Newspapers / The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, … / March 19, 1895, edition 1 / Page 1
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THE PROGBESSXVE 'O . THE INDUSTRIAL AND EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS OF OUR PEOPLE PARAMOUNT TO ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS OF STATE POLICY. RALEIGH,. N. C MARCH 19, 1895. NO. 6 7oU : (rU, FARMERS' ALLI I NCE AND INDUSTRIAL UNION. dentJ. iTwilletta. Topeka, ?ftPW8ident-H C. bnave.y, ip- ftTnger-OoU.P.Dun. Lni Columbia, S. U EXECUTIVE BOARD. r t wicks Huron, S. D. ; Mann 1 niSS Virginia; I. E Dean, SNew York H. C. Dem- PWtarV Harrisburg. Pennayl Dr wretary .r, , 0 3- Marion sutler, ruueigu, . v,. ' JUDICIARY. 0 A Routhworth, Denver, Colo. 1 W Beck, Alabama. u n' Davie, Kentucky. 0AE0U5A FARMERS' RTATS ALL1- President-J.M. Mewborne, Kinston, fvfoe-Prssidentr-A. C. Shuford, New- rgtory-Treasurcr-W. 8. Barnes, jtSturer'--Cyrus Thompson, Rich fsfirdJ. T. B. Hoover, Kim City, aaplain-Dr. T. T. Speight, Lewis fSoor -keeper Geo. T. Lane, Greena (distant Door keeper-Ja. E. Lyon, iPJt-atrms J. R. Hancock, treensboro, N. C. T , f grate Business Agent W. R. Worth, 1 iv.no RiiainfHifl Ac-encv Fund vv. Graham, Machpelan, N. O. IICUTIVX COMMITTEE OF THE NORTH C420LINA FARMERS' STATS ALLIANCE. ilarion Butler, Goldsboro, N. C; J. Lons. Eoka. N. C. ; A. F. HUeman, oncord, N. C. ,TX ALLIANCI JUDICIARY CWTdMITTEZ. t r? -o -r- nota-cillft N CI Dr. J. f. Harrell. Whiteville, N. C; John irta Carolina Reform Presa Association. ulcers J. L. Ramaey, President; anon Butler, Vice-President; IF. S. Secretary, PAPERS. f Tocrwatve Farmer. Stat Organ, Raleigh, N. C. LarnirT Hickory, N. C. rJSbr, Whitakers, N. C. hr Home. Faver Dam, N. C. rePopnl'st, Luroberton, N. C !:e People's Papr, Charlotte, X. C. he Vestibule, Concord, N. C. Joaiow blade. Peanut, N. C. &wh of the above-named papers are e,sustedto Iwu the list standina on first page and add others, provided vy are duly etectea. Any paper jau V to advocate the Ocala platform will &rcped from the list promptly. Our oi-iY can now see what papers are in in fir initrrvxL. EDITORIAL SUGGESTIONS. Get ready to plant your upland corn I -"J XU UJatt.O dVA UWJ vyV-, ad ehDuld be well prepared and Ranted early. I Fast milking is desirable. Slow milk lg may not affect the yield, but it bas j-xu. tcown mat it is aetrimenwu io lie richness cf the milk. It is said that the people in the Red ver valley are thinking of starting o operative creameries. Such cream nea might be started in many sectic ns f ith prone. hen the cows begin to scatter as aaa a maa appears, it may be con ; uded that he is a rough man and is Joying the profits of his dairy in a "fry foolish way. Te toracco industry in the vicinity 'Uncicnati, O., is no small cne. One f arehouse alone sold leaf tobacco in -2 to the value of 12,420,000, while warehouses sold 75,300 hogsheads, aaed at $9,600,000. Doa't plant much of any one crop, ersify. Grow thing that will sua life. You cannot afford to buy j'Pplhs outside of your own neighbor- JCl. But if that uh WM,v m, V J ould not be like sending the money ther sections of the country. I don't count any chickens b fore :eJ" are hatched, but if crimson clover ($ through this hard winter in fair edition, we are goiDg to be modest lugh to claim tur 6hare for the j'fcaa of information that led to the 'a ct the clover. If it does wiuter purpose to say, "Try it again T a tho way we stand by our friends, 3 the Rural New Yorker. ,AIl3ppar tree errowa best and vields (TJ t toogt uit when plant d upon land rrely moist, and yet not cold I ure this condition there ia noth better than a &ide hill location, C? 0ne more level may do well if rarained and then it is better for a wash of sand from the up k TV e xt which helPa to warm it W 0011(11110113 are fatal t0 tbi3 W 511(1 they are a lack of moisture U e and a lack of dryness in the DISPOSAL OF COTTON SEED. Paper Read Before the L. L. Polk Alli ance Recently by Bro. F. E. Emery, of the N. C. Experiment Station. This is a question of vital importance to this whole country. What shall be done, and what shall bo tho considera tion if sold or exchanged? Or, to what shall the seed be fed and for what pur pose? Since the days when cotton seed was dumped into the bayous of Miissippi and Alabama, or accumulating in great quantities, gins were moved to get away from the mass cf waste, a change has been wrought out. This seed has been the subject of study and a source of wealth because of its content of cer tain articles of value to man when properly extracted and prepared. The preparation of these articles has come to be a great industry worthy of our respect. It has through seeking profit able employment turned back to the seed growers considerable value where before little if anything was received. This has been in brief, the history of other industries. As new U9es have been found for what had previously been waste prod ucts, capital has interested itself and foundremunerative employment in lines but recently thought of and ex plored. Oaly a few years ago the saw dust from our numeroua lumber mills was wholly waste. It was run into the rivers and has done great damage-in various ways, obstructing channels, causing