Watauga County Has New Cheese Factory, 1937

From The Southern Planter, January, 1937

The construction of a cheese factory in Watauga County, North Carolina has opened a new market for dairy products in that area.

The factory, which started operating recently, is located at Beaver Dam and is under the management of Bud Trivett, former cheese maker at the Beaver Dam Cooperative Factory.

Trivett has a fine herd of Holsteins which is supplying part of the milk used in making the cheese. He is also buying milk from other farmers of the section.

A unique feature of this new plant is the method of cooling the curing room by piping water from a cold mountain stream directly into the plant. Evaporation of the water maintains a temperature just right for curing cheese.

F.R. Farnham, North Carolina State College, says that Trivett is manufacturing a five-pound cheddar brick cheese which is finding a ready sale. The cheese is of excellent quality and is made into a convenient size desired by homemaker.

Transylvania County Home Demonstration Clubs Had a Chant in 1919

By Meta Newcomer, Transylvania County, in the January 1994 issue of Tar Heel Homemakers

In 1919, Home Demonstrator Lula Cassidy helped organize community development clubs in Transylvania County. They even had their own chant:

We are the clubs of state-wide fame

Home Demonstration is our name.

Tall girls, short girls, fat girls, thin

The Home Demonstration Club

Takes them all in.

You don’t need money

And you don’t need pearls.

Anybody, everybody,

Just so you’re girls.

“Prior to this time, the men had organized clubs such as the Corn Club, Pig Club, Potato Club, Poultry Club, Wheat Club and other agricultural clubs. Now it was time for the homemakers to learn new ways and to enjoy a new form of socializing. Today’s Extension Homemaker is an informed woman who is headed for a future with a confident knowledge that she is keeping pace, if not one step ahead,” said Meta Newcomer, EH Club member.

Canning Meats, Making Money, and Other News From Farm Women, 1939

“For the Farm Woman” by Dr. Jane S. McKimmon, Assistant Director of State Extension, the January, 1939 issue of Carolina Co-operator. Just a reminder, the USDA has current directions for home canning on the web at http://www.csrees.usda.gov/newsroom/news/2011news/home_canning_guide.html. The following article talks about using a pressure cooker to home can meats. But then it instructs the reader to can at 15 pounds pressure. Only a pressure canner has a gauge that measures pounds pressure. Pressure cookers should not be used to can foods. See canned meats at: http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/usda/GUIDE%205%20Home%20Can.pdf. Canned meats never get freezer burn!

The same pressure cooker which you used for corn and beans last summer can very conveniently and safely preserve backbone, sausage, liver, and other parts of freshly killed pigs. No longer is it necessary for you to eat a larger portion of fresh pork than is good for your health because you want to save it—canned pork is a delicacy for farm families at all seasons of the year. It’s done like this:

Select fresh, clean meat. Discard all fat. Chill the pork 24 hours before canning. Cut into pieces of convenient size and pack in hot sterilized jars. Arrange the pieces so that heat may penetrate readily, which must be done both with partially cooked and raw meats.

Add 2 teaspoonfuls of salt to each quart, and pepper may be used sparingly if desired. Sausage and liver should be packed dry and all other cooked parts covered with broth or with diluted pan gravy to improve the flavor. Leave ½ inch space at the top of the jar when packing.

Do not add liquid to meat which is packed raw as processing will draw out enough liquid to cover the product. Process both raw and cooked meat 60 minutes at 15 pounds pressure and you will have toothsome meats to serve your family or guests at any time of the year. Write for the meat canning bulletin, State College, for more detailed directions.

Hobbies Pay Off

Did you know that a farmer invented the typewriter? Perhaps this bears out the theory of Francis Jenkins, inventor of a system of television, who said that a new thing always originates in a single mind, usually the brain of a poor man. Great inventions are not the product of great wealth, but have almost always been the result of someone’s riding a hobby, a kindly soul tinkering around in the woodshed with perhaps what the neighbors were pleased to call his “crazy” idea.

