Newspapers / The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, … / Nov. 27, 1894, edition 1 / Page 1
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f 1 1 H J- J TH4 INDUSTBIAL AND EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS' OF OUR PEOPLE PARAMOUNT TO ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS OF STATE POLICY. RALEIGH, N. Q, NOVEMBER 27, 1894. No. 42 PKOGfflSSSI? fiMER. .Rational farmers alli- r"11 awn TNnilSTRIAL AWWEr UNION. President-Marion Butler, Goldssoro, Vice-President J . L- GUbert, Cali- fo?ia-.T-TrPAfliirflr Col.D. P. Dun- can, UOiui-, EXECUTIVE BOARD. a L Loueks, Huron, S. D. ; Mann Virrrinin T. R "Dpin & FallBew k H. C. Item- vani- ,nv n A. Southworth, Denver, Colo. VT. Beck, Alabama. j D. Davie, Kentucky. HOSTS CAROLINA FARMERS' 8TATE ALU- president J. M. Mewborne, Kinston, " C Vice President A. C. Shuford, New- ton, rotary -Treasurer W. S. Barnee, Raleish, N. C. Lecturer Cyrus Thompson, Rich- Steward J. T. B. Hoover, Elm City, C "Chapliin-Dr. T. T. Speight, Lewis ton, N. C. Door keeper Geo. T. Lane, Greens Doro, N. C. Assistant Door keeper Jas. E. Lyon, Durham, N. C. Sergeant at Arms J. R. Hancock, Sreensboro, N. C. State Business Agent W. H. Worth, Baleigh, N. C. , w Trustee Business Agency Fund W. i. Graham, Machpelah, N. C. EEOUnVE COMMITTEE OF THE NORTH CAROLINA FARMERS' STATE ALLIANCE. Marion Butler, Goldsboro, N. C. ; J. J. Long, Eoka, N. C. ; A. F. Hileman, Concord, N. C. STATS ALLIANCE JUDICIARY CKOMMTTTEE. Jno. Brady, Gatesville, N. C. ; Dr. J. F. Harrell, Whiteville, N. C; John Graham, Ridgeway, N. C. fsrtb Carolina Reform Press Association. GjficersJ. L. Ramsey, President; iarion Butler, Vice-President ; W. S. meg, Secretory, PAPERS. trogneslve Farmer. Stat Organ, Raleigh, N. C. . a Qcaelan, uoici s ooro, . y. . eeury. Hickory, N. C. tUttler, WhitaXers, N. C. Carolina Dispatch. Hertford, N. C. Our Home, Beaver Dam. N. C. The Revolution, Marion, N. C. Onslow Blade, Peanut, N. C. Each of the above-named papers are ttqpestedto keep the list standing on Va first page and add others, provided ihey are duly elected. Any paper fail to advocate the Ocala platform will dropped from the list promptly. Our 'staple can now see what papers are rJblished in their interest. EDITORIAL SUGGESTIONS. When everything that is needed in the barn and stable is in its proper place, the work of attending to the stock id greatly lessened. Fall calres constitute one of the chief sources of profit to the butter dairy man who hs his skim milk and raises hia ovrn cows, finely bred. Provide the means of contentment aui improvement in your home and the power of temptation ever yourself and your boys is much lessened. Peanuts have always been regarded aa a good food for boys and pigs. Tho deal is now being used to some extent for making bread or biscuit and for dairy cdws. It is claimed that irrigated fruit shrinks le s than fruit that is not irri gated, the reason being that water in the sod enables the tree to take up toore cf the mineral elements. We observe that a contemporary says th-.it rotten potatoes are not worth feeding to stock. We should say not, toi we had not the slightest idea that anybody could think otherwise. The advantage of meadow or pasture grasses for cattle and sheep are that ey afford a variety. Animals have preff-ret.oo for certain foods, and thrive jsst wru n they can select food which 18 m')t palatable and necessary for Applying their wants. Ensilage is a healthy food ' for all arm animals; it has no bad influence &miik or butterr it is digestible, and co v. relish it; there is less loss in saving corn in the silo than curing in ue ti'M ; it is as good six months after ming as when fresh. Poultry are plentiful in Mexico; the armers Tai3Q them for thQ markets hey are also peddled around in coops a the b uks of men, and now and then iy b neen an Indian with perhaps d;z n tie(i together by the legs a3 thrown over his shoulders. He with these from house to house them. Eggs are sold in the rkots in little piles of four to the 1 ei and not by dozens as we sell them. Qey are usually packed in corn husks -r shipment. TRUE TftEN. TRUE NOW. Extracts From President Polk's Speech Before the Senate Committee on Agriculture in 1890 National Watchman. The following is taken from an ad dress of Bro. L L Polk before the Committee on Agricultural Depression in 1890. It is good reading now: Mr. Chairman, is the agricultural in terest of the country depressed f And is it due to a want of energy, of indus try and of economy on the part of the farmers? All over the country he has been told for years by a certain school of political economists that indolence, inattention to business and extrava gance were the prime causes of hia in creasing poverty. Bat when he comes to the capitol of the nation, venerable Senators and prominent government officials informhim that his financial ruin has been wrought through his in dustry and the merciful Providence of nature's God; that he is absolutely bowed to the earth under a crushing load of overproduction. Are either of