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I c 7 /. .V < t 1 J THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 194ft THE CLINTON CHRONICLE Pa are Seven Seen Along the Roadside By J. M. ELEAZER, Clemaon Extension Information Specialist When I was county < agent! inj Sumter the colored folks of the[ Congruity section used to have to 1 meet me in wagon or buggy out on| the paced road in winter when I went there to Inoculate their hogs 1 against >cholera. It was a primitive and backward section with no im-| provements of any sort. Some weeks ago I went back there with James Reames to the annual meeting of his Negro FHA farm ownership borrowers. He has 88 of| them, and 14 have paid out in full.' Most of the rest are ahead on their; payments. The other day they didn’t have to meet us in a wagon out on the pav ed »road. Two good allweather roads fork at their community center at the Church and school. . Electric j lines traverse the roads in there. 1 The weatherbeaten church of old had been renovated and lighted. A nice school had replaced the shack that I knpw. The yard, of church and school had been bulldozed of I stumps, filled in and drained so that water did not stand there any more. There* were over 400 folks there to partake of a good barbecue. | And there was not a buggy nor wa gon on the yard, but an acre of + good automobiles. < I had heard many groups of co lored folks sing before, and I love it. But I had been told not to feel that I had heard the best until I had heard the folks of Congruity sing. Well, I heard them, and my infor mant was right. The church was packed and all was quiet. Without ado, Hubert San ders, wham I have known for many years, started humming and then singing. Gradually the others joined in. Like a snowball rolling down hill, the melody grew. Soon, with eyes closed, one could imagine he was in heaven, such heavenly music filled the place. And they sang on and on. Not just a little bit. That’s what I liked so much about it. The rapturous moments lasted. And there was more later on the program. I spoke and had planned to leave. But learning that there would be more of this great singing after dinner, I tarried on. And I was well repaid. The deepest natural bass I have ever heard was coming from a small black man named William Illery. I had known him too Ijt many years, but never knew that he nor Hubert; Sanders could sing as they can. Wil-; liam pats both feet when he sings.! All of that bass he has calls for that, I suppose. He paid for his farm in 5 years, Mr. Reams told me. 1 passed his nice iann layout as I drove in there. j Lawrence Washington, the Negro representative with the FHA in. Washington and former county* agent in Louisiana, made a good talk. He exhorted them to take pride in their farms and their: homes, and not to be of the shiftless sort “that had nothing but a birth day and an appetite”. As I was leaving, the school boys had started a basketball game out there in the yard. And the girls' were taking up a collection to buy uniforms with. As I rode out of there, with no fear of getting stuck,' I thought of the vast progress that is being made in what used to be the back place. For surely the spots of hard living in this land are being rubbed out. Yes, and rapidly. We; must watch to make ourselves worthy of this great change. Fighting Bugs County Agent Hubbard of Bram- berg tells me that five fertilizer companies are putting that poison in fertilizer that they tried out so sue-, cess.'ully against wireworms down there last summer.. They put 5 pounds of chlordane per ton and then apply 400 pounds of that per acre under corn. That gives just one pound of the poison per acre. I saw bad wireworm fields down there last summer where thigi made the difference between a good corn crop and practically none at all. This year it is to be triad out un der many other crops. Clemson’s station at BlackviQe has many tests under wgy with various poisons at various rates different crops on wireworm land. , i g This opens up a whole new ap proach to underground insect con trol. We are wondering now how about it for root lice that ruin so many stands of cotton and corn at places. And how about it for bud- worms that blast corn stands on certain low spots. There is never a dull moment on the farm front. For there is always something new and interesting coming up. Boys Are That Way A man was coming to see us who had an enormous nose. Parents cau tioned us about not paying any not iceable attention to it. He came and we made out pretty well. We went out behind the wood pile where we could laugh after we first saw him. But while in % the house, we were perfectly solemn. Things went on all right on the surface, but we were ever conscious of that nose and were careful to stay away from it in every way. But next day at the dinner table the whole thing exploded. That is, the tension, not the nose. My sister, self-conscious, yet try ing to be so nice, was passing the gravy around when she came to this man she said, “Won’t you have some gravy on your nose?”. Mean ing rice, of course! Well, sir, the jig was up. My brother was drinking water. He strangled and lit out for the back. I followed him, about to pop wide open. He ran clear down in the orchard and rolled in the broom straw until the convulsion of laugh ter abated a bit and we could catch our breath again. We left the others to their fate there at the table. I don’t recall- hearing them say how they man aged things. But I do know there must have been some awfully em barrassing moments there for a while. We were fortunate in that the man left that afternoon and we didn’t have to face him again. For I just don’t think we could have dont it and kept straight faces. Old Prices Just eight years ago we were making a shipment of poultry from Sumter county. I have just run across the old notice about it. Co lored hens brought 14 cents a pound. Leghorns 10 cents, turkey hens 10 cents and toms 13 cents, cocks, stags, ducks, geese brought 7 cents a pound. We thought those prices were good. And we had a big shipment Aty, how times have ' l -Mr - McIntoshs SHOE SHOE 9m4 Yoar Sko«a T» Ife far Baal Materials and WorfcaUaakt). . ... to your nearest DiximaiD dealer for delightful STOP and GO ICE CREAM So rich! So smooth! So tasty! DiximaiD’s STOP and GO ICE CREAM! Green and red pineapple cobiS delightfully blended with delicious DiximaiD ice cream. You and all the family will GO for DiximaiD’s STOP and GO! Enjoy it today in generous fountain serv ings . . . and take home plenty of those handy pints. Phone your favorite DiximaiD dealers today for Dixi maiD’s STOP and GO ICE CREAM. 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