THE PROGRESSIVE FARMER.
Thursday, October 7, i9
09f.
B0GRESS1VE
ftRMER.
"You Can Tell by a Man Farm Whether He Beads It or Not."
a ' 1 '
Puhlishsd Weskly by tte Agncclttrcl Pgisfcns Co.
Under the Editorial ana Business Management of --
C L A RE NCE H . POE.
DR TAIT BUTLER.' ASSOCLA.TX EDITOB AJfD MAHAQXB.
PBOr. W. P. MASSEY,
E. E. MILLER.
JOHN S PEARSON. -XF.KOONCE.
- -
assooxiti editob.
. Mamaoiho Editor.
Ssobxtabt-Tbbasuaib.
fold rcfrx8kftattvb.
FISHER SPECIAL AGENCY. EASTKKH RKFBKSKOTATIVIS.
150 Nassau St.. New York City.
TAYLOR & BILLINGSLEA - WK8TKBK RXPBI8ETTATIVX8,
626 First National Bank Bid., Cnlcaio, 111.
Entered aa second class matter at the postofflce at Raleigh,
N. CX. under the Act ol Congress of March 8. 1879. J
. We Guarantee Our Advertisers.
llE will positively make cood the loss sustained by any
" subscriber as a result of fraudulent misrepresentations
made In our columns on the part of any advertiser who
proves to be a deliberate swindler. This does not mean that
we will try to adjust trifling disputes between reliable busi
ness houses and their patrons, but In any case of actually
fraudulent dealing, we will make rood to the subscriber as
we have Just Indicated. The condition of this guarantee is
that the claim for loss shall be reported to us within one
month after the advertisement appears In our paper, and
that the subscriber must say when writing each advertiser:
'1 am writing you as an advertiser In The Progressive Far
mer, which guarantees the reliability of all advertisers that
11 carries." i
Average Weekly Circulation First Half 1909, 44,520.
For Farm Eoys and Girls Under 21.
.i
UR ISSUE of November ,4 will be a Special
for "Our Young Farmers and Their Sis
ters." Not only will it treat of the par
ticular needs and interests of all our young farm
er! folk under 21. but we wish it to be made up
largely by them. We expect to have, of course,
some articles written for the farmer boys and
girls by those of the older people most compe
tent to give them counsel and instruction; but
what we hope to make the feature of the paper
is a long list of short letters from the boys and
girls or young men and young women- all under
21 who live on the farms and who are doing
their part of the work on the farm and in the farm
home. We are sure that many of the younger
folks who read The Progressive Farmer must
have been doing some good work of this sort -that
they have in many cases shown more experi
enced farmers and housekeepers how to grow
better crops or raise better stock, how to make
the housekeeping work easier and to do it bet
ter, how to add to the attractiveness of the farm
home and brighten the social life of the com
munity, and that they can tell us things that
ought to be done in order to make their future
work profitable and, enjoyable. :
I We are interested in "Our Young Farmers and
Their' Sisters" because we know that ten years
from now they ought to be re-making the agri
culture of the South and we want to get in touch
with all of them and put them in touch with the
men and women who would make farm life mean
most to them.
We hope, therefore, for a large number of ar
ticles and experiences, both from the young men
and young women from 18 to 21, and also from
the very young farm lads and lassies -let them
tell us what they are doing, too. We may not be
able to print all the letters, but we shall be glad
to get them just the same, and shall give five
prizes of one dollar each for the five best. Good
pictures, too, pertaining to the life of the young
folks on the farm will be gladly received.
Let us hear from all, and let the letters be
mailed by October 18th by October 15th if pos
sible. Write on good white paper, on one side
only, and with pen and ink, and leave plenty of
space between the lines.
Now, just a word about the older folks: We
have no idea of shutting them out of this num
ber; and while we do not care for the conven
tional advice so commonly offered to young folks,
if any "grown-upM between the ages of 21 and
100 has anything which he or she thinks would
make this issue brighter . or more helpful to the
young people, we shall be glad to get it also. For
we want this Special just to overflow with the
hope, the enthusiasm, the beauty, and the glad
ness of youth.
Now may we not hope that you will all get
ready,- boys and girls and the older boys and
girls who would perhaps prefer to be called young
men and young - women send in your articles
and let us have the best Special of th year.
Five Hundred More R. F. D. Routes
For Progressive Farmer States,
m
CTOBER 1st was the thirteenth anniversary
of the introduction of rural free delivery
as a part of the United States postal sys
tem, and the occasion has called forth consider
able comment upon the tremendous usefulness of
this improved mail service for our farming people:
"Begun as an experiment with five rural
routes in West Virginia, the service has
been extended until it embraces more than
40,000 routes, covering more than a million
miles and serving 4,000,000 families."
In view of this anniversary, The Progressive
Farmer has obtained from the Postofflce Depart
ment at Washington a list of all the rural free de
livery routes now in operation by States, which we
print herewith: .
States. Routes. States. Routes.
