696 (10)
PROGRESSIVE
FARMER AND GAZETTE.
THE
Published Weekly by Agricultural Putlishins Co, at
RALEIGH, N. a STARKVILLE, MISS.
Entered as second-class matter at the postoffice at Raleigh, N. C.
CLARENCE POE. . . . . President and Editob-w-Chikt.
TATT BUTLER, ' . . Vice-President and Associate Editor.
Prof. W. F. MASSEY. . .'. . . . . . Assocuti Editor.
v. v.. wnxER. . . . . ... . . . . Managing Editor.
JOHN S. PEARSON, . . ... .
our own seeds, of buying farm
sample, and of .demanding of the seedsman that
' be at least guarantee the seeds he offers truo to
name and freedom weed seeds.
Every good citizen should kno yr. public men
and study political questions, but politics Is about
the most "over-done" business In the South to-
. nil J iv
day. Everything is sacrmcea to pontics ana me
scramble for Office.
seeds only by p0tation in Office, Yfise and Unw
ise.
SECRETABY-TbEASUBER.
THE PRINCIPLE of rotation In office was one
very earnestly advocated by Thomas Jeffer
son, and It Is Interesting to see that his opin
ions on the subject are now being quoted with ap
proval In many parts of our territory. There la
no doubt that the principle of rotation Is wise
and. healthful, but there are one or two modifying
If the same energy, thought acts' wnich our voters should keep in mind.
and time were devoted to soil Improvement dur- la the first place, a very sharp distinction .
Ing the next two years as w.ill be given to useless should be made between the offices in which
politics, It would matter little to the farmers of merely routine work is done, ' such N as those of
the South who got the postofflces or held the .Sheriff, Treasurer, Register of Deeds, Auditor, Sec
Fishkr Special Agency, New
opsins. Chicago; J. L. Mogford and C. F.
KOONCE. Field Representatives. ' - ,
Advertising fapruentative t
York: Albert H. Hop
We Guarantee Our. Advertisers.
WE wfli podttTely make arood ths Iom rot bf w U)icrIbt
If M B result of fraudulent mlsrepreeentatians mad m our col
M h. n.r nt anw ivartiaar who Droves to be a deliberate
- . --- - . . , i.i
windier. This does not mean tnat we wuj try o aojoiii otJK
disputes between reliable bnainesa houses and their patrons, but m
any case of actually fraudulent dealing, we will make arood to the
ubscribar as we have just indicated. The condition of this sruaran
tee ia that the claim for loss shall be reported to us within one
moots after the advertisement appears in our papersad that the
subscriber must say when writing each advertiseri TI am wrransr
wou as an advertiser in The Progressive JFarmar and Gazette, which
guarantees the reliability of all advertising that it carries."
Weekly' Circulation First Half of 1910. .. ; 97,230
SUBSCRIPTION RATES:
One year, $1.00 : six months, 65 cents ; three months, 80 cents.
To induce new $ubeription$, one new tubacriber and one old
eubeeriber may both get the paper one year tor $1.60.
Editorial Gleanings. '
PE ARE ALWAYS glad to get up advertis
ing for our readers who have something
to sell but feel that they can not write
ads. If you have stock or poultry or seed to ad
vertise, for example, write us all the. main facts
that might interest buyers, and we will be glad to
fix a' telling, catchy announcement and submit it
for your approval, if you desire, before inserting
it in the paper. We have before us now a letter
v - - ' '
nrlin nrtolino a form m o tTq cot
. I rf i in ti. auuaci uei wuu nuues xuaxu xuuuuov,
telling us about what his needs and wishes are,
and concluding: . 1
"Now, Mr. Editor, I am going to intrust
myself to your hands. Write me a little ad.
and insert it till I . tell you to stop, and I
feel that you can arrange it with the infor
mation given much better than I can." ' v
.xkt. eiiall lia lad tn fin an mnp.h fnr.vou. ..
V T C7 0UCAA . O V
There are few people who realize the great
growth the truckinglndustry is making in North
Carolina. For example, the strawberry crop ship
ped North this year amounted to $1392,885; and
one house in Boston handled this season, twenty- :
six cars of North Carolina peaches on which the
average net ' returns per car were 833. Of
course, these, are only two items in the long list
m M . i . J A. a 1 t- J.1 J. -1
oi iruiis ana vegeiauies put oi wuicu ue u ucjib
are making money. : Other Southern States can
doubtless show a similar activity along this line.
About the most short-sighted man imaginable
, is the cattle owner who opposes tick eradication
because it causes him some temporary incon
venlence, or may stand in the way of his making
', a dollar or two more' this year trading in cattle.
When a few months of inconvenience, or a dollar
or two less .profits now means freedom from ticks
and greater profits for all future time, it does
seem incredible that any man can be so short
sighted,;, but there is no accounting for the con
duct of a. man who. Is ignorant and will not try
to inform himself, or who is fully controlled by
short-sighted selfishness.