his advisers correct? In answer to the first, I assert without hesitation, that no class of citizens in our country work o hard, live so hard and receive so lit tie reward for his labor as tho average American farmer. In answer to the second I ask, overproduction in what? Is it in breadstuff 4? We produced 9J bushels of wheat per capita in 1888, which was worth $1 15 per bushel. We produced in 1S89 only 2ibushels per capita, and it was worth only 79 cents per bushel. Our exports of food prod ucts, under proper and just conditions, should be the true measure of our pro duction. But is it so? The normal ration cf flour, as established by our government and which has been kindly furnished me by the Secretary .of War, is 1 pounds per day, or 410 pounds per year. Assuming that our population numbers 65,000,OCO, to give each one a normal ration would require 26,650, 000,000 pounds, whereas we produced last year (deducting 56,000,000 bushels for seed) only 17,282,400,000 pounds, a deficit of 7,267,600,000 pounds. But if our population had consumed 2 ounces per day per capita more than they did consume, nothing would have remained for export. Will any sane man doubt, with our millions of people in our crowded cities, in our towns, in our mines, and all over the land, in their hovels of poverty, who are existing in a state of semi-starvation, that we could have consumed this additional pittance ? And if the ruinous decline in prices bo duo to overproduction, why should it not be confined to those commodities for which a surplus i3 claimed ? Why should all departments of labor share this universal depression in prices! No, Mr. Chairman, it is not overproduction, but underconsumption. There can be no overproduction in a land where tho cry for bread is heard. Bat wo are told that we should be content and happy, that "a dollar will buy more to day than ever before. Mr. Chairman, the American farmer stands a faithful and sorrowing witness of the truth of that declaration. No man living knows better than he the pur chasing power of the dollar. He knows that its power has been so augmented that it now demands double the amount of his Jabor and the surrender of his profits to meet its unjust and cruel ex actions. Indeed, s arbitrary and domineering has its power become, that it has forced upon the public mind the grave question, whether the citizen or the dollar is to be the sovereign in this country. Bat with all its power will it pay for the farmer more interest? Will it pay more on his mortgage ? Will it pay more debt? Will it pay more taxes? Will it pay more physicians' and lawyers' fees? From all sections of this magnificent Icouutry comes the universal wail of hard times and dis tress. The farmer bows in faith, he toils in hope, but reaps in disappoint ment and despair. He sees a 4 per cent. U. S. bond due in 1907, selling at a premium of 28 per cent., a bond that would be valueless but for the sturdy blows of his strong arm, and yet he knows that there are few farms in all this country that could be mortgaged for one third their value at 7 per cent, for the same length of time, which mortgage would sell for its face value. He sees centralized capital allied to irresponsible corporate power, over riding individual rights, controlling conventions, corrupting the ballot box, subsidizing the' press, invading our temples of justice, intimidating official authority, fostering ofldcial corruption, robbing the many to enrich the few, destroying legitimate competition, dic tating legislation, defying the Consti tution and annulling the law of supply and demand. In vain do the people plead for relief. In vain have they suf fered and endured patiently, submis sively, uncomplainingly. Over one thousand years ago the old Sheik Itderim of Medina said to certain Ro mans: "Do you dream that because the prophet of Allah dwells now be yond the bridge of AlSirat, that, there fore, he is deaf and dumb and blind? I tell you, by the splendor of God, that a tempest is brooding on his brow ; there is lightning gathering in hia soul for you." Do men dream that because the sovereign, oppressed people have thus suffered, thus endured that, therefore, they have become deaf and dumb and blind? But we are told that these forms of oppression are not prohibited by" law. There are no people on earth who have greater leveren2e for law than the farmers of these United States, but they know that no tyranny is so degrading as legal"z?d tyranny; that no injustice is so oppressive as that which stands entrenched behind the forms of law, and worthy descendants as they are of a grand old revolution ary ancestry, they may not forget that the tyrannical mandates of George, the Third were accompanied by the boast ful declaration that he too was the right occupant of the British throne under the forms of law. Mr. Chairman, retrogression in American agriculture means national decline, national decay, and ultimate and inevitable ruin. The glory of our civilization cannot 'survive the neglect oC our agriculture ; the po wer and gran deur of this great