Newspapers / The Franklin Press and … / July 12, 1928, edition 1 / Page 2
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PAGE T.VG TH2 FRANKLIN PRESS, FRANKLIN, N. C. THURSDAY, JULY 12, 1323 "CIVILIZATION BEGINS AND ENDS 'WITH THE PLOW" THINGS TO PLAN TO THROUGHOUT COMING YEAR The Farmers' Day at the test farm at Swannanoa on May 17, 1928. ' Poultry loading depot with facili ties for grading eggs. . , An annual poultry show. Monthly livestock sales. Farmers' own line of delivery trucks. '' Purebred sires and seeds. .' Guernsey cattle association. A semi-annual seed exchange day. A Harvest Carnival one day of the bread and butter show. The Farmers' Position In the Business World (By W. T. Dudgeon) Ladies and Gentlemen of the Farm ers' and Cattlemen's Luncheon Club: Wc who have sons and daughters may well pause to ask ourselves, "Can I say to my son, 'Son. stay on the farm. Here arc to be found op portunities for successful business and the finest life. The future of the farmer is bright.' Or, 'Daughter, v make your home on the farm. Here you will find the best conditions for a bright and happy life'." Really, can . we advise our sons and daugh ters to follow in our footsteps? For several years past we have heard the cry from far and near that the farmer is not being treated fairly, that in some way the rest of the world has gotten him down, and is nearly choking the breath out of his business life. We have heard that cry principally through the loud speaker of some political issue. We have been promised relief by the pas sage of this law or the defeat of that measure. Others have urged us to unite and boost our prices so that our books would show a profit, and still others have urged this or that procedure until Aye have bc 'y AMSfw (-?, ,p tyl vrfahh v Jionty.. ploy-. 'a n y'lh in g5" "r ea I rv 'i s wmrrg t i wiwm shrewd politicians are merely petting us to get our votes. ineretore, wnen asKcu to icik. m ' this occasion, 1 began- to question whether the business opportunities on the farm really are not equal to the onnortunities in the city. What : sort of life is the . farmer . living? Does his family live as well as the family living the city? How about . recreation? Clothes? Leisure? Mon ey to spend? With a feeling akin to resentment, I recalled seeing the groceryman's children going freely " to the cash drawer, the confection er's children helping themselves to the contents of this or that - show case, the crowds of nicely dressed children trooping to the picture shows, the smart cars loaded with tne city s young jicupic wiusm i" Hie and out to the swimming pool, from whence the echoes of their play , il f ; 1 ,1 - i ri r.Unt Iioateu acruns mc m-ma i" seeds of discontent in the hearts of 1 the farm children busily engaged hoe ing weeds and milking cows. I could only decide that from my. ob servation, surely city people have bet ter opportunities than country people. lUl, 1 wonuert.il,- vvuai uui.i nn m.i .' man think? Would he say the farm- er has equal opportunities wim Him self for making money and living a 6 plcasan life? I asked a commission merchant, a hardware man. a law yer, and others, "Has the farmer of today a fair chance in the business world?" They all replied without hesitation. "No." 1 feel sure that if the citv woman were asked if she would like to trade places with the farm woman, the reply would usually be. "No, not I!" From the oldest farming district of Texas, the report comes, "Cotton and other crops do not seem to yield ;:. profit any, more. I sold out, taking a big loss on my farm." From the region about Chicago, I have recently i heard,. "Wc would. like to sell Viut-ni! ? , leave, but can't get half the price for our land that was o""c offers! us." And from another old farming region near , a good market, a frien-' Writes, '"Fanning is in a bad wav here. There have been several law- Asuits recently, each fellow trying to make the other take over parcels of land with the indebtedness." And from New England, our oldest farm ing district, wc hear, "Half the farms are deserted." Each succeeding census shows p smaller percentage of our .population in the country, and statistics give the reason tersely. "In 1926, the average t . l : i 1.. i i iarm owner lauorcu ncariy icn nuiu s a day and earned $219.00 for the en tire year plus a very low rate of in terest on his investment!" He not only labored ten hours a day but al so directed his laborers and did many odd jobs before and after the usual day's labor. The family also labored and reaped no financial reward. Wc need not wonder that farm children jeave the farm, and that farmers have no sympathy