The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-10-08
Agriculture.
NEWS OF THE FARMING WORLD.


Progress is Being Made in the Various
Sections Of the Country.
o correspondence of The Progressive Farmer.
With the assembling of Congress
in December, the agitation in favor
of the Grout bill, left Gin commit
tee'' by the last Congress will begin
anew. 1t is, probably, the bill most
important to the interests of Ameri-
can farmers and dairymen that the
coming Congress will have to deal
with, The Interstate Commerce
Law and relevant legal decisions
operate to make partially or entirely
ineffeotual State legislation against
the sale of oleomargarine, renovated
butter, ETC., in the guise of genuine
butter. National legislation seems
the only effective remedy. Arrayed
on the side of the Grout bill is prao-
tioally every farmer and dairymay.
Opposed TO it are the manufacturers
of oleomargarine, etc., including sew
eral of the large packers and behind
them is unlimited capital. The ac-
ton of Congress is awaited with in
terest.
The merits of the Grout bill have
been extensively discussed. That
the manufacturers of .oleomargarine,
etc., have a right to make and sell
their products for what they are,
provided due care for healthfulness
and cleanliness is observed in the
manufacture, cannot be deniod. Had
the manufacturers, from the start,
exploited their products for what
they were, without attempting to de-
ceive the consumer into the belief
that ne was eating genuine butter
they would doubtless, by this, have
established a satisfactory demand
and at prices that would give them q
fair profit Possibly, considering
what it has cost them to prevent
practically prohibitive legislation,
their profits would have been greater
and their industry on a materially
frmer footing than is now the case.
However, this was not the course
pursued. Every means was taken to
deceive the consumer and sell these
products as pure butter. Conse-
Quently they have come TO be re-
garded as ooEnterfeit goods and if
legislation inimical to their produe-
ton and sale is enacted the manu-
faoturers have only themselves TO
blame.
Ii is doubtful if any "fair ground
contest" ever eioited so much inter
est among dairymen as the dairy
contest at the Pan American Exposi-
ton Apart from the merits of the
respective individuals and breeds the
spectacle of a herd of so COWS, all
stall fed, making a weekly profit of
from $3.50 to 81 per head over the
cost of feed and doing that, not for
one or two weeks, but keeping it up
for over three months, should prove
an object lesson of material value to
the butter producers of the country.
Despite the fact that the prevalent
belief is that the Uaited States is be-
coming more and more a country of
cities, the new census shows that
there are only six out of the As States
in which the majority of the people
are not living in the country and en-
gagged in agriculture. The founda-
tons Of our prosperity are out on the
wheat and corn growing prairies of
the West and down in the cotton
growing plantations of the South.
Of our magnificent 81, SOC, 900, 900 of
exports just reported for last year,
more than one half-$76O, ,646, ,067-
stood for the products of our fields
and farms.
A recent pamphlet issued by the
Agricultural Department recon-
mends one per cent. solution OF
coal tar-not beech woOd-creosote
Tor killing worms living in the intes-
tines of sheep. The medicine is
easily prepared and quite inexpen-
sVe. 1t may be purchased of the
druggist in small quantities of one
ounce, OF in pound bottles. One
ounce Is sufficient for about 20 adult
sneep, and the cost of the treatment
. less than One-half a cent per head
" purchased by the pound the cost is
'0uuced to less than quarter OF
vent per head. If in dosing, this
~4uld enters the lungs the animal
9y suocumb in few minutes. In