CM
our nal
The Hoke County News- Established 1928
The Hoke County Journal - Established 1905
VOLUME LXIV NUMBER 11
RAEFORD, HOKE COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA
4 PER YEAR 10 PER COPY
THURSDAY, JULY 25. 1968
I
.Raeford Awarded
3 5
When the family which
occupies this house moves on.
it most likely will be
demolished or burned and the
land added to the cot ton field
in the foreground
Hoke 'Farmers9 Move On
BY JIM TAYLOR
Practically everybody old enough to
have had an uncle serving in World War I
remembers the postwar dittie, "How You
Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm"
(After They ve Seen Paree).
The suggestion, of course, was that
servicemen returning to their homes after
the defeat of Kaiser Bill would never be
satisfied with serene rural life after having
seen the bright lights of Paris.
The song-written by Irving Berlin and
popularized by Eddie Cantor-became a
great favorite as a grammaphone record.
As prophesy, however, it was inaccurate,
because that particular generation of
American farmers (including thousands of
veterans who had seen Paree) probably
had more to do than any other with
developing the country into an
agricultural giant.
Young Swiss Exchange Farmer
Finds Tarheel Heat 'Tiring'
BY LUCY CRAY PEEBLES
The young Swiss gentlemen who has
been visiting Hoke County for the put
four weeks has learned the hard way what
real "hot" weather is like. But before he
left last Monday, he learned that a day in
the field was made easier by taking salt
pills.
For a person who hails from a country
with a high temperature of 85 degrees.
Peter Roth, International Farm Exchange
Youth, for the first time expere'iced
temperatures which have risen above 95
degrees day after day and have hovered
near the 100 mark on occasion.
The heat made him tire more quickly,
he said, referring to the work he had done
on the Hoke County farms of Dan
McCougan and D R. Huff. An IFYE boy
visiting for six months in the United
States spends his time it a member of the
family who is at the time serving as his
host. He helps with whatever chores are
being done by the men and boys about
the home and farm and is treated as one
of the family.
Exodus Explained
Today, there is an acute problem
created by an exodus of farmers, tenant
farmers, and farm laborers who have gone
or are going to the cities. They are not
lured by the bright lights, but are being
shoved off the land by increased
mechanization of farm operations and
shrinking allotments of certain farm
crops.
To study the problem and, hopefully,
to provide some measure of relief, the
federal government has established two
pilot projects of four counties each. It has
appropriated several million dollars to
initially finance the projects.
Hoke County - ostensibly with one of
the highest emigration rates in the state
is among four counties in one of the pilot
projects, along with Bladen, Columbus
and Robeson counties. The second pilot
project is in Kentucky.
How serious is the problem in Hoke
Abandoned Farm Machinery Rusts In Weather
While here. Roth was especially
interested in poultry farming and youth
organizations. Last week he visited a local
hatchery, a turkey farm, and the Raeford
turkey plant.
In comparing habits of the Swiss
people and of those here, Roth said there
is some difference in the mode of eating.
Breakfast food is not the lame and there
is some variation between dinners here
and there.
Rather than the foods we use, they like
their breakfast made up somewhat of
cheese, jellies and jams, and coffee
(diluted half and hair with milk). Much
cheese is made high in the Alps when
cattle are driven to the mountain ranges
to graze types of grass. Since there are
only the few who tend the herds, to
salvage milk from the grazing cows most
of it is used to make cheese, which can
easily be kept and brought back to the
lowlands.
It is customary for one or two me and
couple of boys to take 40 to 50 head of
cattle to the lofty levels and remain with
See SWISS, Page 7
I j A 1 i . - , an - -. -
1
County? Is there a solution more
practical than the "natural order of
things?": that is, the flow of population
to meet the demand of labor, or to avoid
the absence of such demand?
The problem, once serious here, teems
to abated considerably during the last five
years or so. By and large, the decrease in
the number of farms, and in tenant
farmers and the need for "day" labor,
began in about 19S0, reached a peak in
about I960, and since that time has
shown signs of stabilizing.
The dilemma has been easy to
understand. Low income rural families
which depended on sharecropping or day
labor for a livelihood were faced with
increasingly declining income. As the
situation worsened year after year, those
families who could manage it moved
See FARMERS, Page 7
VISITORS Two visitors from afar were
last Friday. Peter Roth, International
Switzerland, left, and Ralph E. Janes of
primary hatchery breeder, watch turkey
til "n iii nMWH . SZ.t
., J $338,250
For Sewer
A federal grant of $338. 2S0 has been
approved for Raeford to help pay for its
forthcoming SI million-plus improvement
to the sewage treatment plant and
industrial sewer lines here.
The grant was anticipated earlier this
year when a town citizens approved a
$700,000 local bond issue for the sewer
project. The grant amounts to 30 per cent
of the project's total cost.
The money will be used to increase
capacity of the town's sewage treatment
plant and to run a new outfall line from
the treatment plant east of town to
Burlington Industries plants on the
western outskirts of the community.