for the "Back to the " Farm" slogan. But what is the trend of farm busi- CONSULT YOUR KEEP YOUR FARM AND IT WILL KEEP YOU AND YOURS ness? Is it upward as compared with other occupations? Have in fluences already been set to work to correct our situation ? Really can't wc just go ahead as wc have been doing and hope that everything will turn out all "right? We cer tainly may well pause to consider which way wc are headed in the. bus iness world. v Let us consider for a moment some statistics based upon prices during the 17-year period from 1909 to 1926, in clusive. It is encouraging- at first to see that in 1926 a. farmer could sell the quantity of crops or stock for $1.44 which brought -only $1.00 in 1909, a rise of 44 per cent in the average price of his products during the 17-year period. But we find that the cost of supplies which he must buy has risen from $1.00 to $1.60, a rise of 60 per cent in the same period, and the cost of" labor which he must hire has risen from $1.00 to $1.71, a rise of. 71 per cent, with fewer and fewer workmen avail able. Laborers arc leaving the farm to find occupation in the cities for the very good reason that organized labor now draws $2.50 for the same time" for which .they were paid $1.00 in 1909, a rise of 250 per cent ! Therefore, wc find that the trend of prices during this 17-year period has been against the farmer in the proportion of 44-60-71-250. Another peeriod like this would crush the farmer. The world is organized, laborers, manufacturers, merchants, barbers, professional men, even the oil men, and more than "possibly,", the lum ber' men, too. Our imported foreign melon and lettuce and cotton pickers are organized. The farmers are. mak ing less use and less efficient use of organization . than any other class of people. In times of changing con ditions like the 17-year period which we are considering, organized indus tries see to it that they shift up hodies Uy Mlllinift mv pjjj down. We contracted a great w?x.S debt which must dc pam, ami wimc we were in a reckless mood; we just went-1 ahead and contracted a legion that, "and the other so-called "mtcrT. improvement. , And J suspect mat n you were to take that very signifi cant scries of figures, 44-60-71-250, and use them in the right operations on the. total value of all farm pro ducts sold annually, and on all farm purchases, you would get a sum equal to the annual interest on our w debt and other - public debts with enough left over to pay out several smart appearing late model cars on theinstallmcnt. plan and to buy a good quantity of face paint, chewing gum, and moking picture show ticKets. Organization is powerful enough to . roll this great load out or Jo the farm hut the sincle-handed. unor ganized farmer cannot roll it back an inch. The trend of prices and organiza--iri arraln;t the farmer, but the trend of his own manner of handling the farm is even more seriously ! against him. Our grandfathers went into the wilderness, tooic possesion by right of discovery, cleared farms, and opened up markets, turning their farms over to our ' fathers for a small price, cleared and full of fer tility. Our fathers mined the fer tility from the soils and exchanged it for a living, neither realizing the full trend of such practice nor in tending to be selfish, and when they were ready to retire they sold , us the farms for a high price, reduced in fertility and encumbered with high taxes. Therefore, we find that the greatest distress is among the farm ers of the older t arming regions.. a 1 r ,1 ,,,;tV, o cVirani etirl:. I .'uaill luiii.uu mi" .!' -, v . r: MA ' ..a t-.M,l-l i no donot. i rices uni' n'i him.. Farming departed very siowiy . IT from Adams manner of doing bus iness for several thousand years rmmrrrativn1v'' TCCentlv WOOl ' Was grown on the farm and made there' into "clothes. Almost everything else needed bv the farm family was pro duced on the farm. But in the last one hundred " years the " farmer- hi- .rapidly become ' a merchant m nv scn.se that he buys and sens .mum and his margin' of profit, is small. Often he can ' buy everything he needs cheaper than he can produce it. excepting the one or two product.