The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-08-28
Living Issues.
INDUSTRIAL EDUCATTOV.

Of the A. & II. COIlege-Reported for The
Progressive Farmer.
No question is more entitled to the
consideration of our people than that
of Industrial progress. The great
mass of mankind is engaged in a
struggle to obtain for themselves
and their children food, clothing and
shelter. One-third of the human
race is without clothes, one-third
sleep without shelter. Upon indus
trial progress depend not only physi-
cal comfort but also education, poIiti-
cal power, refinement and civiliza-
ton. Industrial progress mean bet
ter food and clothing for our families,
better furniture in our houses, larger
and more comfortable dwellings,
longer terms for our schools, better
teachers for our children, better
school houses and churches, better
preachers with better pay, better
doctors, better roads, public libraries
and museums, private homes embel-
lished and beautified and purified
with pictures, books, music and
other art. The Industrial question
is the greatest one that c~onfronts
our people. Whether we wish or
not, it will command our attention.
In North Carolina the Industrial
problem is certainly foremost. Our
people have suffered poverty for a
full generation with a heroism and a
patience never equalled. According
to the census of 1890 we had the
smallest per capita wealth of any
State in the Union. In 1890 we were
near the head of the column, rank
ing fifth in the original thirteen
states. We were ahead of Massa-
chusetts until 1910, but now Massa-
chusetts has the largest per capita
wealth and North Carolina has the
least. The Faemers' Alliance can
accomplish no greater work than to
ascertain the causes of this change,
find remedies, and apply them.
AS long as agriculture was the
sole pursuit of the United States,
and population was confined to the
Atlantic Coast, North Carolina held
her own in competition with other
States. Our soil was less fertile
than that of the middle states and
not more fertile than that of New
England, but our people by industry,
thrift and intelligence pushed for
ward to the front rank. But, when
population crossed the mountains,
and immigration flowed in from
Europe, occupying the more fertile
lands of the Mississippi Valley and
the great Northwest and Southwest,
agriculture began to be improbable
on the Atlantic Coast. North, Caro-
lima, yielding on a average 10 bushels
of corn per acre, was unable to com
pete with other states yielding 80 or
40. An average yield of Is. bushels
of wheat could not compete with an
average of 20 to 80. An average
yield of 10 bushels of oats could not
compete with an average of 40 to So.
Our yield per acre Of cotton and to-
bacco is equal to that of other states,
but the necessity of using CONNER
cial fertilizers makes the costOf pro-
duction larger than that elsewhere.
Under these adverse conditions, &C
cording to the census of 1890, we
dropped in a. century from the fifth
place in the Union of States to the
lowest, in per capita wealth. The
chief reason Of this remarkable
change is that North Carolina re-
manned a purely agricultural State,
while manufacturers developed else
where and employed neither agri-
cultural machinery nor improved
processes of bringing up the fertility
of the soil, which became poorer
year by year.
If the New England or Middle States
had remained purely agricultural
and had chung to the same methods
of culture, they would now be even
poorer than North Carolina. But
these states early diverted from agri-
culture a large portion of their popu-
lation, which sought employment in
mining. commerce and manufac-
lures. Thus cities and towns were
built up, and local markets were
created for fruits, poultry, eggs, but
ter, milk, meats, vegetables and
other farm products that could not
easily be shippedd from the West.
The result is that the New England
e. 1oIo-o. 411a-io.oC nall noi6 &c