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HOME GROWN continued HOME GROWN con't. next column HOME GROWN con't. next column HOME GROWN continued Landscape Designer/Gardener ISCO Landscaping Wilson, North Carolina SCC Landscape Gardening Graduate George Washington Carver: The Plant Genius by Joshua Peede It was approximately 1864, in the little town of Diamond Grove, Missouri, that one of the most talented horticulture researchers who ever lived was born. His name was George, and he was a young, African-American boy who was a slave under a man by the name of Moses Carver. For years he was known as “Carver’s George,” until one day he changed his name and added a middle initial. He would now be called George W. Carver. Although George had no name selected to represent his middle initial, others started calling him “George Washington Carver,” and it stuck. Although poverty and prejudice would face George throughout years of his life, the faith he had in God and his passion to learn would push him forward, even when it seemed he had come to the end of the road. George’s journey would end up taking him from Missouri to Kansas, back to Missouri, then to Minnesota before landing in Iowa, where his life would change forever. The journey to Iowa was a long one, but his perseverance of a better life kept him pressing forward, as he would live temporarily with families along the way who came to appreciate George for his work ethic, good cooking, and cleaning skills, as well as his positive outlook on life. Though his needs were met by the God he served, there were many hard trials and oppositions along the path to Iowa; however, those trials only made him better. George was very skillful in cooking and cleaning as well as ironing clothes, because during his early years in Missouri, he was taught how to do housework, since much of his youth was spent with illnesses like whooping cough. His older brother James was more suited for the farm work, because he was stronger and biggerframed than George. George wanted so badly to learn all he could about plants and nature; he wanted to know how everything worked and what it was called. Though schooling was not available for African-Americans in many places, George did not let that change his mind about what he wanted to do. While his first college experience in Winterset, Iowa, would not be in horticulture, it was in a subject that he truly loved as well. At Simpson College, George studied art and was quite an amazing painter. He enjoyed painting detailed images of the plants that he loved so dearly. After a heart–felt discussion with his art teacher about his interest in horticulture, Miss Etta Budd then informed him that her father, Dr. J. L. Budd was professor of horticulture at nearby Iowa State University in Ames. As you can imagine, George’s life was about to change for the better. All his life, he dreamed of learning about plants, and this opportunity at Iowa State provided a gateway into his career as a plant doctor and botanist. George’s first couple months at Iowa State were filled with many joys, but also with struggles of prejudice and ridicule. The longer George was on campus, the more he became accepted and even loved for his kind nature, witty humor, and outstanding knowledge of the subjects he studied and enjoyed. During the first months at Iowa State, George joined a prayer group that was led by a new horticulture professor who would become one of Carver’s best friends. His name was James Wilson. James Wilson helped George by giving him words of wisdom and reminding him that everything would work out fine, as long as he trusted in God. This beloved friend of George’s would later become the Secretary of Agriculture for the entire U.S., under the leadership of President McKinley. In 1896, George received a letter from a man by the name of Booker T. Washington, offering him a teaching position at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Washington wanted him to begin a first class horticulture program there. George ended up taking the position, left Iowa, and headed to his new Alabama home. Besides teaching, there was so much more he wanted to do, like researching ways to help poor farmers get more productivity out of their land without breaking the bank on synthetic fertilizers. It was about so much more than just the classroom for Carver. He made such an impression on many people across the country and the world by the amazing discoveries he found, and his ability to fix every plant problem that he saw, so it seemed. He spent a lot of time researching cowpeas (or black-eyed peas) as well as peanuts. Both of these crops are legumes, which are a type of plant with specialized root nodules that allow for fixation of nitrogen, so it can be readily available for uptake by plant roots in the soil. Research showed that planting legumes in sequence with nitrogen-hungry crops like cotton, tobacco and corn, provided a replenishment of much-needed nitrogen. This became known as crop rotation and is a common practice among farmers today. There are so many accomplishments in the life of George Carver that changed the course of agricultural history in America, but most likely the study and manifestation of the peanut in the South is possibly what he is best known for. During the time of his research at Tuskegee, he grew fonder of the peanut and its many uses, however, convincing American farmers that there were uses for it would be a challenge. Well, one day George would get some muchneeded assistance in his efforts to convince the American farmer to grow peanuts when he was invited to present all his research before the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee. He not only showed them the many uses he had found for the peanut, but he also convinced them to raise the tariff on peanuts being imported into America by 800 percent. This caused the demand for buying peanuts within the U.S. to increase greatly, as well as the need to grow them in American soil. By the end of George’s life in 1943, he had found 300 uses for the peanut, developed an earlier maturing cotton that would not be as susceptible to boll weevils, had done much research on the sweet potato, and informed farmers on ways to use common sense methods to increase yields by crop rotation and so forth. At the end of his life, George was still wanting to study more, but his time had come to an end on earth. We all are forever grateful for the groundbreaking discoveries and implementations that are a direct result of George Washington Carver. �� George Washington Carver, 1864-1943. No. 128 The Pinehurst Gazette, Inc. p.29


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