Farm News From Across the State, April, 1948

“Personal Mention” by F.H. Jeter, Extension Editor, in the April, 1948, issue of Extension Farm-News, published by North Carolina State College

S.T. Brooks again knocked ‘em cold in Robeson County the other day with his community exhibits of hams and corn. Robeson Negro farmers exhibited 276 hams, and they were nicely trimmed as well as thoroughly cured. Jack Kelley says they were as nice as he had ever seen. Some $182 in cash prizes were distributed.

For a part of his graduate work at the A&T College, R.L. Hannon has done a piece on “News Writing for Agricultural Workers.”

J.P. Quinerly sends in a crop report blank sent out in 1889 by the Honorable J.M. Rusk, Secretary of Agriculture in President Benjamin Harrison’s Cabinet. The secretary was most appreciative of any information given him and said it would not be used by tax assessors. The historical blank was given to Mr. Quinerly by Ben Watson of Columbus County.

Tom Brandon and his two efficient assistant agents, Sumner and Brady, held a real two-day extension school at Williamston with an average attendance of about 350 farmers with over 600 being present for some one or the other of the sessions. It must have been strenuous, because our Mr. Kimrey left his overnight bag and Doc Collins left his overshoes and his hat with that beautiful red and green feather.  Word also comes from Martin that Mr. Kimrey was in a particularly jovial mood during the Extension School.

Fred Johnson, Cotton Gin Specialist, has been elected a life member of the Carolinas Ginners Association, and the editor of your favorite family magazine has been elected an honorary member of the Edgecombe-Nash Ginners Association.

The Randolph HD agents, Mrs. Thompson and Miss Templeton, would like to exchange radio scripts and radio ideas with other home agents. A splendid suggestion.

A wonderful visit with Austin Garris and R.H. Wesson in Montgomery and a quick trip over the county. Another great trip to the land of the Scotsmen and to Edgar McMahan’s Scotland County Farmers Club. The Dad’s entertained the sons and had a great meeting out at Laurel Hill with Edmund Aycock, K.J. Shaw, and Dr. Thom Smith present.

Miss Arant drops by with papers showing fine work done during 4-H Club week by Nell Kennett and her assistants in Guilford; and by Elizabeth Sharpe and Miss Yarborough in Stokes.

When Neill Smith held his famous farmers’ day over in Elkin recently, he found himself troubled fo rhte moment when his presiding officer, Director Schaub, could not attend; but, as usual, Col. Neill quickly recovered his poise. He told district agent McCrary, “I reckon I’ll just have to do the presiding myself so that it will be done right.”

And word comes from the hills of Wilkes that a certain grower of hybrid corn would not answer Paul Choplin’s searching question as to what purpose the corn would be put. Personal question anyway. When Dan Holler was farm agent up there, he never asked why one man wanted his hydraulic ram placed two miles from his home. Dan looks young but that boy is as wise as the proverbial serpent.

Orchids to Lena E. Bullard and her fine assistant, Pat Allen, for instigating and promoting that Cumberland County Memorial Park out on the Raeford Road, and a hand to the wonderful Cumberland HD women for their success in raising the necessary funds for the Park. A great accomplishment.

And to the Mitchener, George, and Addington organization of Forsyth for a great piece of work in getting active county associations formed to promote Guernsey and Holstein cattle, bees, Tamworth hogs and poultry.

A great visit also with Cliff Ammons, T.D. O’Quinn and their hustling Harnett Board of Agriculture headed by Ed Byrd. The Board entertained the county 4-H crop and livestock winners and their Dads. Rachel Herring was there along with Loraine Vail and all having a great time. Cliff was at his best that night.

These Sampson folks seem to know no end to their hospitality and aggressive activity. A nice note from Mary Elizabeth Banks Tunstall telling how the Sampson Older Youth group entertained their fellows from Bladen, Duplin, and Johnston counties, with Clark Allen of Bladen elected as new district president. Such notables on hand included Mrs. Mary Lee McAllister, Mary Sue Moser, State Club Agent L.R. Harrill, Assistant Photographer Ralph Mills, and two beloved Macs, Mrs. M.C. McQueen and Mrs. R.A. McCullen, advisors for the Sampson Older Youth.

Finally, a hand to our Extension and Vocational people in Wilson for the ability to work together without friction. A much appreciated letter by teacher Ginn of Stantonsburg to Joe Anthony’s fine assistant, J.N. Honeycutt.

And so, see you at the fat stock shows.

Mailbox Improvement Winner, 1937

“Our Cover Picture” from the Editorial Page of the April, 1937 issue of Carolina Co-Operator

Turn back now to the front cover and look carefully at those before and after pictures.

See how in the top picture the supports are tilted, how the boxes themselves are careening in the wind, and how each box is pointing in a different direction? All in all, a very unsightly jumble of boxes with its only recommendation found at the base in the few scattered and ill-arranged flowers.

Now cast your eyes down to the lower picture. Drink in the beauty, the neatness, and the general good taste shown here.

Then, in your mind’s eye, take a look at your own mail box and ask yourself in which of the two classes would it fall. If in the “before” class, then for Heaven’s sake take a few hours off and fix it up. Remember that your mail box bears your name and that located out by the roadside as it is, it affords a pretty good barometer by which passers-by may judge you.

Incidentally, the little lady looking so shyly at the ground is Miss Jackqueline Skinner while the other lady is Mrs. J.R. Ward. To Mrs. Ward should go the credit for the improvement in the group of mail boxes—an improvement which recently won first prize in the “Aventon Club Mail Box Improvement Contest.”

The pictures were sent us by E.T. Pittman, rural mail carrier No. 2 at Whitakers, who suggested that they be given proper display that others may be inspired to fix up their boxes and who so kindly added that “many of my patrons read the Carolina Co-Operator.”

Thank you, Mr. Pittman, both for the pictures and the comment. We hope others will fix up their boxes and that they, too, will send us some “before” and “after” pictures for use on our front cover.

Mrs. Middleton Proud to be Farmer's Helpmeet, 1937

“I’m a Farmer’s Helpmeet” by Mrs. Henry M. Middleton as published in April, 1937, Carolina Co-Operator. Mrs. Middleton is the wife of one of the leading farmers in North Carolina.

Cooperation in the home is equally as important as cooperation in business, says this author. She tells how a farmer’s wife can make him a better helpmeet.

