Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Carolina Farm Notes From Across the State, 1944

“Carolina Farm Notes" by F.H. Jeter, Extension Editor, N.C. State College, Raleigh, as published in the June 1944 issue of The Southern Planter

Successful fat stock shows at Rocky Mount, Lumberton and Kinston in Eastern North Carolina, together with increased interest in the annual show and sale held by the North Carolina Hereford Breeders’ Association at Statesville attest to the genuine progress which North Carolina farm folks are making in their efforts to build a lasting livestock industry. More than 900 persons attended the showing of 100 head of purebred Herefords at Statesville. Twelve bulls and 38 females were sold for an average price of $573 per head with a yearling heifer bred on Morrocroft Farm in Mecklenburg County bringing the top price of $1,600.
Among the three eastern fat stock shows, the one at Kinston was probably the best. Joe C. Johnson, 18-year-old 4-H club member, son of Calbert Johnson of Four Oaks, Route 3, Johnson County, won the grand champion ribbon for showing the best of the 73 steers at halter. Joe was completing his “boot” training at a Navy Trade School at Sampson, New York, when it became time for the Kinston Show. He told his commanding officer about the Hereford calf that he had fed and fattened and then showed the officer a picture of the prize winning animal which he had entered two years ago. His pleas were so successful that he was granted a furlough to attend the show. Instead of going home, Joe got to Kinston just as the judging started and was overjoyed to see his animal win the purple ribbon. At the auction on the following day, buyers paid 56 cents a pound for the steer. Blanche Johnson, Joe’s sister, exhibited the reserve champion, and a cousin, Ivan Lassiter, of the same community, won third place with his Shorthorn steer. Johnston County won first prize in the county contest.
There also were seven pens of three steers each in the open classes and 119 head of fat hogs in the Kinston Show. W.D. Cobb of LaGrange, Greene County, won first place in the open contest with a pen of three Durocs. The reserve grand champion and the 4-H champion, also a Duroc, were shown by Josie Galloway, a 16-year-old 4-H Club girl of Waltonburg, Greene County. The showmanship contest was a walk-a-way for Sullivan Fisher of Red Oak.
War Bonds To Boost Cotton
When it became evident that farmers of Johnston County intended to reduce drastically their acreage of cotton to where total plantings in the county would not exceed 60 percent of that grown in 1943, leading growers, buyers, oil mill operators, fertilizer manufacturers, merchants and others held a meeting to see what should be done. As a result, a contest was begin in which a $100 Warm Bond was offered in each township of the county for the person making the highest yield on five acres and a $500 Bond was offered as a county prize. Each prize is to go to the actual grower of the staple, whether he be share cropper or landowner.
Good Timber Is Old Age Insurance
A good growth of timber in the farm woodland cannot be surpassed as a source of old age insurance, believes C.H. Sykes of Chapel Hill, Route 1, Orange County. Mr. Sykes is now over 70 years of age. He can no longer work hard in the fields nor can he hire adequate labor for his farm because of the manpower shortage. But he has learned that timber can be made to pay and it requires very little labor except an eternal watchfulness for forest fires. Some time ago, Mr. Sykes divided his woodland into three lots and sold the timber from the first of these about five years ago. He plans to sell the marketable trees from the second block within the next few weeks, and will market those from the third block at some future date. He told Extension Farm Forester F.J. Cook that the income from these trees should take care of his needs in excellent fashion.
Water Sketch Comes To Life
One snowy day in the winter of 1939, H.M. Ellis, assistant agricultural engineer, used a child’s school pad in the home of L.D. Herring of Sampson County to sketch a water supply system from a flowing well providing 3 gallons of water a minute. Mr. Herring did not have the well at the time but said he could dig one exactly where he wanted it. Ellis realized that this does not always happen but he provided the sketch and continued on his way. Mr. Herring drilled a well that provided 4 gallons of water a minute and used the sketch to install a water system. The other day Mr. Ellis was again in that territory and heard that Mr. Herring’s neighbor, H.S. Gavin of Magnolia, Route 1, had a well flowing 10 gallons a minute and wanted to install running water in the home. The engineer visited the Gavin home where he found a system already installed and working well. It was based on the same sketch Mr. Ellis had planned for Neighbor Herring on that snowy day in late 1939.


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