-, which he does .produce. For in stance, a dairyman selling1 grade "A" raw cream, m'ight ' easily produce hi? own butter, but thpt butter . .won Id cost him a good deal more than tlv nrrc he pays for it at the sUrv This, means that the farmer has be come as a manufacturer whose mar gin of profit is so small 'that .a slight variation downward in his selling price or upward m the price of his supplies may wipe out all his profits. In modern times other kinds ' of bus iness have found organization ab solutely essential for the maintaining nf prices at a level that will insure a profit for -the average person in the organization, but only the ex ceptional farmer now mnkes-a prof it. The tendency of economic con ditions in America is towards making hopeless slaves of its farm people such as are found in many of the COUNTY AGENT The farm pages of The Press are edited by the county agent in col laboration with the editor. oldest countries, notably in China and in India where a bare, hopeless ex istence is the most that a farm born child can expect. Political organiza tion is surely threatening to do here. We find that the trend of prices, of business organizations, of the farmers own handling of farm land, and the trend of modern business methods are all against the farmer, . One may well ask, "If the farmer is in such a poor business plight, and if the trend of conditions is against him, what hope has he? What can be done about it? AND WHO CAN BE EXPECTED TO DO IT?" If the American farmer is to be saved from abject economic slavery more hopeless than the personal slavery once experienced by the Negro, HE WILL HAVE TO SAVE HIMSELF. There , are, here and there in other walks of life, big hearted people who see their farm brother's danger, and would like to save, him, but few, if ,any, of them know, or can ever learn how, and even knowing . how, would lack the power to help greatly. Ask a hun dred . farmers, "What arc yoit trying to do? What do you expect to make of vour business in ten years? Twenty years? In a life time? WHAT IS YOUR GOAL?" Few, if any of them can give a definite, answer. They have no plan, they are drifting. Occasionally a man will answer, "I am tavelling the road which I hope will lead to a herd of 40 cows that produce 500 pounds of butter fat each, annually; a farm far more fertile than nature, made it ; seeds of high productive ability yielding crops of the best quality. Of course, the attaining of such a goal means that I can give my fam ily the best that money can buy, an Deautny my mm;., ppily." The greatest need ot tarm- ers is an inaiviuucu lui rinn a r ptinite uoai to ward. Poor-land , must be made more Wrtlll. - . I AV. o , , . perfected, "better TivBmc'r- mroA: Ortramzcd business wiu nu . - . - Ml longer pav a profit to farmers who produce 'half crops, whether the cause of: low production be poor land, poor, seeds, or poor methods, or poor livestock; neither can farm ers justly ask a profit under such conditions. ' , , , . All about us wc see. land regularly producting half a 'crop because it is infested with Johnson V grass; time and again I have seen half crop resultirig from seed bought hapnaz ah ohmit me is land producing less" than a naif crop of corn or small because of low fertility, when if sowed in aitaita u woum ft large crops of the best hay and would OWii -' - - l" .L Kz fPtiPurpn in icriiiiiv. a'1- average dairy cow produces less inau one-fifth as much as the 175 best Lv jviit-- . - - COWs on record, yet nothing is surer than the improvement of dairy cows llldll niv "S - - , if inexpensive records are kept . and culling done. it nas oiten proven that the average production )sf land in many communitis ca easily be doubled. There is more net profit in one productive acre than in several poor acres, and from one good cow than from several poor cows. I dare say that ir.no such spread in other manufacturing Tmcs between what is and what ought to be Other business has used its or ganized ability so vigorously in re met nf nroduction that quite often there was no need to. j raise the price In . order to preserve XWtXVMl OI prill 11 1UI " v ri - i XAt,nr 1 mmntaill that It iiwiiHiiaiiiii i . , .. v : tn'wtnr virp nrodilCinE me nmeriwdii ni' , ' " , rrons from as fertile soil, by asgoou methods, with as good seeds, keep ing as ! good livestock, as lies easily within his power to do, untier rig u rEanization, .present prices would v;citv him a good profit. The farm- rer mii;t have a long distance r1"" HIM " n ' . t based on fertile sod, good metnous , of tillage," good seeds, and good live- j slock.- : ' 1 But if the farmers were suddenly to . attain all the things just mentioned, the tendency would be for the price j at home to drop below 1 nc prom unc ... tt . 