farmer, Capt. S. B. Alexander, the next Gov enor of North Carolina. J. PM. We want to see the time when farmers can obtain such representation in Congress as will kick the lobbyists out into the cold, and when legislation cannot be bought and sold to the high est bidder like property under the con stable's hammer. Then we may expect better times for the farmer, and we need not look for them before. Ten nessee Wheel. The African sheep are not clad in wool, like their European relations, but are covered with a stiff, course hair. Their color is always black and white, the white forming the ground work for the black, which occurs in spots.
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
March 20, 1888, edition 1
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