By F.H. Jeter, Extension Editor, N.C. State College, Raleigh, as published in the Wilmington Star, Sept. 30, 1947.
North Carolina suffers a tremendous loss each season from fires which destroy tobacco curing barns and pack houses. For instance, farmers in Johnston County report that they lost 100 barns, which, with their contents were worth $100,000. A report comes from Nash County saying that the growers in that county have lost 80 barns this season. Of the 80 barns destroyed, 28 were fired with oil; 49 with wood; two with coal stokers, and done with a coal grate. The Nash County growers reported that the principal cause of their fires was from dried tobacco leaves and sticks falling on the hot flues. This being true, said M.E. Hollowell, farm agent, a lot of loss could be avoided each season by the very simple expedient of stretching some poultry wire over the flues to catch any leaves or sticks that might fall. There is no sense in losing the result of so much hard work when a little wire netting over the hot flues will save the barn and its contents.
E.H. Garrison, farm agent, says that 27 barns were lost down in Moore County this season. Most of the losses cannot be accounted for, but it is very likely that these fires also were caused largely by the dry tobacco leaves or the sticks falling on the hot flues.
Mr. Garrison also reports continued interest in farm fish pounds by landowners of Moore County. He has just finished surveying sites for M.C. Boyette of Carthage and H.A. Jackson of Carthage. The two ponds will cover over 49 acres, which is a little large for the best farm fish pond.
J.H. Rice of Moore County is installing a water system in his home by bringing in water through a siphon system from a well 48 feet higher than the home. Mr. Rice says if he can work this out the only expense to getting the water into his residence will be the cost of the pipe. He will have no pumping expense whatsoever.
Moore County people also are going ahead with their alfalfa plantings. The total orders for seed to date call for 1,700 pounds and a number of other small orders are being made which will make the total amount of seed run to right around 2,000 pounds for this season. Sandhill growers are taking a renewed interest in their dewberries, too. The vines have made good growth and they are clean and free of disease.
Scotland is no longer a one-crop, cotton-producing county. Farm agent E.O. McMahan says that a recent report by the North Carolina Crop Improvement Association shows that Scotland is now well up in the front as a section growing certified small grain seed. Scotland County farmers produced 33 per cent of all the small grain seed certified by the Crop Improvement Association for 1946. They produce 2 per cent of the certified wheat seed; 38 per cent of the certified oats; and 17 per cent of the certified barley seed. The John F. McNair Company of Laurinburg led the entire state in the amount of wheat certified for seed with 6,510 bushels. P.M. Gilcrist of Laurinburg had more bushels of barley certified than any other man in the state. It does not seem to be generally known, but Scotland County has some of the best farmers in North Carolina.
Speaking of good farmers, however, Cyrus McNell of Broadway, Route 1, in Harnett County, was in Washington, D.C., recently to secure a patent for a tobacco looping machine which he has invented. Mr. McNell used his machine regularly during the recent curing season and says that it saved him right around $15 a day in labor. The machine, he claims, did the work of two expert loopers and did it with much more ease.
There has been some cholera among the swine herds of Harnett County, but on the whole, farming affairs are moving along in good shape down there. Cotton is opening fast; ginning is underway; much fine hay has been housed; and considerable fall and winter grazing is being put into the ground.
In Halifax County, the Weldon Rotary Club is starting a purebred pig club chain in Halifax and Northampton counties. Gilts will be given to a select group of boys, who will in turn pass on the first nice gilt to some other deserving boy. W.O. Davis says that R.C. Batchlor, manager of the Douglas Hill Farm, will send five of his registered Poland China hogs to the type conference to be held in Orangeburg, South Carolina, next Wednesday, September 25.
Construction also has been started on the new freezer locker plant at Roanoke Rapids. This will be the second such plant in Halifax and will be of great value to the local people as an aid in the saving and curing of meats.
Mr. Davis says the cotton and peanuts crops of that county have improved tremendously during the recent dry days and that good yields may yet be secured.
There is a renewed interest up there in the drainage of farm lands through the use of dynamite. Farms simply cannot get any ditching done by hand, and during the war their drainage ditches grew up in weeds and bushes. Some cleaning out must be done now, and dynamite offers the only solution.
Growers of strawberries in Duplin County are busy getting the grass out of their vines. While everyone is busy with tobacco, very little work can be done with other crops in that section, so the strawberry fields grow up in grass and weeds. All of this is being cleared out now since most of the border tobacco has been placed on the market.
Speaking of fires in tobacco barns, L.F. Weeks, farm agent in Duplin, says that many of these fires are caused by plain old-fashioned carelessness. One man went into his barn down there the other day, lighted up a cigarette, and flipped the match up into the dry cured leaf. He then had to get out quickly and to watch in dismay while his barn and all its contents went up in flames.
The cotton growers down there say it is almost impossible to get labor to pick cotton, especially from among those who grew any tobacco at all this year.
Mr. Weeks says that C.H. Holland of Kenansville has not fed a bale of hay to either his workstock or his cattle in 12 years. The animals harvest all of their own roughage in the form of grazing, because as Mr. Holland puts it, “I learned 12 years ago that it is cheaper to provide 12 months of grazing, let the cattle do their own work gathering it, than it is for me to try to harvest and cure roughage for them.”
Since Mr. Holland has been following this plan, his cattle stay in much better condition than before. He keeps about 12 head of cows and three work animals. For these, he maintains a good 3-acre permanent pasture, several acres of lespedeza, and grows additional small grain for grazing. He has another field of 26 acres which is planted to lespedeza and from which he harvests and sells the hay produced each summer.
Some discouraging reports come from the Northeaster peanut belt. Martin growers say their crop is at least two or three weeks late and that the set of nuts is light.
Chowan growers who dusted their peanuts with sulphur, however, are reporting fine results. In some places, where the peanuts were dusted three times to control leafspot, as compared with no dustings, about 78 per cent of the dusted leaves showed no leafspot whatsoever. However, where the plants were not dusted, there was leafspot on 82 percent of all the plants. Then, too, the leaves on the undusted peanuts have dropped off for at least 5 inches of the lower portion of the stems, while the dusted peanuts show no shedding to speak of—less than 1 inch. Those how have dusted their crops this season saya that the vines have better color; there is considerably less shedding of the leaf; and there is a heavier setting of the nuts. Hutchins Winborne of the Cross Roads community reports that his dusted peanuts have about twice as many nuts as those which are undusted.
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