The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-07-26
WANTED: MORE PEOPLE
ON II ARR
Back to the Farm is the Cry All Over
the COuntry-That Means That h
South Will Fill Up.

the Country-That Means That the
South Will Fill Up.
Gouthern Pines Tourist-)
A man from the North was out
looking US over a few days ago, and
the thing that struck him most was
t vast quantity of ground that is
laying around out dOOrS.'
Time after time he repeated the re-
mark, always with a look of wonder
that 50 much ground could be found
in any place with SO few occupants.
North Carolina has more surface than
England and a population not one
tenth as great.
The Northern man, as we wandered
about the township, frequently stop
ped to nloralize owe the situation.
Room here for ten million people,
and a place to make everything the
country needs to eat Millions OF
acres of land that is not occupied.
Railroads to haul stuff to market
Market towns on every hand. Cotton
mills and fifty other kinds Of factories
~springing UP everywhere. People
buying beef from Chicago, butter from
Vermont, garden truck from Virginia,
hay from New York, potatoes from
Maine, and all this land around here
that could make all these things that
are bought"
Great heavens! how badly you need
people" was his frequent conclusion.
Probably in no other section Of the
Union is this condition SO marked as
right here in North Carolina.
Land enough to occupy ten million
persons more thar are here. Land at
prices that are hardly worth consid-
ering. Land that can be bought for
81 an acre up to as much money as a
man can raise. Land that can be
cleared and put in shape for $40 an
acre. Land that is we'll watered, with
good climate, convenient to markets,
capable OF raising an interminable list
of products.
But the everlasting want is-people.
Your county needs fifty thousand
people right now" he declared.
Possibly the county does not need
the people, but it would seem to me
that some of the people of the crowded
Northern centers need such outlets as
these.
The trouble is the difficulty of NOV
ing people to new callings and to new
country.
The man who has lived for years in
the city does not take to country life.
His family objects to isolation. He
has grown accustomed to the constant
contact Of many people, and he cannot
be content unless he can sit on his
own front steps and talk to his neigh
bOrS on either side and across the
street.
lei he has no knowledge of farm
ing, and a man cannot leave one Occu-
patton and successfully take up with
another. He cannot learn any trade
in a day, neither can he become in
terested in a new occupation which
he is not familiar with.
So the man in the crowded enter
does not incline to get out to where
he might have more room, and where
he could win from nature his own sub
sistence and a surplus for some one
else.
This question OF land is a prablem.
1t shows that for a long time there
will be no danger in the United States
of the supply Of food running short.
The trouble is going to be in getting
people to make the supply. Three
fourthS of the cop on farms cannot
make good butter. The other fourth
can always get high prices for butter
because they know how to produce the
real article. If SO many people on
the farms cannot make good butter,
how can the people not on the farms
learn how in a week?
DID you ever notice how much fruit
that is raised is Of an inferior quality?
Most farmers cannot make good fruit.
The few who do show that all might
learn how, but the evidence is that
most farmers have not yet learned
how to farm. Then how about the
man Who knows nothing about the
farm?
This thing is going to change. how
ever, although the change means a
lot Of hardship for many concerned.
The continued advance in the price
of farm stuff means that more people
will be attracted to farms, and that