Iowa has a pure seed law, which prevents the
Belling of adulterated or mlsbranded seeds. As a
result, Dr. L. H. Pammel announces that "the
quality of seed sold to Iowa farmers Is much bet-
ter than it was." We need such a law in every
oiaue, ana we neea to educate ourselves, as farm
's ers, up to the point of growing a larger part of
retary, of State, etc.; etc., on one hand and, on
the other hand, offices requiring a high degree
of constructive ability, and technical skill such as
Commissioner of Agriculture. Superintendent of
Education, Supervisor of Roads, Health Commis
sioner, etc., etc. Formerly most officers of this
class it is certainly important that a distinction
be made between the two types. Of course, no
inefficient man ought to be kept in any office be
cause he is supposed to have had experience in
it, but we hope our Progressive farmer readers
will see to it that the wise principle of rotation
is not carried to unwise extremes. Dr. S. C.
Mitchell, of the University of South Carolina, de
clared the other day that while it Was originally
said that there were three departments of govern
ment, legislative, execytive, and Judicial, we now
recognize four,legislative, executive, judicial,
and ' educational. In the executive offices, the
mere execution of political and financial machin
ery. Jt is well to have rotation, but when a really
able man has been found for the management of
the schools, the roads, public health work, or ag
ricultural development, there is no more- reason
for making frequent changes tham there is for
changing the professors in the State University.
- In short, let us have as much rotation as the
they adhered to this practice they made little peop!e wish in the executive offices, but less in leg
progress. After a time they b"egan to learn that islative offices where influence comes with experi-
the laboratory men and the experimenters had
little county offices. .
We clipped the same day from a daily news
paper and a country weekly the accounts of two
large gatherings in North Carolina. It was esti
mated that 7,000 people were at one meeting and
10,000 at the other, and not a drunken man in
either crowd! The man who doubts that the ex
cessive use e)f alcoholic liquors is decreasing is a
man who will not open his eyes; and when the
few old topers now living pass away, a drunken
man will be a curiosity almost anywhere in the
rural districts of the South.
: ' -
T.he Wiregrass Country puts the matter truth
fully when it says if the South does "not get
thrifty Americans to develop its territory now. we
shall have foreigners instead a 'little later. As
our contemporary says:
"If you do not want foreign Immigration
in the South you had better hurry to get "r
some Americans here while you may. Or
else the time will speedily come when the
foreigners will come without . your invlta-. '
tion." .
Jl ' ' .
There was a time when farmers refused to take
instruction or facts from any but farmers. While
facts and information for them that could q put
to good use on their farms; and now most of
them who think don't care where the facts come
from or who give these facts to them, Just so long
as they are real facts.
ence; still less in judicial offices, and least of all,
perhaps, in the educational officesprovided in
each case -that thV officer be a really able man
who is doing his work well.
The Parcels Post and the Local Merchant
That the South is destined to be one of the rich
est agricultural sections of America, we firmly be
lieve. But it can never be until our Southern
farmers learn that commercial fertilizers will not
take the place of good soil management, and un
til they learn to buy; what their crops need in
stead pt certain prescribed formulas of whose
real value and real character they know nothing.
We shall await with much interest the new
census statistics showing the progress, of our
Southern farmers in the last ten years. Some
figures now before' us show that South Carolina,
for example, has increased her corn crop from
13,128,137 bushels in 1900, :to 37,041,000 - In
1909. - " , . '. . 'V
- Any man can raise good fair crops on a rich
soil when weather conditions are favorable, but
it takes a good farmer to increase, the fertility
of his farm while still making a support from it,
or to grow good crops in unfavorable seasons." It
is the bad season that points out the good farmer.
The popularity of . the Farm Demonstration
Work in South Carolina , Is strikingly illustrated
by the fact that the South Carolina Cotton Manu
facturers' Association has Just appropriated $1,
P00 for the work. ; , .
The North" Carolina State Farmers' Institute is
in session this week at the A.' & M. College. A
report of the meeting by Prof. C.; L. Newman
will be published next week. :! 4 .
w
E ARE GLAD to see that some of our
Southern dally papers are taking up the
fieht for the oar eels Dost. This is one
measure now before Congress that would be of
such immediate and decided value to the rural
districts that ho farmer can afford to be indiffer
ent to it. It does not speak much for our pro
gressiveness that Americans should be the only
civilized people deprived of this convenience. That
we have not had it before how is. due to the inac
tivity of the mass of farmers and to the active
opposition of the express companies and the mer
chants of the country towns.
The express companies will continue to fight
It, of course, but to the merchants we would com
mend the following words of the Charleston
(S. C.) News and Courier:
"The proposition is simply this: Do the
people of the United' States want small pack
ages, of twenty pounds weight, say, or less,
transported at but a fraction of ihe present
cost, with every, rural delivery box a point of
shipment as well as a point of delivery?
"We are told that they do not, that it ia
. better to pay extortionate rates for the pres
ent service than to run the risk of the mail
order houses competing with merchants i
small towns. We do not know that such an
argument will-appeal to the farmer. It will ,
strike him as a kind of body blow at his in
terests. He is willing enough to endorse
good roads so that he can go into the towns
.to buy and sell, but he is hardly prepared to
keep upon himself a transportation tax in aa-
: dlton, not, it seems, for his own benefit, but
. for the. benefit of the merchants of fhf !ma11
towns. Opposition, fd the parcels p'ost, a0 ex-
V