“Personal Mention”
by Frank Jeter as published in the April 1955 issue of Extension Farm-News, published monthly at N.C. State College, Raleigh.
“The Colonel is
gone,” they said on the State College campus early that Sunday morning March
13. Those words held a note of poignant sadness, because the Colonel had grown
through the years, grown in strength, maturity and ability; grown in the love
and esteem of those who had known him through the long years he had served
State College and the State of North Carolina; grown in the hearts of his
friends; and grown in the respect of those who had followed his career as
educator and public servant over the years. Colonel John W. Harrelson was
fatally stricken giving one last service to the college he loved so well as he
took part in dedicating the new D.H. Hill Library on Saturday evening, March
12. No greater monument can be erected to his memory than the one he himself
constructed in the hearts of those who knew him and had worked with him. The
building he helped to dedicate is only one part of the tremendous physical
expansion of a State College plant which bloomed to its highest fruition under
his constant and intense cultivation.
Then, we have the
high honor of another winner of the O. Max Gardner Award…Dr. Z.P. Metcalf,
scientist, scholar, friend and educator, received the grant and citation at the
dinner concluding the Third Conference on the State of The University and thus
joins the ranks of those whom Governor Gardner sought to reward for their
services to the state and to mankind. Dr. Metcalf joins an illustrious group,
which includes another faculty member of this College, Dr.D.B. Anderson.
The most talked
about event of the spring was the late and devastating freeze which wiped out
North Carolina’s peach crop and heavily injured all early berries, vegetables,
and flowers. The mountain apple crop was severely injured and it appears now
that North Carolinians will eat imported fruit this season. The vegetables were
replanted.
In Duplin County,
the most talked about event of the spring was the dedication of its new $40,000
office addition to the County Agricultural Building in Kenansville. Credit
Melvin Cording, sacrificial public-spirited dairyman, as one of the moving
spirits in getting the new building and in laboring with the county
commissioners, agricultural workers, tax payers and others, to have a farm
building that matches in utility the new health center, also built through the
same cooperative enterprise. No one happier than Vernon Reynolds, Mrs. Pauline
Johnson, and their associates on the Duplin Extension staff. Credit also that
solid citizen Ellis Vestal for much of the hard work done in getting the new
addition. It is the result of a wonderful understanding and cooperation among
the people of the county.
E.J. Simpson says
you ought to see his new bulletin rack. Bill Lewis and the folks in Wilson are
shouting aloud in their glee over new Extension quarters, about a mile and a
half out of town and accessible to all roads, with plenty of parking space, and
an auditorium seating 250 persons comfortably.
In his time of joy,
however, Bill and the other Extension personnel, were saddened by the passing
of Carter Washington Foster, former Negro County Agent of Wilson County for 13
years and one of the great leaders of his race in North Carolina. C.W. Foster
made a great contribution to the advancement of all rural people in the county.
No better district
meeting of North Carolina home demonstration clubs than the one held in
Pittsboro on April 6 by the clubs of the 14th District. You never
saw such a full auditorium of well-dressed ladies (the next Sunday was Easter,
you know) and they had a real meeting. Mrs. C.W. Lutterloch, District Chairman,
presided with that simple grace and dignity which seems to typical of the
demonstration club women of this state.
Lady Astor carried
back to England a jar or two of sorghum molasses grown by charley Gardner of
Ashe and cooked by Wiley Severt of the Beaver Creek section. Word came that the
noble lady of Virginia might perhaps swap a jar of the homemade molasses with
good Queen Elizabeth, provided the Queen throws in plenty of “boot.” Charley
gave the molasses to his sister-in-law Mrs. J.W. Dupree who is Governor Hodges’
secretary, and she in turn provided the syrup when the Governor needed to
present Lady Astor with a real treat.
Word comes from Dr.
J.O. Halverson, former animal nutritionist of the Experiment Station and now in
Tucson, Arizona, telling of the passing there of James W. Johansen in late
March. Mr. Johansen was an Extension economist at State College until 1948 and
a valued staff member for a number of years when farm management and farm
economics were developed in stature on the campus.
Edmund Aycock has
been welcomed to Raleigh as a member of the farm group at Wachovia Bank,
joining the staff of Wayne Corpening.
