The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-12-14

SECRETARY w lkcO1 III lIlC hCphI lAIAC11l
of Agriculture, is credited with saying
the South has not kept pace agricu1-
turally with other lines of progress.
From certain standpoints this is a just
conclusion, but the statement will
bear investigation, and some discus
sion may be furnishing food for
thought on more ways than one.
If we ask ourselves why our agri-
cultural progress has been retarded
or why this most important Of all our
Industries has Jagged into the rear Of
less important ones; what shall the
answer be?
Who that travels through our coun-
try and notes the many neglected
farms and farm houses fails to be i'm
pressed with the air Of general desola-
tion that prevails throughout the
farming districts.
Two score years back, within a ra-
dius of ten miles from this quiet spot,
were two score prosperous lane own
ers living in comfort, l might almost
say ~affluence; their commodious
homes, furnished in the simple good
taste Of that day, surrounded by all
necessary out buildings set in groves
of majestic trees made a picture to
please the eye Of an artist.
The period of which I write vas
one Of the gloomiest that a people
have ever lived through-just emery
A1S LID L uCIdI lCSI ~ lie 1OuI
years struggle, hardly knowing which
way to turn or what to do next-with
an old regime forever gone and a new
and wholly unfamiliar one confronting
them, what were they to do? The
theory that ones education should be-
GIN several hundreds years back
among his ancestors is no new thing
anyway facts seems to bear out the
theory, persons descended from a long
line OF bralny men are intelligent,
predetermined and adaptable. The
law of heredity is as old as Nature her
self. Then why marvel at the result
when we know the cause The men
who owned these homes in many cases,
had never in all their lives lone one
days work on the farm. They were
planters, not farmers In the true sense
Of the word, little wonder then that
they should, under the new order Of
things, find life on the farm too bur
denSome for their shoulders ever then
beginning to bend with years.
The puzzle is: not that the planter
Of the late COS and early 7O's should
look upon farming as an undesirable
vocation, but that their sons and
daughters should almost unanimously
decry it. Why should this younger
generation turn away from the old
homesteads which nurtured their in
fantile and adolescent years in such
scorn and disguise? Surely the law of
hered1ty was lot SO deeply migrated
IN their nature as to impel them sing
~ and collectively to some other voca-
ton.
Now, let US study this thing in it's
lone light and find the right solution:
me farms are deserted by Their
FORMER OWners. The former owners
Of these farms have, almost without
exception, moved to town. Some strong
prompted this move. Where
shall we look foS~the answer?
n section of which [ write suf-
tered less from the al of war
than some other parts of North Caro-
INA, many Of these well-to-do plant-
ers had means still left to send their
sons and daughters to college or to
collegiate schools. Here we have the
answer in a nutshell.
This statement is not made to chal-
!enge argument, but rather to invite
discussion of a truth evident to all
who investigate.