The BuLLKTiN. 65 



the Soutli be poor, and this is true, more espociaHy, because these "supplies" are 

 pur(!hased from the proceeds of one crop. This is the truth we are endeavoring 

 to drive home, and we would that we could do so with sledge-hammer blows. 

 No people can succeed long and dcjiond upon mu' crop, for certainly in the end 

 it will redound to their undoing, tlie impoverishment of the soil, which is the 

 greatest calamity that can befall any people. We are told that the cotton crop 

 of North Carolina amounts to thirty-five or forty million dollars annually, and 

 that the only portion of this enormous amount of money that remains to the 

 credit of the State is the percentage the mercliants get for handling Western 

 •'food supplies." Now it takes hard work and lots of it to raise the cotton to 

 get that much money, and then it is hard to see it leave the State to purchase 

 products which it has been demonstrated can easily be grown in the State. Some 

 of the largest crops of corn ever produced have been grown right here in North 

 Carolina, and why not? We have the climate and the soil, too, if we as farmers 

 do our duty by it. No soil in the world responds more readily to the kindly 

 touch of tii'e w'ise husbandman, it has been proven that we can grow corn at a 

 cost not beyond the freight we pay on the corn we purchase from the Western 

 farmer. If he can produce corn and sell it to us and make a profit, why can 

 we not produce it at home and keep tlie money here to build up our own re- 

 sources, educate our children, construct good roads and build up our cities? 



Now is it worth while? 1 ask each individual if the task we have set for our- 

 selves is worthy of accomplishment? It becomes an individual matter. Each 

 man must do his part, and no man must be a shirker. 



Now it may be said that I am dealing in glittering generalities, and that there 

 is nothing practical in them. I ask whether it is worth while for a farmer some- 

 times to think on a little broader line, to become a bigger man in the world of 

 thought, and to be more of a factor in the world's business affairs? To be plain, 

 friends, how many of you know a good many practical things which you are 

 failing to do? There are very few farmers now who do not know better than 

 they do. A goodly number of farmers are yet abusing the so-called "book farmer," 

 and yet crops will somehow grow better" for the "book farmers" than for the 

 other fellow. Then why lag back and follow in the wake of the great agricul- 

 tural awakening that is surely coming. There are farmers now tilling the soil 

 in the old slipshod, haphazard way, who will live to see the day when they will 

 be doubling, yea quadrupling, their present yields. This is not foolishness. 1 

 have seen it done and you have too. Tlie day will come to our good State when 

 we shall be ashamed of the record we are now making as farmers, an average 

 production of fourteen bushels of corn per acre for the whole State. I speak of 

 corn because I regard corn as our greatest crop, and because of the further fact 

 that where good crops of corn can be grown, or poor ones for that matter, it is 

 a good index to the character of farming that is being done. 



Now, friends, I have said these things that you may begin to think about 

 them. ' W^e must be broader, bigger men if we are to solve the problems that 

 confront the farmers of the future. It requires more thought, keener judgment, 

 closer application to strictly business methods, to be a successful farmer, than 

 for any other calling or profession. The farmer has not only the ordinary financial 

 problems, but various conditions of soil, of weather and climate, the selection 

 of seed, the breeding and growing of live stock, rotations, harvesting and market- 

 ing of crops. In addition to this, he must be a close student of economy. He 

 must know not alone how to market his products well, but he must know how 

 to produce them at the least expense. This brings me to consider the economy 

 of farm management. To produce crops economically we must have good stock 

 and tools, and to be able to use tools on a farm to good advantage it is necessary 

 to have the land cleared of roots and stumps, and the fields must be put in the 

 best shape possible. There are many farms where a little work in shaping up the 

 fields would pay handsome profits lay enabling the farmer to do more work and 

 better work. The gullies should be filled up, the plum trees grubbed out by 

 the roots, and the briars and bushes around the corners cut off so that the big 

 plow, the mowing machine and the binder may do their best work. The farm 

 roads should be laid off so as to interfere as little as possible with the shapeliness 



