The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1878-05-02
THE FARMING INTERESTS OF
NORTH CAROLINA.

wrote Tor TIE 6lOItcUt AeCOTue| tAo
following sensible article which we
transfer to our columns:
The attention of farmers IS specl-
allv called to extracts, to be found
in this issue of the RecOrder, from
Col. l.. l.. Folks last Report on
the General Condition of the Agrl-
cultural Interests of y. c.
The Hon. Archibald Arlington,
of Nash, used to say 'that a boy
did not have good sense till be had
plowed a YEAR" According to this
rule, we ought to have good sense,
for we've plowed Il year and
more; still the most of our life has
been spent IN town, and besides,
we are a preacher, and as this class
of men are not generally supposed
to have much common sense, We
are afraid the opinions we are about
to submit will not weigh much
with the farmers. Nevertheless,
we are going to say two or three
things about this, the most impor-
tant of all the interests of our
country.
First, we will hazard the asser-
ton that nothing is SO poorly done
in North Carolina as farming.
We are essentially an agrIcultu-
raj people-we have the very best
climate in the world--a good soil,
rewarding the labor of the hus-
bandman handsomely, and pro
ducing a greater variety Of crops
than almost any other State IN the
Union. All we make for sale finds
a ready market, and u farmers
should be not only out Of debt, and
easy in their circumstances, but
making money, and improving
their lands every year. Col. Folks
report shows that ''%forty-one coun-
ties are generally free from debt
and improving financially, while in
forty-five they ale much depressed"
In the four remaining counties
money is reported as scarcer than
at any time since the a He
states, moreover, that in eighty
four out of the ninety counties Of
the State the lands are getting
poorer and poorer under our sys-
tenn Of farming, while IN but two
they are improving. and IN three
remain about the same.
We, therefore, must repeat with
emphasis, that 70 interest Of the
country is so poorly managed as
this, which lies at the basis of our
prosperity.
The second remark we have to
submit is, that there are three
things, nay four, the farmers ought
to do. They should have a fence
law in every county, and thus save
the serious and useless expense of
enclosing their farms. The second
thing the farmers should do, is to
have a dog lava stringent and
sweeping dog law passed-and go
to raising sheep. Col. Polk states
that sheep could be raised profita-
bly, in eighty-nine counties, and
that the average cost of keeping
them through the winter, does not
exceed so cents per head. He
says, moreover, ''that in fifty-six
countiee sheep husbandry would at
once engage the attention Of the
farmers, and could be made very
remuneratiye, but for the presence
of worthless sheep-killing dogs"
1t would be wise, it seems to us,
for our farmers, IN the third place,
to stop buying fertilizers from
abroad, and make their own ma
nures, as far as they are able, and
just as soon as they possibly can,
become Independent of the mer-
chants. All our life long, we have
heard that farming is the most in
dependent Of all callings- 1t ought
to be SO, and when the farmer DC
cupies his normal condition it is so;
but, alas, that is not the condition
of the farmer in this State now.
Instead of the merchants being de-
pendent on him, he is dependent
on the merchant. And this brings
us to what we regard as the most
serious and fatal blunder our far
mers have committed, which is the
almost exclusive attention to the
production of cotton. Col. Polk
shows that the average cost of pro-
ducing a pound of cotton, in the
sixty-four counties that grow it, is
5 11-12 cents. That is. when cot
ton is selling at 9 cents, it cost
North Carolina within one-twelfth
of a cent of hat amount to grow a
pound. The farmer must make
twelve pounds of cotton before he
can realize one cent of profit. At
this rate, he will make eight and a
third cantS on a rod mounds q