Around the State, June 1956

From the “Around the State” column in the June 1956 issue of North Carolina’s Extension Farm-News

PASQUOTANK COUNTY

To hear Jack Stafford of Elizabeth City, Route 3, tell it, you’ve got about as much chance to make money at roulette or dice as you have truck farming. Pasquotank County Assistant Agent Walden M. Hearn quotes Stafford as saying, “Why, if I ;had 200 acres of radishes this year I would have made a killing; but when you can’t give the things away my farm is full of them. Every now and then I do have a good year,” he admitted.

SURRY COUNTY

Looks as if they’ll never stop finding uses for Epsom salts, Henry Draughn of White Plains, Surry County, had a tobacco plant bed that was “doing poorly.” It showed a magnesium deficiency. Assistant County Agent Samuel J. Young came to the rescue with a dose of Epsom salts—for the tobacco plants, that is. After two sprayings with the Epsom salts solution, the plants were looking much better.

TYRRELL COUNTY

A sixth-grade 4-H Club boy, Bryan Hopkins of Columbia, Route 1, recently got an unexpected dividend by showing the Grand Champion steer at the Tyrrell County fat stock show. Assistant County Agent Donald E. Stegall says that young Hopkins was plenty happy over winning. But he was “plumb flabbergasted” when he received a check for $25. It was from a former owner of the steer for doing such a good job with the steer project.

POLK COUNTY

R. Wilson of Mill Spring, Route 1, has found that giving his honey bees a little “elbow room” will keep down swarming. Polk County Assistant Agent Robert D. Flake says that Wilson had a hard time keeping his bees “down on the farm.” Now he says, “I learned to give my bees more room and ventilation in spring and summer. I just open up the bee entrance and add another brood chamber. I’ve learned how to keep ‘em home.”

BERTIE COUNTY

Steer feeding is really a science these days, says Steve White, 4-H’er of Mars Hill school. Bertie County Assistant Agent Murray L. Goodwin says that Steve is convinced his calf wouldn’t have gained 2.45 pounds per day had he not used a metal feeding trough. He says he first fed the Black Angus steer from a wood trough. The steer soon went off feed. He switched back and forth from a metal tub to wood trough. Each time he fed the calf from the wood trough it went off feed. Finally he decided that the ground feed was souring in the cracks of the wooden box.

GASTON COUNTY

Anybody got an extra shed or barn? If so, Charlie McCorkle, Gaston County farmer, could sure use it. Assistant County Agent Thomas A. Taylor says that McCorkle is in the unusual predicament of having more hay than he knows what to do with. With only the first cutting alfalfa and his early crop of oats, rye-grass and crimson mixture, McCorkle says he has filled all three of his 60-foot upright silos and his 200-ton trench silo. He’s also bailed 5,000 bales of high quality hay.

NORTH CAROLINA STATE COLLEGE, RALEIGH

Clyde R. Weathers Jr., native of Wendell, is a new Extension farm management specialist. A graduate of N.C. State College, Weathers taught vocational agriculture at Herring High School in Sampson County from 1951 to 1955, when he returned to state college for further study. He will begin his new duties July 1. An infantry veteran, he was discharged from the Army in 1943 as a first lieutenant. He is married to the former Miss Barbara Mabee. They have a daughter.

Donald E. Farris of Alma, Arkansas, has been appointed fruit and vegetable marketing specialist. A 1949 graduate of the University of Arkansas, Farris has been doing graduate work at N.C. State College since 1954. Before that he was an assistant county supervisor for Farmers Home Administration in Lonoke, Ark. He served with the U.S. Navy as a shop machinist from 1944 until 1946 and again from 1950 until 1952. He is married to the former Billye Wilhelm.

Guy Parsons, a native of Ripley, West Va., has been appointed an Extension dairy specialist. Parsons began his duties at State College on June 1. He had been a fieldman for Pet Milk Company for five years before joining the college staff. A graduate of West Virginia University, he received his M.S. degree in dairy production from that institute in 1948. Parsons served with the U.S. Army Medical Corps during World War II.

W.L. (Bill) Turner, State College Extension farm management specialist, was awarded a doctor’s degree in public administration from Harvard University this month. Turner, a native of Rocky Mount, has been an extension specialist since August, 1948. On July 1, he will become head of the Extension farm management department. He earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees in agricultural economics at N.C. State College.