Union and Montgomery County Farm Report, January 1949

By F.H. Jeter, Extension Editor, N.C. State College, Raleigh, as published in the Charlotte Observer on Jan. 10, 1949

UNION COUNTY

Tom Evans, manager of a Union County farm, is not yet ready to stop growing cotton. He believes it is still a good sandy land crop, because he picked 400 pounds of lint an acre at his first picking last fall and went on to average over a bale of lint per acre for the entire farm.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY

Over in adjoining Montgomery County, local corn growers have made an especial effort to produce their own planting seed for 1949. There were eight accredited producers with an average of 27.5 acres each, and they produced about 35 bushels an acre of No. 1 corn seed per acre. The growers say that this will be enough homegrown seed to plant 5,000 acres, which means that about 75 percent of the corn land can be planted with this locally grown seed supply. The regular yields of corn were lower than usual last summer although some of the growers in the Montgomery corn contest report from 92 up to 111 bushels an acre. Quite a few men have had corn to sell, but the price dropped to $1 a bushel locally. Let’s hope that these men will find some livestock with which to feed this surplus.

Ninety-one Montgomery boys entered the corn growing contest sponsored by the civic organizations of the county with probably the highest yield being that by Henry Allen of Troy, who produced 130 bushels on a measured acre.

County Agent Austin Garris says that the folks of Montgomery have gone right ahead with their farm fish ponds during the past summer and fall. Among the new builders have been D.W. Hamilton of Troy, Bill Tomlinson of Candor, and Lloyd Wood and Luke Saunders, both of Troy. Jesse Maness of Allreds had his old pond reworked and a new one added. 

In August, 20 fish pond owners secured bream from the hatchery near Hoffman. The ponds ranked in size from one-half acre to 10 acres and were stocked with 1,000 bream and 100 bass per acre. About 30,000 bream fingerlings were placed in 30 acres of pond in August.

R.H. Wesson, assistant agent, added that there are about 60 farm fish ponds in Montgomery at this time with 35 of them having been built and stocked this past year. Most of the ponds were built by the county terracing unit with the Brown Creek Soil Conservation District helping to secure the fingerlings. Ordinarily, Montgomery farmers plant their ponds for a spot that is unsuitable for growing crops, and they use the water so impounded for the livestock, swimming, irrigation, and as a spray water for treating the orchards and crops. Better still, the owners also like to fish, and they say that these farm fish ponds provide wonderful sport for an idle hour.

The county terracing unit also is used to clear land as well as to build dams and construct terraces. Robert Freeman of Troy had four acres of good land cleared in the early fall for planting to pasture. While he had the unit out there, he terraced eight acres and then had his lawn smoothed off, the rocks pushed out, and a new plantation road built. No use to have these heavy power units available and not use them, he says.

Mr. Garris believes that one of the finest things happening in Montgomery this past season has been the many new silos established and filled; the fine quality of hay saved; the new alfalfa fields seeded; and the small grain and pasture crops planted last fall. Practically every grade “A” dairyman in the county put up at least three tons of silage per cow as winter feed. This means plenty of succulent feed for any bad weather that may come along in January and February.