The bonds will be paid for through
increased rates to industrial customers.
That primarily affects Burlington
Industries and Raeford Turkey Farms, by
far the two largest water-sewer customers
here.
The bond issue was set up after more
than a year of study, including pondering
every possible means of raising the money
needed for annual payment of principal
and interest on the bonds. The town
already was near its debt limit, under
state statutes, and special permission had
to be gained to exceed the limit before
the bond referendum could be ordered.
Citizens of the town had only a few
years ago approved a bond issue to build
the new treatment plant, which was
described as overtaxed soon after it was
opened in 1963. . The plant supposedly
was designed to accommodate a city of
35,000 and was to have been adequate
for Raeford's needs for 15 years.
Engineers explained that industrial use
of water and sewer facilities skyrocketed
between the time the plant was being
planned and its completion date. That
unexpected multiplication of sewage
overloaded the system, they said, to
beyond its designed capacity, which was
1.5 millions a day.
Actually, another factor-biological
oxygen demand (B.O.D.) - was the
primary cause of overload. For while the
hydraulic capacity was not being
exceeded, the B.O.D. capacity of 2,800
was more than doubled by the average
daily load.
The new plant will provide a B.O.D.
capacity of 7,500, which is at least 250
per cent greater than the present
capacity. The hydraulic capacity will be
increased less than 100 per cent.
New sewer rates will vary with the
amount of water used per month. The
customer who uses a million gallons a
month, for example, pays less per gallon
than the customer who uses half a
million.
Residential rates will not be affected.
Sewer rates, both commercial and
residential, are a flat percentage of the
customer's water bill.
Two other federal grants were
approved for nearby communities at the
See FEDERAL, Page 7
guests at the Raeiortl Turkey Farms plant
Farm Youth Exchange student from
the Bar Nothing Ranch, Austin, Texas, a
carcasses as they swing past
:'ff.:Vvi
1
- 1 - n
I . - ' - f "atr.
Mrs. Connie Ellis, supervisor of The News-Journal typesetting and composition,
department, is shown at keyboard of new computerized typesetting machine.
The News-Journal
Has A New Look
If you have noticed something new
about The News-Journal today or
merely suspected that something was
different here's what and why.
Beginning with this issue, Jbt
News-Journal begins integrating into its
news content a new format (design)
which is the "coming thing" in newspaper
layout.
A glance will tell you that today's
front page is six columns wide, instead of
the customary eight. There's a reason:
The longer line is more readable. That,
basically, is the reason many outstanding
newspapers are now in the six-column
column, including The Wall Street
Journal, The National Observer, The
Christian Science Monitor (five columns),
and here in North Carolina, The Chapel
Hill Weekly, winner of numerous state
and national awards for typography.
Of course, you've already noticed that
the type is larger, more legible, much
easier to read, than you've been
accustomed to seeing in The
News-Journal.
That's another phase of our continuing
campaign to provide to our readers, and
for our advertisers, the best product we
are capable of producing.
The improved type is an innovation the
offset newspaper industry has anxiously
awaited for years.
Ours is produced by the IBM
"Selectric" typesetting system, a
computerized operation offering a wide
variety of type faces at least a dozen
sizes and styles, in our instance. This
variety, we believe, will make the entire
Hoke Youth
State Winner
Announcement from Raleigh came
Wednesday morning that Danny
McGougan, 15-year-old son of Mr. and
Mrs. Dan McCougan of Lumber Bridge
Rt. 1, had been named state winner with
his demonstration on wildlife
conservation.
Winners of yesterday's demonstration
competition were announced Tuesday
night at N. C. State University, where
State 4-H Club Week is being held.
The local boy was presented a $50
savings bond.
Other Hoke County youths were
scheduled to compete in other fields on
Wednesday and Thursday.
Gran
Work
appearance ot The News-Journal more
interesting, more readable, more
productive from the standpoint of
informing our readers of news events and
advertising.
Seven years ago. The News-Journal
shared with The Enterprise of Newton
the distinction of becoming the first
newspaper in North Carolina to be
produced entirely by the photo offset
method of printing.
Our confidence that photo offset was
the "coming thing" paid dividends,
because the improved appearance and
readability of the newspaper was
immediately accepted, and appreciated,
by our readers and advertisers.
Since that time, probably close to half
of the non-daily newspapers in North
Carolina have changed from letterpress to
photo offset reproduction, and the
newspapers of the state are regarded as
leaders in the printing revolution.
Until recently, the only disadvantage
of consequence in the photo offset
method of newspaper reproduction was
the severe restriction on size and variety
of "body" type the small type used in
news columns and the like. Our previous
system, for instance, was limited, by and
large, to a single size and design, although
our selection of larger type faces for
headlines and advertising copy, was quite
extensive.
Now, that gap has been bridged. The
further improvement through use of the
six-column format, we believe, offers
readers of The News-Journal a hometown
newspaper second to none.
-Paul Dickson, Publisher
r
DANNY McCOUCAN
r V
V