874 (10)
..uUtheou Fatji Cajxtic.
7-
iv "Yon caa lefl by t mia'i Urn wbellier
4ui.,,.....ii..ii.nW: he reada tl or boL"
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY BY 5
The Agricultural Publishing Company
(Incorporated under the laws of North Carolina.)
Home Office : 119 W. Hargett St, Raleigh.
CLARENCE POE,
TAIT BUTLER.
E. E. MILLER, . ,
W. F. MASSEY, -
, . , Vice-President and Editor.
V . ; Managing Editor.
; ' . . .'. Associate Editor;
JOHN & PEARSON. . . . , . ' Secretary-rreasurer.
- J.L. Mosrford. GeneralRepresentative. ;
OUR children will never know enough about
'farming to make it attractive and profitable
until their parents know more about it.
f erred to contrasts "forest conditions In. Switzer
land with those in the mountain sections of the
South. "The first characteristic that strikes the;
stranger on entering Switzerland," we are told,
"is its universal greenness. In every direction
there is grass and forest, forest and grass." The
lower lands are in grass, , the forests extending ;
above to the limits of tree growth. AH these, for
ests are "under Government supervision and they
are handled as ," permanent investments. . .The'
streams which run down from the mountain sides
are never muddy and are swollen only at the time
of the melting , snows. The city of Zurich has a
forest which tas been properly - handled . for." a
President and Editor. thousand years, and. it pays a profit off $20,000
a year; supporting a library and other institutions.
Some time this country will learn that it -is noth-;,
ing less than criminal folly to destcoy the forests,
to let land wash away, and to" imagine, that these
processes of destruction can be left unchecked, and
the country remain prosperous. " . , " -
Don't Farm Poor Land
THE North Carolina A. & M. College Farmers?
Union local is to have a public meeting for .
the discussion of the Torrens system: This is an
excellent idea and we trust to see other locals;
take it up. A general discussion and understand
ing of the Torrens system would result in its en-
in . every other Southern State. Let the Union
members study the measure so that . they . can
show other" farmers how it would, help. , -
actment into law, not only in North Carolina, but possible. 1 Unfortunately, however, the majority,
of our farmers do not have rich land to cultivate.
The average -Southern soil is a, poor soil; that lar
it does ' not produce i crops large enough : to be
profitable. The average farmer has to work land
like this. " Often he has to make a living from
land all of this kind. When this; is the case, it
is evident that he will" get only a poor living; no
matter how hard he works ; arid we all ' know .that
there are thousands and thousands of Southern
farmers who are working steadily and faithfully
and getting very meager returns for their labor. ;
' This is an unpleasant fact for us to admit, but
it is a fact and w'e must face it. To attempt to
ignore it or to explain it aWay is not the part of
wisdom. . It is too big to be ignored. It must be
met and mastered. Always the farming of poor
land is unprofitable, jet a very large per cent
of our Southern lands are poor. The .average
Southern crop is not a profitable crop-1-it does not
give the farmer a fair reward for his labor.
' This being the case, what are we to do about it ?V
Manifestly, there Is but one thing. . We must quit :
farming on poor land?. There is but one way ior
' most farmers to do this, and that is, to .take the
poor land they have and make It good.x . ;
THERE are two letters in this Issue calling at
tention to the State Farmers Conventions, -s
The man who gets in the habit of attending" his
State convention each year acquires a habit which
adds much to the pleasure, and may add much to ?
the profit of hi$ work. : When ; you start to the
meeting next time, persuade one or two of your
neighbors to go along. -It will do them good. If
you have not been going yourself, dont wait to
be persuaded but make .the start for yourself, lit
will do you good. -
TMIE army worm is spreading in Georgia and
1 the Carolinas and will do gTeat damage if
farmers are' not early in the field to dispute pos
session with him. Use poisons freely,',, Arsenate
of lead, one pound to thirty gallons of water, is
best because it will stick so well. Paris green is
equally eff ective, of course, but is - more easily
washed off. Don't wait for the worms to over
run your fields; get busy as soon as they appear.
