Newspapers / The Transylvania Times (Brevard, … / Nov. 14, 1974, edition 1 / Page 9
Part of The Transylvania Times (Brevard, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
If It’s Good For Transylvania County, The Times Will Fight For It. THE TRANSYLVANIA TIMES A State And National Prize-Winning Home Town Newspaper SECTION B ? O' Vol. 87 — No. 46 BREVARD. N. C., THURSDAY. NOVEMBER 14. 1974 PUBLISHED WEEKLY it ti Transylvania 4-H Lad U. S. Champ A dark-haired, friendly, and hard-working senior at Brevard High School has been named a national winner in the fresh market section of the National Junior Horticultural Assn. A national award is the coveted goal of every 4-H Club member. Thomas Hooper Jr., Rt. 2, Brevard, as a 4-H Club and F.F.A. member, has become a gardening expert who has been of real service to his community and his family over the last several years. Hundreds of persons have been to the Hooper farm to pick vegetables straight from the plants this year. Tommy has saved a nice sum of money to help himself through N.C. State University, if and when he decides what he wants from that institution. He already has a job lined up at Du Pont for next summer after school is out. Tommy has heeded the advice of his extension agent and his F.F.A. advisor in producing his crops, and he has also done some ex perimentation on his own which paid off handsomely. But let him tell about it in hiw own words: By TOMMY HOOPER “Pick and pay—measure or weigh” are words which have rung out at my home this summer, as well as other summers since 1969. This year, though, due to economic reasons, etc., many people who had never gardened, canned, or frozen before were “bitten by the canning or freezing bug.” And I was the person to provide the fresh garden produce, with a reward of personal involvement with nature that I associate with my life on the farm. My beginning project in 1969 was two vegetables— improved Puerto Ricon sweet potatoes and white half runner beans. I learned about preparing the land, seed, fertilizer, etc. Sweet corn was my project in 1970 with a sale of 2,440 dozen ears. “My Sweetest Crop” was an award winning demonstration where I illustrated the ten steps I followed from planting to harvesting. These were: soil samples, plowing and disking ground, carrying out soil sample recoinmendations, choosing good seed—30,000 seeds planted per acre, spraying with nitrojgen and using a good weed killer, plowing at least once very lightly, dusting for bugs and worms, harvesting corn at the right time, having a ready market and hoping for a profit. , Dennis Winters, Tran sylvania CouDty Extension Agent and Carlos P. Bickford of the TV A Resource Management Demonstration Program, were “easy con vincers” for my “Pick-Your Own” commodity marketing project in 1971. I grew sweet com, white half-runner beans, early harvester beans, okra, pep pers, tomatoes, squash, sugar pumpkins, cucumbers, tur nips, watermelons, can taloupes, lettuce, radishes, greens, and onions. Mr. Winters, Mr. Bickford, and my dad helped me with my selection of varieties, fertilization, weed control, and insect and disease control programs. The results of my 1971 project showed me why I should carry on with some of the same crops and drop other crops which were not too successful. The early spring of 1972 found me again continuing my commodity marketing project. A site with good soil and drainage was selected. Soil samples were collected and sent off to see what nutrients were needed. Soil test recommendations were then followed for fertilizer and lime. With the help of my dad, Mr. Winters, and Mr. Bickford, I selected a variety of good seeds and plants. I set my plants out at the suggested planting time and pruned and suckered as needed. Suggested disease, insect, and weed control procedures were followed. No irrigation was needed as we had a “monsoon" season. I concentrated on Seneca Chief Sweet Corn, Silver Queen Sweet Corn, Yolo Sweet Peppers, Manapal Tomatoes, Clemson Spineless Okra, Straight Neck Squash, and Striped Creaseback Cornfield Beans as I knew from ex perience these vegetables sold best. Sweet corn was my best selling item in 1973—both to local customers and fresh markets. Sweet peppers sold good to local produce markets and restaurants, and my plants were widely spaced thus producing larger pep pers. Tomatoes were an ex cellent “Pick J-Own” item as well as okra. Tommy Hooper Astride His Tractor I learned how to prune the lower limbs of okra thereby holding off blight. Straight neck squash were also a good item for local customers, produce markets, and restaurants. I kept records on costs and returns as I ope/ ated my “supermarket.” Now I would like to sum marize the highlights of my 1974 project. I have learned many things from year to year, and all I have ac complished has been with the cooperation of my family, and guidance and help from Mr. Winters and Mr. Bickford. Tomatoes - At the start of my garden I used dust but found blight was severely damaging my crop. I switched to a small gasoline sprayer using Manzate and Bravo (recommended by Mr. Winters and