The guardian. [volume] (Boston, Mass.) 1901-1960, 1946-01-26
TARHEEL STATE PROGRESS

North Carolnians who like to tell you that their state
progressive far ahead of most Southern states will
find that in important aspect the recent statements of
Secretary of Agriculture Clinton p Anderson give strong
support their claims In the revolution underway in
southern agriculture the farmers of North Carolina have
taken commendabe lead and the kind of progress they
have made in diversified cultivation of the soil is the pat
needed throughout the Southland the secretary said
Speaking at North Carolina State College, he pointed
out that 20 years ago North Carolina harvesting
million of cotton Cotton king in the state just
as king throughout most of the South And cotton
was a tyrant in the South, making demands that
hard on both the people and the land Cotton in world
that coming to be by mechanical power required
hand labor and from economy based the unit of
a with choppng hoe, or man with mule. Cotton
decreed cleantling and erosion followed the cotton
rows as night follows day. stripping the mantle of top
soil from millions Of acres"
Continuing, Secretary Anderson said, Furthermore
too much cotton and the system of farming that cotton
usurped needed for the development of
the highly diversified agriculture of which the South is
capable it held back the production of mix, eggs, meat
and vegetables needed to provide full nourshing diet
for your farm and city people, Under North Cardinals
diversified program the secretary said Cotton is no
longer kind Your farmers still produce cotton slightly
more than half million of cotton being grown
and it is efficiently produced, resulting in higher
yields North Carolina has set example for some other
sections by ncreang its production of peanuts, corn milk
and poultry This that your families are living
better and Both farmers and twonspeo
pie have benefited in the better diet produced from North
Ca onas And there has been most satisfactory
difference in the jingle of coins in the farmers purse
Ca2h receipts from your diversified markengs mounted
from about $50 million dollars Of 20 years to well over
600 million dollars in 1945."
The secretary praised the coored and while farmers
of the state for the leadership which they have taken in
the farm revolution Coored farmers of North Carolina
number $1,000 making up 20 percent of all farmers in
the state They farm 2,728000 or 10 percent OF
the state sfarm land.
Viewed in relation to the increasing mechanical pro-
ducton of cotton the dversfcaton of Southern agrcu
ture takes added significance At Tuskegees 55th An
nual Farmers Conference last month, Dr. Arthur Raper
social science researcher in the Bureau of Agricultural
Economics told the farmers that hand labor on cotton
farms in the Sout hcanno compete with machines; that
mechanzed cotton production would dspace four out
of every five of those needed on one-mue, hand
picked cotton FARMS, which meant an estimated reduc
ton of coored cotton from the current level of
over half a million to about 100000 with, OF course,
corresponding decrease colored farm population in the
Cotton Belt DR. Raper concluded his remarks with the
suggestion that educational program in the South
should be steppedup to help equip displaced farm peo
pie for the highly specialized industrial jobs the
CITY," But in answer to the challenge from the cotton
machines the North Carolina farmers have asserted their
independence of cotton raising. By dVersIyng tner
crops they have provided nourshng food stables
themselves and the urban population and are earn
ing more money. Moreover it appears they have taken
the necessary to hold to their farms as con-
tinued source Of security