A home without cooperation is like a ship without a rudder. Those of us who have really experienced cooperation in our homes know that we are benefited in a substantial way not only economically but that within us there is something which tells us that our lives are blending and slowly, link by link, the bonds are becoming tighter and our minds are growing more contended in a love which is even stronger than death. We are becoming truly one. This comes only to home-makers who experience cooperation from every angle.

The success of the home depends largely on whether or not the farm realizes the big part she plays in the home, the greatest institution in the world, and the heavy part the husband plans in “bringing home the bacon.”

To be a successful helpmeet, a wife must first be a good Christian, one who loves her husband and children and who is able to give to her family, through love and capable ministrations, the courage and confidence necessary to keep them strong and at the same time continue building power within herself. She must consider the health of the family and give much thought to her table, for health is the very basis of success and rarely do other than strong-bodied and strong-minded people make their way to the front.

Should Keep Fit

The thoughtful wife gives due consideration to her husband’s comfort and pleasure when he gets in from his work, dead tired. There should be holidays and evenings for recreation, and the husband should have the right to spend some of these in a way that pleases him most.

When “Mother” shows that she is worried, the whole household gets upset. She should keep herself fit so that she may always be pleasant and cheerful. One good way to keep fit is by taking short vacations, such as a trip to Raleigh during Farm and Home Week. There one can gather much food for thought by attending the Farm Women’s short course classes. Good reading also diverts the mind and instills in us the essentials of right living instead of self-pity. Self-pity is detrimental and any wife who indulges in such is far from being a successful helpmeet.

A sense of humor is very essential in keeping up the family morale. Any family is indeed fortunate when “Mother” is the first to see a joke and leads the mirth. Another good way to keep the family fit is to set aside a period each day for family worship. A child who can lay claim to God-fearing parents has a rich heritage.

Show Appreciation

Any normal man hungers for an expression of appreciation for his efforts. Millions of husbands would take a new interest in life if they could only feel a pat on the shoulder or hear an occasional word of praise from their mate.

Many women are unwilling to take for granted the vexatious problems and smile at them when they arise in the home and often form a habit of nagging. Nagging is obnoxious and cowardly and makes a husband so uncomfortable that he often yields to the will of his wife in order to prevent further nagging. Gentleness, backed by firmness, works miracles in making a congenial mate.

A real helpmeet must be thrifty and a capable manager. All members of the family should be called into conference when the family budget is under discussion. In this way each one has his or her part in making the budget and is impressed with the importance of living within its bounds. A real helpmeet should know how and what to buy. In home demonstration clubs many of these things are taught, such as how to judge a good sheet, test a good dye, or know the quantity of wool in a blanket. We must know these things if we are to become capable managers.

A thrifty wife makes the best of what she has, keeps her eyes open and her hands busy. Even though the old car does look bad she discourages buying a new one if it means mortgaging the home. Flour sacks can be made into dish or dust cloths, or even given a pretty edge and made into napkins and luncheon sets. The wife should have some little project of her own for making pin money with which to buy the little things which are so dear to her and mean so little to the average husband. She is always on the look-out for anything that might help in some way to make the “bread earning” of her mate a little easier and more effective.

Education is also necessary for it means enlarged capacity for work and service. It is only by constant reading and study that man and wife are able to solve the confusing problems which daily arise. When children arrive in the home, they should be welcome and each parent should share in the responsibility for their education—mental, moral, physical, and spiritual.

A considerate wife keeps herself personally neat and attractive, trying to remain as near like the girl that her husband courted as possible. She uses the same care in keeping the house clean and attractive, realizing that “the consciousness of clean linen is in and of itself a source of more strength, second only to that of a clean conscience.”

Self-giving draws a big salary in happiness. Only the heart that is full of its task can achieve the greatest good.

Dynamite Helps Farmers During Labor Shortage, 1946

By F.H. Jeter, Extension Editor, N.C. State College, Raleigh, as published in the April 1, 1946 issue of the Charlotte News

Because of a shortage of labor, farmers are using dynamite in blowing ditches and they are saving money. Under present conditions, the dynamite gives a much quicker job and results in a saving of money because the blowing of ditches does not take but a fraction of the labor necessary in ditching by hand.

Frank Doggett, new soil conservationist of the Extension Service at State College, says that farmers in the soil conservation districts are substituting dynamite for labor in solving many tough drainage problems.

According to Doggett, District Supervisor R.C. Jordan and County Agent C.W. Overman recently assisted Cotton Bright White of the Albemarle Soil Conservation in blowing 618 feet of ditch at a cost of $96 as compared with the cost of about $400 had the job been done by hand.

The problem was to connect a lead ditch across the Welch tract of land to the main ditch of the Bear Creek Drainage District. First a permit was obtained to open a ditch across the Welch land and the job was begun.

A large spoil bank on the edge of the large main ditch was blasted through. Then holes were sunk along the proposed ditch line and loaded with 50 per cent ditching dynamite. When the workers were ready to shoot the charge, the neighbors were invited to witness and blast and about 60 gathered at a safe distance from the section where the ditch was to be blown.

With one mighty heave, roots, stumps, earth, and water were thrown high into the air and scattered over a wide area. When the spectators went in to see the results, they found a V-shaped ditch about 4 feet deep and wide across the top. The sides sloped at 45-degree angles and there was no need for any hand labor to make corrections. A complete job had been done.

White spent $90 for 500 pounds of dynamite and the cost of putting it down was $6. “Had I done this job with hand labor, I estimate the cost would have been about $400,” White said, “and where could I have gotten the labor to do it? With machinery, the cost would have been somewhat less than by hand.”

Doggett says that White and all of the farmers present were impressed by the fact that the dynamite left no spoil bank along the edge of the ditch to give trouble in the future. Such would have been the case had the ditch been constructed by hand labor.

The soil was scattered over a wide area and now water can drain into the ditch in all sections along the 618 feet. A spoil bank would prevent this.

Howard Ellis, agricultural engineer of the State College Extension Service, calls particular attention to the need for safety in the handling of dynamite because a number of accidents have occurred recently in Eastern North Carolina where most of the dynamite is being used. He suggests that farmers discuss safety measures with the county agent before they begin the use of dynamite in blasting.

Zebulon Boy at Work on Family Farm, 1955

“Spring on the Farm,” a photo essay in the April, 1955, issue of Extension Farm-News

Spring is a state of mind, a change in the climate, a state of the universe. It all depends on your point of view. To 11-year-old Richard Mason of Zebulon, spring is the time when he would like to go fishing but has to plow instead. To Richard’s dog, Snuffy, spring is a time to play, but he has to be content with eating the dust at Richard’s heels. Here, for Richards everywhere of every age, are some signs of spring on the farm. They will be scant solace to Richards present, but to Richards past even the plowing scenes will produce a present glow.

