By F.H. Jeter, Extension Editor, N.C. State College, Raleigh, as published in the Charlotte Observer on Oct. 11, 1948
The eyes of North Carolina are upon Union County. Not perhaps so much because the Honorable Secretary of Agriculture Mr. Brannan made a speech there the other day. That, of course, was very newsworthy, but Union is attracting attention because the State Committee in charge of getting accurate yields on those 200 bushel corn contests gathered to weigh the corn grown this season by J.B. Simpson of Waxhaw, Route 2.
This important event took place last Tuesday, October 5. About 30 men gathered at Mr. Simpson’s corn field early last Tuesday morning and began to harvest the ears about 9 o’clock. Then a public meeting was called at the field for 2:30 that afternoon. Dr. E. R. Collins, Extension agronomist, was chairman of the committee and all of the state’s agricultural agencies were represented. Subject to certain moisture tests, the Simpson acre finally produced 136.4 bushels.
Mr. Simpson is one of the small farmers found so generally over Union County. He also is one of the best. He planted the Dixie 17 white corn in rows about 3 feet apart and about 12 inches in the drill. Along with this Dixie 17, for comparison, he planted another acre of old yellow corn long grown on the Simpson farm. It yielded 101 bushels of the old yellow corn. Both acres are down in a creek bottom with the stream flowing on three sides of the field. Mr. Simpson hired a bulldozer to build a dike about the field so that it would not be disturbed or injured by overflow. The dike is from 8 to 10 feet high and does a good job protecting the field no matter how high the creek may get after a heavy rain. The corn was amply fertilized to produce a high acre yield, and all summer long people have visited it from all parts of the county and of the state.
Dry weather in mid-summer hurts many of the fine corn patches of Union County, but county agent Jim Marsh says that excellent yields will be gathered on many farms. Quite a few tours have been made over the county this summer to inspect these high yielding acres. Not only is Mr. Simpson a contender for the state championship but others who have entered the contest and have fine corn are E.T. Starnes, Waxhall, Route 2; Frank A. Krauss, Mineral Springs; Charles and J.K. York, 4-H club members of Monroe, Route 3; Clegg Medlin and Solon Braswell, also of Monroe, Route 3; and Leander Medlin and Weldon Braswell, 4-H club members of Monroe, Route 3.
Union farmers have been as busy as could be in picking cotton, saving the last bit of hay, and planting their fall crops. Cotton opened rapidly during the recent dry fall weather and the growers have been making every effort to get it in from the fields before the staple can be injured. Every available person has been busy picking, so much so that there has been some delay in alfalfa and the various small grain and clover mixtures for late fall and spring grazing. Many farmers are putting their cotton under the price support government loan, but equally as many others are losing money on it and selling it for what they are offered on the spot market. Like a lot of cotton growers in eastern Carolina, these Union farmers can’t be bothered with government loans.
Despite the fine cotton crop in Union and the need to stay in the fields until the crop is gathered, most farmers say they will seed winter crops the very first time there comes a good soaking rain. The land has been ready for some time, but nothing would germinate in the dry soil before the rains of the last week in September.
Eighty-five Union county men took time out in late August to visit the Pee Dee Experiment station at Florence and the Coker Seed Farm at Hartsville, South Carolina. They made the trip mainly to get information about the milo grain sorghum being tested out at the Pee Dee station and to see the results of using different winter crops on cottonland. They also observed with great interest the use of chemical weed killers—2,4-D solutions—being tried in large-scale crop operations.
Union farmers are finding that fescue will stand more dry weather than orchard grass, when the fescue is mixed with their Ladino pastures. They say that this ability of a grass to withstand dry weather is important in Union because the old slatey soil is what one fellow called “dry natured.” It does seem to be a fact that Union suffers more from dry weather than most of the piedmont counties, and that’s one reason why, perhaps, that the county was a pioneer in building farm fish ponds.
Clifford Little and Corbett Greene of Marshville, Route 2, have obtained wonderful results from the fescue grass and Ladino clover which they seeded last fall, a year ago. Both men say the fescue stands up and provides grazing when the orchard grass slacks off in growth during dry weather. Their experience is shared generally by all Union farmers who planted their fescue and Ladino pastures early enough last fall. Quite a few Union farmers will expand their seedings of Ladino clover from seed which they saved on their own places this past summer.
W.J. McAteer of Monroe, Route 6, saved both red top and Ladino seed from a four-acre tract that was planted only last fall. Mr. McAteer mowed the clover and grass in early July and allowed it to cure on the ground for three or four days. Then he went back and picked it up with a pick-up attachment at the front of the cutter bar on his combine. He says he secured about 150 pounds of the precious Ladino seed from about four acres. At $2.25 to $2.50 a pound, this 150 pounds of seed is saving Mr. McAteer some real money this fall as he plants additional pasture land.
Incidentally, Mr. McAteer has secured two bushels of that spectacular N.C. 5466 wheat and will grow it this winter as a field demonstration of what this new wheat will do in that section. It will be watched with considerable interest by all of his neighbors. Nearly every farmer in Union grows some wheat for his own bread supply and for sale. Should this new wheat top local yields there, as it has everywhere else in the coastal plain and piedmont, it may provide an additional income for that section.
Many farmers of that county are planting quite a bit of what they call their waste bottom lands to pasture this fall, as the season permits. What they once considered pretty fair pasture is in no way supplying the same amount of good grazing that these new seeded and fertilized pastures are providing. U.T. Belk and Sons of Monroe, Route 2, for instance, own and operate an up-to-minute dairy farm. This is located out in the Fairview section of the county where there is some good farming land. Mr. Belk has found that it pays him good dividends to renovate and reseed his old permanent pastures and he is re-working quite a good acreage of these old pastures this fall. He is seeding Ladino clover and orchard grass.
Many small acreages of alfalfa also have been planted. But Union farmers have been cautious about this and have seeded only where they think the crop will pay and only after they have had their soil analyzed for lime requirements. Pearl W. Winchester of Marshville, Route 2, has seeded six acres to alfalfa to supplement the hay he usually gets from his lespedeza fields. It is common practice to over-seed all small grain with lespedeza in late February, and this lespedeza grows after the small grain is combined in June. It then provides late summer grazing, a fine hay crop, or a supply of commercial seed. Better still it prevents washing and improves the soil where lime, phosphate and potash also are used. Dry seasons in late summer and early fall have cut the acre yields of lespedeza hay in Union in recent years and the farmers are planting alfalfa so that they might secure some hay early in the spring and summer before the dry weather sets in.
Union farmers never forget those small items which mean so much to the annual income. Along with more corn, there are more hogs. Curtis Huggins of Marshville, Route 1, has about 100 head of swine on his farm, of the Hampshire and Hereford kinds. He has lately built some of the new type Canadian farrowing houses so that his pigs will be protected from the freezing weather of winter. Mr. Huggins says pigs are money at present prices and he does not intend to lose a single one from cold weather this winter. Swine production is being increased all over the county and along with dairy cows, chickens, turkeys and some beef herds, adds quite a bit to the annual farm income. There are poultry club chains as well as pig chains and calf chains now operating in the county to spread the best possible livestock blood to every nook and corner. The beef cattle growers fund that nothing beats Sudan grass as a late summer grazing crop. E.T. Starnes has had 13 Hereford steers grazing eight acres of the Sudan grass as a supplementary crop this summer. He is putting this same eight acres into ladino clover and orchard grass this fall.
