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Check Out ?his Year s Team In Special Supplement In Today s Issue
The News Record
SERVING THE PEOPLE OF MADISON COUNTY
On th? Insld ? ? . ?
Mars Hill College
begins its 1 24th year
. . . turn to page 8
78th Year No. 34
PUBLISHED WEEKLY IN THE COUNTY SEAT AT MARSHALL, N.C.
THURSDAY, August 30, 1979
15' Per Copy
iTouring Through Blue Mold Country
FURNEY TODD (with
microphone) shares a joke with
Roy Ammons and Wiley DuVall
(in caps) at Ammons' farm.
Lions Will Hold Labor Day
Lawn Party In Hot Springs
The Hot Springs Lions Club
will sponsor a Labor Day lawn
party at the old hotel site on
Sept. 1.
The celebration will feature
live bands, a flea market,
rides, games, a raffle and con
cessions, followed by a
fireworks display.
Activities will begin at 1
p.m. with live music
throughout the afternoon and
evening, either at the hotel
site or on Main Street. The
fireworks display, cancelled
due to rain on July 4, will start
at about ? p.m. Donations to
the Lions Club to help pay for
the display will be ap
preciated.
A contest will be held before
the fireworks begin, and
prises of $75, *50 and $25 will
be given away. Passes which
?ere sold by the Lions for the
July 4 celebration still qualify.
Additional tickets are
ivallable from Lions
members and will be sold at a
coat of three for $1.
A flea market will be held on
the grounds with handmade or
household wares at
ages will provide exciting
rides through white water on
the French Broad River.
Loading points for sign up will
be at the center of activities on
the hotel property.
Concession stands on the
grounds will offer ham
burgers, hot dogs, french
fries, drinks and cotton candy.
Games, consisting of bingo
and dart ton, will begin at 1
p.m. and continue until late
evening, ending before the
fireworks display.
"We got rained out for the
Fourth of July," said Lion
President Bernie Pfeifler,
"but this celebration will be
bigger and better. The day
will offer a great opportunity
for family entertainment of
fering interesting events for
all ages."
By ALAN ANDERSON
The annual "Research on
Wheels" caravan of the N.C.
Agricultural Extension
Service rolled into our area
last week. They came, 100-odd
strong, to survey tobacco test
plots of several local fanners
and report on growing con
ditions in neighboring
counties.
This trip is sponsored by the
big ag chemical companies
(American Cyanamid, Dow
Chemicals, Mobil Chemical
Company, UnlRoyal, and
others), seed companies,
farm journals, TV and radio
networks, and N.C. State
University. Its slogan this
year was "Let's Back
Tobacco," and there was even
a tour theme jingle song, sung
to the tune of the "Caisson
Song": "Tobacco growers,
one and all-We're behind you,
win or fall, Keep on bacldng
tobacco each day!"
Indeed, tobacco growers
need a few slogans and songs
to keep their spirits up this
year, perhaps the worst
tobacco growing season in
memory. A mimeographed
report by Fumey A. Todd,
professor of plant pathology
at N.C. State University,
offered this gloomy
assessment of the damage
done to the burley crop by
mold: "Field blue mold has
caused extensive damage
throughout the burley
production area. Four to eight
leaves were destroyed on
large tobacco, with con
siderable upstalk damage.
The damage to small tobacco
was more extensive since the
disease moved inside the
plant and became systemic.
Some of these young plants
were killed, and recovery for
others was slow or not at all.
"Losses vary somewhat
between counties and farms
Tobacco Losses In Madison County
May Average 50 Percent This Year
within the same county. Some
fields were completely
destroyed and damage in
many others exceeded 80
percent. Losses for some
counties may amount to SO
percent to 00 percent. The
average for the bur ley area
may exceed a 25 percent
reduction in crop value. This
high loss may cost growers
over $7 million, or about four
times the combined loss to all
diseases last year."
I rode over to Yancey
County to catch the Research
on Wheels group; Wiley
DuVall, our Extension Ser
vice's Madison County
tobacco expert, and Sharon
Carter of the service were
kind enough to give me a lift
and explain the situation in
the county.
"In Madison County about
00 percent of the total
agricultural income comes
from burley tobacco," said
DuVall as be drove. "That
gives you seme idea of its
lmportaac*. And we think the
yield is going to be down
about 90 percent this year.
That gives you an idea of how
much damage the mold has
done.
