The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-04-20

o1ICI
ms Tor interest on land valted at
SIG per acre and $1.OO on the 800
valuation for taxes. Guilford county
grows according to the United States
census report of 1900 1000 bushels
OF oats, while the city Of Greensboro
imported $4,000 bushels in 1908.
Flour and wheat. Greensboro mer-
chants imported products to he
amount of s1,722.50. AsWnil toe
average farmers only grows Il to Is
bushels per acre, the best six farm
ers in Guilford county max from 25
to IS, or a safe average Of from %
to 80 bushels per acre, but for argu-
ment's sake, suppose the average pro-
duction is placed at 10 bushels-pcr
acre. 1t WOULD have required 1862
farms Of 40 acres each. or an aggre-
gate OF 14.a0S acres to nave supplied
the Greensboro market for the year
190S-$391, 1880 was sent to other
States for one Of Guilford county's
most staple products. Had this coun-
ty produced the wheat necessary to
supply the local demand, this amoun
would be in the banks, in the hands
of the farmers and the merchants, be-
sides Welding a net profit to the farm
erS Of GuilfOrd county Of $164,665.SO.
If Greensboro citizens would call for
Greensboro made flour, the Merchants
! would be obliged to keep what the
Eootio l Cii' - VI < AhSNAO
mill making twenty-five or thirty bar
relS a day, we would have a magnifi-
cent mill with a daily output Of one
hundred barrels, busy all the time, to
say nothing of the added wealth to
our farmers. | have given in detail
the profit on hay, oats and wheat. if
the profit on other articles in the above
list bear as good a profit to the farm
er as those three, (and it is safe to say
they do), these products would yield
an additional profit, combined, OF
$156,90S or a total net profit on all
the items to which attention has been
called, of $4S6,229 There are many
county in the way Of canned goods,
pickles and fruits, which can be profit
ably grown right here in Guilford
county.
What is true in Guilford is also true
in a great many counties in North
Carolina. especially is this true in the
Piedmont section of the State. a
short time ago While in Hickory, n.
| c.. took occasion to make an inves-
tigation and found that that thrifty
city, surrounded as it is, with elegant
| farms and considered in the heart Of
one of the best wheat growing cOun-
ties in North Carolina, importing an
nually about $4,000 of wheat and
wheat products from States north OF
US.
Today North Carolina is spending
more money and sending it out of the
State, for -four and wheat products,
than the State receives for our entire
cotton crop. While in Burlington,
N. c.. about q month ago, | visited
one OF the fiour mills there, and White
waiting to see the proprietor, over
heard him talking over the phone, to
some rural point in the county, try
ing to buy wheat at s1.3O to sl.5o per
bushel. This gentleman TOLD me his
mill was closed down that day be
cause he could not get wheat at the
above prices in Alamance county to
keep going.
In my opinion there is no better field
for investment at present IN Noltn
Carolina, than farming lands. with
the present industrial growth appar-
| emf on every hand, it doesn't seem
likely tha there Will be any IalllnS
off in the price of the necessities Oh
life. Almost every mill that starts
helps to reduce the supply OF farm
products, and with the present supply
so far short of What is required,
price gradually scars higher as the
supply d~ininishes.
There is probably no investment
which would be surer OF good pronts ~
North Carolina than money invested
in farming lands, providing the land
is worked with the same care as the
| Western farmer farms his land. More
emit should be given to advertls-
ing North Carolina, as an agricultural
state. throughout the central western
States. where lands sell at prices rang
ing from SIS to $3.50 per acre, and DO
not Weld any more per acre on an aV-
erage. than the lands of North Caro-
lima.
All the Southwestern States are
snending large sums of money to adj
vertise the agricultural resources, and
are draining our own State OF large
numbers of good citizens. some OF
whom I am glad to say have returned
with the report that the old North