country cannot sur vive the degradation of the American farmer. Struggle, toil and suffer as he may, each recurring year, has brought to him smaller reward for his labor until to day, surrounded by the most won derful progress and development the world has ever witnessed, he is con fronted and appalled with impending bankruptcy and ruin. Crops may fail," disaster may come and sweep away his earnings as by a breath, prices may go below the cost of production, but the inevitable tax-collector never fails to call upon him with increased demands. Is it any wonder that these struggling and oppressed millions are organizing for relief and protection? THE CAUSES. We protect, and with all reverence, that it is not God's fault. We protest that it is not the farmers' fault. We beliave, and so charge, solemnly and deliberately, that it is the fault of the financial system of the government a system that has placed on agriculture an undue, unjust and intolerable pro portion of the burdens of taxation, while it makes that great interest the helpless victim of the rapacious greed and tyrannical power of gold. A sys tem through which despite the admon itions of history and the experience of all countries in all ages; despite the teachings and warnings of the ablest men in the science of political economy in this and in all countries, our cur rency has been contracted to a volume totally inadequate to the necessities of the people and the demands of trade, and with the natural and inevitable re euU high:priced money and low priced products. The dairy brings a revenue which is always cash and always continuous. It helps maintain the fertility of the farm ; its product, if good, has seldom to eeek a buyer; it exhibits more vitality in times of depression than almost any other product that the farmer sells. BRO. DAVIS WRITES. He Favors Freedom of Speech, But Others Must Not be Granted The Same Privileges. Correspondence of the Progressive Farmer We are under the impression that what we buy and pay for is ours. We buy and pay for The 1 'Progressive Farmer " Your explanation for the publishing of Mr. Peele's letter the week before the election is not at all satisfactory. We do not think such a traitorous "light" ought to have been "turned cn" at so critical a time. We consider Mr. Peele's letter a grand in sult to our candidate for Congress, and to every good Peoples party man in our District. Mr.' Peele, can vote as he pleases, but he will please not have it published the week before the elec tion. Bat thank God, the traitorous Demo cratic party is gone "where the wood bine twineth" with nothing left behind but the scent of "brimstone and Wall Street" and we think, from the flavor of his published vote, that Mr. Peele has gone with it. Now let us sing the long meter Dox ology. "Praise Gad from whom all blessings flow.'; W. H. Davis. MAKING ORCHARD TREES MORE FRUITFUL AND LONG-LIVED. R. H. Price, Texas Agricultural Experi ment Station. Tree growth in the South is different from tree growth in the North. In the northern part of the United States there is one well defined period of tree growth The principle taught there, to cease cultivating late in summer, so that tree growth may cease and the wood ripen well before winter, is often necessary where freezss are sudden and severe. In nearly all the extreme Southern States there are practically two periods of growth in one year. Tree growth begins the first of March, and goes on till about the 15:h of July, when dry weather usually checks it. Fruit buds form, and the trees re3t till the last of September, when the fall rains'start tree growth again, and fre quently many fruit buds are forced out, which of course are killed. The fruit crop for the next year is then ruined. However, if they are killed very early in tho fall a second crop of fruit buds will form, and this is decidedly weak ening to trees. If the fruit buds do not start in' the fall the sap is kept so active after this period of rest that they are easily forced out during warm spells in February or March. In noticing the appearance of pear blight for several years, after the bloom has been killed by an early spring freeze the blight is almost sure to fol low. I know of a large Kieffer pear orchard, by the side of a large Le Conte orchard, which blooms about two weeks Ja'er than the Le Conte, and usually escapes the freezes and the blight, but the Le Conte has been hurt twice severely by the freezes when in full blciom, and now the blight has al most killed it. Prof. Burrill in 1888 discovered the cause of the pear blight to be due to a germ disease known as micrococcus amylovorus. My observa tion leads me to believe that it is much more apt to attack a pear orchard after the bloom has been killed by a freeze than otherwise, which fact has led some to attribute the injury to frozen sap. It would seem best to have one season of growth, and to keep the growth up all summer and late into the fall by cultivation or by irrigation, so that the period of rest would throw the trees late into spring before blooming. An