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THE ' INDUSTRIAL AND EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS OF OUR PEOPLE PARAMOUNT TO ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS OF STATE POLICY. RALEIGH, N. C., JUNE 4, 1889. Vol. 4. No. 17 - . - - ' . ..- - - DIRECTORY OF FARMERS' OR GANIZATIONS. VORTH CAROLINA FARMERS STATU ALLIANCE. ; Presidents. B. Alexander, Charlotte, T C Vice-President T. Irey, Ashpole. N.C. Secretary L. L. Polk, Ralf C. Treasurer J. D. Allen, Falls, N.C. - Lecturer Dr. D. Reid Parker, Trinity College, N. C. , Assistant Lecturer D. D. Mclntyre, Laurinburg, N. C. Chagain Rev. Carr Moore, Towns- Toor Keeper W. H. Tomlinson, Fay- ettoville, N. C. n m Assistant Door Keeper R. T. Kusn, Mt Gilead, N. C. ' ' Sergeant-at-Arma J. S. Holt, Chalk Level, N.C. ' . State Business Agent W. A. Darden. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE NORTH CARO LINA FARMERS' STATE ALLIANCE. ,EhasCarr, Old Sparta, N. C Chair ' man; Thaddeus Ivcy, Ashpole, N. C.; J. S. Johnston, Ruffin, N. C. .THE NORTH CAROLINA FARMERS' ASSOCIATION. President Ehas Carr, Old Sparta, Edgecombe county. B. F. Hester, Oxford, Secretary; S. Otho Wilson, Vineyard, and W. E. Ben bow, Oak Ridge, Assistant Secretaries. VIRGINIA STATE ALLIANCE. President G. T. Barbee, Bridgewatar, Virginia. Vice-President T. B. Massey, Wash ington, Virginia. . Secretary J. T. Silvey, Amissville, Virginia. Treasurer Isaiah Printz, Luray, Vir ginia. Lecturer Or. H. Chrisman, Chrisman, Virginia. Asst. Lecturer J. S. Bradley, Luray, Virginia. Chaplain Wm. M. Rosser, Luray, Virginia. Door Keeper B. Frank Beahm, Kim ball, Virginia. ' Asst. Door Keeper G. E. Brubaker, Luray, Virginia. Serg't-at-Aims C. H. Lillard, Wash ington, Virginia. State Business Agent S. P. A. Bru baker, of Luray, V lrgmia. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. E T. Brumback, Jas. E Compton and Gea H. Chrisman. For The Progressive Farmer. THE DAIRY INDUSTRY. By Prof. J. F. Dnggar, of Texas. I seldom see anything in your paper concerning the dairy industry. But believing this to be of much importance in the South, and regarding stock raising as the cheapest way to restore the fertility of our worn lands, I write this with the hope of drawing out the experience of other subscribers. Nor must your readers suppose that con ditions in Texas and in North Caro lina are altogether different. Eastern and Central Texas is no longer a coun try of ranches and unfenced prairies. This brazos country is a farming country. Though its bottoms are rich, yet the uplands require manur ing as liberal as is needed in some of the older States. Nor is our climate totally unlike yours. The yearly rain fall at this place is 35 inches, and we are not in the belt subject to pro tracted drought. But to return to my subject: Two years ago there was not a creamery in Texas. Then Kansas, Illinois, New York and other Northern States fur nished this article to our 2,000,000 people, taking away in exchange our cash with which to build up other States. One year ago the second creamery in the State was built here at the Agricultural and Mechanical College. During all' of this season my class in dairy practice has numbered from twelve to twenty-five students. tny of these are now competent to . e charge of creameries. We use De Laval Separators, both power and hand machines. We are especially pleased with our vertical hand separator, which seems only the better for a year's wear, running easier now than at first. This cost $150 and skims 25 to 30 gallons per hour. This, I think, is the coming machine for the Southern small dairy farmer; one who has 15 to 50 cows can ill afford to do without it, or several families might have ' the milk from their several cows separated by the same machine. By so doing they would save the milk now fed to the calves;' giving to them the sweet skimmed milk would make much more butter with less trouble. Among the most apparent advan tages of the separator are the saving of ice, or the entire dispensing with this, the larger yield of -butter, due to more complete separation of the cream than is possible by the ordinary method, and the economy of labor. Besides which, experiments at the Wisconsin and New York experiment stations have shown that when milk is allowed to stand for a quarter of an hour or more after milking and before setting, a considerable loss of butter results. But ! this is not true .when! the separator is7 used. A test made? here last winter showed that of two, similar samples of milk, one separated immediately after milking, the other allowed to stand twelve hours, then warmed and separated, the latter, gave slightly better results. '" j Beginning April 8th .and" ending Mav 15th, a student of the senior class has been conducting, under my. surveillance, a series of ten tests "to, compare yield of ' milk ' set in Fair-; lamb s cans with - product wnen run, thrnncrn hand separator. The gain in' the latter case was about 11 per cent) That is, under like conditions, . the! farmer who, setting his milk, makes' 100 pounds of butter, could from, .tne same milk bv use of centrifugal ma chine make about 1 1 Impounds. When butter is worth 25 cents per pound,! the gain amounts