Of course, we can’t all be great inventors, but we can learn how to utilize the things that are produced on the farm. Many North Carolina farm women are making rag rugs in gay colors and attractive patters so hard to resist by women who live in the city. Some are putting up jars or jams or jellies in odd-shaped and unique little jars, and they always bring good prices. Pine cones and needles, painted with silver, blue, and gold, make attractive ornaments. Some are creating markets for the small food surpluses on the farm.

There are a great many things “right under your nose” that you can sell if you’ll only look and take advantage of them.

Mecklenburg County Woman’s Market

The present success of Mecklenburg County’s market for farm women dates back to what was done in 1935, when it was established in Charlotte on the corner of 2^nd and Brevard Streets. The market’s growth was so encouraging that in 1937, the county board of commissioners appropriated $1,000 for more adequate quarters, and it was moved to its present site on the first of January, 1938.

The market did a $12,874 business last year, which was an increase of more than $5,000 over the record sales of 1937. During 1938 about 200 families of the county sold their produce on the market, which is open on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and every Saturday an average of about 35 families have produce on sale. Each seller stands behind her portion of the 15 by 12-foot tables in the market and is responsible for the quality of the things she sells.

Mrs. Ralph Urey of the Dixie Community has been manager of the market for a number of years, and she determines prices by current cash-and-carry prices in Charlotte.

Recently Fannie Caldwell of the Newell Club won a large cookie jar in a contest for table arrangement, while second prize, a carved wood nut bowl, went to Mrs. Clyde Hewitt.

Gourds

Oddly shaped and beautifully colored gourds have a market value and now that women become ornamental gourd conscious, you can see them growing along fences almost everywhere.

The possibilities for the use of gourds are many. Small flower baskets, hanging baskets, candle sticks, and charm strings, into which they may be fashioned, always prove fascinating, both to the one who grows them and the one who buys them. Small round gourds, with the tops cut off and with ferns planted in them, might sell well on the curb markets.

If you do attempt to grow gourds, see what you can do by way of changing their shapes while they are growing. It is interesting to watch the various shapes and colors as the vines bear fruit and odd shapes are always salable.

The neck or some other part of the gourd can be narrowed by tying a cloth band round it. As the gourd grows it will bulge around the band. To have a long, straight handle, train the vine on a fence and let the gourd hang down. The weight of the large part will keep the handle straight.

Budgeted Wardrobe

If you accomplish the feat of dressing well on a small income, it will take a large amount of head work, with much washing, pressing, mending, and sewing; also good taste and care and restraint in budget hunting.

A clothing budget apportioning from 12 to 20 percent of the family’s income is divided as follows: 65 percent for outer clothing, such as coats and dresses; 20 percent for accessories, such as shoes, hats, stockings, gloves, handkerchiefs, scarves, etc.; 12 percent for underclothes; and 3 percent for upkeep.

The coat is the most important garment in a woman’s wardrobe and takes up a goodly slice of the 65 percent of her budget allotted to outer clothing. It should be well cut and fitted because it is seen most often, not only in the season in which it is purchased but in the other years during which it must be worn. Under such circumstances you should not indulge in fads or fancies. When you choose your coat, look for good material, good lines, good workmanship, and a color not too pronounced for you cannot afford to be spotted by an insistent color in which you will appear perhaps more than one year. Better stick to blacks, browns, navies, or grays, which are dependable and go well with almost any other color.

Gaston Community Center

Most of the Home Demonstration Club houses which have been built in North Carolina are growing into real community centers. About 150 members of the men’s club and the Home Demonstration Club in the Goodwill Community, Gaston County, came together last month in the club house for games, singing, and refreshments.

Carrying out their policy of helping the women help the community, these men have added to the club house china in the approved pattern and are now embarked on a rock driveway from the road to the door and paths to other spots.

Women’s News

The Gaston County home agent took her prize-winning girls in the county dress revue to a first Monday meeting of the county commissioners to let them see how well those prize winners could model the dresses they had made themselves.

Lorna Langley became Sampson County agent recently to succeed Minnie Lee Garrison, who was appointed home agent in Polk County.

Josephine Hall, former home economics teacher in Wagram, recently took up her duty as Hoke County home demonstration agent.

The Strowd Hill Club of Orange County recently met in the kitchen of Mrs. Oscar Ray and witnessed a meat-canning demonstration given by the Orange County home agent.

