Braswell Family in Union County Example of Farmers In National Emergency, 1945

By F.H. Jeter, Extension Editor, N.C. State College, Raleigh, as printed in the Wilmington Star, Feb. 19, 1945

Occasionally there comes to light such an amazing record of hard work by a farm family that the story should be told. When I was in Union county the other week, I was told about the S.B. Braswell family that lives on a medium-sized farm on Rural Route 3 near Monroe. What the Braswell family did last year is probably not more than what was accomplished by many other self-sacrificing family on other farms in various parts of the state, but this Union County family does furnish a sterling example of good management, determined spirit and patriotic effort to aid the nation in producing the food and other farm supplies needed in this national emergency.

Tom Broom, Union farm agent, furnished me with the definite figures showing how this family overcame difficulties and worked long, hard hours to secure an unusual production. There are only 110 acres of open or crop land on the Braswell Farm. Mr. Braswell is 49 years of age and his good wife is 47. They have one son in the army and three younger children at home. Of the three children, the oldest is a girl 14 years old and two boys who are 10 and 7 respectively. During 1944 there was one tenant on the place but he was called into the army last fall leaving only Mr. Braswell, his wife and the three small children to handle the place. These three children, it should be noted, attend school nine months of the year.

With this small force, Mr. Braswell last year grew 17 acres of wheat that yielded 408 bushels; 20 acres of oats that produced 800 bushels; 7 acres of mixed grain that produced 200 bushels; 5 acres of barley, 125 bushels; and 7 ½ acres of cotton that produced 11 bales with an average weight of 515 pounds each. In addition, he grew 3 acres of alfalfa, 9 acres of red clover, and 65 acres of lespedeza. From this lespedeza acreage, he harvested 5 acres for hay and produced 19,000 pounds of good seed from the remaining 60 acres.

The only outside help the Braswells had was furnished by the tenant who aided with the grain and the lespedeza hay. But he was able to help only few days because he also had 6 acres of cotton and 10 acres of corn.

In addition to these crops, says Mr. Broom, Mrs. Braswell kept 450 laying hens form which flock she sold $2,669 worth of eggs and $302 worth of hen and broilers for market. She now has 500 hens which she will keep throughout this season and more pullets will be grown to replace the older hens next winter. Not only did she look after these hens but she did all of her own housework, the cooking, laundry and other essential jobs about the farm home.

The Braswells kept four cows and last April they began to send milk to the receiving plant at Albemarle. From that time until the first of January of this year, they sold 10,900 pounds of milk. Some of the younger cows are coming in “fresh” now and they expect to provide more milk for the market this year. They also sold $408 worth of beef cattle and $93 worth of pork.

Mr. and Mrs. Braswell did all of this work themselves with what help they could get from the children. Not only did Mr. Braswell and his children pick the 11 bales of cotton produced on his farm but they also helped a neighbor by picking 2,400 pounds for him. With the aid of his 10-year-old son, he harvested 19,000 pounds of lespedeza seed alone. They have this same farm situation facing them for 1945, and Mr. Braswell says that he and the children will again take care of every acre of crop land and have it producing something of value to the nation.

Mr. Braswell is one of many North Carolina farmers who apparently do not know the limits of their endurance. He has learned to make his labor count for more, to budget his time, and to secure better returns from a given amount of work. Other farm agents say that many of the men who work with them now are using fertilizers more efficiently, are handling their equipment and machinery with greater skill, and have begun to give serious study to modern farm management plans.