Western Carolina Democrat and French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1913-1915, 1915-08-12
STATE HAS ROOM FOR 200, 1000
MORE FAMILIES: SOME FIGURES
North Carolina Has s2.OOO,OOO Acres
Of Uncultiyated Land That Should
be Occupied by Settlers.


A fundamental problem in the South
is our immense wilderness area. some
Two hundred million acres, our sparse
population, and the scarcity of farm
labor.
We need more folks in North Carroll
ma. Our population is too sparse.
Our rural population in the state-at-
large is only 80 to the square mile.
we have nine counties with fewer
IMAM 70 people and counties with
IeWer than Is people to the square
mile.
And in these 9 counties there are
three million wilderness acres. In the
cape Fear country, the uncultivated
area IN eleven counties almost exact
~ equals the entire farm area of Bel
GUM!
We need more folks; not more ten
ants but more one-horse farm-owners
We need our share of the middle wes-
tern home-seekers, who since the first
OF last January have taken over into
Canada some twenty million dollars of
wealth.
Twenty-Five Million Wilderness Acres
There are t22.OOQ,0OO uncultivated
acres in North Carolina. Four-fifths
/ OF 1t is valuable for farm purposes. A
little more than seven acres in every
ten are left at present to scrub-pines.
DIack-Jaeks, sassafras. MULLEN stalks.
may-pops and broomsedge.
/ Here is a neglected area almost ex-
actly twice the size of Belgium. Here
is room for evry manjack of the 49,
/ 0OO Belgian farmers, on farms twice
the average size of the little pocket
handkerchief fields they have been
used to cultivating. And we should
nave some nine million acres of our
wilderness still left for wood lot use.
| Calmness and Solitude.
AT present only 20 per cent of our
total area is devoted to farms. mead
oWs and pastures, orchards and gar
dens, yards and barn lots! Seventy
one per cent is devoted to what Colo
mel Mulberry Sellers called calmness
and solitude.
! Carolina ranges from "a per cent of
the total in Alamance county to SO per
cent In Dare. We have 48 counties.
with three-fourths or more of their un-
cultivated; 80 counties with four-fifths
or more of it held out of productive
farm uses; and 8 counties with nine
tenths of more of the land lying idle.
Disappearing Chances.
And this, in face of the fact that our
Iandless, homeless people in North Car
DINA, in the towns and the country
regions, numbered 1,136,000 souls in
the census year. Around two-fifths OF
our farmers and two-thirds of our city
Jewellers were tenants and renters.
And the further fact, that our home
less multitude steadily increases year
by year. As communities become more
and more populous and prosperous, the
fewer are the people who live in thei:
own homes.
! Foolish Policies.
i j. Our tax system in the United
States favors land-ownership by the
few and land orphanage for the many
1t allows one and half billion acres
in the country-at-large to be held out
of productive farm uses, for specua-
tive rises in value; in the South some
2OO,O00,000 acres, in North Carolina
100000 acres!
In the United States, during the last
census period farm lands increased IL
value eighteen billion dollars! The
railroads of the country did not dare
to water their stock to this amount.
In North Carolina during these ter
years farm lands increased in value
$500 100000. Land values ranged al
the way from decrease of per CEN
in Dare, to an increase of 383 per CEN
in Pamlico.
| OF course the chance of land owner
ship by our. landiess multitudes is {
dwindling, disappearing chance! AnC
everywhere it ought always to b.
easily possible for the intelligent, in
dustrious, thrifty, upright tenant tt
rise into ownership.
Our Chinese Well.
2. 1t is foolish for a county or /;
state to beat tomtoms about the oppor
tunities that lie in it's soils and season.
when land owners refuse to sell tt
new corners at reasonable figures anC
in this way build a Chinese wall O
speculative prices against home-seek
ers.
If the holder of thousand idlt
acres can see no business wisdom il
selling off 500 acres at fair prices tt
ten new farm families and thereb.
Itrebling the value of his remaining Lane
by increasing the population of hi
community ten times over: if land
lords in general with % million vii
derness acres on their hands in Nortl
, Carolina cannot develop what Calhoun
called policy of intelligent self-in
terest in this matter, then in shee
| self defense the state will be driver
. to adopt New Zealand's graduated LAM
tax, sensibly modified to suit prevail
ling conditions.
: The per cent of uncultivated area il
each county and the room there is 70
: new warm families, allowing Is acre
to each family and reserving 5000
: acres in each county for wood-lot uses
We have in North Carolina on GU
present uncultivated areas room TO
100000 ,home-seeking farm families
II This number would almost exactI