Hen vs. Garden; Pot Wins, April, 1943

From the Asheville Citizen, April 26, 1943

Hens Vs. Gardens; Pot Wins

COLLEGE STATION, Raleigh—Victory gardens have been asking the extension service at N.C. State College for all kinds of information about vegetable growing, including that on bugs, blisters, and blights which attack their crops, but Editor F.H. Jeter was “stumped” today when he received a request on how how to fight—the neighbor’s chickens. There is no publication available on this subject.

The woman explained that her husband and children were anxious for a fine “victory garden” this year as she was, but that past experience showed that their gardening efforts would be in vain unless they could get some help. The minute they started planting, the chickens came over to help with the digging.

She said that she had called the attention of her neighbors to the fact that it is against the law for chickens to run at large and in the adjoining garden, but for some reason her neighbors did not seem to understand.

So in a letter to the extension service, she asks just how far she should go in explaining the law to the chickens, since she had failed so utterly with her neighbors. She said that she felt sure that if the chickens could only understand the law and the serious need for more fresh vegetables, they would remain on their own premises.

Jeter sent her directions for cookery, including the various methods preparing chickens for the table.

"Around the State" from Carolina Co-operator, 1935

From “Around the State” in the Carolina Co-Operator, January, 1935

Two years ago the home demonstration clubs of Johnston County raised an educational fund of $150 to help Mary Gulley, an orphan, through her first year at Boiling Springs College. Next year they raised $175 to help Miss Gulley through Eastern Carolina Teachers College

This year grateful Miss Gulley, now teaching, is repaying the loan. Well pleased, the club women are now helping six other girls go to college.

Grandson Wins

Forty years ago in the hills of Wilkes County, later famous for another type of “cawn,” D.V. Nichols started growing and improving a variety of corn known as Wilkes County White.

Last year his grandson, Quinten Nichols, growing the same Wilkes County White, won for the second successive time the sweepstakes prize at the State Fair. He competed with 156 other entries.

Pullets or Roosters

High spot of the recent short course for poultrymen at State College was a demonstration in “chick sexing” by Dr. J.C. Hammond of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He showed the astonished poultrymen how by careful investigation the sex of young chicks can be accurately determined, enabling the poultryman to purchase the number of potential pullets or roosters he needs.

Scholarship

Neighbors shook their heads crosswise in 1927 when Price Brawley, Iredell County boy, paid $165 for Majestic’s Sarah, a pure-bred jersey cow. Since then, however, Majestic’s Sarah and her offspring have won prize after prize. And now for making the best record with Jerseys in 4-H calf club work for two years in North Carolina, Brawley has been awarded the four-year scholarship to State College offered by Mr. and Mrs. Cameron Morrison.

Boy and His Dog

To most boys a dog is a prized possession not to be parted with—flowers and shrubs just things to “tend to.”

To most women a bird dog is just something to “mess up” the house—flowers and shrubs something to make a house a home.

At Newton Grove in Sampson County Mrs. A.W. Bizzell began landscaping to make her home more attractive. She found she needed more shrubbery, flowers, and grass for the lawn.

Her son, Oscar, wanted to do his part to make the home more beautiful. He wanted to give his mother some shrubbery and flowers, but had no money.

Son Oscar racked his brain, remembering that a neighbor had offered to buy his prize bird dog. Away from home he slipped with the dog to the neighbors, to return soon with a ten-dollar bill clutched in his hand and a sob in his throat.

But smiles wreathed his face when he handed his mother the $10. She now has the desired shrubbery and Son Oscar is happy in the knowledge that he has helped his mother to beautify their home.

Representation

For a long, long time agricultural leaders have been contending—and rightfully so—that only through strong organization and proper representation can the farmer get his just share of the good things of the land.

Further evidence that the farm leaders are right in their contention is presented in what transpired at a recent meeting of economists and civic leaders on unemployment insurance at the University of North Carolina.

The subject was fully discussed from all angles, except that no provision was made to take care of the farmer.

This did not suit L. Bruce Gunter, vice-president of the cotton association, who had been requested by Dr. G.M. Pate, president, to represent the 18,000 members of the cotton association. Mr. Gunter rose to his feet and in no uncertain language emphasized that the plan should also take care of the unemployed farmer.

What will come of it, we don’t know—but it was interesting to note that many of the economists got out their pencils and began making notes on what Mr. Gunter said. No doubt they had overlooked the farmer simply because no one had told them he should be included.

“Carolina Corn”

Irvin S. Cobb, the famous Kentucky writer and humorist who once said all North Carolina needed was a press agent, got into the papers the other day when he gave the distillers’ code authority the following definition of Carolina Corn:

“Illicit corn liquor may easily be identified by these: It smells like gangrene starting in a mildewed silo; it tastes like the wrath to come; and when you absorb a deep swig of it, you have the sensation of having swallowed a lighted kerosene lamp.

“A sudden violent jolt of it has been known to stop the victim’s watch, snap both his suspenders, and crack his glass eye right across—all in the same motion.

“Personally, I would recommend it only to persons who are headed for the last hiccup and want to get it over with as soon as possible. And if you must drink it, always do so while sitting flat on the floor. Then you don’t have so far to fall.

Rural Women's Report, April, 1935

“The Woman’s Touch or What Club Work Means to N.C. Farm Women”, edited by Jane  S. McKimmon, State Home Demonstration Agent and Assistant Director of Extension, N. C. State College, Raleigh, in the Carolina Co-operator, April, 1935

Beautifying the Country Churchyard

Love for God’s “Green things a’growing” seems part of our love for God Himself, and I’ve always felt that trees, grass, and beautiful shrubs should be the setting for our houses of worship. Farm women are feeling the same urge and it is good to see women in communities coming together for planned planting of the little churches scattered all over the country side. Too long we have seen them perched on slender pillars with not even a semblance of base planting to tie them to the ground, a tree to shade, or grass to give them grace.

Johnston County has 20 farm women, representing churches in 12 of its communities, who are enrolled as demonstrators in yard improvement this year. They started out with a leaders’ school conducted by Miss Pauline Smith, specialist, and it was there that they discussed plans for planting church grounds and how they could propagate the shrubs they would need in the planting. Micro Church already has its plans drawn, trees planted, and is planning to lay out walks and a driveway.

Halifax County has nine churchyard projects in operation and home demonstration club women are working on the courthouse lawn.