overff jws on valuable lands, destroying the finny tribes which for merly served as food of importance to many people. With the advent of steam this sawdust was partly used for fuel, then turned into paper, and now we hear that it is becoming the bulk of a new kind of bread which can be I made in Europe, cheaper than wheat flour bread, and thus a once nuisance becomes food for the people. A cheaper food product may or may not rc duce the values of our food crops, but other egencies are at work which do not re duce our values, and at the same time by a subtle but inevitable logic in creases the cost of production. This is true of more of the staple products of your farms than you can believe at first thought, but dwell on the subject; study it with the beet in formation you can command, and you will find joureelf drifting into a rapid ly narrowing vortex. Formerly there was margin enough between cost of a crop and the price it would bring to assure a comfortable living to the cul tivaror of the soil. The yield decreases as a natural consequence of robbing the soil of too much of its fertility and exchanging the resulting product for too little of pome other article of ma terial wealth to support the cultivator and restore to that soil the excess with drawn. Competition ia said to be the life of trade, but woe it is to that indi vidual or community, who has to stand behind a lively competition and fur nish material producta at lower, and continually lower prices. Do you not feel this in the price of cotton? This is only one article of commerce, but it happens to be the one we are interested to die-cuss in the internet of the people who make it possible for others to amass wenlth by dealing in it, manu facturing it, and handling its seed product ; alo for people to enjoy the comforts and pleasures derived from so man of the necessary and luxurious use to which the cotton lint con tributes in the world. It is not proposed to lay down a fiat here by which this staple may be en hanc-e d in price. That is an improbable thing to do in this age, and with the conditions which confront the Ameri can people. It is, however, proposed to give this audience some food for thought as to whether we shall, as in dividuala or collectively as a com munity, gather and use our own twigs for our own purposes, or turn them over to some commercial fellow to sell where they will become clubs to drive ua out of the market places, general or local. More thoughts on this line crowd for place than I have time to give, and in the hasty preparation perhaps the rjest may noc be chosen. If those selected serve to awaken thoughts enough to stimulate a few to action, my object is accomplished. Example which is better than precept, will then step in, you will lead each other far aheidof my sight in the line under taken . Within the past four years cotton seed has sold in this State, and I be lieve in thia market, for a price rang ing between 1 1-5 and 2 5 of one cent per pound or between $21 and 13 per ton The only reason in the world I can see for the decision of the question un der diacu89ion by any farmer ia whether he can get for hia seed an equivalent value from one or the other ways of disposing of it; and, in the end, the effect which will be exerted ; first, on hia farm; second, in the net value re ceived in other articles including a re turn of the draft made on the soil, and third, it8 effect on the competition which the sale of this seed brings back to him in the production of other ar ticles of importance. OF THE EFFECT ON THE FARM Cotton growing is a neat and easy branch of husbandry. You plow, plant, cultivate, hoe and pick out the seed cotton and move it to, the gin all in the regular business hours of the mechanic. Nat ure does all the rest, ex cept that the speculator seta the price and you wonder, when the cash or bill of credit ia in your hand, whether it ia worth the candle or not. If you have had an exceptionally favorable season, your soil was bountiful and the yield large, you will put your head up against s me other fellow and figure down the cost to the minimum, aye, below what it actually did cost, and drawing a comparison with exceptional yield, publish a statement to the world that cotton can be successfully grown so long as the price remains above your low figure, and the world goes to bed with the conviction that cotton farm era are getting rich. Thi8 is a sample of the farmers' plans of keeping trade eecrets. It is as broad as ia thia coun try and confined to no branch of agri culture. What merchant does not guard with care the amount of margin he can secure on each article he offers for sale? What lawyer, doctor, or other pro fessional man does not think of the years of study, nights of toil and days on which no fees come to him. and charge you enough over the day's ex penses to cover a proportional part of all. What manufacturer doea not count interest on plant, breakages. wear and tear and other expenses, and keep all theee in mind in affixing prices on hia wares? Why should not every farmer pay some regard to these and keep his balances on crops as close as others do their similar interests. But with your favorable year and large yield an exceedingly lrge part of the capital