Mrs. Jasper Hargell of Jones County made a new spring suit out of five fertilizer bags, a five cent spool of cotton, and brown buttons taken off an old suit.

A number of farm women in Anson County will soon have electricity in their homes as the REA has already promised that some electric lines will be built in the near future.

‘Eleanor Roosevelt’ is the name given one of the three new strawberry varieties resulting from cooperative breeding investigations of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the N.C. Agricultural Experiment Station at State College, and the State Agriculture Department.

The 4-H girls of Chowan County have been making Scotch hats, scarves, and vests as accessories for spring, and their next project will be a cotton school dress.

Hattie Pearl Mallard, a former Jones County 4-H Club girl, is the new Duplin County home agent, succeeding Jayme Martin, who was recently married.

Doctor Explains Proposed Health Care Program to Kiwanis, 1945

Raleigh Times, Jan. 22, 1945

The people of North Carolina should not lack for adequate hospital care if the program proposed by the Governor’s Commission on medical and hospital care is adopted by the state, Dr. Hubert Haywood told the Kiwanis Club Friday.

Proper facilities for medical care are lacking especially in rural areas where three-fourths of the State’s population lives and where the cash income averages as low as $600, he said.

The proposed program will not disrupt the “fine relationship between the doctor and the patient” since its purpose it so fulfill the requirements of a sound medical care program and not to destroy existing relationships, Dr. Haywood said.

He commended the commission’s recommendations in asking for enlarged facilities and the establishment of regional hospital for members of the Negro race.

Dr. Haywood was presented by George Ragsdale. The club decided to forego the annual “Ladies Night.” President Joe Correll presided.

I Hereby Resolve, 1938

From the January, 1938, issue of Carolina Co-operator

I Hereby Resolve—

If only a few of the many inspiring resolutions sent in in this year’s Resolutions Contest are followed, North Carolina will be a much better place during 1938.

As we once more bring our New Years’ Resolution Contest to a close, we have been struck by the hundreds of creditable and inspiring resolutions which have been sent in by our readers, and we want to thank each and everyone who took the trouble to send in their entries.

Although space will not permit us to publish all of the hundreds of splendid resolutions submitted, we are, nevertheless, giving herewith a number of those selected at random among the entries. But first, here is the winning list of resolutions from Mrs. Elbert Lee Braxton of Greenville:

WINNING RESOLUTIONS by Mrs. Elbert Lee Braxton, Greenville

I RESOLVE:

To do unto others as I would have them do unto me—and do it graciously;

To make my living at home, by raising my own hogs, vegetables, and chickens, and to buy a cow;

To buy quality, whether my purchase be seed, feed, fertilizer, clothing, livestock, or home furnishing;

To make every trip to town a profit trip by carrying something to sell, and to add this money to my Home Improvement Fund;

To arrange my time so that I will have time to do the things I want most to do, as, attend church and Sunday school regularly, attend my community’s home demonstration club meetings regularly, try some new kinds of flowers and vegetables, learn to knit and crochet and make some rugs, and make scrapbooks of my boxes of clippings.

I Resolve:

--To Read my Bible through as many times as I can.—Mrs. B.L. Jordan, Hertford.

--To continue to sell my cotton through the Association where I get the high dollar.—Mrs. J.M. Norton, Raeford.

--To take part in more community and church activities.—Katy Lou Gray, Cleveland.

--To feed FCX and read the Carolina Co-operator.—Mrs. J.J. Whitlock, Hamptonville.

--To meet misfortune with a smile.—Margaret Myatt, Smithfield.

--To do more for my land this year in the way of cultivating it.—Mrs. Graham Johnson, Elizabethtown.

--To control my temper.—Miss Gertrude Hardison, Greenville.

--To do my duty at my church—Malon Clark, Roper.

--To try to gain more friends in 1938.—Miss Janie Grissom, Kittrell.

--To try to make my home a better place in which to live.—Miss Edna Ferrell, Knightdale.

--To give thanks before each meal.—William H. Gill, Henderson.

--To read and profit by the cooperative program during 1938—Mrs. C.M. Farlow, Sophia.

--To wear more smiles.—Mrs. M.W. Tucker, Marston.