Negro farm women have also been active in churchyard beautification. In Melville community, Alamance County, Negro club members met at the Community Center, raked up leaves, whitewashed posts, designed to keep cars from parking on the grounds, and set out shrubbery on either side of the church door.

Their enthusiasm carried them further down the road in the beautifying project and for a quarter of a mile they planted flowers and shrubs around the mail boxes. Because of their interest, plans have been made by the State landscape specialist to give Negroes of Alamance County instruction in how to plan and plant.

They say yard beautification work is slow but the satisfaction to be gotten out of harmonious plantings is something that will last them for a lifetime.

We Should Look Well to Our Water Supply

Every family should have a safe, adequate, and convenient water supply, yet facts taken from the North Carolina survey of farm homes show that:

--About 2,000 farm families are getting their water supply from streams

--18 and 7/10ths per cent use springs

--One-third of all wells need repairs or replacements

--In 76 and 8/10ths of the farm homes in the State, water is carried an average distance of 179 feet

This is a long distance for a housewife to walk with an empty pail and afterward with a full one, particularly as the data gathered show that pitcher pumps could be used in 32 per cent more farm homes.

Wouldn’t it be good if next month I could print some accounts of how a number of farm families had installed pitcher pumps and sinks in the kitchen?

Demonstrations of just how this can be done will be given at the Raleigh Better Housing Exposition to be held in the City Auditorium the week of April 22^nd.

Good times are on the way and we will have a little more money to spend. Let us look first to the good health of the family through a safe water supply, and to the comfort of the overworked housewife by saving the time and energy formerly spent in carrying water.

An Interesting Story Given Us by Dare

Nearly every community in Dare County has gardens and fruit trees or bushes and many of the gardens are good. Our people are fond of collards and other greens and to be entirely without them is quite a tragedy. Some, however, have a rather poor chance for gardens because in sections the land is washing and blowing away, getting lower every year. This allows the ocean and sound waters during the storms to come over the land, the yard, and the gardens.

One man at Rodanthe said he knew the ground in front of his house was now 18 inches lower than it was two years ago. From Hatteras comes the statement that a house with a big garden, fig bushes, grape vines, and plum trees which used to be there cannot be located now. It is somewhere out in the Atlantic Ocean!

A similar story came from a woman whose house was on the Sound side at Nagshead. When she and her husband first went to live there, the sound was at least a quarter of a mile from them and they had one of the best gardens on the bar and a whole yard of flowers. But the sound has been coming nearer and nearer until a year ago the waves carried away their porch, and broke through a door and two windows, flooding their entire first story. They moved away.

When the salt water comes over yards and gardens, it kills flowers and vegetables in short order and makes the soil so salty that it is hard to grow more. Last year’s September storm reduced our fruit crops in a rather curious way. The northeast wind blew the ocean spray all over us; some folks reported that it was raining salt water. At any rate, it killed or blew leaves from trees and bushes. During the warm weather that followed nearly all vegetation came out in new leaves and flowers, and some of the pear trees were in full bloom. Of course, those were the blossoms that we were supposed to have in the spring, so our crop this year of pears, grapes, and figs has been greatly reduced.

The Farm Women and The County Commissioners

There is a very friendly spirit between farm women of a county and the county commissioners who help support Home Demonstration Work. In many counties club women invite the board members to break bread with them, and it is over a well-prepared, well-served lunch that the progress of Home Demonstration Work is reported and plans are discussed for the county. The meal itself is a demonstration and serves to show how far women and girls have come in their ability to select food wisely and prepare it well; and the ease with which they serve shows the deftness they have attained.

An observant man in the courthouse remarked as he caught the unaccustomed aroma of coffee proceeding from the Temple of Justice, “There must be some women about here.” And when he was told that the farm homemakers were serving a meal to the board, he said, “Well, this courthouse was built to try offenders against the law, but it may be in time to come when women have learned to be real homemakers and character builders that their children will prefer staying at home to running the streets and there will be no cause to try offenders against the law for there won’t be any. If this comes about the courthouse may then be frequently filled with odors of good food and the laughter of well satisfied people because the building will be used for community recreation and pleasure and not for the expression of community disapproval of the offender against the law.”

Recipes

Sweet Potato Balls

Mrs. J.M. German, Boomer, N.C.

Boil desired number of potatoes until tender. Peal, mash, season with sugar and butter. Then make into balls. Put one marshmallow in the center of each. Roll the ball in coconut or cornflakes. Set in stove for a few minutes to brown.

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My Favorite Gingerbread

Mrs. Curtis C. Bost, Pineville, N.C.

½ cup sugar

½ cup butter

1 egg

1 cup molasses

1 ½ teaspoon [baking] soda

1 teaspoon ginger

½ teaspoon cloves

1 cup hot water

2 ½ cups sifted flour

Cream sugar and butter. Add egg well beaten, then molasses, and dry ingredients. Add hot water last. Beat until smooth. Serve with whipped cream, topped with a candied cherry.

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Mrs. Mac Sample, a farm homemaker from Iredell County, thinks that coming together in club work has done much for rural women in her community. She says, “You have only to ride along our State roads and see the farm homes which now nestle in a foundation planting of shrubbery where once stood a house with no underpinning, and walk on green lawns where there used to be only stretches of bare earth.”

-=-

Goals for the well-dressed women of Rutherford County:

1.       To make the best use of what we have.

2.       To be well dressed and well groomed at a small cost.

School Desegeration Protests in Henderson, 1970

Lexington Dispatch, Nov. 7, 1970

By Ernest H. Robl, UPI

National guardsmen today were ordered into Henderson, where a dispute over school desegregation policies erupted into a night of sniping and burning.

Gov. Bob Scott officially ordered in the troops to enforce a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew imposed on the city and surrounding Vance County.

The move came after about 100 black youths gathered in the smoldering ruins of a burned out tobacco warehouse and began hurling bricks and pieces of pipe at passing cars.

About 40 arrests were made during the nightlong disturbance, concentrated in a four-block area of a black neighborhood.

Two whites were injured but no one was reported hit by gunfire.

Violence also broke out in Greenville, S.C., where black and white students clashed in a newly integrated high school. White parents rushed to the school and smashed out windows so children could flee the melee. No one was seriously injured.

Protest Policies

Blacks have staged protests here for weeks over policies of the Vance County education officials, especially the reopening of an all-black school in the Nutbush Community. Blacks charged the board with trying to skirt desegregation.

The school board agreed Wednesday to close the black school and transfer its student to desegregated schools, but a group of young black gathered Friday afternoon at the education office in a protest to back up demands for hiring of a Negro coach and a Negro assistant principal.

