The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-03-06
SOMR ANOMALIES.

| majority sgoutlY asserted that you
| cans gro fruit in Ar0osbook county "
| This assertion was met in nearly every
neighborhood notwithstanding that in
nearly every to IN or plant alton visit
ed from one to five and perhaps more
people we're successfully growing or
chards, while a few pioneers in almost
the coolest and most forbidding places
were annually reapipg harvests from
the trees their careful tending had
brought up to vigorous young ma
turity.
One man, postmaster at Ashland at
that time had succeeded with apples,
was growing some pears and had
originated one hardy plum already
well known as Moore's Arctic. This
gentleman was just then fruiting a
large yellow plum which he soon after
sold to New Yo2k nursery men for
enough to compensate him for many
days of hard work with a perplexing
lot of seedlings. It is entirely probable
that there are today people in that
town who believe that il apples a be
grown there they are not good, 'onty
natural fruit, and who would laugh at
the idea Of pears or plums.
Likewise here in North Carolina we
are buying Virginia and Northern hay
Al $15 t 0 $50 per ton under the i'm
preston that grass wont grow here
Buy hay at high prices to grow cotton
20 SELL Going into debt on crop mort
gage at high rates Of interest to buy
pork, and beef, and -four, and butter
and cheese to live on while growing a
crop of cotton to ~pay:-hrst, for the
fertilizer to grow it and, second, for
the provisions used while growing the
cotton; then what is lef5 over and
above these for whatever is needed.
This is a hard pull on the money end OF
the lever, and who can wonder that
men become discouraged and seek for
change and for help outside OF them
selves.
The soil becomes poor and thin, and
yields up less and less to the skimmlng
sy stem with one mule and a pillow while
the system of buying everything to
grow one staple comes in to drain the
country Of money, until it seems al
most as though some evil genius were
at work to reduce the farming com
munity. OaEes there are in this desert
and farms are paying and increasing
in f%ruitfulness while their owners spend
more for grass seeds and deeper pillow
ing than for chemicals. These have
their eyes opened to the fact that the
vast stores OF native fertility gone and
going from every county where cotton
can be grown and cotton seed meal
shipped away, is the natural product
to be held back to prevent the DRAFT on
the soil and add to currency for the
Beef it will fatten while at the same
time yielding the best Of all agents for
these worn out. lands.
These anomalous conditions in farm
ing will yield to better general practice.
but it is a slow and tedious operation
for q community to see Itself in the
wrong track, and correct itself. Is it
not true that the farther off from the
right course it gets the more likely it
is TO make the change sooner7 Then
we are already on the road to return
for the waste lands quilted hillsides and
broomsedge fields which have been
abandoned for cultivation are cheap,
and the tiller who wishes land Of his
own "a do no better than acquire
some Of it and set about improving
appearance and value while ressoring
it's fertility.
The above was written by the writer
OF this article several years ago. It is
true still but most of our farmers while
having changed their crops almost
enough to have it said they live at
home" have yet to go a step or two
further before they feel free to accept
the advantages which are theirs by
right and should be enjoyed by them.
In the or ganization of the Farmers
Alliance there was a provision, aside
from, but in harmony with, it's more
social end friendly features providing
that for cash payments the Alliance
men could buy whatever they needed
at lower than usual rates, in fact at
cost or plus so small a percentage as to
make this a valuable feature of the
Alliance. This feature is alive and
active still but many many Alliance
men have drifted into using it only to
secure lower rates from the friendly
merchant who sells him goods on q
credi6 and thus is defeating the very
aim OF the more friendly association.
Farmers and Alliancemen, it is to your
interest TO renew your practices, and
show your faith ''by your works"