1.1 fMI tin in no- sHion'tn ship his '. products, to for eign markets provided he were suf ficiently, organized to do so. With improved methods of communication and transportation now common we are in direct competition with farm ers of the world. Ships loaded with butter bound from Australia to Lon don' are said, to be in dailv communi cation by radio with the markets of the world, and may turn they course in mid-ocean to New York if rket changes iostifv that course.. The farmers )f the nation must have a strong centralized organization, rap able of advising where to sell arid at what price or else the middleman and the speculator will reap all the rewards ;of the farmers' cheaper production. Fair laws must be se cured and unfair measures defeated. The ''collective farmers case must be "presented in court, before the com- flllirk V Jie W'HUU U" Ul l - I AS YOU WOULD in many Enthusiastic for Kudzu Editor of The Daily Nws: I was much interested in your edi torial on the 26th, on Kudzu glad particularly to note that this plant, which I feel has wonderful value to the southern farmer is' beginning to attract some attention. I planted half an acre of kudzu in the early spring of 1924, securing roots from . Florida and planting them eight feet apart in 10-foot rows. Most of the plants lived and grew rapidly in spite, of the dry weather. The dry weather during the summers of '24 and '25, however,' did prevent the vines from taking root between the plants and it was not until '26 and '27 that the chop became firmly established on the land. By the end of last summer the vines had taken root at joints so that the stand was quite thick, there being plants on practically every square foot of the half-acre tract. The growth was very vigorous, there being a solid mass ot grotlr from two to four feet high all over the patch, I purposely planted this test patch of kudzu on just about the poorest spot on my farm but I believe that the kudzu from this patch this year, used as pasture or hay, will be worth more than any other crop from a similar area on my place. , Mr. H. G. Marsh, of this county, planted two acres of kudzu several years ago and has planted several additional acres during the last year or two, since realizing, as he says; that his two acres of established kudzu was the most valuable land and the most valuable crop he had. Mr. Eugene Ashcraft, farmer and editor of The Monroe Enquirer, has planted a considerable acreage of kudzu during the past spring. He had tried it out and was so thor oughly pleased with it that he was planning to plant as much as 25 acres. I don't know whether he got this entire additional acreage in or 1 . . T K?;':CVrt4r'rt'VT(w'rY' where the roots can. be secured at a low price and planted when they are freshly taken from the soil, is to plant well established roots. The other wayi 1 is to plant the kudzu beans. The kudzu bean is very small, very little larger than crimson clover seed, and the entire supply . of seed is secured from Japan. The germi nation of kudzu seed is very, low, it being estimated that 15 or 20 per cent germination is good. However, while the seed are very expensive and the germination is quite low probably the. best and cheapest means of getting a start With kudzu is to purchase these seed, plant them in drills on good land, and then replant with one or two-year-old plants on the land which one desires to put in kudzu. I have a few acres of rough hillsides and thin rocky land which I hope to get established in kudzu next year. I have planted kudzu seed on an acre of ' land and with even moderate success should have -sufficient plants to cover several acres. It cost me approximately $40 to seed my original test patch of half an acre. . I should be able to seed several cares next spring at a cost not exceeding a few dollars per acre. It doesn't pay to till poor land. Labor costs top much. Kudzu, once established on poor land,, level or hillside, will not only reclaim such land but, even, during dry weather, jf it is established, will give a good yicj 0f highly nutritious ; hay or JidDLUl agt. tuiiu lJlJl vv-'"l,u'1 the .value of this plant should mean much to the development of our livestock industry in the Carolinas and anything that will encourage or promote any branch of the livestock industry will not only help the fann er but will help the community in general. Tn mv oninion kudzu would already j -x - - - . nave been a , wuiciy grown crop uui fur the . high cost of the kudzu roots and th,c consequent high cost of get-, ting tlie crop established. Until the ,iast two or three, years the seed have not. been used in this country. jt the use ot me ktuizu seed does .iIiIa o n-t-n ' . rrt lVir r rnn llliiuiv. -. loium iji 1.1. v. ii. cstaunsii'Ni- at a com ui .oiuy n icv dollars per acre of cash outlay and anything like an ample , supply of seed can be secured I believe that this crop will become a real factor in our agriculture within the. next few years. A , MECKLENBURG