Mr. Bickford). I also found that by using two varieties of tomatoes, I was able to pick until frost (Rutger and Burpee Big Boy). Yellow Straight Neck Squash • In this crop I found by planting closer together and in three foot rows instead of the six foot rows I started out with, I got more production and a better grade of squash. Again, a switch was made from dust to spray on this crop saving money and doing a better job. Iceberg Lettuce-I had been told that head lettuce could not be grown in this area, but Mr. Winters and Mr. Bickford suggested I try by planting in early April. I planted at this time and grew head lettuce superior to any grown in other areas and shipped in. A ready market was available for each head grown. White Half Runner Beans • From experience I had learned to use a four foot middle instead of a three foot allowing more room for growth, sunshine, and har vest. Beans were found to bear more growth thickly planted when properly fertilized and side dressed. This was one of my better “Pick-U-Own” crops. Beans were staked with a wire six inches from ground and again seven feet from ground. Our strings wre spaced ap proximately four inches apart. This year we en countered a browning in a “flecky” pattern on our beans. Mr. Bickford took samples and reported that we had used too much sevin dust and ad vised we reduce the amount. This corrected the “flecky” problem when we stopped using the dust and sprayed instead. Yolo Sweet Green Peppers • This is a good crop, but it is necessary to have a setter to enable getting your plants out. For a small garden it is an excellent local crop, or a good money making project as a commercial crop. This year I picked and hauled my peppers to a produce wholesaler who graded, packed and shipped for me. Clemson Spineless Okra - I have found from experience that this crop will make in a three foot row three to four inches apart. To space it further apart you do not get the quality okra. Applying fertilizer and side dressing with ammonia produced $400. of “Pick-U-Own” on less than an acre. I used little fertilization at planting time until okra reached a height of four to five inches then sidedresaed with fertilizer and ammonia. Sweet Corn (Seneca Chief and Silver Queen) - This has always been one of my better cash crops, however, this year a bad seed problem combined with a very poor growing season (too much rain) proved Pisgah Forest Pupils Engrossed In Mary Chiltoskey’s Lecture She Uses Sharp Knife, ‘Frees’ Trapped Animals By DOROTHY OSBORNE Times Staff Writer “You look at a piece of wood and you see what’s in it. Maybe you see a buffalo. Then you take your knife and cut away all the wood that is not a buffalo.” This is how you decide what to carve, Mary Chiltoskey told a group of fourth and fifth graders at Pisgah Forest Elementary School, last Thursday morning. “Then you finish it. Decide if it will be smooth or rough, whether to use an oil or acrylic finish. “I had a half a log one time. I wanted to make an Indian mother who had just got up and picked up the baby. “I cut into the wood and found a rotten place that would have been right where the baby’s cheek was. That would have made everybody sad,” she said. “I had to change my design.” Instead she carved the mother with the baby held close in her arms, so that the scarred spot was on the mother’s arm instead. to be a disappointment. Cucumbers, Broccoli, Radishes, Beets, Greens, Onions, and Irish Potatoes were all grown by me for home canning and freezing. The supply was sufficient for all our needs. I realize this will probably be my last garden as I will be graduating from high school in June, 1975. My savings have accumulated to further my education at North Carolina State. —I have reaped many rewards through my par ticipation in 4-H projects as I have strived “To Make The Best Better.” Hopefully a young man in my community or county can be persuaded by me to carry on with a com modity marketing project. Don’t waste pieces of ends of cheese that have become dried out and hard. They may be grated and kept refrigerated in a glass jar and used for garnishing vegetables and soups. “It’s natural for a mother to have a dirty spot on her arm when she’s caring for the baby,” she said. Carving, she explained, takes many, many hours. “I don’t know how many and nobody else knows. It takes a lot longer than you think.” HUSBAND She held up a carved Indian figure in a kneeling position, his arms held high. The figure was carved by her husband, Going Back Chiltoskey, whom she described as one of the chief wood carvers of the Cherokees and maybe of the nation. “He said it took him six months to carve it,” she said. “But I remember it sat on the dresser over three years, and he worked on it some of the time. “He would stand in front of the mirror with his shirt and undershirt off and hold his arms up to see how the muscles looked,” she told the youngsters. She and her husband, and other skilled carvers, use a variety of knives, chisels and other tools to obtain the results they want. Her husband’s advice is “to start with a pocket knife and sharpen the small blade very, very sharp. Get you a rock to keep it sharp." Mrs. Chiltoskey, who held the children spellbound with her legends about the first pine tree and how the cardinal got its red coat, showed them items of beadwork, finger weaving, woven baskets, stone carving and wood carving. She had done some of the crafts; her husband and other talented Cherokee In dians had done the others. She answered a dozen or more questions about the Cherokees. “No, 1 do not have any children, but I have spanked a lot of others,” she said, an swering one of the questions. “I wasn’t a school teacher for 43 years for nothing.” She told something of the history of the Cherokees when a boy asked if she and her husband “walk around with feathers on.” !