The protestors left the building and gathered in the street near a church, where police ordered them to disperse on grounds they were blocking traffic. Officers used tear gas to break up the crowd, which hurled bricks and bottles at the officers.

Ben Chavis, a leader of the black protesters, charged that police began chasing some students after they left the education building and some were hit with nightsticks before the stones were thrown.

Fires Erupt

After night fell fires were touched off at the warehouse and grocery in the black neighborhood, and police were fired upon in the dark. Highway Patrol reinforcements in riot helmets with face shields were hurriedly brought in.

A nighttime curfew was declared in Henderson, a city of 12,500, and it was extended late Friday night to all of Vance County on the Virginia border.

Police moved out of the trouble area late Friday night as the fires burned themselves out, and Buck said, “we hope they will stop burning when they see we care about our own hides.”

The area was quiet early today as Highway Patrol units moved back into the black neighborhood.

Buck said firemen stopped answering any alarms in the area after a false alarm brought a “barrage of fire” on policemen and firemen. “We had to pull back,” he said.

A police officer said “We had no choice, we had to let it burn.”

A vacationing United Press International reporter, Mark Scheinbaum of New York, was beaten to the ground and had his camera stolen by a black mob when he stopped to see what was going on. Scheinbaum, who was on his way to Florida with his wife and small child, was treated at a hospital and released.

This newspaper has been scanned and is available at: http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1734&dat=19701107&id=lk4qAAAAIBAJ&sjid=rFEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5548,567453

Cover of the Farmers Federation News, April, 1931

NC Counties Praised for War Work on the Farm, April, 1943

From The Progressive Farmer, April, 1943

Now while the war effort is on, not only farm folks but farm leaders—farm and home agents, agricultural and home economics teachers, 4-H Club leaders, farm organizations—all are finding that they can do more and bigger jobs than ever before. In order to recognize the speed with which Carolinas-Virginia agriculture is moving forward, we plan to list on this page each month an “honor Roll” of counties with some outstanding achievement.

North Carolina

Beaufort and Hyde—For holding cooperative hog sales twice a month; recently 35 farmers sold 311 hogs.  

Henderson—For its increased truck farming which last year showed 13 per cent profits per dollar invested.

Hertford—Because farm members of its Cofield Mutual Livestock Association in 11 months have sold 

6,600 hogs weighing 1,368,000 for $188,000 . . . and have bought feeds cooperatively in large quantities.

Mitchell—For developing an important Irish potato industry based on the new Sequoia variety which doubles the yield of local varieties in 42 recent tests.

Northampton—For shipping 6,000 dozen eggs a week in recent months.

Pitt—Because 2,000 rural boys and girls have signed up under the 4-H mobilization plan to produce and conserve food for 1943.

Transylvania—Because, although a small county, it will have 2,500 Victory Gardens this season.

Union—For increased interest in forestry. Example: George Goforth who set 7,500 additional cedars last winter, sells about 1,000 profitably each Christmas.

Wake—For increasing promotion of purebred beef and dairy sires; Fuquay Springs bank is a leader in helping farmers supplement cotton and tobacco income with livestock.

Wayne—For reviving old neighborhood wood-sawings with a new twist: for the convenience of busier-than-ever farmers, they are held at night.

Winners in Fat Stock Show Named, April, 1948

From the April, 1948, issue of Extension Farm-News, published by North Carolina State College

The 1948 series of Fat Stock Shows and Sales opened March 31 when the Eleventh Annual Rocky Mount Show and Sale was held.

This year’s event included 43 steers and 208 hogs shown and sold by youths from nine counties.

Douglas Easton of Edgecombe County, exhibitor of the Grand Champion steer in last year’s show, again received top honors by exhibiting another Grand Champion. The “champ” sold for 75 cents per pound. The title of reserve champion went to the steer entered by Dalton Proctor of Wilson County.

Top honor in the swine department, the Grand Champion individual, was won by Mack Mills of Pitt County. Mack sold his animal for 75 cents per pound. R.V. Knight of Tarboro exhibited the Reserve Champion individual hog. The Grand Champion pen of three was entered by F.W. Fisher of Battleboro and the Reserve Champion pen by Kenneth Coleman Webb of Macclesfield.

Attending the event from State College were Leland I. Case, Jack Kelley, Jesse James, and J.C. Pierce.

Happy Hens in NC Demonstration Flocks, 1947

By F.H. Jeter, Extension Editor, N.C. State College, as published in the Charlotte News, April 15, 1947

Hens in 1,848 poultry demonstration flocks, in every section of North Carolina, last year laid about 75 more eggs per bird than the average hen in the state, says C.F. Parrish, poultry specialist, in his annual report to Director I.O. Schaub of the State College Extension Service.

The farmers owning these demonstration flocks followed approved practices of breeding, feeding, and management outlined by the Extension and made monthly reports of all costs, sales, and production.

There were 35,671 birds in the demonstration flocks and they produced more than 6 million eggs at an average cost of 24.3 cents per dozen. The birds ate 98 pounds of feed each and the cost was $3.56, much higher than for the average hen.

Many of the flock owners sold eggs for hatching purposes and this helped to establish an exceptionally high average sales price for the eggs—48.3 cents a dozen. The 1,848 flocks produced more than a quarter of a million dollars worth of eggs, or an average of $7.06 worth of eggs per bird. The average return above feed cost was $3.50 a bird, or an average of $811.38 per farm.

One after another, poultry records in North Carolina were broken in 1945. Chicks hatched jumped from 29 to 38 million. With 1.25 million fewer hens and pullets, approximately 110 million more eggs were produced than the year before. Broiler production increased about 40 percent. More turkeys were raised to maturity than ever before in the history of the state.

Through the years the Extension Service has emphasized better breeding practices, improved feeding, correct buildings and equipment, disease control, and other factors leading to maximum poultry production. While average egg production has continued to climb in North Carolina, the greatest progress has been shown in the demonstration flocks that have co-operated with the Extension Service. The average production per bird was 152 eggs in 1935 as compared with 175 eggs in 1945. This meant an extra million eggs in the demonstration flocks alone on only 1,848 farms.

The hatcheries have been encouraged to get pedigreed males to head their supply flocks. Last year 2,545 R.O.P. cockerels were placed in key breeding flocks, and 2,261 R.O.P. chicks and 796 pullets with leading poultrymen.

