Thursday, October 24, 1907. THE PROGRESSIVE FARMER. . 9 North Carolina Fair; Cotton and Tobacco Meetings. Cotton Growers Association, said it was with the cotton growers of this State-to let their organiza tion live or die. .The farmers, he said, are not supporting it as loyally as they should; their en thusiasm was all right; but the fees had not been paid, i ; The masses of the people he finds to be in favor of the warehouse. plan. A local company can be organized at every market by a few live men- wit ness Scotland Neck. Red Springs. Fairmont, Con- perhaps, toy do with the great attendance was the Cord and Mooresville. Farmers and business men ability of the people to put up the price ior tne are tmnKing more tnan ever Derore aDout tne real v holiday This big attendance is the more commercial value of cotton, the plea for gradual we .. . j . t 0 WnA marketing is being heeded, and thousands of farm- gratifying from this standpoint inasmuch as there ers are now holding cotton where, formerly they was and has been all summer the Jamestown Ex-. sold from the gin. The campaign of the spring of citinn in full blast just across the Virginia Dora- 190 6 and 1907 in favor of more food and feed Last week was Fair week in Raleigh. The weather was fine and the attendance every day reached a new high-water mark. Of course, the weather had something to do with the record breaking attendance, the ordinary attractions and special meetings had something to do with it, as did also the extraordinary attraction of a speech bv Mr. Bryan on Thursday. But what had most, Prot Maooey'o Weekly Letter. I er. An agricultural fair, it was attended very largely, but by no means exclusively, by the coun try people. 1 Contrasting it with the Fairs, of twelve or fif teen years ago, one was impressed with tne larger crowds, the better appearance in dress the gayer attire of the feminine folk, and the happier mood of all. These things show a marked advance in the condition of North Carolina people. Better days are upon them, they have more money, they are becoming better educated, they" show more marks of thrift, and if they have ever neglected what the New England Hawthorne called the "for gotten art of gayety," they are happily picking it up again. In all of which there, is just cause for thanksgiving. The Cotton Growers Meet. During Fair week there were two important meetings of interest to Progressive Farmer read ers. One was the meeting of the Southern Cotton . Association Wednesday night and the other was the gathering of the Tobacco Growers Friday night; both in the legislative halls in the State Capitol. . ' The Cotton Growers' Association was addressed by Mr. Harvie Jordan (whose speech at the Fair crops was perceptibly effective. As a result, the farmers of North Carolina have more corn, wheat, oats, truckr cattle, and hogs than at any time in the. history of the State, and owe less money than at any time since the Civil War. .If the farmers and business men, said Mr. Moore, were as loyal as the newspapers generally, cbtton would to-day be bringing fifteen cents a pound. If the Association had the small income of ten cents per bale, it could be a power in build ing up a prosperous State. ' ; Mr. Moore reminded the Association that he had served nearly two years, doing the best he could, and devoting his whole time to the service. He asked those interested to take notice and relieve him at the January meeting by selecting another man. Meanwhile during the remaining time he would vigorously push .the work as he1 had f been doing-and invoked the aid of all influential and in terested men. ' - A resolution was offered by Mr. Parker provid ing a plan for raising funds by the January meet ing with which to discharge the indebtedness of the Association. Tobacco Growers in Session. Friday, of Fair week. was Tobacco Day. Mr. J. O. W. Gravely, of Rocky Mount, who is the Secre- grounds during the day had been cut in two. by the tary and state Lecturer of the Tobacco Growers ballon ascension, and bv its President. Mr. C. C Moore. Short, interesting speeches were also made by Mr. J. A. Brown, of Columbus County; J. J. Lalghinghouse, of Pitt; Mr. S. H. Hobbs, of Samp son; Mr. Ashley Home, of Johnston; Mr. R. C. Reed, of Mecklenburg, and a few others. Mr. Jordan declared that the South is just be ginning to appreciate the" worth of its cotton crop, and to realize its opportunities. The raw cotton exported to other countries brings back to the South every year a tide of money richer than the output of all the gold mines of the world! NOTES SUGGESTED BY RECENT ISSUES. Mr. Blacknall is perfectly right in saying that the uplands of North Carolina will not, in their present condition, hold the rainfall even if deeply broken. And they 1 never will if the practice - ,of keeping them- always in hoed crops is followed. " But with a good farm rotation in which there is always a sod to turn under when the land is brok en, the conditions will become such that there will be no washing at all if the crops are cultivated level and shallow and no furrows are made around the hills to catch a head of water. But until the soil -has some fibrous matter and humus in it there is certainly need for the terraces. If the whitish surface soil around Kittrell had some of the clay mixed with it ajid had a sod on it fre quently, there is no doubt that finally the terraces could be done away with , to advantage. I know this from the experience I had with the steep red hills of the Virginia piedmont, where I worked hills steeper than any here, and while there were great gullies on the lands all around me, I never had a new one to start, and never made a terrace. But the land was kept sodded, as much as practi cable, and when plowed there was fibrous matter to hold the soil together. It is not only the shal low plowing, but the clean cultivation, and the wearing out of all the organic matter in the soils here that s causes them to wash. They did not wash when first cleared, and will not wash now If the new ground conditions are restored and deep breaking and shallow and level cultivation are the rule, and! hoed crops stay on the land but one or two seasons at fartherest. Mr. Poe is very modest in asking tor a circula tion of 30,000 There is noreason why a paper like The Progressive Farmer should not have at least 50,000 subscribers in the South. The farm papers North are