The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-09-01

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| raised at home, but the over-produc-
| tiOn of cotton cost us nearly an
amount equal to this, the difference
! in price we would have gotten had
the cotton crop been reduced suffi-
GENTLY to have enabled us to raise
these things at home.
We need education to help us to see
! the great mistakes we are making,
from an agricultural standpoint. and
ITO help us to correct these errors that
are costing the farmers of our State
so much.
Then again the want of information,
how to dispose of and to market our
| crops has cost the South enormously,
and Just so long as we have TO de-
pend on a branch of a political gov
eminent the Department of Agricul-
ture at Washington for statistical IN
formation as to the crop conditions
and the supply and demand of different
farm products, we may expect to be
hoo-dooed and used for the beneht OF
Wall street gamblers, and to be sofa
out to them by the employees OF the
governments statistical bureaus.
Great credit is due the officers of
the Southern Cotton Association Tor
unearthing and bringing to light the
frauds in the cotton acreage report
We commend them for the great ser
and we should stand behind them III
their efforts to bring the guilty parties
to Justice, and demand that the De
partment at Washington be purged OF
its unholy and corrupt officials, even
though some high in authority may
be called to give an account OF thelr
stewardship. We will never know TO
what extent these frauds nave peeh
practiced on the Southern people, and
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tanned by them. The farmers of the
South should have a thorough or
ganization and through their officers
and representatives be able to detect
such frauds as have heretofore been
practiced on them, and make forever
impossible such another diabolical
scheme and plot to rob the Southern
farmers.
We should educate ourselves, so
that we may be able to cope with
other classes of men in our legisla-
turc and law making bodies. We
should be able to formulate. and Sc
cure the passage of such laws as will
promote and encourage agricultural
education, and appropriations from
the public treasury for the different
institutions should be made indis-
fortunately.
The horse that pulls the pillow
should have some of the fodder. We
are wealth producers and We should
be able to enjoy to some extent the re-
suits of our labors.
Through our farmers organizations
we should ask our Nationa! Congress
to make such laws as will promote our
interest and to make such CONNER
ciaI treaties with foreign countries as
will aid us in disposing of our surplus
agricultural products at price that
will be remuneratiVe and profitable to
us. .. 3.-.E
Through our organization we should
gather statistics pertaining to aSrl-
culture and furnish ourselves with all
necessary information in regard to
crop conditions, the demand for the
different agricultural products, etc,
without having to rely on reports that,
have been dOCtored by spectators ana
gamblers and their agents.
We should encourage in a substan-
tia1 way, the agricultural press of our
State. for | believe it is doing great
work among our farmers. Not only do
we get the views of our editors on
agricultural questions, and the benefit
of what information they may nave
(and they are chock full of it,, but
we get weekly contributions from our
very best farmers all over the State,
giving their experience and methods
in farming. all of which is very valua-
BILE and instructive. Our farm papers
give us the latest market reports, and
by the aid of the rural delivery syS-
tenn, the farmer can keep thoroughly
posted and informed, both as to mark
ct conditions and the current news.
There has existed in the rural dis
tricts great prejudice against what
is termed Book Farmer" but these
old notions are passing away, and the
book farmer or the reading farmer, Is
the one that is succeeding. We must
keep abreast of the times if we would
succeed. This is an age of rapid prog
reSS and "he' who runs must read.
farmer with the same methods OF
twenty years ago is not in it. He
must have advanced ideas and meth
DDS he must be practical and adapt
himself to his surroundings. 1t is
just as essential for a farmer to inn
prove his methods as it is for the mer-
chant, or mill man, or railroad man,
to improve theirs. AS / SAID before.
we must keep abreast of the times, if
we would succeed. If a new farm
machine is made that is an improve
ment over an old one, we must lay
aside the old one and take the new.
In the days gone by it was the ne
gro and the mule. now It is the ne
| =
mules. | cultivated this year field
of corn of seventy-five acres, that will
produce six barrels per acre with two
boys and four mules. We can buy the
mules. but we can't buy the boys. We
will have to adjust ourselves to the
circumstances that surround us. if we
can not get sufficient labor to make
cotton, we can grow grain and raise
stock. This does not require so much
labor. and is about as profitable. The
labor question is a very serious one
just a : this time.
| The Southern farmer has had the
Idea that we can not get along with
out the negro. The father of this
! idea is Southern lazineSS. pure and
simple. If the signs of the times are
| true, it will only be a short while be-
fore we will be forced to do without
! him as a servant or farm hand, and
| will have to deal with him as COM
| petitor. We will have to paddle our
own canoe or get some one other than
| the negro TO do it for us.
| AS a result of these labor conditions,
our lands are becoming less valuable.
| A large portion of our lands are not
cultivated and are growing IN IN
weeds and underbrush, making them