The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-05-18
SOME CRITICISMS
Of PRISON FARMS
New Superintendent Upon
Conditions Under For
mer Management
LAUGH|NCHOUSE'S REPORT

AsIO OIslIu
A New Steward Elected at the State
Prison-NeW Director Named
Conyicts Sent to Chop Cotton on
Halifax Farm, WIere Crop is Said
to be Promising.
1t looks like most of the officials OF
the State Prison are to be changed by
the new administration. Mr.. w. A.
Smith, the steward has been replaced
by Mr.. 4. T. Bernber. of Pollocksville.
Director w. A. Davis, who has re-
signed, is succeeded by Mr.. t. j. Rem
frow, of Charlotte. Mr.. Davis was
from Mecklenburg as is MIR. Renfrow.
1t was decided to send fortE-One con-
Victs to the State farm. near Halifax,
to chop cotton. where the crop now
is said to be very promising. While
the cOnVicts are at work on the farm
work on the brick yard Will be sus-
pended.
superintendent Lau1hinehOuSe's First
Report.
The following is the first report
submitted to the directors by Mr.. J.
J. Laughinghouse, the new superin-
endent:
TO the Honorable Board of Directors
of the States Prison:
Gentlemen-BelieVing that it is due
your board of directors and those
whom we represent and myself as
your superintendent, | beg leave to
make the following report as to the
conditions at the States Prison at
Raleigh, at the various railroad
camps and at the State farms:
find at the States Prison at Raj
eigh everything in fine working con-
dition. 1 have not visited al the
railroad camps but those that [ have
visited are we'll managed and every
provision made that could be ex-
pected.
on the 18th of April I made my first
visit to the farms and asked Mr..
George Holderness, chairman of the
farm committee. TO meet me at the
farm and go over them with me, which
he did. [ regret very much to report
that we did not find the condition of
the farm. the team or the farm I'M
plemants as good as We thought they
would be by the showing made dur
ing the past few years. We found
that a sufficient part of the income was
not appropriated to keep up the farm.
and that the large profits had been
made at the expense of great deteriO-
ration of land. team and implements.
This policy, while it may enable the
farm to show q large earning capacity
for a short term of years, it could
not be called either wise or .economi-
cal. In my Judgment a certain part
of ones profits must be spent to keep
up the land, team and implements to
the highest standard to enable the
manager to make all crops at a mimi
mum cost each year. This has not
been done.
Though there were in cultivation
fifteen hundred acres in cotton, there
is not a s"ta1k-chOpper or either
plantation. Ten of them would have
cost about three hundred dollars, and
the savings by the use of choppers
would have MOUNTED in my opinion,
to several thousand dollars.
Labor saving farm implements are
as beneficial to State farms as to indi-
VidualS as we have ready demand for
ali the labor We cannot work, and as
there is no such thing as an idle con-
Vict.
Instead of $50 fine mules and hors-
es, as stated in The News and Obsery-
en-. we found 125 mules and % horses.
(This paper made no statement. 1t
simply printed the reports of the Of
ficials of the State Prison.-EditOr.)
Thirty odd of the 125 mules are be-
tween fifteen and twenty-five years
old, and about one-half of the twenty
1'ine horses are over fifteen years
old. These mules have to be plowed
in squads of twenty to twenty-five,
have to be kept abreast of each other
to be guarded, and the capacity of the
strong and swift must be measured by
the slow and weak. / was pleased to
Ind that Messrs. Norwood, Holderness
and -DOughtCn, visiting the farm orior |
70 my going, had authorized Captain
Rhem to sell, if possible-if not possi-
pie, 10 give away several of these old