North Carolina Tenant Farmers Lack Modern Conveniences, Jan. 15, 1924

More Farm Home Conveniences Needed

The following report from the Tenancy Bulletin gives some interesting facts about the lack of farm home improvements in North Carolina:

“It is significant to note that 96.9 per cent of all the homes are heated by fireplaces, 98.6 per cent are lighted by lamps, 99.4 per cent of the washing is done by tubs and wash-boards, and 19.3 per cent do all sewing by hand. Not one farm home has a vacuum cleaner, 99.02 per cent have no kitchen sink, 91 per cent have no telephones, 98.13 per cent have no refrigerators, and 75.4 per cent of the families live on bare wood floors.

“Screens at the windows and doors are not only home conveniences, but health facilities in that they keep flies and mosquitoes out of the house. Eighty-one and three-tenths per cent of the homes of landless farmers have no screens, as compared to 69.2 per cent for the homes of the landowners. Sixty-four and nine-tenths per cent of the homes of the whites and 90.8 per cent of the homes of the negroes have no screens.”

In a state that can justly boast of prosperity, wealth, and progress, this report is nothing to be proud of. Probably the prosperity that this state is now enjoying will make it p possible for more farmers to install modern conveniences and enjoy some of the comforts to which they are entitled. These conveniences would lighten the work of the farm women and take from their patient shoulders some of the burdens under which they have been laboring so long. All these conveniences may not be added to the home at once, but that should not encourage a family to leave all of them alone. Why not decide on the things most needed and add one every year or two until most of the comforts are acquired?

There is nobody that deserves to reap some of the benefits of prosperity more than the farmer and the farm wife, and it is hoped that the time may come speedily in North Carolina when the farm home will represent the same air of comfort and convenience as that of the prosperous city dweller.

From page 4 of the Smithfield Herald, Jan. 15, 1924