The coastland times with which is combined the pilot and herald of Belhaven and Swan Quarter. [volume] (Manteo, N.C.) 1959-1973, 1961-06-23

with you growth experts of the seed
industry. It's good to get home
again and especially to our famed
Outer Banks.
You know, among your other dis
tinctions, you gentlemen probably
constitute one of the largest bust
ness contingents of Latin scholars
left in this country. l must say,
though, that as nonscholar, l
tend to get little befuddled by
your Latin nomenclature for seeds
just as friend of ours in New
York became UNDERSTANDABLE con-
fused by some advice he got a
while back from our National
Bureau of Standards.
This gentlemen, plumber with
a rather limited command of Eng
lish, wrote letter to the Bureau
of Standards, which as you probably
know is one of the divisions of the
Department of Commerce primarily
concerned with science and tech
nology. He said that he had found
that hydrochloric acid quickly open
ed drainage pipes when they got
clogged and asked if it was a good
thing to use.
In due course, one of our Bureau
scientists answered him: "The eff
ficacy of hydrochloric acid" he said,
"is indisputable, but the corrosive
residue is incompatible with metal
lie permanence."
The plumber then wrote back
thanking the scientist for telling
him the method was all right. The
scientist, little disturbed, showed
the letter to his boss-another
scientist. Then the boss wrote the
plumber. eve cannot assume" he
said Responsibility for the pro-
daction of toxic and noxious residue
with hydrochloric acid and suggest
you use an alternative"
The plumber wrote back that he
agreed with the Bureau-hydro-
chloric acid works fine. Finally, a
top scientist-boss of the first two
broke the impasse by tearing
himself loose from technical termi-
nology and writing this letter:
'tDon't use hydrochloric acid. 1t
eats hell out of the pipes"
Despite problems of Technology,
] think that even we laymen recog-
nize that your products, seeds, are
truly the germ of life, and that
without your efforts America could
not be, as it is, "a land of agri-
cultural plenty.
You know, we are so used to
thinking of the United States as
the outstanding industrial nation
of the world that 1 fear we often
forget that we are also the greatest
agricultural nation.
Only one person in IL in our
labor force is engaged in agricul-
ture. But because of the remarkable
gains in farm productivity, this
single farm worker now produces
enough agricultural products for
about Is people. In the past two
decades, he has nearly tripled his
output per hour of work. American
farmers today provide our people
with better diets for a smaller
proportion of their income than
any other farms in the world.
Seeds, of course, have had much
to do with this amazing farm pro
ductivity. Through your own in
>dustry research, and through the
scientific efforts of government,
universities, and our land-grant
colleges particularly, we have de-
veloped new and better seeds which
not only raise crop yields, but pro-
duce finer-quality food product
/ am told that perfection of hybrid
corn seed alone practically doubled
the yield of the average farm.
Gains such as these, coming sc
fast, have naturally not been q
wholly unmixed blessing. The prob.
lem of agricultural surplus has
hung over US for years now and
continues to be worrisome today.
But these are encouraging signs
Net farm income in 1861 is expect
ed to be about 81 billion or more
above 1860, or a rise of about II
percent. And in your own industry
new markets have been opening
up-in overseas countries, in oui
suburbs, now vast consumers Of
seeds for gardens and lawns-te
replace the sales lost by acreage
allotment. In short, there is goot
reason for optimism, for believing
that if you continue research, ane
aggressive marketing, and that d
YOU continue to merit the sympa'
fhetic understanding Of government
leaders, such as our own NORTH
Carolina Governor Sanford, thai
agriculture and the seed industry
both may flourish in the years a