Farm and Home Week at N.C. State, 1953

“Farm Festival Brings 2,000 to State College” as published in Extension Farm-News.

Grand marchers at the 45^th Farm and Home Week are part of the 1,720 farm men and women who registered. The 82^nd Airborne furnished the music.

For the first time, this year’s “vacation-education” at Farm and Home Week was held in June (8-11) to avoid a conflict with harvest.

On the opening night, delegates honored Chancellor and Mrs. J.W. Harrelson with gifts and a reception in Reynolds Coliseum.

Tuesday, classes for men and women began. Among the classes were those taught by famed Home Economists Beth Peterson of Dupont, Wilmington, Del., Kathryn Niles of the Nation Egg and Poultry Board, Chicago, and Mrs. Mildred Seaber, Duke Power. Home demonstration specialists and club members taught other classes.

The classes for men featured demonstrations by the Agronomy Department in Williams Hall and the Plant Pathology Department in Gardner Hall.

Tuesday evening, D.S. Weaver, Extension director, urged North Carolina’s farmers to take advantage of their opportunities and raise the state’s per capita farm income. Entertainment was by the famed Echo Inn Cloggers and Pandhandle Pete of Henderson County, the Dixie Melody Boys of Nash County, and the Pitt County Quartet. State Recreation Leader Lonnie Powell led the delegates in games and square dancing each evening.

Wednesday morning the classes and demonstrations for men and women were repeated.

On Wednesday afternoon pioneer farm leaders led in celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the Extension Service. Among those appearing on the program were Miss Wylie Knox, president of the State Home Agents Association; S.L. Lowery, farm agents’ president; Director Weaver; I.O. Schaub, former dean and Extension director; L.Y. Ballentine, commissioner of agriculture; State Home Agent Ruth Current; Mrs. Eugenia P. VanLandingham, president of the national Home Agents Association; R.E. Jones, State Negro agent; Bobby Parker, 4-H’er of Macclesfield; Mrs. H.M. Johnston, past president of the Home Demonstration Clubs; and C.S. Bunn of Spring Hope. F.H. Jeter, extension editor, had charge of the program.

Wednesday night, Phillip Aylesworth, assistant to the Secretary of Agriculture, filled in for J. Earl Coke, assistant secretary, who had been scheduled to address the group.

All day Thursday, some 300 farm men attended a Swine Day at the State Fair Arena. The Department of Animal Industry stressed economical production of pork in its program.

Meanwhile 1,200 women attending the 27^th annual meeting of N.C. Federation of Home Demonstration Clubs were hearing Mrs. Ivy B. Priest, United States treasurer, and electing officers. Mrs. Charles Graham, Linwood, Route 1, is the new president; Mrs. E.P. Gibson, Laurel Hill, first vice-president; Mrs. J.C. Berryhill, Charlotte, second vice-president; Mrs. Charles Benson, Pantego, recording secretary; Mrs. L.J. Cannon, Canton, corresponding secretary; and Mrs. J.B. Wooten, Princeton, treasurer.

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“The Colonel” is not an honorary title. It is one that State College Chancellor J.W. Harrelson earned—like he earned the thanks that rural Tar Heels gave him during Farm and Home Week. He won his military rank in the service of his country, this “thanks” in the service of his farm people. Wherever farm families went on State College’s campus this month, they saw the best in brains, building and equipment, all at work to give rural North Carolinians a better life. The Colonel was responsible for much of what they saw. He retired September 1, but he told his farm friends to look for him around the General Assembly in ’55, where he will “probably be lobbying for agriculture.”

Photo Captions:

RECEPTION, tree and luggage for the Colonel and his lady on opening night, Ruth Current, left, and Bob Shoffner, right, do the honors.

FARM officers are W.A. Connell, president; F.S. Sloan, secretary; Loy Howard, vice president. E.V. Vestal, second vice president, and F.H. Jeter, publicist, not pictured.

TREASURER of United States Mrs. Ivy B. Priest, left, poses with outgoing state HD president Mrs. R.L. Yancey and new President Mrs. Charles Graham, right.

VACATIONING at Farm and Home Week, Mrs. Lillie McDougold, Lumber Ridge, Route 1, selects a post card.

POPULAR class was this one in crafts. Mrs. Roy Lee, Murphy, shows Mrs. Henry Sawyer, Currituck, and Mrs. J.W. Davis, Randolph County, how to make a doll.

PORK was king at day-long program. W.L. Brown shows carcass quality.

GOLDEN anniversary of farm demonstration work was celebrated in a Wednesday afternoon ceremony. Pioneers in North Carolina Extension, the 82^nd Airborne Band, and massed chorus made the afternoon memorable.

CONSERVATION is the subject of USDA’s Phillip Aylesworth’ Wednesday night presentation.

PANHANDLER Pete and Echo Inn Cloggers had the crowd shouting for more.

COOKING by a professional, Kathryn Niles, Chicago home economist, gives Withers Hall classes a high goal.

AGRONOMIST N.T. Coleman explains new soil conditioners as farmers see for themselves in Williams Hall.

FARM editors Miles Hughley, Charlotte Observer, and Bill Humphries, Raleigh News and Observer, cover the four-day event.

MASSED Home Demonstration Chorus sings at Women’s Federation Day program. Lenoir and Richmond Counties were awarded the top prizes in WPTF’s choral contest. Lenoir was judged the best women’s group and Richmond the best mixed-voice choir. Second places went to Mecklenburg and Pitt.