Today there are 16 breeders and hatcherymen furnishing U.S. Certified chicks for sale as compared with eight breeders in 1940. These 16 hatcherymen produce about 3 million chicks a year. As a result, very few mongrel flock are found in North Carolina at this time.

While much remains to be done, still North Carolina is showing rapid progress in breeding better chickens. In 1944 a total of 3,297 birds were entered for R.O.P., and 1,089 qualified, while last year 4,388 birds were entered and 1,732 qualified. Tar Heel R.O.P. breeders are making outstanding records as they attempt to breed into their birds such characteristics as larger eggs, better shell texture, uniform color, early maturity, high rate of lay, rapid feathering, and livability.

North Carolina Farm News, April, 1953

“Around the State” from Extension Farm-News, published in the April, 1953, issue of Extension Farm-News, published by N.C. State College

DURHAM

Eugene B. Britt of Route 4, Durham, a city worker, isn’t really a farmer, but he gets a lot of fun out of working with his even acres in the Bethesda community. His small farm is neat as a pin, fenced with woven wire and treated posts. He seeded six acres of Ladino clover-fescue pasture two years ago and bult a small fish pond. He raised a beef for his freezer locker and got enough hay from the pature to feed four additional steer calves. He top-dressed his pasture in January. Now he plans to use electric fences to divide it to obtain maximum grazing.

MECKLENBURG

Several “durn fools” gathered at the Baird farm in Huntersville community of Mecklenburg County recently to survey their handiwork begun 15 years ago. John L. Gray, in charge of Extension forestry, recalls that when these men had taken some worn-out cropland back around 1935 and planted loblolly pines, many of their neighbors had laughed at the “durn fools.” Today Baird’s loblolly pine is ready for its first thinning, and many of the trees will make five sticks of pulpwood.

IREDELL

When the Iredell County farm agent’s office received it long-awaited equipment for putting liquid nitrogen on small grain, applications were quickly made on 50 acres of the H.W. Wilson farm, Route 5, Statesville; 25 acres at the farm of N.C. James, and 35 acres on the farm of John Lewis.

TRENTON

Eight pigs per litter is a good average for any farm. But when a sow has 17 pigs at one farrowing, all a man can say is “gosh!” Bobby Johnson of Route 1, Trenton, a 4-H’er, has a sow that almost pulled the barnyard trick of the year by bringing 17 pigs into the world. His sow is half Minnesota No. 1 and half Hampshire. She was bred to a Minnesota No. 1.

MACON

S.W. Mendenhall, Macon County farm agent, recalls the time when it took a real selling job to get farmers to buy lime for their land. But things are changing rapidly he says. Recently three Macon farmers, Fred Hannah of the Patton community, Fred Sorrells of Cullasaja and Ed Bradley of the Iotla community, rounded up orders from their neighbors for the purchase of three 800-bag carloads. The savings to all farmers will be considerable.

SURRY

Surry’s sheep population increased recently when John Y. Stokes paid approximately $2,500 for 40 head of Montadale ewes. He purchased them from a farmer in Missouri. Although Stokes admits his knowledge of the sheep industry is strictly limited, he was wise enough to employ a veteran herdsman from Western Carolina. He has constructed a new barn and plans to increase his pasture acreage, according to James B. Caudill, assistant county agent.

Southern Railway System Ad, 1943

“Salute…American style” advertisement for the Southern Railway System in the Progressive Farmer, April, 1943

A friendly wave . . . that’s the traditional salute between Southern farmers and the men who run the trains on the Southern Railway System.

It’s an American-style salute . . . a spontaneous gesture . . . a warm greeting that can be exchanged only by free men.

And that’s the way it’s going to be for all time to come. For that is the will of every American . . . those on the fighting fronts . . . and those who provide the transportation service without which neither victory nor freedom can be ours.

Today, the fertile Southland is producing as it has never produced before.

Today, the Southern Railway System is hauling a greater volume of agricultural products than it has ever hauled before.

Together, they’re performing miracles . . . these Southern farmers and the men and women of the Southern Railway System.

And together they’re learning from the heartaches and hardships of war, how necessary they are to each other . . . to the building of the New and Greater South which will surely spring from this war . . . and to the preservation of their precious privilege, as free men, to salute each other American-style—with a friendly wave of the hand.

Ernest Norris, President

Southern Railway System

Dean Schaub's Recommendations to Farmers, 1943

“Message From Dean Schaub” in The Progressive Farmer, April, 1943

“As North Carolina farmers start their 1943 crop planting, what are the main messages you would like to send to them?” We said to Dean I.O. Schaub just before this Progressive Farmer went to press.

“Give me a little time to think” countered the Dean. And next day came back at us with four thoughtful paragraphs.

“First and foremost, all the time let’s help the war effort,” he said. “Let each farmer ask himself whether he is growing his largest possible acreage of essential war crops, especially oil-producing crops, such as soybeans, peanuts, and cotton.

“Next, food. We must not only plan for food-producing field crops and fresh vegetables for eating the year around but plan now for more canned fruits and vegetables than ever before. Along with other plans for the family’s needs next winter, I recommend that each family plant a few rows of edible soybeans, for they are more nearly a meat and vegetable than any other garden crop. For most people the flavor is fine, not only when served as green shelled beans but likewise when dried for winter use. Be sure, however, to get a variety suitable to eat—not ordinary field-crop soybeans. Another crop which will produce abundant cheap food next winter is the sweet potato, and storage plans should be made ahead of time.

“Third, labor. Here I suggest swapping labor from farm to farm. This was common in old times and is still followed in corn shucking, threshings, etc. People in small neighborhoods should pool their available labor and help one another, especially in planting and harvesting.

“Finally, equipment. We shall not get enough new equipment this year to replace normal breakage and wearing out of old equipment. Formerly, it was all right for a man who owned a mowing machine, combine, or other equipment to think he had a right to do with it exactly as he pleased. Now, it is different. With the lives of our sons and friends at stake, there can be little excuse for any man failing to help his neighbors by working out satisfactory arrangements for exchanging equipment.”

Farmers Are Paying Off Their Debts, 1943

From the Editorial Page of Carolina Co-operator, April, 1943

Proving that Farmers Are Provident

Brightest side of the farm picture these days is the fact that farmers are paying off their debts. Last month we reported in Farm News and Facts that repayments to Emergency Crop and Feed Loan offices in 1942 had greatly exceeded new loans made by that agency in the same period. But this was just “chicken feed” compared with mortgage payments to the Federal Land Banks and Land Bank Commissioners.

