The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1879-01-30

procuring ldIHl cthtiSllCc- al
unavoidable delay III printing.
made it impracucaole to send
them TO several of the count;e.
in time to have them filed when
the tax lists were taken. In
several Of the counties the asses
sors refused 10 perform the duty
in the aboen { Of any express
provision In the Act to compen-
| safe them for such service, and
many Of the people declined to
| give in the list, there being moth
ing compulsory in the act re-
curing it; consequently, in 1917,
only thirty counties made re-
turns. and these were ~c0ntessedlv
very imperfect and incomplete.
Early in the month of April OF
last year these blanks wereagain
sent to the commissioners of the
several counties, with all neces-
sarv instructions, accompanied
with the opinion OF the Attorney
General as to the manner IN
which the assessors should be
paid for their services. Returns
have been received from all the
counties. except sixteen, viz
Beaufort, Baden, Carteret, Dup
lin, Edgecombe, CASTOR, Halifax,
Jackson, Johnston, Macon, Madi-
son, Mecklenburg, Pitt, Surry,
Warren and Yadkin.
OF the returns made many are
very incomplete in some IN
stances whole townships are
omitted, while in others the Reg
lister of Deeds, whose duty it is
to collate them, states that they
are very imperfect.
This failure to procure, even
approximately, accurate returns,
is not only to be regretted be
cause of the very imperfect ex-
hibit it will make OF our resour-
ces and industries in the forth
coming handbook but because
in all our history there never has
been a time, perhaps, when the
want Of such Information has
been SO urgently felt at home
and abroad.
OF all our staple crops, the
WELD of cotton is the easiest to
estimate, and yet it is very ques-
tionable whether by any avail
able method the quantity pro
duced in any ore county for the
year 1917. could be ascertained.
These and kindred facts, if not
familiar to every farmer in the
Stale, should at least be acccssi-
bic to them. 1t is a lamentable
truth that the average citizen OF
North Carolina is better inform
ed as TO the history Of other
States than Of his own. 1t is a
no less humiliating truth that
although one Of the original
thirteen,' our State is less known
to the world than even the
youngest, perhaps, of the Ameri-
can States.
The hundreds Of letters of
earnest enquiry now on tile IN
this office, from all of the north
ern and northwestern States, the
Canadas and some of the Euro
pean countries, will faithfully
sustain this assertion. And a
casual inspection of u public
and private libraries, and Of the
text books in our schools and
colleges, will reveal one Of the
) chief causes Of this state of
affairs. But the uniformed
foreigner is chiefly misled by the
Census tables, the only source OF
official information accessible to
him. And that these tables,
particularly of the census of
1900 contain glazing errors
which do our State great injus-
tice, must be apparent to any one
of her intelligent citizens.
AS a people, we need a firmer
and bolders elf-reliance, a stronger
home sentiment, and this can
not be SO surely fostered and de-
veloped as when founded on a
knowledge of III resources and
strength. To acquire this, long
and patient labor. encOuraoed by