Craven County 4-H Girls Show Farming Ability, 1945

By F.H. Jeter, Extension Editor, N.C. State College, Raleigh, as printed in the Wilmington Star on October 29, 1945

Farm women and girls have proved their metal in North Carolina during the war emergency. They show about as much farming ability as their husbands and brothers.

For instance, Jessie Trowbridge, home agent of Craven County, says the 4-H Club girls are about as good crop farmers as are the boys. Ella Merle Koonce of the Brinson Memorial Club grew one of the best acres of corn in that community this year. She planted an acre of hybrid in April, fertilized it with 300 pounds of a 3-8-5 fertilizer at seeding time, and then side-dressed it with 200 pounds of nitrate of soda. The acre yielded a little over 50 bushels of corn which is twice the average yield made by her father.

The dad said, “She plowed as good as any boy,” and rather grudgingly admitted that she had beat him this year.

Now Ella Merle plans to swap her corn to her father for feeder pigs and start in the swine business.

Margaret Cox of Jasper and Mona Tyndall of Bridgeton are two other girls who are growing beef cattle. Margaret bought her calf last June when 11 Craven boys bought theirs from Master Farmer Fred Latham at Belhaven. Mona has three baby beeves and plans to select the best of the three for entering in the eastern Carolina fat stock shows next spring. The two girls will be the first of their sex to compete in these shows from Craven County in a number of years, and they are out to win.

The calves have been grazed all summer on good pasture and will shortly be placed in stalls for full feeding on crushed corn, cottonseed meal and roughage. Mona and Margaret are taking time to train the animals for the show ring, and they say that some boy is going to watch rather sadly while the blue ribbons are placed on these two animals.

Then, there is Lillie Mae Gatlin of Vanceboro who is doing a splendid job with her garden and poultry flock. Her carefully kept record shows a net profit above all costs of 4151.22 from the 72 hens in her flock. She did not keep a record of the quantity or value of the vegetables produced in her garden, but she grew all that has been used this summer by a family of 11 persons. That sounds like a fairly good garden. These incidents could be multiplied many times in North Carolina, showing that the girls and women have sought to do their part in the war emergency.