"I've been working with
tobacco here for 14 years now,
and this is the worst crop I've
ever seen. It's funny; the year
started off as one of our best
? the right amount of rain
fall, good temperatures, and
so on. But once the tobacco
was in the Arid the rains
began. This is lust when you
don't want it to rain ? in
June. The trouble began with
black root rot. This is a
fungus that is always present
in the soil, and its growth is
The Northwestern Bank
Announces Merger Pact
Directors of the Bank of
Eden at their meeting last
week approved in principle an
agreement to merge with the
Northwestern Bank head
quartered in North
Wilkesboro.
The agreement in principle
calls for Northwestern to pay
$12.50 in cash for each of the
215,700 outstanding common
shares of the Bank of Eden,
for a total purchase price of
MIKE COOK, coacb of the
during ?crimmage. The wagon
begins Aug. 31.
$2.7 million. The agreement is
subject to approval by Bank of
Eden shareholders, directors
of Northwestern Financial
Corp., and bank regulatory
agencies.
The Bank of Eden, with $5.7
million in deposits and $9.1
million in assets as of June 30,
began operations in early 1975
and has one office. The Nor
thwestern Bank has 178 bank
ing offices in North Carolina
and at June 30 ranked as the
nations' 94th largest commer
cial bank and the fourth
largest bank in North Carolina
with $1.3 billion in deposits.
Gudger
To Host
Town Meeting
Congressman Lamar
Gudger will host a town
meeting at the courthouse in
Marshall Aug. 31 at M a.m.
Sonw of the topics ha will
discuss are veterans benefits.
triggered Dy cool tem
peratures and rain ? Just the
condition* we had.
"Then we moved into July,
which was one of the wettest
in history. We had over seven
inches of rain on many farms.
That alone would have been
enough for a bad crop. But
then along came blue mold,
right at the beginning of July.
Here again is a disease that Is
normally present every year
in some plant beds without
doing much damage. It
overwinters in Florida, and
every spring the spores are
carried north little by little in
the wind until it reaches our
area. Most yen, the July sun
kills it off. Even our older
farmers have nevr seen a real
blue mold epidemic in their
whole lives. It has Just never
caused a problem before.
"Again, it was the weather
that allowed the mold to
reach the epidemic level.
Here's what is usually does. A
spore lands on a leaf and
grows inside the two layers of
the leaf in a spot. And that's
it. But this year the weather
for mold was perfect and it
spread over the entire plant;
it became systemic. We have
plants where the whole tops
are bent and twisted.
"In fact the tobacco looks
so bad that some people still
believe the problem is in one
of the pesticides. This is what
happened in the eastern part
of the state, where a fertilizer
contaminated by a weed
killer spoiled about 9,000
acres of prime tobacco; they
may not even be able to sell
what's left of it. And there are
even some farmers who think
the whole problem comes
from the radiation leak at
Three Mile Islahd nuclear
plant"
We arrived at Mountain
Heritage 'High School, where
we joined the cravan, and I
spoke for a time with Claude
Cody, who has been growing
tobacco in Big Laurel (or 43
years. "I have leaves that
just rot and drop off because
of this mold," he said,
standing beside some test
plots below the school. "I've
never seen this blue mold as
long as I've been growing
tobacco ? and that's since I
was 16 years old. It looks like
I'm going to have about two
thirds of my normal crop."
Meanwhile a Yancey
County Extension Chairman
Jim Ray was saying: "We
discovered blue mold on June
18 in Yancey County and
we've been trying to live with
Continued on Page ?
Marshall Committee Visits
Seven Local Industries
A committee appointed by
Mayor Lawrence Ponder of
Marshall has visited local
industries to assess their
current needs and future
development plans.
Committee members in
clude Bryce Hall, manager of
Wachovia Bank in Marshall;
Bill Stump, manager of Arbee
Manufacturing Co.; and
Mayor Ponder.
The members visiting each
Industry asked several
questions concerning each
firm's history, expansion
plans, ?mi needs, and
community involvement. A
major goal of the interviws
was to enlist existing in
dustrial support for further
economic development within
the town of Marshall and
surrounding townships.
These visits are a part of
the requirements for
receiving the Community of
Excellence Award, which the
town of Marshall ia Meting.
In mid-September, state
officials will visit the town
and will assess comments
received from local industries
aa a part of their review.
Industries visited this week
are the Deringer Manufac
turing Co., Conover Glove
Co., Arbee Manufacturing
Co., Micro Switch, Shadow
Line, Oakwood Stove Co., and
the Marshall Harpsichord Co.
MAIN STREET IN MARSHALL
looked like this last week from tfce
for of The News Record office.
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