invested in soil has been re moved and stored as crop. How much ought to laid aside to be returned, or how much should be immediately put back on that field with the fall sowing of clover or wheat or grass seed? Of the seed cotton approximately one third is lint which comes mostly from the free elements in air and water. Two-thirds is seed, and in thia we shall find the principal draft on the soil. The stalks are broken down and plowed in so their elements return eventually to the soil. If the product of each acre were 1,000 pounda of sof d, it is easy to find out what has been re moved. From the annual report of the N. C. Experiment Station for 1892 we find an excellent article showing what the seed, their hulls, the kernels and the resulting meal contains, and which has been taken up from the soil. The most important cf those in 1,000 pounda of seed are as follows: Seed divided into bulla 500 pounds, kernels 500 pounda. Total in 1,000 lbs seed Nitrogen in hulls 3 32. in kern'ls 23 40. 26.720 Potash " 6SSK. " " 6 725,12.621 Phos'icAcid " " 0 484," " 8 65, 9 134 Lime " 0.81 " 0 82, 116 The value of these, to put back on the land (Fertilizer Control Bulletin) potash 5c, phoeporic acid 4Jc, am monia 14o. (equivalent to nitrogen 17c.) per pound amounts to $5 58 per 1.000 pounds or per acre, of which 93o. belong to the Jhulla and $4.65 to the kernels. Thia amount should be spent in com mercial manures to put back in place of what is loet in the 1 000 pounds of seed if sold. If this seed ia returned to the soil there should be no depreciation from raising cotton lint, provided it ia not lost in some other way, as of potaeh by leaching and nitrogen by decay of vegetable matter and a return to the air in a gast ous etate. If exchanged, the oil mills will give one ton of meal for two tons of seed or 500 pounds of meal for thia 1,000 pounds of seed grown on one acre. An aver age of four analyses of meal (Bulletin 106 N. C. Experiment Station, p. ,) in our digestion experiments yielded 6 205 pounds of nitrogen per 100 pounds of meal. The potash 1 75 pounda and phosphoric acid 2.42 pounds available are taken from an analysis for plat work (Bulletin 89, p. 4,). At the prices given above 500 pounda of this meal contains 6 32 worth of the fertilizing elements, Therefore to make the ex change we get 10 74 for hauling 1,000 pounds to the mill and 500 pounda back home. Thia rate will pay for a short haul where at least two tons of seed can be exchanged in one day by one team for one ton of meal. Calculated in thia way the seed ia sold at 16f cent8 per bushel and the team haa a value of nearly $3 00 (2 96) for making the ex change. Suppose thia same value be allowed the team for moving the seed in case it ia sold and the price be increased by ao much per bushel, the price to corre spond should be $11 16 plus $1 48 or $1264 per ton, which for 66f bushels is 18 tf6 cents per bushel. Tnis is in con sideration of no other factors than the fertilizing values of the seed and giving for transportation simply what the mill offers aa an inducement to haul the seed in exchange. If the seed is sold, the price at present rates for the value given for potash, phosphoric acid and nitrogen should not be less than 19 cents per bushel. But there are other factors yet to be considered which will tend to advance that price. There is a feeding value not easy of definition which will considerably ad vance the price of seed wherever the cotton farmer is paying a proper atten tion to stock and where well bred cat tle and sheep are fed for the dairy, beef, mutton and wool. The feeding value maybe approximated to a certain ex tent by a comparison of heat equiva lents aa found from the digestible por tion of each. The large amount of oil in the whole seed unduly increasing thia value of the seed while the large amount of protein in the meal specially fits it to become the most economical food to "balance" coarse carbonaceous foods tbatare plentiful oq nearly every farm. The meal is worth more in com parison with seed than can be thus shown, but it ia far from being worth two for one to feed stock. Third, the value of cotton seed meal just mentioned lus come to be recognized far and wide. It ia sought for becau-e it is so rich in protein that a email amount goes a long way in producing a rational ration with the coarse foods common on farms in the first place, and in the sec ond place because it has long been the cheapest of foods in the market in com paring the values received for the mar ket prices asked. It is time that the serious attention of the farmers, mer chants and oil mill men should be directed to this fact and immediate steps taken to push up the price to a reasonable point. This may decrease the demand for cotton seed meal, but if the difference ia added to the price of seed it will go a step toward undo ing the wrong done to the cotton grow ers by taking valuable article from him at half its worth and handing it over to some one else at three fourths its value. If it were the avowed pur pose of the dealers in cotton seed and its products to break down the cotton growing sections financially, no surer way could be devised than the present system. It is in effect robbing the soil and impoverishing tillers, while at present nothing like an adfquate value is being returned to those who sell their seed. A ton of cotton seed meal, no better than some which haa been found to contain protein 39. 