The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-06-04
No. IT
INTERESTINGTLETTER FROM
CANA,

| MR. LD41Oh.--AG Gue laSG meeting
of Cana Alliance, No. sol, 1 was ap-
pointed Corresponding Secretary and
ordered 20 write your paper, giving
you the state of health of our Alh-
ance and other news in keeping with
the good Of the order.
Our Alliance is now about a'year
old; we number about fifty members
and have taken in about all the avail
able material in our territory and are
now getting down to solid work. Our
Alliance is made up of good men;
while we cannot boast of any great
wealth among US, yet none Of US are
run by any man or set of men. Our
smoke-houses and corn-cribs arc at
home; our mules and horses are raised
on our farms; our fertilizer factories
are mainly in our barn yards; true, we
are buying some chemicals and making
our fertilizer for tobacco, but we are,
getting them through the Alliance, at
greatly reduced prices to what we have
had to pay for them heretofore. ! do
not know of a single bag of commercial
| fertilizer used this season by
any member of our Alliance; besides
this, we not only raise our own "hog
and hominy," but we raise our own
molasses; there are thousands Of gal
Ions of sorghum raised by members of
our Alliance enough for home use,
and some to sell. One member of
our Alliance will plant ten acres of
sorghum this season; then, toe, as
coffee goes up in price, we use less
and less of it, substituting in it's place
milk and rye coffee, sassafras and
sage tea, &C., in measure restoring
our old war habits; "living at home
within ourselves "a sure way TO
destroy all trusts. Then our crop
prospects were never better; wheat is
fine indeed, with a large acreage
sowed. We are getting out more
manure on corn this year than ever
before; sowing twice the amount of
clover and grass and planting less
to bacco, and our Alliance, at our last
meeting, contributed $40 to the Busi-
ness Agency Fund and appointed a
committee to secure private subscrip-
tions to the Fund. So you see, Mr..
Editor, that our health as an Alliance
is good, and we intend, as time rolls
on, to be able to give better and bet
ter reports While our Alliance is
not affected by the jute bagging trust,
being in a tobacco section, yet we are
oppressed by the tobacco ring which
is equal to trust, and we know how
to sympathize with our brethren in
the cotton section, and they hereby
have our sympathy and shall have our
help until all these burdens are lifted
from us; then each of us can sit under
our own vine and fig tree and no one
to molest us.
In our Alliance we have standing
committee whose duty it is to select
questions for discussion. At our last
meeting the question for discussion
was the Best Mode of Farming"
The Alliance agreed that rotation of
crops, thorough cultivation and ma
nure was the best mode of farming.
and that mode of farming would lead
to the intensive system of farming.
urged that our members follow that
plan, doing away with the one-crop
system; cut down our farms to small
ones; raise our own "hog and hominy''
and make ourselves independent of
these men who run so many of our
brethren through the long hot summer
months, overtaking them just as they
are about to bale their last bag of cot
ton or market their last load of to-
bacco as the case may be- After the
discussion we remembered THE Pro
GREss1vE FABMER, and the following
resolution was adopted:
RESOLVED, That we, the members of
Cana Alliance, No sol, heartily in
dorse The PROGRESSIVE FARMER as.
the organ of the North Carolina Farm
ersa Alliance and commend the zeal of
Col. L. L. Polk, its editor, in adver-
tising the principles of the Alliance
and the interest of the great farming
brotherhood
Resotved, That an Alliance man is a
better Alliance man by reading it's
organ, and that we urge our members
to subscribe for THE PROGRESSIVE
FARMER.
Resotved, That copy of these reso-
lutions be sent to The PROGRESSIVE
FARMER for publication.
Now, Mr. Editor, you remember
that you visited Cana in 1886 and 81
and made us a speech and was gladly
welcomed among us, but if you viii
come again, sometime this summer,
we will give you welcome that you
did not dream of before. What say
you? Will you come? More anon.
HELP FREE.