FARMER. Charlotte. Greensboro Daily News. TO ALL THE BLACKBERRY PICKERS: Wc have decided to pay twenty cents per gallon, delivered at the Cannery the same day the berries are "ickd, '-ot later than three o'clock in the afternoon; And in order that you' may get. your berries delivered the County Farm Agent will 'arrange to take the berries up and deliver them to the Cannery himself. In this case we will pay fifteen cents YOUR DOCTOR OR merce commission and places. THINGS TO PLAN FOR RIGHT NOW That cream check every two weel ks. That cannery check every time you come to town. Fat hog sale in June. Bread and ; Butter Show next fall. .' Encourage the 4-H Clubbers. i Big Farmers' day next fall. Local Curb Market. Breed sows so that the pigs will go on the market in March, April, August and September. per gallon at your home,' or' at some designated station near your home. Cash will be paid on collection of the berries. Please arrange direct' with your county farm agent for collection of these berries. JONATHAN CASE, Cannery Superintendent. .. Dear Friend : ( ' You have .read the above notice from the Superintendent of the Can nery. I justwant to add that I will arrange collection days and stations, but "will have to have your assistance in doing so. And the only way I know this can be accomplished is for your community to get together and ascertain, first, whether or not you are going to pick berries for the cannery and, second, the approximate amount you will try to get together every week. This is absolutely im perative if you are to have the service you desire. After studying on these two points, please notify me at once, that is not later than. July. 18th, and I will then arrange routes and days for rollpf.tiner . and advise von. I would just like to add that I have nrranrrpd this nlati for von hnt.rnn- out. your reasonable cooperation, and I ML Z . I iHJ M T X JM - T VI .ft B till. liL 4 i " it your immediate attention and 'treat the matter with due business prompt ness. For among other things, I feci that if you are not willing to help yourselves it is not incumbent upon me to give any effort to help you. Any suggestions or advice you should care to , give, individually or collectively, will be given full con sideration. LYLES HARRIS, County. Agent. Yours truly, HOW BANKERS HELPED A majority of Kansas bankers de siring to help gain an equitaable so lution for the major problems of ag riculture, and attain the rightful, po-' sition for the industry among the other industries of . the nation, asked tfifmsp1vpe tfipep niipstinns- Can we not help to apply to good advantage the result of the scientific study and research of the College of Agriculture to the individual farm? What about reducing the cost of pro duction? What about the efficiency of the . overhead costs ? What about a higher standard of products? ".'' j. nv itouuing ovuviLj' 111 vv invii county demonstrates what bankers can do when they get to thinking. A meetingwasheld to which bankers in vited . several progressive farmers .of his community. There in conference . with college representatives the story of the county's agriculture was un folded. Pertinent farm problems were discussed. The LIME and LEGUME project seemed the most pressing. Every bank in the county had at least one progressive farmer co operator. Each bank was requested to have his co-operators present ' at the bank at El designated time when, the chairman of the county agricul turarcommittec, and the county farm agent would be there. Each bank in the county was visited in this way by the chairman and county agent.. It was when making these stops at the bank that instructions were given as to just how to proceed; 'how five plots of ground were to be ' re- ocio' nnp rilnt'tn he loft mitroiforl the second treated with lime, another with lime and manure, another with lime and acid phosphate, and the last with lime, acid phosphate, and manure. expect the most striking results the forst year, yet the effects were so extremely marked and gratifying that a tour of bankers, farmers, and mer chants was organized. Over seven hundred neonle siient thrt dav rp- viewing the good work done. This is only one of many such coun ty .activities in our state. 1 am a strong believer, in the county key banker, the contact agency between the. technician and. th tiller of the soil. 1 The Indiana Bankers Agricultural Committee is carrying the banker- (Continued on page three) YOUR LAWYER
The Franklin Press and the Highlands Maconian (Franklin, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
July 12, 1928, edition 1
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