to nearly $3 for every hundred pounds. A single, but similar test, made at the New Hampshire Experi ment Station between the Cooley can (cold setting) and the hand separator showed a gam of about 12 per cent, from using centrifuge. In the last few months a firm from Chicago has built several large cream eries in this State, one costing $5,500, another $10,000. Visiting one of these a few days since, I found that the farmers set all the milk at home, the factory's wagons collecting only the cream. Its wagons run 15 or 20 miles in any direction. Of course this system, because of saving of transpor tation, has some advantage in a country where the cows are remote from the factory. But where 100 or more cows can be engaged within a radius of three or four miles, the separator will be most profitable in the South. - But let no community be startled at such figures as those just given. I have worked Kin and visited some of the creameries in Mississippi, of which there are now 15 or 20, and most of them cost less than 1600, building, equipment, and all complete. Such creameries can handle the milk of 300 cows. Bulli tin No. 5, recently issued by the Texas Experiment Station, 'contains careful estimates, plans, and specifications for a creamery to cost less than $2,200, with a capacity of 250 pounds of but ter per day. I have written above notes on dairy ing with the hope of drawing out the dairymen of North Carolina to give their experience through The Pro gressive Farmer. Many readers will join me in the desire to hear more of this industry which in the past has been such a source of revenue wher ever practiced and on which the South must largely depend in restoring the fertility of her soil. Has not North Carolina proximity to market, a favor able climate and suitable grasses ? Can any show cause why she, like Mississippi, should not enrich herself through the products of the dairy ? J. F. Dugoar, Ag'l and Mechan'l College of Texas. EASTERN ITEMS. May 20, 1889. Mr. Editor: While we have been pleased to read the many friendlv let ters and animating reports of brethren m other counties of our State, we would have been more than gratified to have seen a single letter from the noble county of Columbus the land that is lovely and fair, with a soil that is as fertile and varied as the best, having encompassed within its bounds the largest fresh water lake in -the fotate, a vast sheet of water clear, sweet " and glittering, abounding in nsh and water-birds of the finest kind; a most pleasant resort for sum mer excursionists. But suffice n to say that I have been appointed Cor responding Secretary of Cheerful HoDe Alliance, No. 1,053, and while it is cheering for my people to hear through the columns of your valuable paper the noble Alliance work and consecra tion to her equitable and inalienable principles from brethren of other counties, thev no doubt would like i io nave it reciprocated, especially wnen it can be done m the strongest terms of friendship and union of sen timents and action. Our officers are zealous and efficient in the Alliance doctrines and principles; in fact we have about 39 members, male and female, who have been run in the Alliance molds. When we count rank and file, we are behind many of our sister Alliances in the State, but though we are few in number, we are firm and unyielding in the principles of our order, and our actions and resolutions shall stand out in bold re lief against all organized capital com bines and trusts, believing as we do that the , incentive that actuated the originators of the: order -was the out growth of pure philanthropy, we want our comrades over this broad land to know that we are in sympathy with them in every good work. Believing in things essential there should be unity, let us stand shoulder to shoul der and never falter1 until -reforms may be accomplished and the reform ers respected. . Much success to The Progressive Farmer and Farmers' Alliance. Fraternally yours, . ' " M.W. Bqrdeaik. . iFROM NOBLE OLD SAMPSON. tr;ALLiANCE,"No..57-7, Hobton, N. C : :. .j.. t;. May: 20, 1889. Mb. . Editor: At a regular meeting May 4th, ctf Arx Act tu incorporate the State Alliance of North Carolina and Sub Alliances,' ratified by the Legisla ture March 7th, 1889.' was read in open Alliance and unanimously adopted. I also read a circular from the Executive Committee of the North Carolina Farmers' State Alliance and received a subscription of $3.25, and aim to leave nothing undone until a handsome amount is secured by-the first of next November. It is a dull season now to raise cash, but I am hope ful of securing it in the near future. Every member of my Alliance seems .willing to be assessed 70 cents per capita, provided it was made universal by the State Alliance. I have hereto fore collected and forwarded to the proper authorities $85.75. We have a wide-awake, and working President, H. C. Gidd ens, whose head and heart are fully imbued with true Alliance ism, and he assists me at every meet ing in endeavoring to impress upon the mind 8 of the members the neces sity and paramount importance of raising the State Business Agency Fund. This Alliance discusses queries and has other highly important Alli ance business that