64 The Bulletin. 



at that time. This land was cheap — its money value was almost nothing — and 

 as soon as a field ceased to produce satisfactorily it was thrown out and more 

 timber was sacrificed to bring into cultivation new land, to be treated in the 

 same way. So year after year this system was kept up. Slavery had something 

 to do with such a system of destructive farming. The negroes had to be kept 

 at work, if their lai)or was to be profitalde. So each winter saw large areas 

 of timber land cleared and brought into cultivation to be robbed and butchered 

 as the other had been. Then came the Boy Dixie to complete the work of de- 

 struction. The land was plowed two to three inches deep, and the heavy rains 

 carried the soil away as fast as it could be plowed up. This system, if the utter 

 lack of system may be called such, grew into our people, generation after gener- 

 ation, with little or no thought of soil improvement, until the time came, as it 

 comes to all spendthrifts, that the "system" nuist be changed. The time has now 

 come when this must be changed. Let us remember that North Carolina must 

 be the home of millions of people, and that this very soil which we and our 

 forefathers have robbed must produce them a living. God Almighty gave us this 

 goodly land. What shall be the account of our stewardship? Shall our farms 

 be handed down to our children so impoverished that they can not make a living 

 on them? It is a matter that stares us in the face with stern reality. You must 

 permit me to talk plainly. Being a farmer myself I must be permitted to say 

 some things that are rather hard on us, but they are true nevertheless. The 

 farmer is not a business man, has not been in the past, but he is doing better 

 now. When we as farmers learn to use our brains more and our hands less, 

 or rather, when our hands become more skillful on account of the exercise of more 

 brain power, more thought, more studying out of the details of our business, 

 then we shall begin to make things come to pass. When farmers as a class learn 

 to apply the same business acumen, sound reasoning and good judgment to the 

 problems that confront them that the business man exercises in the conduct of 

 his business, the same success will reward his efforts. Yes, I say emphatically 

 that the farmer must learn to be a business man. 



Our State and national departments of agriculture are becoming alarmed at 

 the depletion of soil fertility, which has resulted from methods of farming in 

 vogue in the past, and they are now making every effort possible to put into 

 effect other and better methods, such that the farmers and their families may 

 not only make a living but at the same time may so enrich their soil that per- 

 manent prosperity may follow. This is the problem before us. How may it 

 best be solved is now the question. 



We are told that the corn crop of the world was, last year, about 3,300,000,000 

 bushels, and that the United States, the greatest corn-producing country of the 

 world, produced 2.7(i7,000,000 bushels. This is an enormous amount of corn, but 

 it is not the largest crop our country has given to the world. Our corn crops 

 have been increasing from year to j'ear by reason of the fact that we have been 

 able to increase our acreage as our population increased, but this can not con- 

 tinue indefinitely. There nuist necessarily come a time when our acreage can not 

 be extended, and it is against this time that our people must be prepared to feed 

 the increasing population by multiplying the productive capacity of each acre. 

 In another hundred jears we shall have 200,000,000 people to feed, besides the 

 live stock that must necessarily be kept on the farms. The enormous crop of 

 last year makes a per capita production of only about thirty bushels, and if our 

 present methods continue it will only be a question of time when we shall fail 

 to produce our bread-stufV, and then where shall be turn for our supplies? The 

 balance of the world produces only about one-half of one bushel of corn per 

 capita. So, so far as corn goes, we need not look to other parts of the world for 

 that. The wheat crop is even smaller than tlie corn crop. Therefore, without 

 entering into a discussion of international economics, I say we must produce the 

 food for man and beast, and, as we have seen, if we can not increase our acres 

 we must, by better methods of tillage and soil management, increase the capacity 

 of the acres we already have. 'J his is not the only question we must consider — 

 we of the South. We must look to our own welfare against the North and West. 

 The South has the greatest money crop of the world, and we have practically a 

 monopoly of that crop, but so long as the South fails to produce the corn and 

 wheat, hay and meat necessary to feed her people and stock, just so long will 