--Not to wait until the last minute to do things.—Miss Mary Tucker, Marston.

--To work harder and be more saving.—Henry Pope, Dunn.

--To take all defeats bravely.—Charlotte E. Lee, Four Oaks.

--To read some portion of the Master’s Word each day, follow His teaching, and be at peace with Him.—Mrs. G.D. Groce, Jonesboro.

--To use North Carolina Experiment Station recommendations as to variety of seeds, kind of fertilizer, and amount of fertilizer.—Earle Purser, Monroe.

--To recognize the good in myself and others.—Mrs. Paul C. Thomas, Washington.

--To be more kind to old people and poor people.—Mrs. Rance Tedder, Mt. Gilead.

--To try to be more neighborly and helpful in school and community projects.—Mrs. L.R. Jordan, Pikeville.

New Year's Resolutions for 1937

December, 1936, Carolina Co-Operator

This month we are turning our editorial page over to others, over to those who participated in our annual Resolutions Contest in which thousands of New Year resolutions were submitted.

The first prize of $5 goes to A.B. Bryan of Clemson, S.C., who for 1936 has:

1.       Resolved that will read and think more this year, looking beyond the present in planning my farm business and in working my plans, so that I will not reap merely “a harvest of barren regrets.”

2.       Resolved that I will not stake everything on one cash crop, whether it be cotton or something else, and will produce home and farm supplies to the fullest extent consistent with my land and conditions.

3.       Resolved that since a worn-out soil means a worn-out man, I will not rob my soil of its fertility but will terrace my fields where necessary, will build up the waste places, and will get my nitrates for fertility more and more from the air through legume cover crops.

4.       Resolved that I will join the Cooperative Associations, the Grange, and other organizations for rural mutual benefit and will work to help make them successful to the benefit of myself and my community.

5.       Resolved that I will look and work toward a better day for rural life and that even in the face of discouraging conditions and experiences I will keep up my spirit and my faith that the Creator of the land and of all things animate and inanimate with which I work will not forsake the faithful tiller of the soil.

“Most honorable” mention, as the Chinese are so fond of saying, goes to Thomas A. Thompson of Bynum, whose terse resolutions embrace an excellent program. For 1936 Mr. Thompson resolves:

1.       To have my entire farm adequately terraced.

2.       To sow lespedeza in all my small grain.

3.       To prune and spray all fruit trees on my farm.

4.       To raise more live stock and poultry.

5.       To adopt a four-year rotation system for my farm.

Other resolutions submitted, we think, are just to valuable for our readers to miss, so we are taking one from each of the best 25 sets and printing them below. If you are an ambitious person, our advice is that you just adopt all the resolutions on this page in their entirety, and then if you are not a lot better off this time next year, all we can say is that something is radically wrong.

In presenting the resolutions below, no attempt is made to list them in the order of their importance or merit.

I Hereby Resolve

1.       To meet my church obligations both religiously and financially as far as possible.—Dardine Blue, Carthage, Route 3.

2.       To conduct my life in such a way that I will not be afraid of death any time.—Howard Bennett, Autryville.

3.       To be the best Christian, the best wife, the best mother, the best neighbor, the best friend I can.—Mrs. F.H. Page, Rout 1, Morrisville.

4.       To listen to the still small voice that whispers into the ear of every person the things he should do to make happiness a motivating power in every life with whom he comes in contact.—Miss Sara Tatum, Clinton.

5.       To seek to put first things first in my life.—G.K. Watts, Route 5, Statesville.

6.       To support my church, my home, and my family.—Bernice L. Sutton, Route 1, Goldsboro.

7.       To allow nothing, however hard it may seem to prevent me from wearing a smile and spreading sunshine in my daily contacts.—Coy Hewett, Wilmington.

8.       To learn a new word or fact every day without going about bristling with my new knowledge, but waiting for a suitable occasion to use it.—Beulah Walton, Route 1, Morrisville.

