Life Is Good, January 1937

By F.H. Jeter, Extension Editor, N.C. State College, Raleigh, as published in The Southern Planter, January, 1937

“We are getting along very nicely, I have a crib full of corn, plenty of hay, a supply of meat, and I have paid all my debts. This is better than you found me four years ago when I had to hire out two of my girls to get food and clothes for the family,” said John Love, colored farmer of near Mebane in Alamance County, to J.W. Jeffries, local Negro farm agent.

Jeffries reported that he found 375 bushels of corn in Love’s crib, that he had 15 tons of hay, and that there were three hogs to be killed, each of which weigh over 400 pounds.

In addition, Love had three good milk cows, a brood sow with six pigs, and a flock of more than 100 laying hens.

Love sold 3,548 pounds of tobacco for $1,158.97. He had on hand at that time 2,000 additional pounds to sell.

There are seven children in the Love family, four of whom are enrolled in Negro 4-H Club work.

According to Dean I.O. Schaub of the State College Extension Service, Love is just an example of what one finds among many progressive Negro farms in North Carolina at this time. The progress that many of the Negro farmers are making is really remarkable, Mr. Schaub says.

NEVER TOO OLD

Mrs. W.R. Pritchard of Pearceville Home Demonstration Club in Camden County wanted to make over an old dress but hesitated to ask the home agent for suggestions because the material was so old.

The home agent, however, investigated and found the material in the dress in good condition though it had been bought 22 years ago. It would be easy to change the dress into a modish fall model. Mrs. Pritchard is now remodeling the dress and plans to wear it for the twenty-third year.

EXTRA MONEY IN GATES COUNTY

Mrs. Lea Roy Carter, of the Middle Swamp Club in Gates County, does not have a nearby woman’s curb market but she did enter a contest sponsored by The Southern Planter on “How I Make Extra Spending Money” and she says:

“From the sales of extra vegetables from my garden and a little poultry, I have made extra money in the last two months selling butterbeans, green peas, corn, white potatoes, sweet potatoes, grapes, chickens, eggs and butter.

“I would gather the vegetables in the afternoon and shell the beans and peas at night. Next morning I took them to town and sold directly to housewives at their homes and the sales for two months amounted to $65.27.

“Since selling these vegetables I realize what I might have been doing all these past years, and I expect to improve my sales each year in the future. If others try this plan, I hope they enjoy making their spending money as much as I have.”