-M FEATHERS The Cherokees never wore many feathers, she explained. They were woodland Indians. During an entire lifetime, an Indian would earn one or possibly two feathers. The feather was worn not sticking up, she explained, but was notched and worn hanging down with the hair. Other feathers were worn by the chief on'.y in the council house. She talked about the Indians who wear their costumes and brightly-colored headdress. “They dress up in these feathers because boys and girls like to have their pictures made with them.” These are usually people who have no other means of earning money. “There are some people who don’t know how to carve because they didn’t learn how. Or somebody who is handicapped—maybe he got hurt in a logging ac cident. “No, my husband and I don’t play chief on the streets. Now that is an honest way of making a living,” she said. “One man who chiefs is a member of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He’s a special agent with the FBI, and he’s there for your protection and our protec tion.” When the session ended, the children clapped and cheered in appreciation, then begged her to return and tell the story about the dogwood flower She held a similar session with the kindergarten and first grade children during the afternoon. It’s the kind of thing she enjoys doing, Mrs. Chiltoskey said. And at least twice a week, she packs her exhibit of crafts into a big suitcase and visits schools and colleges. DRY EYES The Alabama native came to Cherokee in August, 1942, to teach school. Her grandfather was one-eighth Indian, she said. While she was a little girl, she wks promised that “If I didn’t cry when I got soap in my eyes, I would grow up to be an Indian.” she said, smiling. “I knew one Cherokee legend when I came to Cherokee,” she said. But it didn’t take long to learn many others. She also learned to carve and finger weave and many other crafts native to the Cherokee. When she arrived in Cherokee, she heard about Going Back Chiltoskey within an hour, met him in November, and married him after a courtship of 10 years and 16 days. “None of that time was wasted,” she said, smiling. ane reus story ui wny cardinal is nea Child Care Fund Pledge 100 Per Cent The County Child Development Program em ployees - known formerly as Transylvania 4-C employees 1 have pledged and or con tributed to the 1975 United Fund Drive 100 per cent, for a gift of over $1,100 to the Fund. | This child development program is in its third year of operation, and for each of - three years its employees - have subscribed to the Fund j on the 100 per cent level. < In 1975 these gifts will be by payroll deduction from Land r of Sky Region, Transylvania j County and Western Carolina ; Community Action, since four ' persons in the program are on ; WCCA payroll, eight are on l county payroll and 28 of them i are on the Land of Sky * Regional payroll. This is a real demonstration j of inter-agency cooperation, j says Elizabeth Provence, j director. Many persons in this ? program work at relatively low wages, and not all of them felt they could afford the ‘fair share” level of one hour’s *; wage per month. However, by giving what they could, their gift amounted to a significant sum. Thirty of the forty-two employees did give their “fair share” to the drive, Miss Provence said. Nurses Meet Next Tuesday The Transylvania Nurses Association will hold its regular monthly meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 19, at 7:30 p.m. in the Sun Room off the front lobby of the hospital, ac cording to Publicity Chairman Phyllis C. Graves. The program speaker will be Dr. John Scroggin. His topic subject will be “Allergies and Treatment” and will cover symptoms of anaphylactic shock. All registered nurses in the area are invited to attend this meeting. They are encouraged to join the local membership roll and help support the scholarship project of the association, which is assisting a local girl through nurse’s training, the official said. LESS HONEY It wasn’t a good year for beekeepers. The honey yield per colony of bees in North Carolina is expect ed to be only 52 pounds compared to 70 pounds last year. i I I » i 4 { i ? 1 » ! 5 *. I f * I I m
The Transylvania Times (Brevard, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Nov. 14, 1974, edition 1
9
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75