The farmer and mechanic., 1915-05-04

Of the Union that exceeds this recs,s
of land to do it, while North Carolina |
is not farming much over a quarter |
of that acreage. !
Large Possibilities.
The land area OF this bunch of |
counties is slightly over 3.157,00 |
acres. OF the total area not to ex- |
ceed forty per cent is improved. APP |
parently this group of counties by the |
methods of farming now followed
could readily double the crop. By
intensive methods nobody knows what
could be done. But the present
method is sufficiently we'll under
stood that it could be carried out on
more of the land. Which is to say
that these eight counties could if titled
in the same way produce a crop worth
as much as the whole crop of North
Carolina was in 1900.
BY simply tilling twice as much land
ir the territory Of the eight counties
they could produce as much in year
as one-sixth Of all the crop made in
| Illinois, the foremost farm State of
| the Union.
| The possibilities Of a country are of
| mighty little value unless the people
| are putting those possibilities to use.
AS we looked out Of the car window
| we could easily see that the people OF
| the country we were passing through
| are not dead. If any body tells you
that the North Carolina man has to
go West to see a fine farm tell him
to trek around over the veldt in his
own State little and change his mind,
for he will sure pick up the evidence.
From Pennsylvania to the Missouri
! river on a westward trip a traveller
| will see a lot Of fine farming country.
| From Washington on the Tidewater
of the PamlicO river to Raleigh he
will see a lot Of fine farms And the
farms from Washington to Raleigh
have this advantage over the farms
from Pennsylvania to Middle Kansas
do not have to be shoveled out
of the snow in the spring before the
farmer can find a place to plant his
corn. Eastern North Carolina, like
the rest Of the State, has climate, and
) real worth Of farm anywhere.
Giving An Object Lesson.
This group Of counties is showing
itself what it can do with it's farms
and incidentally anybody who is Gu
riOus can see at the same time what
a North Carolina farm is capable OF
doing. In the ten years from the
census of 1900 to that Of 1910 farm
property increased in value in Wilson
III per cent, or II per cent a year
In Wayne the rate was>1S9, almos
l 10 per cent a year. In Wake it was
5 l118, in Pitt 154, in Nash almost 20(
! per cent, or 20 per cent a year, il
f Johnston over PIP, or above q pei
l cent a year, in Halifax 128, and il
e Edgecombe 1T. Is not that a righ
s startling progress? Yet the whole Stat.
Of North Carolina shows an increaSs
in the value Of farm property in th'
! ten years of 13O per cent, or 8 pei
e cent a year. The farm property situa
: ton in the old State is not SO bad a.
0 we might imagine is it?
t The Doctor is a big man in thi
S State. He stands six feet three with
i out his shoes and weighs about 240
d So every once in a while somebod,
f came in the train and gave him th'
hailing sign, and sat down to talk t
f u.s. Naturally during the course O
t the day we fell in with many differ
6 ent people and talked Of many things
: I have positive assurance that the lane
/, at every station from Currituck t
t Raleigh is the best the sun ever Shon
Y on. We had testimony from peopl
;. who got on the train from time t
: time. Besides settling the war, an
e taxation, and electing seven or eigh
e new governors, and arranging the cot
g ton acrea ge, and Poole as a home ru
Y artist with the Raleigh team, and no,
t, many eggs to put under a hen "
5. considered the price Of land. On
e brother from somewhere in the hig
h school debating society belt informe
II US that this thing Of advancing price
.et Continued on Page TwoD