all reaching out after Southern circulation, and they know that the South is the Association, addressed the tobacco growers at the Fair Grounds and made a tremendously strong ar gument for better prices. The trusts were smit ten hip and thigh. They have taken from the farm ers $148,000,000 in the past twenty-one years by coming field for agricultural journalism, tor in n paying less for tobacco than it was bringing when section is there a greater waking up to the import yet the farmers are losing millions and millions cotton is marketed. After pointing out the neces the trusts came into the field. At night the meeting in the Hall of the House of Representatives was addressed by Mr. C. C. Moore, Mr. Gravely and other speakers. Mr. Gravely ex- And pressed energetic impatience with newspapers that iayor tne trusts, ana look occasion to commena the work of The Progressive Farmer and the Ra- ance of agriculturalimprovement. If the South ern farmers will but stick by. their organizations for mutual improvement and protection the South will continue prosperous, for in the great manu facturing development that is going on there are thousands drawn from the farms who must be fed hv those who remain there; and with her great w . .. annually because of the manner in which their , ,,i01 crh staple crop the South has the 'whip handle on the with an urgent appeal to the farmers to profit by world. rUir -P n A lrtOltT AfT010 Kola ff O . " ' , TraTVrririt compact and thorough organization, size of 48 x 22 x 18 inches, and the great saving it v - 0 Would cause in freight, storage, and insurance, Mr. Jordan appealed to the farmers to abandon the present lack of system in storing cotton and ex pressed his favor for laws that compel the protec tion of cotton against the weather. Taking up the matter of the exchanges, he showed that even if Mr. Moore spoke of adulteration of smoking to bacco with alfalfa and grass leaves, and suggested pure food inspection. V . Mr. T. B. Parker made a practical talk on the value of better organization for the tobacco grow ers, and gave the greetings of the Farmers' Alli- they were removed, the spinners and growers ance. would not be able to agree upon a price for. cot ton; that the advancement in the price of cotton could only come as a result of system, of organiza tion. " ' ' .' - The present depression in . the price of cotton, he said, was due to three influences: (1) the large amount of cotton thrown upon the market flooded it; - (2 ) a large percentage of the producers have "to give liens and the merchants who take their cot ton in payment for supplies were obliged to dis: ioseof it; and (3) the severe money stringency in this country arid in Europe. A. system must be devised, declared Mr. Jordan, by which the crop can be financed before it leaves the hand? of the farmers. " First, a system of ware houses would be necessary, then a system to fin ance the stored cotton, so that the weak or "dis tressed'" cotton will not be allowed to break the market. The greatest' bear of all, declared Mr. Jordan, was not the man who offers a low price, but the man who accepts' the low price for his cot ton; ' Mr. Jordan believes that a new day is dawning for the South, and he called upon airthe people to stand together in the future and do their part to hasten its coming. President Moore Asks For a Successor. Following Mr. Jordan, President C. .C. Moore, of the North Carolina Division of the Southern In cotton, while the second picking may make as good or better plants than the first, the element of earliness will always be more likely in the seed" from the earliest opening bolls. I hope that the Experiment Stations will take up this matter of the best seed of cotton, and plant separate plots from different pickings side by side. Earliness in cotton is ve"ry important in the upper South, beed from the middle or lower part would tend to make less long limbed and weedy plants doubtless. The average of the whole Cotton Belt one season with another is not over 200 pounds. North Carolina v.00 q rrtA nr hpttpr an average than any. but ua,a ua w--rs . www . - - - Colonel J. Bryan Grimes pointed out what had been accomplished by home companies handling tobacco, citing instances at Greenville and Apex. Colonel John S. Cuningham thought tobacco should bring fifteen cents; and urged organization. Dr. Tait Butler did not thiijk it would be easy with good farming made general all over the State to organize the dependent farmers, for it was a there is no reason why the average should not ex task to organize those who were in better cohdiceed Mr. Hobbs's 250 pounds. His advice in re- tion; yet in organization; was the, only hope for gard to selection of heavy seed is all right, and? it better prices. " would nay to hand-pick the seed over for a seed- President R. K. Simmons, of Westfield, Surry breeding patch, so as to get - only the best for County, who is at' the head of the Farmers' Pro- breeding. tective Association, congratulated the body on the ' good work done during the year, and the meeting I had a call from a man a few days ago who adjourned after adopting the following resolution says that he has a machine that will mow peas in offered by Mr. Graveley: rows and clean them as it goes. I am to have an "Resolved, that the tobacco farmers of North opportunity to see the machine work in a few days, and if it does all that is claimed, it will work a revolution in cowpeas for seed, for he claims that he can mow and clean the seed at a cost of fifteen cents per bushel.' Another man In Tennessee has invented a thresher that he says will thresh tne Carolina never cease their efforts till they obtainr in an honest way, profitable prices for tobacco." . Mr. J. H. Currie President. Rut in ypf hark tn thft Fair. Mr. TC. TV Dansrht.- ridge, of Edgecombe, the retiring President, is sue- mown vines and clean the seed without breaking ceeded by Mr. J. H. Currie, of Cumberland Coun- them; and he is so sure, that he offers to pay my ty, as the head of the State Fair management, expenses to go to Tennessee and see it wo rK :. JJ He is a farmer of large public spirit, progressive want to see both machtaes work, for there is n nni siirppssfiii; and in this nromotion from the one machine more needed now than one tnat wu vice-presidency will not find his work totally new save the expensive hand pickingf pWgE y. or suaugc. -.-v. . . -