The Wilmington morning star., 1945-04-23

somewhat DG1d ISuly, IL 10 " wv
the South is awakening to the fact
that farming also is an engineer
ing job. It is interesting to note
that almost every day there comes
word of some farmer who is beat
ing the labor shortage by working
out an engineering short cut or is
building some kind of time-saving
equipment. There is, for instance,
the example of Bradford Hunter
of Mecklenburg County who had
to topdress his small grain with
nitrate of soda this spring to pro-
duce the feed needed so badly by
his dairy cows.
Mr.. Hunter took the motor from
his own lawn mower, fastened a
belt to it and rugged up a home
made contraption to scatter the
soda. He said this machine scat
tered the soda uniformly in a 30
feet spread and that it saved him
the labor of four men. That last
item is the thing that means so
much right now on the farms of
North Carolina and despite the
fact that the early season and the
dry weather has put famers ahead
about three weeks, there still is
not enough labor to produce the
crops which need to be produced.
Men simply must devise new ways
and means Of doing things.
The actual fact of merely living
on the farm calls for engineering
skill. David S. Weaver, who handles
the farm engineering work of the
Agricultural Extension Service,
tells me that he has over 1896 diff
ferent building plans or blue prints
for buildings which are in con-
slant demand by farmers of North
Carolina.
Among these plans are Sc de-
signs for farm homes, II differ
ent kinds Of general purpose barns,
81 different dairy barns, 10 i'm
plement sheds, Is hog equipment
plans, 16 separate plans for poul-
try houses, II milk houses, and
SO on down through a list of blue
prints covering plans for almost
everything that needs to be built
on a farm. He says that not a
day passes without his getting a
request from county agent or a
farmer for one or more of these
plans. OF course, there is not so
much building as in normal times.
However, the men who can cut his
own lumber, and use old pieces of
equipment can go ahead and con-
struct service buildings. Farm
agents in 80 North Carolina coun-
ties report that last year there
were 1899 buildings constructed,
nearly 5000 dwellings and about
1000 other farm buildings remodel
ed in their counties.
The matter of rebuilding and re-
pairing farm buildings is not the
only engineering activity of farm
ing people in this State. They are
coming to use more machinery
and will increase this usage as
more machinery becomes avail.
able. In the meantime they have
mad to do with that on hand and it
should be kept in mind that farm
machinery gets unusually hard
wear in North Carolina. This is
due to the surface of the. land, the
nature of the soil and the ridge
type OF cultivation followed over
most of the State.
A greater part of the skilled Ia
Dor winch was trained in the use
OF machinery now is either in
manufacturing plants or driving
tanks and bull-dozers on far-flung
Dattle fronts. The unskilled labor
left does not handle this eo,,;n.
ment in the most efficient wav
ana the owner is constantly called
upon to do an engineering lob in
MS own shop. Field demonstrations
ana clinics held in all parts of the
otate in cooperation with local
farm machinery dealers have done
much to improve the mainte-
nance practices so that the mach.
mes could be operated with less
cost to the owners.
In addition to being an engineer
ing expert in handling his farm
machinery, the North Carolina
farmer must always face the great
ques1lon OF soil conservation and
drainage. There are Al county soil
conservation associations in which
the farmer members have bought
tractor equipment to build ter.
races at cost So as to save their
lands. The entire piedmont section
IS so organized and while many
u these associations did not func.
. tlon last year due to the increased
support given to terracing by the
A Agricultural Adjustment Agen.
cy, much terracing was done. Fo,
instance, the county unit in Cab
l.