Henderson daily dispatch. (Henderson, N.C.) 1914-1995, 1940-09-12
Sanders Now
Superviises
AAA Work
Soil Conservation Pro-
gram Is Aiding Fri
mary ObJectiyes of
Extension Service as
Long Advocated by
Agents.

character OF the work Of the county
farm agent may be found in the his
tory of the service Of j. w. Sanders
to Vance county as its farm agent.
The years which have passed since
Mr.. Sanders came here on May Is,
1929, have seen his work changed
from conducting an educational pro-
gram to supervising an administra-
i've office, and have changed his Of
flee from Il Onc-man unit To an
agency employing more than fifty
persons at peak seasons III the year.
When Mr.. Sanders succeeded j. {.
Anthony as Vance county agent he
continued Il work begun in February,
1914, by S. r. Bivens, the county's
first farm agent, and carried on from
May, 1914, under federal cooperation
which began with the passage Of the
Smith-Lever Act.
Mr.. Sanders became a co-Worker
with Mrs. Hattie F. Plummer, home
demonstration agent who was APP
pointed at the same time as Mr..
Bivens and who has held her posi-
ton continuously since that time.
There was only one other aglicul-
tural worker in the county-GeOrge
3. Blum, vocational agriculture
teacher for the Middleburg and
Aycock schools at that time and now
devoting his full time to vocational
agriculture instruction in the Mid
dleburg school.
Work Begin In 1928.
The annual report OF the county
agent for 1929 shows that the work
then carried on was entirely OF an
educational nature. Soil Improvement
received heavy emphasis, with eros
ion control projects, use OF legumes
and various Soil-building crops, and
conservation Of natural resources as
the primary objects Of the demon
stration work.
Mr.. Sanders comments that for
estry is one of the demonstration
projects which has been carried OIL
consistently during his entire tenure
of office in the county, with at least
four new forest thinning demonstra-
tons held in each of the last eleven
years.
On coming to Vance county, Mr..
Sanders found considerable interest
in livestock, with development OF
small herds Of purebrcd dairy cattle
receiving attention throughout the
county. This interest continued for
several years, he said, until the de-
preston killed the purebred cattle
industry and restrictions on sale OF
milk eliminated much Of the market
for this product.
Duties Begin To Change.
But it was only short time after
Mr.. Sanders coming to this county
that there began the trend which has
altered entirely the nature OF his
work.
The first break from the strictly
educational type of work came in
1881, when seed loans" were offered
by the federal government 10 farm
ers left without finances or credit by
the crop failure of the previous year.
These loans were handled through
the county agents offices, and their
inauguration was the beginning OF
an era of administrative work which
has continued since that time and
seems likely TO be carried on Tor
many more years.
In 1888, farm agents who had de-
voted all their previous attention to
making two blades of grass grow
where one grew before were called
on to reverse all their former teach
ings and supervise the cotton ploW-
up campaign to reduce a cotton sur
plus which had already brought
disastrous prices to cotton farmers.
More than five hundred acres OF cot
ton was destroyed in Vance county
under the direction Of the county
agent.
The same year saw the first efforts
at control of tobacco prices through
federal intervention. Prices OF the to-
bacco crop had crashed with the
opening of the markets, and mar
keting holiday was declared to pre-
vent further collapse of the price
structure.
With the Agricultural Adjustment
Act passed by Congress and proVld-
ing for contractural agreements be-
tween farmers and the government
d preliminary sign-up for limitation
of the next years tobacco crop was
carried out and approximately 50
percent of Vance county growers
agreed to take part in the program
Markets were reopened, tobacco I'M
mediately brought an average OF IT
cents a pound or better and the sea-
son average on the Henderson mar
ket was Is cents.
The 1884 crops of cotton and to-
bacco were controlled by contract,
and by this time supervision Of the
AAA program required practically
the full time of the county agent and
had made necessary the addition of
a clerical staff, still small in compar-
ison with the force required to ham
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