THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 5, 1995 TAG: 9505050555
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PLYMOUTH LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
Picture if you will 200 little darlings pestering the piglets, slithering in the slop and cheering the nakedness of newly shorn sheep while grown-up Ph.D.s called out occasional cautionaries and hoped for the best.
The fourth-graders from Creswell and Plymouth elementary schools in Washington County turned out Wednesday for a state Agriculture Department farm education show designed to prove to young students that tomatoes don't grow in refrigerators.
``There was a similar ag demonstration for 1,500 school kids in Goldsboro last week and some of them couldn't believe that milk is warm when it comes out of a cow,'' said June Cantrell, a staffer at the Vernon James Agriculture Research Station in Washington County, where the farm demonstration was held.
John W. Smith, superintendent at the station, played the role of trail-boss when the Washington County children arrived. He also rounded up most of the Ph.D.s who work at the experimental farm. The scientists made sure the young students saw enough to keep their parents answering tough questions for at least several weeks.``The kids had a wonderful time with the pigs and particularly the nematodes,'' said Cantrell, who is Smith's assistant at the 1,558-acre experimental agriculture laboratory on the south shore of Albemarle Sound.
As many Washington County fourth-graders now know, nematodes are splendidly icky and yucky worms that like to live inside farm animals. Dr. Paul Lilly, one of the Vernon James scientists, presented his nematodes in glorious living color through a microscope.
In the name of continuing education, several sheep submitted, sort of, to shearing by Dr. Richard Lichtenwalner, an N.C. State University husbandry professor.
``The kids liked that part,'' said Cantrell.
The sheep didn't.
``This is the first year we've tried the educational program for schoolchildren,'' said Smith, the Vernon James research superintendent.
``The whole concept of taking the classroom to the experimental stations came out of the North Carolina Agriculture Department in Raleigh,'' Smith said.
``We started with just the local schools this year, but the idea is so successful that I expect we'll soon be reaching out a lot farther,'' Smith added.
The program was developed by veteran Agriculture Secretary James A. Graham, who has been regularly re-elected to run the state's farming industry since 1964. Graham's department owns or operates more than a dozen experimental farms throughout North Carolina. The Agriculture Department and N.C. State University share in the staffing.
``There are all kinds of exciting things to see and learn about on an experimental farm,'' said Greg Cook, a spokesman for Graham in Raleigh.
``At the Vernon James research station, the students even saw crawfish and catfish growing in aquaculture ponds.''
Graham insisted on naming the Washington County experimental research station after James, a Democratic state legislator who represented northeastern North Carolina for many years. James and Graham have been political contemporaries for decades.
James, who didn't seek re-election last year as a representative in the General Assembly, is a hands-on farmer who still owns many spreads throughout the Albemarle. As chairman of the N.C. House agriculture committee, James earned a reputation as a farmer's friend because of beneficial rural legislation he introduced.
At 85, James refers to Graham as ``one of those Young Democrats.''
Graham is 74. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
DREW C. WILSON/Staff
Fourth-graders from Pines Elementary School at Plymouth got some
hands-on experience Thursday. They were touring the Vernon Jmes
Agricultural Research Center at Roper.
by CNB