9.       To be more attractive among my schoolmates and at social affairs.—Gwendolyn Cotton.

10.   To live a Christian life.—Mrs. Mary J. Hill, Roxobel.

11.   To love and support my country.—Mary Brann, Box 485, Farmville.

12.   To be on time for all things I undertake to do.—Verna Cotton, Route 2, Enfield.

13.   To raise more of my food at home.--Ariathia Mitchell, Potecasi.

14.   To spend the family dollar more wisely by making a spending plan in advance and then abiding by it.—Carter McRae, Purvis.

15.   To do unto every one as I would have them do unto me.—J.A. Trulove, Route 3, Dunn.

16.   To beautify the home with flowers.—Louise Braswell, Route 1, Goldsboro.

17.   To be a child with my children as well as a father to them.—C.J. Covington, Troy.

18.   To try to help others any time I can, to help up instead of down, to speak a good word of anybody instead of bad, to try to attend to my affairs and let others alone.—Mrs. Lee Walston, Macclesfiled, Route 2.

19.   To be alert to opportunities that greet me daily.—Ruby Harper, Deep Run.

20.   To preserve and care diligently for the land which God has given me and also the animals which I possess.—J.C. Bishop, Scranton.

21.   To keep abreast of the times, to read much on farming, social, politics, and religious phases daily in 1936.—Mrs. A.N. Henderson, Route 1, Rutherfordton.

22.   To study the Carolina Co-operator more for profitable results, and to interest others in its splendid value.—Mildred Fowler, Route 2, Salisbury.

23.   To have a larger and better garden than ever before, that it may protect the health of my family.—Mrs. Bonnie P. Hinton.

24.   To spend a little less than my income.—G.K. Watts, Route 5, Statesville.

25.   To love my friends and visit among them more in 1936 than in 1935.—Mrs. Claude Dhue, Route 6, Durham.

Farm News From Across North Carolina, December 1937

“Around the State” from the December, 1937, issue of Carolina Co-operator

More than 250 members of the home demonstration clubs of Northampton County met at Jackson November 15, at which time the assembled clubwomen listened to an appeal from Mr. Frank Jeter, agricultural editor of State College, in which he requested their aid in getting their husbands and brothers to break away from a system of one-crop, soil-depleting farming to a more balanced system in which livestocks and legumes would be included.

Mrs. Mildred Ives Matthews, home agent of Northampton County, arranged the meeting and reported that it was one of the most successful ever held in the county.

Other Farm News

--C.W. Allen, tenant farmer of Mecklenburg County, has been appointed member of the committee to administer the Bankhead-Jones farm tenant act.

--Robeson County hog cooperative has so far this year shipped 58 cars of hogs, returning $84,377.46, at an average of 10 cents a pound.

--Aerial maps, which will greatly facilitate checking of acreage in Halifax County, have been completed by County Agent Davis.

--Mr. and Mrs. John W. Burnett of Pender County are to be congratulated upon attaining their 50^th wedding anniversary on November 14.

--Chowan County farmers played host to Armando A. Callejo of Cuba, who visited the county to study peanut production.

--An effort to raise mule colts is being made on Cannondale Farm near Concord.

--H.D. Williams of Kenansville, Duplin County, has a steel ram on his farm which has produced his water supply for 35 years at a cost of approximately 30 cents a year.

--Enfield, Halifax County, reports a very successful outcome of their first annual Peanut and Cotton Festival.

--H.W. Spruill, Tyrrell County, used $3.52 worth of fertilizer per acre and increased his soybean yield from nine to 20 ½ bushels.

--Mary Frances Thompson, 4-H Club girl of Durham, was crowned new national canning camptoin at the 4-H Club Congress held in Chicago recently. Over an eight-year period, Miss Thompson canned 9,356 pints of vegetables, fruits, and meats, valued at $2,148.

--A survey just made by the State Department of Agriculture showed that farm workers in North Carolina received an average of $17.88 per month with board this year, compared to $15.94 last year. In spite of the more attractive wages, a 12-year low in farm labor supply was experienced the latter part of the present year.

--Dairy farming should be one of the bright spots in the agricultural picture this coming witner, if present indications prove out correctly. Feed prices are lower, consumer demand is on the upturn,and relatively low stocks are in storage.

--Electrification of rural districts is rapidly proceeding. As an example of this great trend towards modernization of the farm, over 700 farm homes were wired the past year in one North Carolina county alone—Lenoir.