Last Saturday a meeting was held of this board at the school house for the purpose of discussing matters related to agriculture in the Green's Creek section. H.P. Corwith, president of the board, with Mrs. Corwith and family, accompanied by J.W. Dunn, secretary of the Saluda Board of Trade, drove over for the meeting. There was a good attendance of the local farmers and their wives, and a very interesting conference was had, necessitating an afternoon session.
The morning session was opened with prayer by Rev. Hunter, pastor of the Hillcrest mission. H.P. Corwith presided and addressed the meeting specifically directing attention to the urgent need of a solution of the marketing problem, which, he said, as at present handled resulted in greatly restricting production in the county. He stated that there should be no more difficulty in disposing of all the products that Polk county could possibly raise and at good prices than he had experienced in marketing his apples from the Overbrook Orchard, but that, in order to do this, the farmers of the county would have to organize and create the machinery to do the work. It was, he felt, useless to depend upon any of the agencies to do this work, it must be done by the farmer, and until the farmer tackled this proposition himself he would have the greatest difficulty in disposing of the present very restricted output of his farm.
J.R. Samms followed with an impassioned appeal to the farmers of Polk county to follow the lead set by the farmers of Buncombe county, who had organized and built one warehouse, which had proven so successful that two or three more were now in process of construction. He outlines the methods of the Buncombe county farmers which, briefly, were the organization of a corporate body with a capitalization sufficent to erect a warehouse on the railroad, and the employment of a capable man to handle the products from the farms. The subscription to stock in this enterprise would be on a basis of $50 per share, with $10 paid in. the stock would be 6 per cent investment, and the dividends, together with the profits of trading should be there be any would be supplied to payment of the balance until the full $50 should be in the treasury.
The method of operation was as soon as the warehouse should be erected, and a man employed for the farmers to deliver their products and receive payment on a basis to be agreed by the board of management. Products would be received from every farmer in the county, regardless of membership, or possession of stock, and a commission would be charged for handling it, and sufficient to pay operating expenses and a guaranteed dividend of say 6 per cent. At the end of the year any profit over and above the dividend payment and cost of running the plant, would be distributed to owners of stock in proportion to the quantity of farm product each had marketed through the warehouse. He felt, of course, that this should be a community co-operative work, and that every farmer in the county should take stock. No risk weas involved in it. It has proven successful in Buncombe county. It has been thoroughly tested out in the state of Minnesota, where there were over 3,000 co-operative assocatins, which had marvelously increasing production on th efarms of the state. Moreover, the assocation would not only sell the products of the farm, but it would also buy and furnish supplies for the farmer at the low prices that could be secured by purchasing in large quantity, instead of as now, each individual farmr buying for himself, and paying retail prices for his supplies, while he got only wholesale prices for what he raised on his farm and found the greatest difficulty at times in disposing of his very limited production. He called attention to the fact that 20 pounds of butter would glut the market at Tryon, Saluda or Columbus, and the same in other lines, but with proper warehouse facilities, and th eright man to run it, shipment of the products of Polk county farms would be made in car lots, and the farmer would not be obliged to go round as he does now peddling the trifling things he ventures to raise because of the utter impossibility of disposing of larger quantities.
J.R. Sam's address was listened to intently by those present, and frequently punctuated with applause.
J.W. Dunn, secretary of the Saluda Board of Trade, addressed the meeting, dealing in a very comprehensive manner with the present conditions in Polk county, so far as regards agriculture; the limitations it is now suffering under; the possibilities of the agricultural development of the county; their effects upon all phases of community life--religious, educational, social, and particularly on the home life of the tiller of the soil. He spoke enthusiastically in favor of the plan submitted by J.R. Sams, and urged the farmers of the county to give grave and due consideration to the plan, which, he believed, was the only one that would result in building up Polk county.
A short recess was taken for dinner. On resumption of the meeting, a resolution was offered endorsing the proposition, and carried unanimously, the Advisory Board was instructed to hold educational meetings on the subject in the various townships of the ocunty, and to call a mass meeting for the first Monday in June at Columbus where, it is hoped, arrangements will be completed for a permanent warehouse and selling organization. A number of shares were taken at the Green's Creek meeting, and little doubt is felt that when the farmers realize the full meaning of the movement sufficient stock will be subscribed to put the proposition on a sound financial basis, and immediately thereafter a campaign will be started to get the farmers of the county to raise larger crops to be handled through the warehouse.
From the Polk County News, Tryon, N.C., April 29, 1921. County agent's last name sometimes spelled Sams and other times Samms in this article. I don't know which is correct.
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