The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-08-03
CONDITION IN NORTH
~1f CAROLINA.
CROP

will the harvest be-" Seventy-five per
either live on the farms or in the
small villages. The prosperity of the
State depends upon the land. If
crops are good and prices remuner-
ative, the State goes forward in every
way. If crops are poor or prices I'M
remunerative, everything is at a stand
still. 1.-The farmer feeds them ALL
The tobacco industry watches the cot
ton crop as narrowly as does the cot
ton industry, for upon the success of
the cotton farmer depends the demand
for his manufactured product. The
tobacco crop, for upon the prosperity
Of tobacco farmers depends the de-
mand for cotton goods. North Caro-
lima did not begin to rally from the
panic of 1899 until the price Of to-
bacco began to climb up. The only
19O7-'S-'9 lies in big crops and good
prices. We al stand the burdens Of
imperialism and colonialism and the
weight Of the Taft-Aldrich tariff if
good seasons bring bountiful harvests
and no trust lays it's heavy hand upon
the prices of what the farmer makes
Except the chief products Of the
South, farm products have been high
for several years. Cotton and tobacco
have not gone up in price in proper
ton to the things Southern farmers
must buy.
planned great things this year. More
acres were put in corn and wheat and
oats than ever before. Generally the
wheat and oat crops were good, though
in places. Every farmer who
did not plant wheat sees his error,
of the State the seasons were good.
The oat crop paid we'll. There has
been more intelligent planting and
cultivation Of corn than ever before,
and the crop promises, in spite Of
bad seasons that AVE destroyed much
corn, to be the biggest crop
North Carolina has eve produced.
The crops in Hyde, where there has
been failure for three or four sue
c~essive seasons is better than in a
decade, and with continued good sea-
Hyde will resume its place as the
of North Carolina.
What will the harvest be-" Thar
is q question bigger with import than
the tariff or transportation, or gov
eminent, or roads, or anything else
interests the people; for if the
land fails to bring it's increase, every
thing else must halt in it's upward
movement. You cannot build roads
or new school houses or new factories
or new homes unless the bulk of the
people earn more than bread and
h dependence for 1910 is
the crop of 1909. Every spin
and wheel depends for continuous
and profitable turning upon the re-
suit Of the harvest.
what will the harvest be?' That
is a hard question to answer. This
paper, knowing the fa~r-reaching i'm
portance of the answer, has not dared
to give it's opinion, necessarily based
observation in a circumscribed
Desiring to give it's readers
best information possible it has
undertaken to obtain the best esti-
of the best posted men in every
in the State. The results of
the study Of crop conditions are print
ed in today's paper. They are ex-
haOStiya and fill much of this iSSl1e I'll
is space we'll filled. In order to get
the information that would be the
most accurate every correspondent OF
the paper was instructed ten days
age to study crop conditions in his
to confer with the best posted
"a rmerS in the county, and get their