keeps it in session three and four hours at each meeting, of which we -have two per month, which makes a crippled Secretary's work pleasant and agreeable. He was also appointed Corresponding Secre tary for The Progressive Farmer when this Alliance was organized. We have at present 03 members. We are surrounded by lodges, but notwithstanding, initiated three brand new members at the last regular meeting. All true members will stick to their beloved order "through thick and thin." The members are busy on the farm working like Trojans, and should kind Providence smile upon them their labor will be richly re warded Excuse imperfections, for this scribe has been sick a week. W. J. Craddock, Sec'y. GOOD NEWS FROM MERRY HILL. Merry Hill Alliance, No. 1,351. Mr.Eitor: I see but little Alliance news from our county in The Progres sive Farmer, and it might be inferred that we are not progressing in the work of the fraternity, but I can as sure you our County Alliance is offi cered by such farmers th&t no good work undertaken can ever fail to go forward while under ' their care and guidance, and from the reports of the various Sub-Alliances our cause is progressing with much zeal and har mony throughout the county. - The Alliance arrangements for pur chasing fertilizers have saved our farmers quite a sum, and other ar rangements and co-operative plans for selling and building are being per fected and systematized by competent committees to be reported on at the next meeting of the County Alliance. Our Alliance, "Merry Hill," No. 1,351, was chartered the 12th of De cember last, and we now number over fifty, whose iaterest is shown by an almost universal attendance at our regular meetings, the first and third Saturdays of every month. None of us aspire towards leading in any move ment, but feel safe in following the plans and management of our efficient State and county officials. Our mem bership consists almost entirely of laboring men, ' who are poor, but a majority have contributed one dollar each to the State Business Agency Fund, and we expect soon to build an Alliance Hall and probably establish a cotton yard on our lot, and these re quirements only, precludes the using of any of our treasury funds towards the State Business Agency. Much credit is due The Progress ive Farmer for the work it is doing and has done for the farmers of our State Mav Heaven's blessings attend you. r r&iernauy yours, J. u. Freeman. NOTES FROM DOWN EAST. f Goose Creek Island, N. C, May 21, 1889. Mr. Editor: Having been elected Corresponding Secretary of Unity Alliance, No. 1,445, and the brethren being anxious to see something in The Progressive Farmer from our Alliance, I will endeavor to write a little. Our lodge was organized: on the 20th day of December, 1888, with seventeen charter members. We now hav6 a membership of fifty-seven, thirty-five of them males, some of whom are as energetic and successful farmers, as there are in the county. We y are moving on with the work about as fast as could be expected, considering our pecuniary circum stances. We have cut and hauled the timber to build a large and commo dious house for school room and Alli ance hall. aie also making a strenuous effoit to raise our quota of the State Business Agency Fund. I would say to the brethren, let us stand by the Alliance, not falter in our 'duty, carry out tii3 principles of the order, and let it never be again truthfully said the farmers will not stick together. If we fail this time, what will be our condition ? Where will our oppressors stop ? No, breth ren; let us know no such word as fail. Let Jus stick by this organization and carry its principles ,on to a glorious and grand success. Learn to subdue your passions, practice self-denial and live within your income. This is a land of mosquitoes, cur lew bugs and bad water, and if we can stand the strain, we think you fellows up there ought to. C. Lewis, Cor. Sec'y. THE IMPENDING EVIL. Caswell Co., N. C, May 22, '89. Mr. Editor: I have been much suri iised H jand (disappointed stQ . seeK among the able contributions to our organ, so little stress laid upon the importance of inaugurating a better system of public schools in North Carolina. I conceive this to be of greater importance than any question that can be considered by the Alliance; it is also a question which cannot be much longer held in abeyance. Politicians, in order to delude the masses of the people and effect legis lation, ever so detrimental to the in terests of the farmers, have only to cry: "If you don't stand by your party (that is, us, the politicians, and such measures as we propose) social equality will be forced upon you." This is the whip with which they lash us back into ranks and quell any spirit of insubordination mam tested against their despotic rule or hurtful meas ures. No doubt our members at this time are smarting under the defeat of the Railroad Commission bill in the last Senate, and many Alliances are publishing resolutions condemnatory thereof. There is also no doubt but that these same politicians who effected its defeat, are laughing in their sleeves, well knowing that but ' one kind of paper bullets can penetrate their skins, and they have to be fired from the