North Carolina Rates High Farm Population and Industrial Production, Sept. 28, 1924

Because Hurricane Helene could cause a power outage, I’m posting this article a day early.

Our Farm Population

One of the outstanding facts about the population of North Carolina is the aggregate of actual farm dwellers. In 1920 our actual farm population numbered 1,501,227 and only two states in the Union, Texas and Georgia, had more people living on farms. Her area considered, North Carolina ranks far ahead of both Texas and Georgia in this respect.

The rural population of North Carolina is 71.5 percent of our total population. The actual farm dwellers are 58.7 percent of our population, leaving 12.8 percent of the total populating living outside of incorporated towns, but not living on farms.

In only four states in the Union is the percent of the total population living on farms larger than in North Carolina. These states are Mississippi, Arkansas, South Carolina, and North Dakota.

For the entire United States only 29.9 percent of all people live on farms, while the average for this state is 58.7 percent, or twice the average for all the states.

At the present time probably only two states in the Union, Texas and Georgia, have more farms than North Carolina, which goes far to explain our high rank in the production of crop wealth. North Carolina has 2.4 percent of the total population of the United States, but she has 5 percent of the total farm population.

This is all very significant in view of the fact that North Carolina ranks 15th in the United States, and first in the South, in the value of factory products. Factories are located for the most part in urban areas, and considering the relatively small percent of our urban population it is very significant that we should rank so high as an industrial state. Also we get a clearer idea as to why we rank fifth in the total production of crop wealth and14thin the production of agricultural wealth.

--University News Letter

From page 4, the editorial page of the Durham Morning Herald, Sunday September 28, 1924. The University News Letter was produced by UNC-Chapel Hill.

newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn84020730/1924-09-28/ed-1/seq-4/#words=SEPTEMBER+28%2C+1924