A total of $303 million was repaid in 1942 by Land Bank and Commissioner borrowers on the principal of their loans and, in addition, farmers deposited more than $21 million to be used in paying off future installments on such loans. One out of every 10 farmer-borrowers, according to a statement by A.G. Black, head of the Farm Credit Administration, lifted his Land Bank mortgage. Many of these mortgages doubtless were made during the agricultural depression following the end of World War I.

Farmers have learned through the hard times they have had to endure what it is to labor against debt. Now that they are getting their hands on a little money, many of them are profiting by their experience and using it to get out of debt. And, too, countless thousands of farmers are putting every possible penny they can spare into War Bonds and Stamps. Yes, our rural people are giving the lie to the false accusations sometimes heard that farmers as a rule are an improvident lot. The only reason they haven’t saved money these past twenty-odd years is that they haven’t had it to save.

Lewisville Library Honors Dorothy Holder

“Lewisville Library Honors Dorothy Holder” by Ruth W. Bolz in the April-June 1991 issue of Tar Heel Homemakers

Although the December 10, 1990, meeting was called a Celebration of 20 Years of the Lewisville Library, much of the meeting included tributes honoring our Lewisville 50-year Extension Homemaker Dorothy Holder.

She, along with some members of the (then) Home Demonstration Club, started a library that opened October 2, 1945. There was a library at the Lewisville School but there still was a need for one during the summer months for the children as well as for adults. The library was especially needed after the Lewisville school burned in December of 1945. Members of the club served as librarians and custodians, all volunteer, of course.

After various changes of places and procedures, the library was closed in 1953 and all the books were given to the Lewisville School.

Dorothy Holder then led a committee of citizens in Lewisville who raised funds for the new Central Public Library in Winston-Salem, which opened in 1953. It was not until December 1970 that library service again was available in Lewisville, not a branch of the Forsyth County Public Library.

This 75-year-young Extension Homemaker continues her support of the library through Friends of the Library and arranging for monthly exhibits in display cases. She is also active in the Lewisville Arts & Crafts Guild, the Craft Club, a group of her former students from several years of teaching at Forsyth Technical College. Painting is another pastime.

She is a regular Operation Santa Claus volunteer, as well as volunteering two days a week at Vienna Village, a retirement home, one day working with crafts and the other day with sing-alongs and games.

Her family is an important part of her life. Son David lives in Orlando, Florida; daughter Dinah Taylor lives in Roswell; and another daughter, Dare Reich, lives in Lewisville and coincidentally works at the Lewisville Library.

The Lewisville Extension Homemakers Club gave the library a gift of $25 at the celebration. The club often holds its meetings there and it was a way of honoring Dorothy as well as showing our appreciation to the library.

Why We Are on Strike, 1934

A textile worker from Gastonia speaks out in the Charlotte Observer during the Strike of ’34.

I’ve been a mill worker for the past 11 years, have been considered one of the best spinners. But the load has almost got the best of me, for the machinery has been speeded up to the highest notch, more cleaning up has been put on us, till we can’t hardly bear any more.

There has been so much criticism on the part of the strikers that it has aroused my temper, and I want to tell from experience what I know about a mill worker.

Now you folks who read this letter, just picture a poor, frail mother getting up at 4 or 4:30 o’clock in the morning; watch her as she slips on her best printed dress and a flour sack apron. Imagine this poor little mother making enough bread for breakfast and dinner. Then she slices about half a dozen pieces of fat meat, makes each member a cup of hot coffee and goes to the table and asks God’s blessing on this humble food. Then she leaves her children in the hands of their grandma while she goes to work to help their daddy pay for this food which has been bought on credit and also to help buy clothes for them to wear.

I’ve seen women so wet from perspiration that it could be wrung from their clothes. I’ve seen them go to a window for a breath of fresh air, only to be whistled at by a sectin hand and made to get away from the window. I’ve been in a rush to get a drink of water, only to be watched by this same boss, watching every move. I’ve carried a bite of lunch to eat and would sit down with dirty hands, not even taking time to wash the oil and grease from my hands. I’ve swallowed only a few bites when this same boss comes and orders me to get back on the job, while he goes and takes a rest at his desk. I’ve seen “speeder hands” running like a scolded dog, trying to do his “creeling” and doffing. The work is speeded so high since the short hours began that the mill men are getting off more production in a 6 or 8 hour day than they got off in 11 hours per day.

They claim they are not making money. Well, if they are not making money, I ask you how can they afford to build those fine mansions to live in? How can every member of the family own his or her own car? How can they spend hot summers at the sea shores? How can they afford to take trips to foreign countries? How can they afford to send their children to college and obtain the best education? When the poor mill worker can’t make enough money to buy milk for his under-nourished children and can’t buy books to send them to school, and the mothers must watch the flour sacks like a hawk watching a chicken, to get hold of them to make little undergarments for her children.

Now picture this mother unable to work, and with only the father to make a living. He toils and sweats his 6 to 8 hours and comes in ready to fall over in his straw tick bed. Now on a pay day, look at this man draw his $9 for a week’s work after the rent has been taking out. This leaves him only $8. That is, if he occupies a four-room house. After he pays $8 for a ton of coal, where is his groceries coming from?

Now I want you to see this mill worker going to the store asking his grocery man for a week’s rations on credit. Watch him order 3 pounds fat meat at 16 cents a pound—48 cents; 24 pounds of flour--$1.10; about 50 cents’ worth of Irish potatoes; 25 cents’ worth of pinto beans; 1 pack cornmeal, 24 cents; not to speak of all the other things, such as milk, butter, coffee, etc.

Now do you people want to know for what reason are the textile workers on strike? Read carefully this letter and you will find out we want decent wages, shorter working hours and a right to organize and join a union and do away with this damnable stretchout system.

Carolina Co-operator Cover, April 1939

Belwood Homemakers Club Celebrated 'Annie Warlick Day'

“Cleveland’s Annie Warlick, 90, Began in Tomato Club at 10” by Lois Owen in the April, 1994, issue of Tar Heel Homemakers

The Belwood Extension Homemakers Club of Cleveland County recently saluted a very special member: Mrs. Annie Warlick. As a matter of fact, they called the day “Annie Warlick Day” and held the reception for Annie at Belwood Community Center.

Mrs. Warlick remembers hearing Jane McKimmon speak on July 4, 1914 at a meeting in Rutherford County. Annie was 10 years old at the time and was impressed with what Miss McKimmon said. Annie also preferred to work outside on the farm with her father, rather than the more traditional female jobs inside the home, so she became a member of Elliott’s Church Tomato Club, clubs which later became Home Demonstration Clubs and are today’s Extension Homemakers Clubs. Miss McKimmon was the state advisor for the Tomato Clubs.

