The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-11-09
THE FARMERS NATIONAL CON
e

by eleCtlng Col. BeuoHdI -
this city, one Of the best rme OF
the State. to the presidency Of the
body, and accepted an invitation TO
hold this session in the capital OF
the State. 1t has not been customary
for the sessions to be held in a city OF
| the population Of Raleigh and its Sc
lection was therefore all the greater
honor to our city. The utterances
and actions of this meeting were
watched with interest in every section
of the Republic, and Raleigh was glad
to welcome so influential and repre-
sentative a body of the Intelligent and
practical agr~iculturists Of America.
They represent the matchmaking
| calling. The only real new wealth is
dug out of the mines and out of the
earth.
Agriculture has not received the re-
turns that it's Importance justifies.
Commerce and manufacturing have
received all the favors of government
while farmers have been forced to
hoe their own row. Farmers have
never been applicants for bounties or
subsidies. They have never asked any
thing but "a fair field and no favors."
This they have not received. The
money legislation has been written by
bankers, the tariff legislation by
ufacturers, and government beyond
garden seed and bulletins has not I'M
til recently had regard to it's duty to
Free rural delivery and the
destruction of pests to farming and
scientific Investigations are now look
ing toward giving to farmers "a fair
field and no favorS," and the farmers
are organizing,-not to get their
hands into the government treasury
but to see hat n~obody's hands are
put in their pockets or the pockets of
anybody else, n for such discussions
as will educate and give greater sue
cess to those who till the soil.
North Carolina is more than most
States strictly an agricultural State
three-fourths of it's people living on
the farms or in towns Of less than
two thousand population. In holding
this Congress therefore in this State
its delegates are at home, among the
tlllers of the soil, whose bread and
butter must come from the ground.
They come at a time, too, of new life
and development on North Carolina
farms. For years after the war, with
no capital, the chief crops were of
necessity cotton and tobacco. for
the men who advanced money
to farmers demanded money
crops. The habit Of growing
cotton and tobacco and buying bread
and meat grew upon the people, but
the tide has changed. Visitors to this
Congress saw object-lessons in
corn growing that show North Caro-
lima is taking it's place as a big corn
growing State, and the farmers will
put more meat in their smoke-hOuses
his fall tina in any previous year in
he history of the State. The truck
crops have brought millions to North
Carolina and shortly all Eastern North
Carolina will be a market garden,
growing two crops every year. Diversi-
fication n intensive farming have
done wonders in a few years and these
two methods are being generally
adopted by the farmers of all parts
of the State. Drainage in Eastern
North Carolina is doing for that IA.
vored country what irrigation is doing
for the far West. 1t is to be hoped
that many of the delegates, upon the
adjournment of the Congress, can ac-
cept the invitation to visit the big
drainage work Of the Wilkinsons on
the Norfolk and Southern Railway
a work of as great Importance, to a
small area, as the Gunnison works re-
Gently completed in Colorado.
Raleigh la much of interest to the
every citizen. It's stately capitol, the