If you have no sprayer, you-can dust the poison
on while the plants are damp.
thd rr.oGni:ivD iwirrrn.
the case when the fanner must depend upon this
same poor land for a living,- while he is trying to
improve it, and, this is exactly, what thousands of
farmers have to do. . t- V :' . -
And they , really have .to da it If they go on
working poor land, they will continue poor, or
become poor themselves.- Poor-land farming will
not make prosperous farmers, and no matter, what
else we do, until we get- our lands to producing T
better crops; theagricultural South' is going to re
main poor, as compared with other; sections and
other businesses. ; : :- - " '' ' l-:f:;::
, jThis, then, is the greai k which confronts
Southern farmers, f They must settle down to the
making of good lands out of their poor ones, with
the "calm realization that there must be no leVup
.in their labor, and with the fixed determination to
stick to their job until the low average yields of
today are things of the past. It js their great op
, portunity, too; for if soil building Is.real, work, It
HE problems of the farmer are imanyrand orings with it the rewards of real ,work.; There is
hardvVOne of the hardest and tle most irni- no farmer so poor that he cannot make, his farm
"nortant of all Isthe Problem of soil fertility, better; and while the advance maseem slow; for
a-while, as the returns for the work begin to come
in he will gradually become able to do "more, and
"as the land becomes better, its improvement will
be easier and more rapid- -The poorer the land,
the njore needy the farmer, the greater reason
there" is for determined effort along this line, and
the-richer the reward will seem' f . v ' .
It is indeed a task to tax the strength - of men-
-this thing of making good land out of our,-poor;
but the farmers of the South are men and can and
will perform it Failure to do ao will mean future
hardships for - those, they love, while; its accom
plishment will bring a reward richer than inost of
; them have dared to. dream." - " : - .
Don't be a poor-land farmer... You" can make
your poor land good not at once, of course, but
ultimately, -and whenever you have - started it
towards fertility and paying crops all the doors of
the future are open to you. , ,
- Fortunate, indeed, is ; the - farmer who has rich
land to cultivate. To himj wonderful ' things are
READ what Mr. Jeffers writes this week about
alfalfa in Virginia and what Mr. Fant tells
about red clover in South Carolina. Southern,
farmers are learning to grow their own corn, they
must now learn to grow their own hay, and we
are glad to see such progress being made along
this line. It is interesting, too, to note in this
connection that Governor Mann, of Virginia, ls-
Fpllow Ireland's Example;
';;?;;-'5y:u;iHv;j' . - ; r-yi:-'P:;; t -jst' -iS'
E HAVE heard a great deal in the South
about the . European agricultural banks,
or co-operative credit societies, but the
subject has not been thoroughly - understood " by
one person' in" a hundred. The same thing is true
of the co-operative creameries; cooperative poul-
w
try societies, etc." The ereat value of Editor Poe's
This does not sound like an easy thing; to do, 'European letters, therefore, is thatvhe now makes
the workings of : these organizations perfectly
and it is not. But it is a possible a practical, a
necessary" thing to do. It is not a work for one
year, or five years, but for all time. Yet five years'
sued a proclamation requesting all farmers of the or one year's .work may make the difference In
State to meet August 14 to discuss 'The best time
and method for" the preparation of the ground and
the sowing of alfalfa and all , the pultivated
grasses." A good thing for a Governor to be
interested in, but a thing in which" It should not
require a Governor's proclamation to get a farmer
interested. . '
many cases between, profitable .and unprofitable
crops, between'good farming and poor. ;
plain, and what he has written should not only be
read in our subscribers' homes, but read and dis
cussed in Farmers' .Union meetings all over our
territory. '
, We have had a great deal of talk about co-oper-
' If Southern soils are not rich, they can be made ation; it is now time to do something. As Sir Hor
rlch. We are ourselves largely responsible for the ace Plunkett said to lir. Poe, You don't want the
iw waii " v u j jiuvi v ii ov tv niMiuui kuc7 yyoi aio . , ; auu llic wait , Wjf W
cent of 'our. land was naturally thin; but there was ; begin operating is in the organization of just such
A MISSISSIPPI Farmers' Union local sends us a
copy of a lately adopted resolution petition
ing the Secretary of .Agriculture ; to aid Southern
farmers to dispose of their cotton crop direct to
.spinners and thus give the middlemen's profits to!
