By W.M. Sanders
Some time during the last week the writer remembers to have you read a letter from your correspondent, J.D., who was writing from the west. Among the many interesting things mentioned, something reminded him of the Old Man Carter and His Oats, and he stated that he knew but little of Mr. Carter. I am writing to invite J.D. to come down to Johnston county immediately upon his return to Raleigh and I will take him out to see Mr. Carter, who lives a few miles west of the town. The writer knows Mr. Carter very well and is satisfied that he is entitled to the reputation won by him and that he really makes more oats than can be stacked on the land from which they are cut. For instance, last October, rain or no rain, Mr. Carter prepared his lands as usual during a severe drought and sowed his oats just as if he expected to have the needed rains in due time.
The writing became so much interested in Mr. Carter and his oat sowing that he visited him and was informed by the old gentleman that on this particular fix acres, a bottom place on his farm, he first broke the land with a two-horse plow. The land was in soy beans during the spring and summer. These were both cut with the mower. The tops were used for hay, both for mules and hogs, and what was left on the land was turned under. A ton and a half or two tons of agricultural lime (ground lime stone) was spread upon the land and that cut n the disc harrow. Appler seed oats were selected ad sown from a grain drill at the rate of 2 ½ to 3 bushels to the acre. At the same time 400 pounds of standard fertilizer was sown from the same drill. Mr. Carter’s field of oats was a beautiful sight to behold and from that field the old gentleman cut 40,500 pounds, actual weight. He also stated to the writer that he was at that time feeding on oats made during the year 1921! Mr. Carter claims that his 40,500 pounds of oats will feed 11 mules 365 days in the year, allowing each mule 10 pounds per day.
Corn After Oats
The writer passed thru the Carter farm one day last week; after cutting the oats last spring he broke the land on which this magnificent crop was grown and planted the six acres in corn. The corn now is six weeks old It is as high as a man’s shoulders and Mr. Carter thinks that he will make not less than 100 barrels of corn on this plat of land.
I am writing this letter first to emphasize the fact that it is easy in this goodly land to make long feed for livestock in abundance. Estimating the oat crop to be worth $500, the corn crop to be worth $500, it will be readily seen that the gross income from this six acres of land will be $1,000. I am quite sure that Mr. Carter will receive $600 net profit or $100 net to each and every acre. Mr. Carter stated that he planted Latham’s double and he expects his corn to yield at a rate of 15,000 to 20,000 ears to each acre. From every grain of corn that he planted he expects to receive in return 1,500 grains I hope J.D. will come to Smithfield on his return and the writer will be glad to drive him out to the Carter farm and by all means I wish him to bring along M.J.W. Bailey and Mr. Ben Dixon MacNeill and their friend, John Smith. I believe who is a protégé of there and lives three or four miles east of Raleigh.
Mr. Carter is a tenant farmer. In conversation with Mr. Carter he made the statement that it was easy to make money farming; that no man had a right to complain at the returns for his labor. Every grain of corn should yield a harvest of 1,500 grains. Every cotton seed planted should bring a return of from 1,500 to 2,000 seed besides the cotton.
A Generous Landlord
The writer found Mr. Carter to interesting that he lingered and talked with him for more than an hour. The old gentleman stated that his landlord furnished him with a comfortable dwelling free of rent, with a garden free of rent, with potato patch free of rent, with barns and outhouses free of rent, and with an abundance of firewood without charge. The writer remembered that the land on which Mr. Carter lived was taxed pretty high for the purpose of educating the Carter children and for (the) purpose of maintaining public road that ran thru the farm. I wonder if John Smith first referred to is the same John Smith that is now going to Mr. Shay’s school. I noticed in The News and Observer of July 16 that Mr. Shay has a very interesting article on the subject of John Smith “Decides to Attend the Farm Convention.” The writer related to Mr. Carter Mr. Shay’s article. He said he remembered what Mr. Bailey and Mr. McNeill a year ago had to say about poor old John Smith and he had thought by this time that the poor old man had really died for the want of proper sustenance.
There is no sort of doubt but that the farmers should flock to the farmers’ convention. Timothy has been shipped into this country from the western states in carloads during the present year and selling (for) from $35 to $40 per ton. Corn also has been shipped in to some extent, as well as meat, lard, flour and oats.
Grow Food Crops!
If the agricultural school can influence the farmers of the state to grow food crops in abundance, both for man and beast, they will have rendered the state an incalculable service. Theoretically, the growing of tobacco and cotton as money crops is plausible, but the writer has observed that the prosperous farmers are those who wisely plant food crops first and make cotton and tobacco of secondary consideration.
The approach of the boll weevil suggests that the present methods of farming must be changed. The writer believes that it might be a good idea for Governor Morrison to call together the thoughtful people of the state in convention for the purpose of discussing the approaching conditions, and to advise to make immediate preparations for the seeding of food crops which should be sown during September, October and November. It might result in comfort to thousands of our citizens, and add millions to the wealth of the state.
From The Western Sentinel, Winston-Salem, Aug. 8, 1922
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