important circumstance which seems to confirm this theory took place on the horticultural grounds here last year. Near the machine shops stand two rows of dwarf pear trees, compris ing about 40 trees of Bartlett, Howell, Duchess, and other varieties. For want of a better place, the warm water drained off from the boilers between these two rows of trees. Consequently strong, healthy foliage was kept on the trees till it was killed by a sudden freeze the 23d of January. As a result the foliage fell off and the trees went to rest that late in winter, so that they bloomed late in spring and set a heavy crop, while the bloom on other trees was all killed. It would seem if the tree growth could be kept up all sum mer and fall by cultivation, or by irri gation, that it would throw the resting period entirely in the winter, and the trees would bloom so late as to escape the early freezes, and possibly the blight. The freezes in Southern Texas are seldom severe enough to endanger the life of a tree, even if the sap is not really dormant. Qaeen Victoria has presented the Third battalion, Welsh regiment, with a fine white goat from the Windsor farm to be trained to march at the head of the regiment. Each of the three battalions has now its own goat and there is great rejoicing over the fact. OLD FIELDS OF THE SOUTH. It is commonly supposed that the old fields, as the unused land covered with brush, sage brush, coarse grasses and weeds, is called, are totally worn out and exhausted. This is a great mis take. The land has been cultivated in one crop possibly for years until it will, yield no more of it worth the labor ex pended on it, but there is no system of rotation of crops in the South, and so when one special crop has taken all it can from the ill cultivated land, the land is left idle to slowly gather fertil ity again. This it does, and in a few years after, it is again plowed and yields a few more crops. This is a very wasteful process and is d scouraging to a stranger who visits the South in pur suit of a new heme among its cheap lands The general experience of these old fields has been that by any other sys tem of cultivation the land might have been made sufficiently productive, and instead of deteriorating in -fertility, really increasing in productiveness. The barren appearance of an old field is the result of the worst kind of usage. The land has never been plowed, it has been scratched and no more. The sur face only ha3 bean stirred and this not more than two or three inches in depth. Under this the bottom is hard au$ m pervious to air and water. Thus when the heavy rains come the soft eurface is changed into semi-liquid mud, which slips down the slope, and leaves the subsoil bare. In time gullies form, and month after month every shower washes out a little more of the soil until the land is cut up and deeply washed out. And (his alternation of gullies and narrow bmks, is characteristic of the old field of the South, along with the sparsely scattered bunches of sedge, and patches of Japan clover. Yet the soil all over the South is natura'ly of excellent character. It is made up of the washings of the moun tains to the west, carried down the general elopes, for no one can tell how many ages the turbulent ocean covered the whole land except the highest ridges. The soil is thus all alluvium of the richest kind, down to the bed rock There are no great gravel and eand beds, as in the North, where ice once covered the surface and ground out the gravel and sand which were then washed by the floods at the melting of the ice and deposited a we now find them, in what are called the beds of drift, or in the half rock which is termed hard pan, and on which the real soil rests. All that the Southern old fields want is the. plow hell by a skillful hand, put down sc ni3 inches below any former work, and the seed and grass and clover, and then the manure fol lowing these, to yield crops as gocd as on the best farmed lands of the North or the rich soils of the West. There is no infertile subsoil in these lands. It is soil all the way down. Bat the rich organic matter once they possessed has been wasted and now they want the dead grass roots, clover, the remains of other crop3, or some good compost only, to make them flourish as they did at first. To repeat the old saying, it is not in the land, but the men, that thesa old fields look so sorry. If our farms are producing more every year it may be stated that the population is also increasing, and the demand will keep pace with the sup ply. When there is a plenty there is also greater consumption, as more food is used by each individual as well as greater variety. POULTRY POINTS. Tukeys and guineas are great for agers for insects. Extra large or odd shaped eggs should not be used for hatching. The secret of success in the poultry yard is not Jn the hatching but in the feeding. It is important that there should be no overcrowding in the roosts. Have plenty of roost room. Ducks do not have the cholera, roup or gapes, and hawks do not bother them ; they will