ballot-box, of which they have not the least fear, having only to raise their old war cry of " nigger equality " and the political surface will at once became calmn and placid. The truth is, General Grant, if living, with an army, could not force social equality upon us. How absurd, then, to sup pose any political party, by civil pro cess, could be more successful. No; it cannot and never will be forced upon us, but there is great danger of its accomplishment, and that, too, at no distant day. The process by which it is. being brought about is so grad ual, like the minute hand of a chro nometer, its movement is scarcely perceptible to the naked eye, still each circuit around the dial denotes the rapid progress of time. $o each year marks the downward mental progress of the county children in our State, all that is necessary to bring them to the bottom of the social ladder is for us to fold our hands in apathy and indifference in the next twenty-five years as we have done in the twenty five past an the bottom round will have been reached by them. Poverty and ignorance laugh at all cast distinc tions, break down all social barriers, and force all their victims to one com mon plane, from which self-respect is banished and all social shades and colors are blended together into one mass of degradation ond crime. This, my brothers, is the thing for you to fear. Pear your own apathy und in difference. You realize you are grow ing poorer and poorer, and that under l tne miseraoie apoplexy oi a iree school system, your children, year by year, are growing up more ignorant. What then, I ask you, is to prevent that dire calamity, "social equality," from becoming an accomplished fact ? But you say, " How can we help it ? 11 t m a We are too poor to pay any more tax for this purpose. Do you reason thus, when these same politicians, in the interest of some railroad scheme, asking you by public tax to produce a subsidy fund, paid in annual install ments, perhaps as long as you live, and afterward to be entailed as a curse upon your children, for which, what recompense do you farmers re ceive, save that you have but added another span to the fetters of steel the monopolists are riveting around your limbs? And this serpent, hatched by the heat of your bosom, will, from your halls of legislation and justice, bury its poisonous fangs into that very bosom that gave it ex istence. Are you poorer than the Virginians ? Is it not an acknowl edged fact that the State of North Carolina is financially better off than is the State of Virginia ? Let us com pare the condition of the border coun ties of Halifax and Pittsylvania, Va., and Person and Caswell, N. C. com posed of the same kind of population and engaged in the same agricultural pursuits. From close observation, if any financial difference exists, I should say it is in favor of the two North Carolina counties. Yet I find their tax on the $100 worth of property is double that levied in the North Caro lina counties. E find the two Virginia counties also dotted over with neat farms, school houses, nicely painted and lathed and plastered and com fortably furnished inside. Many of them have two rooms and a regular graded course of instruction, the school terms averaging not less than seven months in a year. Contrast this with the shabby uncomfortable school houses in Person and Caswell, N. C, and the length of sessions in Caswell, averaging about three months. What does "this teaebrTis"?- What will be the result ? No wonder Virginia boys and girls are proud of their old Vir ginia, and when grown men and women have some State pride. Would I could write the same about the State that gave me birth and in whose de fense I gave freely the four most im portant years of my youth, and if necessary would give four more to help lift the dear old State into a po sition worthy to be occupied among the sisterhood of States. But to do this, the truth had better be told, that the error may be seen and corrected, and this it is : That so far as its soil and climate, and the virtue, courage and industry of its inhabitants are concerned. North Carolina stands sec ond to no State. But the rank of a State or nation in the estimation of the world is fixed by the rank of its representative men. Thus while love of State prompts some of our best writers to labor to prove the greatness of her sons at the bench, bar, pulpit and council chambers of the nation, and by school .histories to impress State pride upon the minds of her children. Yet it is like the " Ostrich sticking its head into the sand," think ing because we thus delude ourselves ! that the unsparing eyes of the histo rian can be averted by so shallow a subterfuge. Do historians, deserving the name, gather material from local histories or draw estimates of charac ter from Fourth of July panygerics? Are the records of State and national council chambers denied them and the annals of current events a sealed book unto them. Oh, my fellow-Carolinians, is it not wiser, is it not better to acknowledge that, in the past, with a few notable exceptions, North Caro Una has been an unappreciative mother to her children, and that most of those who have positions dl respect and honor assigned them in the chronicles