Lemuel Goode is
receiving acclaim by sheep men for having developed a new type of polled Dorset
sheep. The Dorset breed is becoming of greater importance in this state since
sheep growing is on the increase and the livestock folks look for this new
breed to fill a real need. The polled characteristics have been fixed by
careful breeding.
A.C. Kimrey,
retired dairy specialist, is honored by his three sons in the establishment of
the $300 scholarship to State College. The scholarship is available to those
4-H Club boys interested in dairy husbandry, and was awarded to W.J. Lindley
Jr. of Alamance County as the first winner. “Joe Billy” is a member of the Eli
Whitney 4-H Club and one of the leading club members in his home county.
It’s easy to see
why Charlie Jackson of Person remains in the heavyweight class. Recently he and
Tom Hobgood, fellow assistant agent, stopped by the home of the Archie Denny’s
at dinnertime and allowed themselves to be persuaded to stay for the meal. “We
consumed a round of fresh vegetables, corn bread, meats and then topped it all
off with strawberries and ice cream,” Charley says, and we likewise expect him
to just happen to be at the same farm again about meal time in the very near
future.
John Wrinn tells of
a wonderful remuda owned by V.T. Watkins of Macon County and thereby sent this
editorial staff on a mad rush to their Websters.
Here’s a bet you
didn’t know either. On Washington’s birthday, Tom Brandon of Martin County had
been a county agent for 37 years, 4 months, and 23 days and for that day he
called a farm meeting. He sent cards to those supposed to be there. He
announced the meeting four times on his radio program, and he had a piece in
the Williamston Enterprise. Not a soul showed up but Tom.
Our manners to
Florence Cox and Mary Harris as they assume their new duties as district agents
in the eastern and western districts respectively. And at this writing, Mrs.
Mary Lee McAllister, southeastern district agent, is seriously ill at Monroe.
A worthy tribute to
W.H. Darst, veteran seedsman, first man to be presented with the bronze plaque
of the North Carolina Crop Improvement Association for services in promoting
the production and planting of certified crop seeds in North Carolina.
Furney Todd is new
specialist in plant diseases; W.L. Turner, new man in public affairs extension;
Miss Josephine Cusick, new specialist in home and farm development approach;
D.G. Harwood Jr., new specialist in farm management; and W.Glenn Tussey, new
cotton marketing specialist…all well-trained and hard workers.
Seventy-one
successful livestock schools held this past winter, says Jack Kelley.
Sam Dobson talked
pastures and grazing crops at the dairy schools and believes he reached about
as many dairymen with one television appearance over WUNC-TV as he did at all
the schools.
Dean I.O. Schaub’s
informal history of the Experiment Station is being well received over the
state and nation…a good job, prepared with the Dean’s usual efficiency, and
done with that personal touch which this master of agricultural education can
give so efficiently.
Mrs. Hattie Smith
credits us with 3,718 newspaper recoveries for March with the 4-H Clubs and
Club Week heading the list with 1,304 clippings. Did you see Joe Powell’s
latest photo adorning the pages of the Smith-Douglas house organ as the editors
attempted to answer the question, “What is a county agent?” Certainly they
could have found no better answer.
A great meeting of
the North Carolina Negro Home Demonstration Council in Raleigh on March 30 when
more than 3,000 leaders gathered in the city’s Memorial auditorium to plan
their work for 1955 and to hear reports of progress from over the state. We tip
our badly weathered hat to Northampton, Nash, Lee, Franklin and Watauga
counties for their well-prepared books on the united farm or Challenge program
in those five counties.
Orchids too go to
Ralph Mills, temperamental photographer in our Visual Aids section, for being
selected as its “Tarheel of the Week” by Raleigh’s morning paper, Bill
Humphries’ News and Observer.
News comes from
Alamance that C.F. “Chick” Parrish has instituted a new baby sitting service in
the Poultry Extension Office. Chick himself is quite adept at the job, said one
Alamance mother who attended the poultry school at Graham.
Walter Kulash
authors a comprehensive review of work being done with insecticide-fertilizer
mixtures in Farm Chemicals for March. The furrow matched this with an
interesting summary of J.C. Brown’s news material on the successful North
Carolina Nickels for Know-How campaign last fall.
So glad you enjoyed
Easter…We did, too.
No comments:
Post a Comment