lay more eggs and the eggs will hatch better than hen eggs. On tha farm, under average condi tions, it does not cost any more to raise a pound of turkey than it does to raise a pound of pork, and the turkey brings the best price. Poultry wilfvnot pay while roosting on the limbs of trees, and we submit that it is not very profitable to have them roost on the carriage or the har vester or mowing machine. The orchard is a splendid place for the young chicks or fowls. The trees are benefited and the insects are bene ficial to poultry. By keeping fowls on the same land with fruit trees you get two crops and the land is not worn out by the process. If any of us are determined not to provide a comfortable house for Win ter and to feed so as to produce eggs, would it not be business sense to keep only such a sized flock as will furnish what poultry we want through the Winter? We do not believe in keeping anythiog over, among the flocks or herds, simply for the purpose of hav ing it on hand in the Spring, when it costs as much in cae and feed as it would to stock up afresh. A good chin, viewed in profile, shows a marked depression above it and be low the under lip, and an equally marked prominence beneath. . THE SALT RIVER BOAT. Officered and Manned by a Capable Crew The Entertainment Provided for the Passengers. Greensboro Record. The following has just been issued by Settle, Hoi ton, Glenn & Co., headed "Ho! For Salt River." The fast sailingsteamer Free Trade, newly constructed for the White Line Navigation Company, under the super vision of the well-known and affection ate jobbing firm of Ransom and Jarvis, from specifications furnished by Messrs. Gorman and Hill, will sail from the office of tho News and Observer, Ral eigh, N. C Jan. 7ch, 1895, on the as sembling of the Legislature. The steamer will be manned by the follow ing officers, each of whom is peculiarly fitted for the position: Captain Jim Pou, dressed in hia "yellow jacket" and "three eyed pea cock feather. " First officer Joseph P. Caldwell. Second officer Lee S. Overman. Third officer Fernif old M. Simmons. - Fourth officer Melville E. Carter. Chief engineer Samuel McDowell Tate. Asst. engineer Henry G. Connor. Fireman Wm. M. Robbing Stewards Dr. G. W. Blacknall and Juli Ann Carr O lina. Purser Jas. E. O'Hara. Inspector of boilers "Just" Bob Glenn. Chaplains C. W. Tillett and Sam'l L Adams. Exhorters Walter R. Henry and Octavius Coke. Surgeons Dr. Faison and assistants. Chief gunner Josepbus Daniels. Pilot Kope Elias. Cooks Clement Manly, Ed. Cham bers Smith, E B. Jones and Jno. L. King. ; - Bar tenders Frank Winston and Thos. W. Strange. Cox swain J. C. Buxton. Boat swain Jim Morehead. Deck swabbers W. W. Barber and Hort Bower. Spittoon cleaners John R. Webster and M H. Pinnix. Chambermaid General Rufus Bar ringer. As this expedition has been pre scribed by the people for the gne al health of all on board, the managers have prepared an elaborate programme for the entertainment of the passengers and crew, the principal features of which will be: The celebrated "trick mule," Cyrus B. Watson. This mule has travelled this circuit for the past SO years and needs no intrcduction. It ia confident ly expected that his present perform ances will eclipse all previous efforts. One silver dollar of the mintage of 1894 will be given to any colored Populist who will ride him three times around the ring. Col. R. F. Arm field will read a paper entitled, "He Who Hesitates is Lost." This, it is feared, may be a drag, but it is expected that this great singer will capture the audience when he throws his eoul into the pathetic "Benny, dear Benny, come home with me now." Deck -swabber Hort Bower will ren der with suitable feeling the song, "See That My Grave's Kept Green." Ex Senator Ransom, in faultless at tire, will captivate the audience when he gives, in his inimitable style, the last rendition of "The Girl I Left Be hind Me." "Old Jim," a former slave of would be Senator Jarvis, will sing "Massa's in the Cold, Cold Ground." - Augustus W. Graham will call the roll of the 53i Congress and will ex hibit one pair of old pants, stuffed with straw. Fabius H. Busbee will be there "In all capacities." Under direction of Pilot Kope E'.ias the steamer will sail punctually at noon and will slow up at Greensboro to take on "The Baby," Col. Thos. B. Keogh. Also at Greensboro "Jimmy" Boyd, 1 whose wonderful "oratorical efforts" were missing in the campaign, will be welcomed on board, as will Tyre Glenn, who "forgot," a la Jot Causey, to cast his vote. When abreast of Salisbury all lights on board will be extinguished and the vessel will glide silently by, owing to the death of Hon. John S. Henderson. This was said to have been in the original copy but was expunged on ac count of fear of the consequences. Leprosy has greatly increased during the last half , a century and ia now prevalent in many places where it was formerly unknown. 1 !
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Nov. 27, 1894, edition 1
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