o the nation were those who were expatriated ? All know "it takes love to beget love." And love is an essential factor in the problem of State pride. What think you will avail the les sons from school history in producing State pride in the North Carolinian, when upon threshold of manhood, he meets the Virginia boy so much bet ter equipped for the battles of life ? No, no. If we want to inculcate the lesson of State pride within the bosoms of our children, the first .step will be for the State to take some . pride in them and in herself, and also stop playing second fiddle to every other State; and if our statesmen have not the brains and force of character to command respect abroad for her, let her endeavor to raise . up some who can and will. ' Fraternally, Caswell; INTERESTINGLETTER FROM CANA. Mr. Editor: At the last meeting of Cana Alliance, No. 801, I was ap pointed Corresponding Secretary and ordered to wriie your paper, giving you the state of health of our Alli ance and other news in keeping with the good of the order. Our Alliance is now about a'year old ; we number about fifty members and have taken in about all the avail able material in our territory and are now getting down to solid work. Our Alliance is made up of good men; while we cannot boast of any great wealth among us, yet none of U3 are run by any man or set of men. Our smoke-houses and corn-cribs arc at home; our mules and horses are rr.:sed on our farms; our fertilizer factories are mainly in our barn yards ; true, we are buying some chemicals and making our fertilizer for tobacco, but we are getting them through the Alliance, at greatly reduced prices to what we have had to pay for them heretofore. I do not know of a single bag of commercial fertilizer used this season . by any member of our Alliance; besides this, we not only raise our own "hog and hominy," but we raise our own molasses; there are thousands of gal lons of sorghum raised by members of our Alliance enough for home nser and some to sell. One member of our Alliance will plant ten acre;? of sorghum this season; then, too, aa coffee goes up in price, we use less and less of it, substituting in its place milk and rye coffee, sassafras and sage tea, &c, in a measure restoring our old war habits; "living at home within ourselves" a sure way to destroy all trusts. Then our crop prospects were never better; wheat is fine indeed, with a large acreage sowed. We are getting out mere manure on corn this year than, ever before; sowing twice the amount of clover and grass and planting les3 tobacco, and our Alliance, at our last meeting, contributed $10 to the Busi ness Agency Fund and appointed committee to secure private subscrip tions to the Fund. So you see, Mr. Editor, that our health as an Alliance is gooa, ana we mtena, as time roil3- Atl rv r oV1n --v vii, vj uj auio bu give utrtcci. iiiiu ".li ter reports. While our Alliance i3 not affected by the jute bagging trust, being in a tobacco section, yet we are oppressed by the tobacco ring, which is equal to a trust, and we know how to sympathize with our brethren in the cotton section, and - they hereby have our sympathy and shall have our help until all these burdens are lifted' from us; then each of us can sit under our own vine and fig tree and no one to molest us. in our Alliance we have a standing committee whose duty it is to select questions for discussion. At our Jast meeting the question for discussion was the "Best llode of Farming." The Alliance agreed that rotation of crops thorough cultivation and ma nure was the best mode of farming, ana tnai moae oi iarmmg would lead to the intensive system of farmings urged that our members follow that plan, doing away with the one-crop system; cut down our farms to small ones; raise our own "hog and hominy" and make ourselves independent of these men who run so many of our brethren through the long hot summer months, overtaking them just as they are about to bale their last bag of cot ton or ma rket their last lo.id nf to bacco as the case may be. After the discussion we remembered The Pko gkessive Fabmer, and the following resolution was adopted: Resolved, That we, the members of Cana Alliance, No. 801, .heartily in dorse The Progressive Farmer as the organ of the North Carolina Farm ers Alliance and commend the zl of Col. L. L. Polk, its editor, in adver tising the principles of the Alliance and the interest of the great farming brotherhood. Resolved, That an Alliance man is a better Alliance man by reading its organ, and that we urge our members to subscribe for The Progressive Farmer. Resolved, That a copy of these reso lutions be sent to The Progrgssive Fatjmf.r for nnblication. Now, Mr. Editor, you remember that you visited Can in 1886 and '87 and made us a speech and was gladly nnTntfi SLVtXOTkff US. bnt. if VATt icri11 we will give you a welcome that you did Dot dream of before. What say you ? , Will ycu come ? More ancn. Help Free. Every time I speak cros3 and im petuously I'm weakening my nerve power, and adding misery to some obo
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
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June 4, 1889, edition 1
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