50 per cent, available phosphoric acid 2 42 per cent., and potash 1.75 per cent., carries in itself what according to present valuations ia worth and will cost the farmer $25 40 in commercial fertilizers. At the same rates the seed is worth $11.16 per ton. If A. accepts less than that amount for hia seed he yields up the difference from the soil, and gives his labor spent in making sale and delivery. Third This article from your farms sold, as bas long been done at less than its value and recently at very far less than its value, tends to return against dairymen at least, in crushing compe tition. As long as thia continues to be sold so cheap every farmer should turn feeder of beef, mutton, and dairy stock and insist on buying at the same rates per car load that the meal brings f. o. b. when started North. Thia last ia for non cotton raising farmers. Those who raise cotton should feed their seed, and exchange it for meal at two for one of meal, teed all possible and use the balance for direct application to the soil at less than 18 or cents per bushel. . A large proportion of farmers have but a very inadequate idea of the value of a good home garden, and so it is per sistently neglected. To very many farmers, the garden work seems small and petty they are used to larger fields and more extensive crops. Yet it may be safely stated that a well planned and well kept garden far out strips in actual profit any other feature of the farm. We do not mean that it brings in large cash returna its divi denda are in the nature of improved health, of much relief from the burden of housewifely cares on the farm and in its tendency to make home pleasant to all concerned. PRACTICE AND PRECEPT. Agriculturist Emery, of North Carolina, Asks Some Questions. My Dear Mr. Benninger: I am asked to recommend and induce some of our young men to go on to stock farms, to be presumably active work ing foremen. They will be expected to milk cowa and make butter of the milk, then turn their hands to what ever there may be to do on the farm or in the stable. - Thia ia rather a novelty in the South, and all our ideaa do not harmonize. For instance, what pay would a fore man be able to command for such work in your vicinity ? If not expected to lead, but to milk and make prime butter and then fill in the time m testing milk with the Bab cock test, or at any other work at hand, what pay would the man com mand in Pennsylvania? An early re ply will be appreciated. Our people complain some about somrtition at the prices which obtain for butter and feeda for cattle and horses. Much of the former have to be shipped from the North, while one or two articles are sent from here there. It must follow of course that on feed ing the coarse, bulks foods which have had freight rates added to the price, the butter must cost muci more when made than the first pice with only freight charge on the butter itself. Please give ua something on prices and freight rates for comparision? Prank E. Emery, Agriculturist N. C. Experiment Station, Raleigh, N. C. REPLY BY MR. BENKINGER The idea ia a grand one and one that our Northern colleges should have adopted long ago. I have had in my employ a graduate of Amherst Agricultural College, Mass., aa herdsman. He was scientiticaly a good man and understood the science of feeding all right but was too slow to do the work successfully and proficably and 1 was obliged to get a man from a stock farm, who had practical experi ence. Lvt spring I secured a graduate from the Cornell University to take charge of our French coach horse. This man was scientific and understood the science of feeding, but was not practical enough to make it a success There is at this time a great demand for educated and practical men as f arm managers and herdsmen, but they must be able to take hold and show how to do things a3 well as to be able to tell how it ia done. The wages for such services varies from $30 to $100 a month. I am pay ing my herdsman $45 a month, and he is not a college graduate ; if he was, his servicea would be worth at least $25 a month more. A stock breeder in New York pays his herdsman $60 a month, and hia manager and salesman about $100 a month and board. I know of several positions open now for first class herdsmen at about $50 a month and board, but in these cases they must be able to make recoida and fit and show cattle at the fairs. There are a number of rich men who run farms aa a plaything, or side shows, and care not whether they make much money or not, but in all cases want it self sustaining and want good practical farm managers. The idea of sending students to good paying stock farms is a good one, but they must bo willing to take off their coats and go to work and learn how to feed, milk, disinfect the bran, take care of the manure, and, above all, learn how to keep the cattle and every thing clean, together with a hundred other things that are absolute neceesi ties on a stock farm. This would give them a chance to learn' how to sell stock. In regard to the coarse feed in the dairy, I am