Annie’s father helped her to prepare the land and soon she was involved in her first gardening project. This early experience in gardening and record keeping taught responsibility. She was disappointed, however, when the garden was disqualified from the competition because it was a “little more than a tenth of an acre,” which was the amount specified.

Mrs. Annie was recently featured in a local newspaper article. She told about the first home economics agent in the county, Miss Susan Weathers. Her means of transportation was a horse and buggy. Extension Homemaker members learned many things through the years about family living, food preparation, home furnishings, food safety, and other topics. Miss Thelma McVea, retired home economics Extension agent, taught the members how to use the pressure canner to preserve foods. Mrs. Warlick has a story to tell about the first time she canned jelly for a club competition. She and a friend poured the beautiful hot jelly into the jars and then dipped them into a pot of cold water. (The jars broke.) This was a lesson the girls learned the hard way! Mrs. Warlick’s mother was president of the Warlick Extension Homemakers Club when she married into the family and into the club.

Mrs. Warlick’s family has been active in the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service. All five of their children were members of 4-H. One daughter, Mrs. Ostine West, retired as home economics Extension agent in Davie County. One daughter-in-law, Mrs. Marlie Dean Warlick, is a former county council president.

Mrs. Warlick began in 1914 as a member of Elliotts Church Tomato Club. She became a member of Warlick Extension Homemakers Club, which later changed the name to Belwood Extension Homemakers Club. She has almost 80 years of active membership. Active membership means she still prepares and serves lunch to the entire club each year. That is quite a record and Mrs. Annie Warlick is quite a lady!

Work Hard, Yes, But Also Enjoy Your Farm, 1909

“Work Hard, Yes, But Also Enjoy Your Farm,” by A.L. French, Rockingham County, N.C., in the March 1909 issue of The Southern Planter

It has seemed to me at times as I have been going about among our farmers that only a small percent of them are getting any happiness out of their business. They will talk with us as long as we continue to point out where they may be able to make more dollars. Dollars are necessary, of course, and should be looked after carefully. No one knows this better than the writer who has been obliged to make what he has. But there are other things that it seems to me are even more to be desired, and that will afford the true farmer more real pleasure than the quest for more dollars.

How many of us realize that ours is a peculiar business? A real business, first, then a science, and the one of the most delightful means of recreation. Thus, we have an occupation, that if handled as I believe God has intended it should be handled, may answer to every need of the educated, up-to-date, broad-minded man. First, from a business; second, from a scientific; third from an aesthetic standpoint, and it seems such a pity to the writer that so many of our famers pay attention only to the business side of their occupation, and even fail at times to make the most of even this one part, leaving out of their lives all the broader, better things that may be theirs for the asking only.

Our methods are undoubtedly improving, and we hope the time is not far distant when the average farmer will take hold of his work with a zeal born of a love for his business, and not for the few dollars only that he may be able to accumulate.

Do you realize, my friends, that ours is the only business that is founded upon the soil itself and, that soil building, being allied with nature itself, is one of the greatest of sciences, and that the scientific farmer who is a soil builder has become a co-worker with nature.

Then there is the great work of plant breeding lying right at the door of the farmer. Who will allow his life to so broaden as to cover this branch of his business, a business to which men of great brains have been content to devote their entire lives, and then go to the Great Beyond with the knowledge that the work was only just begun, and what may be said of plant breeding applies with far greater force to the breeding of animals. Do you know that not one in 20 animals the farmers of America are handling have been improved at all, are scrubs pure and simple? Well, it is a fact, and if animal breeding—to the end that these millions of scrub animals may give place to animals of improved blood and far greater productive capacity—is not a study worthy of any farmer’s brain, pray tell me what would be?

The people of the world are progressing; more is asked of a man to-day than was required 25 years ago, greater capacity is required of the same sized brain. The farmer must not, and I know will not lag behind. But he will be required to study his business as he has never done before. He will turn his brain loose, and solve these scientific problems that confront him, and will be a better man, more worthy of his great business because of it.

One of the greatest needs of the world to-day is for more practical scientific agriculturists. Our soils have been depleted by hears of careless handling, and must be reclaimed if we are to continue to feed the world. Our plants are of inferior productive capacity, and must be bred up until they will pay for first class labor on first class land. Our animals are making not more than two-thirds the returns they might were they of improved type. These are only a few of the matters that are before the farmer of to-day for solution, and the study of which will afford not only profit in dollars, but vast pleasure a swell.

But enough of this. I want you, Brother Farmers, to get the boys and girls, and go afield with me as it is your and their right to see another side of country life. Have you ever seen during all the years that you have been living on the farm that grand old mountain standing there in all its majesty and grandeur? You have seen it, of course, but have you realized what it means to you; what an inspiration you might receive, if you would, from this sentinel standing back there in all its rugged beauty, a picture no artist has ever been able to copy, grand, sublime, the everlasting hills, all ours, if we would only be able to see with understanding.

Then down there in the valley, alongside that saucy little stream, don’t you see the pines, with the various shades of green, and almost hidden there are the dogwoods, wild plum and peach, in their bridal robes of bloom? If we walk down there we will hear the bees and humming birds as busy as they can be, and yonder only a little way is the pasture where millions of little plants—responding to the touch of spring air, striving in their silent way to repair the damage old Jack Frost did some weeks ago. The sheep are down there to the right is that sheltered spot, and the lambs—as full of play as ever—are vieing with one another for the post of honor, the highest point on that great boulder, where battles of this sort have been waged every returning spring for more than 50 years. But I hear a gentle lowing, and methinks the cow must be just over that little hill, as that call sounds very like the tones of Lady Nosegay, that calling to her bold, reckless son. It is as I had suspected, he has gone off with those big bull calves, and is fighting like a Trojan down there by the spring. Well, bulls will be bulls, but my word, isn’t he putting up a good fight! Look how those great muscles of his bulge, how the sod flies, see that big fellow—who ought to be ashamed of himself—sends the little fellow back on the fly. You had better look out, Mr. Big Bull, that old cow has been watching this fuss for some time, and if you don’t “tote fair” with that little fellow you will find yourself lying on your back with a bad bump on your stomach, the first thing you know. Mothers can’t stand everything.

Let farmers—hard workers though we be—try to listen to the music and see more of the silent beauty all around us. Wealthy city people pay thousands to hear and see the things that cost the farmer noting, but an appreciative understanding.