"the growers.- We believe in more direct market-
ing and we believe that the Department of Agrir
culture should give more attention to marketing
problems; but it is just as well to face facts - as
they are. Except in possibly . a.1 few cases, spin
ners cannot profitably buy cotton direct from the
growers, nor can the Secretary, of Agriculture do
also a large per cent naturally rich which is rich
no longer. . All that was once fertile,' if not wash
ed away, can -be. restored to fertility, and practi
cally all - of our naturally deficient soils can be
made more - productive - than they have ever been.
, ' The process is very simple---on paper. . It in-,
eludes first of all, in the gTeat majority of cases,
the addition of vegetable matter to the soil, then7
the addition of the needed plant foods. Of course,
drainage is needed in some cases; in others, the
more than suggest better methods of marketing prevention of washing is'necessary; the correction
V
the crop. The first thlng"necessary is for farmers
to organize, on a business basis, so that . their
. agents, men paid a salary or a commission, can
deal directly with the spinners or the exporters.
This great problem of ' economical marketing is
" not going to be solved by any theory or by political
action; it ; must be worked'; out by the farmers
themselves, and worked out : by purely business
methods of co-operative handling and selling.
of soil acidity Is often demanded. - Yet, the funda;
mental plan .to be pursued is simple put vegeta
ble matter into tne soil, then add nitrogen and
phosphoric acid and, on some soils, potash, , ,
It sounds-simple and easy. Any one of us can
raise a green crop to plow .down, and we are used
to buying fertilizers liberally. .All of us who have
tried it, know, however, that the building up of
I - ; w!rSr s 18- v a Por 6011 10 tue where !t will produce pay-
;X- sued a press bulletin which every farmer in . - . . TJ. , ,
the Southern hill country should read. Mr. .J. L. ' lng crops ,s not easy as U BOUnd8- u s a work .
Holmes, the State Forester, - is. now in Europe requiring earnest thought and . constant care. ;:
studying conditions there, and the bulletin re- Often, too, It is slow and hard. Especially is thl
co-operative creameries, poultry societies, and ag
ricultural banks as they have In Ireland.-; Con
sider, tor example, how; simple is. the formation
of , an agricultural bank as set forth": In a leaflet
which Mr. Poe sends with one of his articles: u
-v ' " ..v'-' '
is done by thirty or more netSple Joining to-
gether in a society j they elect their own com
X mlttee who can make arrangements to bor-
row money, for the purposes of ;the : society, -and
. a member who wants a loan to enable
him to buy a pig or to ' get poultry or. any-
th in P filRft nut. nf a ti mo Ira ri"nflfr
0 , . w wM V. y.w.,
- will be able to get the money for about one
vcuur um uuuuii iiki iiiiihih n tiht ihiit i. hhu
Ihfl Will not hft tr rnv th' mnnav hark '
until he has got his profit out of his loan and
can afford to do it. v We will supply rules,
and show you how everything. is done. It is
all very aim Die. and. aa this ia already beinc
done by laborers in Ireland,' ypu can do it '
But, you will have to stick to each other, and :
: admit no one "whom you cannot trust, arid
those whom: you won't have at the start be
cause they, are ne'er-do-wells, will soon ' re- ;
form when they see the advantages of mem
bership."- v-v- ,
1