convinced that the South ern people are in error, for I learned while in the South that they can grow the beet dairy feed in the country. The best food that we have in all its stages is corn, which ia their second staple crop. The next thing ia cotton seed meal to make butter, and the cotton seed hulls are aa good as the average hay made in the North. Besides I do not see why hay cannot be raised in the North. I would grow oats and corn and cut while young if I could not raise any other hay. I am of the opinion that coarse dairy food could be raised for about what the freight rate would be on the same. I think that Southern farmers do not fertilize and cultivate their land enough. I find that a dairyman cannot be successful unless he properly feedsand takes care of hia cattle, and good crops can also not be raised unless the land is properly cultivated and something put on to feed the plants. I have long ago learned that the rail road companies charge all the freight that traffic can bear, and that ia one reason why Southern dairy farmers should raise all they use, having the facilities and also the market for their butter. Very truly. W. M. Bennin ger, Walnutport, Pa., Dec. 10, I894. CREAM OF THE PRESS. Hard Hits, Bold Sayings and Patriotic Paragraphs from Reform Papers They are Worth the Price of One Paper a Whole Year. Grover Cleveland seem8to have sup plied the Democratic party with an other issuer bonds. Tulare, Cal.t Citizen. " You can push the American people about so far, when something is liable to drop. The limifi is about reached The Calliope. The amount of money in circulation haa been diminished more than $100, 000,000 during the last twelve months. People's Party Paper. The devil will be to pay, and no pitch hot, when the Rothschilds proceed to foreclose their mortgage on thia coun try. Southern Mercury. The gold gamblers are determined that the public credit shall be main tained if the country has to "go broke" to do it: Topeka Advocate Grover Cleveland has been trying to fill up a hole with bonds but the only thing that he has placed in the hole to stay is the Democratic party. Pitts- field Advocate. When egg are twenty cents per dozen it ia on account of McKinley's bill and when they are five cents it is on account of Bill McKidey. Council Grove Courier. The little merchants who vote with the fellows who are crushing them out of existence, are beginning to discover that there is something the matter. Peoples Tribune. The working man who opposes Pop ulism belongs to the class for whom the Saviour prayed, 4 Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." Arkansas Populist If we had a money that was not so confounded good in Europe, perhaps there would be less of it stolen and car ried there by our public officials Murfreesboro Journal. The Standard Oil Company has swal lowed the Chicago gas tru3t. In a lit tle while we'll have to change the name -of the United States to the ' Standard States." Milwaukee Advance. Fifty two per cent, of the people own nly 3 per cent, of the wealth of the country. These are poor people. Nine per cent of the people own 71 percent, of the wealth of the country. These are rich people. Working people will eat together, drink together, tramp together, suffer together, strike together, starve to gether and die together, but they can not be induced to vote together. Rockville, Pa., Era. A sickening spectacle: A combina tion of foreign Shy locks exacting, tribute from the United States Govern ment. And worse yet, that our own people have no chance to supply the government's needs.- Farm and Home. Necessity is an effective, though a stern teacher. Men who a year ago viewed as a crank anyone who advo cated silver as money in any form, are now waking up to the error of tbeir ways. Many of these men have been led by the depression of the past year to study standards of value. They have been surprised at the strength of ., the arguments for the bi metallic stand-v ard. It is only a question of time be fore not only the United States, but the world, will return to bi metallism. Farm and Home. STAND BY YOUR COLORS. Cast your eye on the label of your paper and see if it gives you credit to -'95 or '96. If it DONT we shall ex- pect $1 from YOU at ones I We want to pay every, debt The Progressive Farmer owes this year, and enter '9S with all bills against ua receipted and 50,000 names on our sub scription list. We CAN. do it and WILL do it if our staunch friends will HELP ua Put The Progressive Farmer in every North Carolina home and reform ia assured. NOW ia the time to open the fight of '96 by rallying around your standard bearer The Progressive Farmer " Experiments indicate that potatoes are worth about one fourth aa much per bushel as corn if cooked and 'ed to fattening cr growing swine, but this would not prevent us from throwing a few small potatoes or other roots to the growing stock, swine or almost any other animal. They serve the same purpose that they may serve for milch cows, they keep the stomach and diges tive organs in good condition, and thus render the coarse food more valuable- ' . 3..,.
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
March 19, 1895, edition 1
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