Alabama ....... . 987 Montana ........ 36
Arizona ........ . 10 Nebraska . .1,027
Arkansas ....... 366 Nevada 2
California ... . ... 347 New Hampshire. . 232
Colorado 134 New Jersey . ... 287
Connecticut '. ... . 270 New Mexico. . . . 13
Delaware ... .... 107 New York. . . . . . .1,853
District Columbia. 7 North Carolina. . . 1,278
Florida ... ...... 183 North Dakota.... 425
Georgia 1,608 Ohio ...... ..... .2,529
Guam ... . . ..... ... Oklahoma-. . . 929
Hawaii . . .... ... . . .. Oregon 212
Idaho .......... 89 Pennsylvania . ... .2,173
Illinois 2,835 Rhode Island .... 42
Indiana ........ .2,118 South Carolina. . . 754
Iowa . . . . ...... .2,424 South Dakota. . . . 505
Kansas ... .... .1,769 Tennessee . . .-. . . .1,618
Kentucky . . . 719 Texas ...... ... .1,835
Louisiana ....... 154 Utah ....... . v . . 51
Maine .......... 461 Vermont ..... ... 335
Maryland 431 Virginia . . . ..... 993
Massachusetts . . . 293 Washington . . . . 262
Michigan 1,999 West Virginia. . . . -363
Minnesota . ... . .1,575 Wisconsin . . . . . .1,626
Mississippi ... . . . 736 Wyoming ...... . . 7
Missouri ....... .2,054
From this statement it will be seen that while
Tennessee, Georgia, and North Carolina have a
fair proportion of ' rural mail routes, Virginia and
South Carolina are by no means getting their
share of the Government appropriation for this
inestimable benefit to our rural classes.
Whether or not your State has a fair propor
tion of routes, however, is not a serious concern
to the Department. If your community needs the
service, the thing to do is to write your Congress
man at once and get his advice about petitioning
for 'it." "
''The Carollnas and Virginia have a combined
population (1900) of over 5,000,000, and have
only 3,023 routes, while the State of Iowa, with a
population of only 2,00 0;0 00, has 2,424 only
600 less than for all three of our States, almost
equally populous. There ought to be at least 500
more routes In our territory in six months' time
and would le if our people would go about it
in earnest. Wherever 50 or more reading fam
ilies can be served by a 24-mile route there Is a
fair chance of getting the service in our territory,
and Fourth Assistant Postmaster-General DeQraw
told the writer last week that only 12 or 15xper
cent of the petitions for routes have to be reject
ed. In the whole country there are only 1,400
petitions now pending, so this should be a good
time to get a hearing for your community, j Write
your Congressman or Senator at once and start
the movement. , -
The Asheville Roads Meeting and
the National Farmers9 Congress.
ON'T FORGET the great good roads conven
tion in Asheville this week. The North Car
olina Good Roads Association will hold its
annual meeting in connection with the convention
a id. the low railroad rates should attract thou
sands of visitors.
Nor should we let this issue pass without fur
ther mention of the National Farmers' Congress
in Raleigh November 3rd to 9th. President Cam
eron announces that among the speakers will be
four Governors Swanson of Virginia, Kitchin of
North Carolina, Patterson of Tennessee, and San
ders of Louisiana Senator Lee S. Overman, Dr.
lildwin A. Alderman, Dr. S. A. Knapp, Prof. v.
F. Massey, Dr. J. A. Holmes, Editor R. H. Ed
monds, Chief Justice Clark, Commissioner W. A.
Graham, Dr. J. H. Pratt. Hon. J. H. Small, T. Gil
bert Pearsoii, while woman's interests will be rep
resented by Mrs. W. N. Hutt and Mrs. J. S. Cun
ingham, of North Carolina, and Mrs. Alice E.
Whitaker, of Washington, D. C. Such a list of
speakers ought to attract-a tremendous attend-
1 i
ance. Get ready to come. There will be low rail
rpad rates, and ample accommodation in Raleigh.
A Progressive Ginner's Helpful Work.
R. ARTHUR S. KNAPP, who is associated
with his father. Dr. S. A. Knapp, in the
r.n-onerative demonstration work of the
United States Department of Agriculture, sends us
a copy of a letter from a ginner, Mr. C. L. Grey,
of Davidson, N. C. In which Mr. Grey says:
1 "I have talked the selection of cotton seed
to the farmers in this section not a little, and
have gotten, numbers of them interested in
the betterment of their seed along this line.
I am going so far with this that I have put
in a 10-saw hand gin to enable those inter
ested in this to select seed and keep them
pure, and in this way to breed up the cotton
to a type."
This Is indeed a progressive attitude for the
ginners to take, and it is one which cannot fail
j . i
to be Drofitable to them as well as heloful to the
farmers. As Mr. Knapp says:
f"If the cotton ginners would all take a step
In this direction, putting in hand gins so that
carefully selected seed could be ginned out
without mining, we believe it would be one .
ofj the best j propositions for the cotton industry."--;
i .., .
The expense of installing such gins would be
. : .- - ...... ,
small, and the good they would do by helping
1
he
lan
all over the South follow Mr. Grey's example?
farmers to save pure seed ,from the best
is, would be great. Why should not ginners
This Week and Next.
HIS ISSUE IS mainly given over to the
things that you need to do right now, and
I on almost every page will be found some-
hing relatingjto the things thatrmust be done in
he fall if they are to be done at all. Professor
j r - -
lassey's "Farm Work for October," the "Twelve
filings to Do This Month," and "October Poultry
Work," are, of course, for this month and not an
other; but so -j is Mr. Parker's exhortation to sow
orimson clover, Mr. Willis's article on the saving
of cotton" seed, Professor Williams's advice as
;o the. selection of seed corn Mr. Brown's sugges
;ion f of work for leisure days, and Mr. Grabs's
idvlce as to thepicking and saving of the apple
i . - . !
That is a notable paper by Dr. Butler on page
L0. I No one can estimate the injury that has
een; done to live stock by , indiscriminate dosing
y people who knew ; nothing of the disease they
ere: trying to cure or of the physiological effects
pf the remedies they were giving. Quack doctors
pf either animals or men are'dangerous creatures
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