The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1907-04-25
a NEW ERA:
The Present Tendencies in the
SOuths
FARMING AND FARM LANDS.
(Ey S. c. Mitshall in Kind Words.l


tice has to do with farming. The
greatest single material problem be-
fore our people at the present time
Is the enrichment Of the land. Ow-
ing to the more than three celitufies
of slave labor, ignorant and shiftless,
the fields of the South became i'm
poverished. So long as virgin lands re-
NAMED to be cultivated. this waste of
our basal resources from which man
kind must draw all natural wealth
continued. Of these the sea does the
competition offered by the fat prairie
lands ef the great Northwest, and
the change from the slave to free
labor, has compelled the South to
seek the largest possible returns
from the efforts expended upon tfe
farms. All of this harks back to
the fertility Of the field.
There are," says j. J. Hill, in his
message to American farmers, "just
four sources from which mankind
must draw all natural wealth. Of
these the sea does not supply more
than two or three per cent of mans s
food, and it may, therefore, be drop
ped from calculation as it cannot be
made much more largely contribu-
tory. The forest, 6nce d rich heri-
tage, is rapidly disappearing. Its
product is valuable, not for food,
but for shelter and as an accessory
in the production of wealth. What
is taken from the mine can never be
replaeeds
Within forty-four years we shall
have to meet the wants OF more
than two hundred million people
In less than twenty years from this
moment the United States will have
one hundred and thirty million
people. Where are these young
people, not of some dim, distant age,
but Of this very generation now
growing to manhood, to be employ
ed and how supported? .
Every people is thus reduced in the
final appraisal of its estate to re-
lance upon the soil. This is the sole
asset that does not perish, because
it contains within itself, if not abus-
ed, the possibility of infinite renew
al. A self-perpetuating race must
rely upon some self-perpetuating
means of support. Our one resource,
therefore, looking at humanity as
something more than the creature
of day, is the productivity of the
soil. Only one-half of the
! land in private ownership is now
titled. That titled does not produce
one-half of what the land might be
made to yield without an atom of
loss of it's fertility. Yet The waste
of our treasure has proceeded so far
that the actual value of the soil for
productive purposes has already de-
Perforated more than it should have
done in five centuries of use."
Alive at last to this serious situa
ton, the Southern people are ad
dressing themselves successfully to
the enrichment Of the land. Fol
example, DR.. S. A. Knapp, of Lake
Charles, Louisiana, has done vas
work throughout certain gulf states
notably Texas, in combating thu
boil weevil by properly fertilizins
the soils and by better methods O.
farming.
In Virginia band of citizens hav'
employed Mr.. T. O. Bandy to estab
lish demonstration fields in various
sections of this state. Mr.. Bandy'
own farm is a striking proof of wha
progressive methods can do in re
covering exhausted soils. Twelve
years ago, his present tract of lant
in Nottoway county was advertised
widely for sale at four dollars pc
acre, and found no purchasher. Fol
it, he has recently been offered fft.
dollars per acre. At first he go
about six bushels of corn to the acre
now he gets from fifty to sevent.
bushels. At first, little grass coult
be grown; now he cuts from four t
five tons of the best hay off of eacl
acre sown. He has a well-kept here
of cows, whose products he ship
daily to Richmond. In a word, be
ginning twelve years ago without
dollar, on worn-out land, Mr.. Band.
received last year from his farm al
income of six thousand dollars, Will
the fertility of his soil is increasin,
with every crop. He is only typ
of what progressive farmers through
out the South are accomplishing
Their name is legion.
The plan for demonstration field
is to get farmers in various countie
Every woman appreciates a beautifu
complexion, so much desired by men
Such compilations come to all who us