INDUSTRIAL AND AGRICULTURAL
DEVELOPMENT OF
CASWELL COUNTY
THAT durned Old Sam Bason
is doing more for the restora¬
tion of Yanceyville and Cas¬
well County than John D. Rocke¬
feller is doing for Williamsburg,
Virginia,” facetiously observed a
bright Reidsville lady some few
years ago when Sam was a division
highway commissioner, under ap¬
pointment of GovernorClyde Roark
Hoey, and doing a bit of widening
of the county-seat's main street.
Of course, Sam was impartially
thinking of the safety of the travel¬
ing public, in the realization that
the roadway of the unincorporated
village had been laid out in the
"horse and wagon days" when the
old mercantile firm of Johnston &
Neal hauled the store’s goods by
wagon all the way from Clarkes-
ville, Virginia, where the conflu¬
ence of the Dan and Staunton riv¬
ers made the Roanoke and favor¬
able water freight rates.
Possibly Caswell County, with
maybe Warren a close second, suf¬
fered more from the devastating
— By —
tom iii:\di:kso\
effects of the catastrophic calami¬
ties of the Civil War than any other
county in North Carolina. She was
altogether an agricultural county,
outside of a few leather tanneries,
carriage manufacturies, cabinet
shops and liquor distilleries, with
landowners of large acreage and
many slaves. She early found out
(soon after the legended incident
of the occasion when Sir Walter
Raleigh’s servant found him "on
fire” and "put him out" by dash¬
ing a bucket of water on his head,
pipe and all) that her gray soils,
especially those along the water¬
sheds of Country Line, Rattlesnake,
Jordan, Hogan, Moon and Hyco
creeks, were highly suitable and
easily adaptable to the production
of fine, silky, aromatic smoking to¬
bacco and that "new grounds" of
freshly cleared lands were profit¬
ably productive.
It might now also be added that
under the urge and incentive of in¬
tensive war efforts and the prevail¬
ing prices of timber-on-the-stump
the demobilition of our forests has
been completed, there being left
scarcely one extensive boundary.
Those who know the saw-milling
industry declare that more lumber
has been cut in Caswell within the
last three years than in many of
the adjacent counties of much
larger area.
Perhaps no one factor has con¬
tributed more to soil restoration
than has the introduction of what
has come to be called the South’s
wonder crop, lespedeza; a crop
that has also become the hay crop
of a wide scope of country that had
heretofore largely depended upon
the North and the West for its hay,
thus enabling this part of the world
to expand its production of milk
and beef. Of course, much credit
must be given to the county agent’s
varied activities, under the exten¬
sion service of the state, which
agency has functioned with the
financial assistance of the federal
government. Caswell early went in
for this agricultural experiment,
with the friendly help of the Dan¬
ville Fair Association, which gen¬
erously bore the county’s part of
the expense.
The county agent’s office is today
a far march from its humble begin¬
nings, with an agricultural build¬
ing of its own and many arms, feet
and branches of the service. Housed
in the same building is Triple-A
(Agricultural Adjustment Admin¬
istration) and HDS (Home Demon¬
stration Service). Junius E. Zim¬
merman, of Davidson County, has
been county agent the past nine
years. Ralph M. Aldridge, a Cas¬
well boy, has recently been made
assistant county agent. Miss Helen
Williamson is secretary. Triple-A,
which is today probably the most
powerful branch of the extension
service, doing the over-all planning
and approving for all allotments,
YESTERDAY,
TODAY and TOMORROW . . .
Rejoicing in the part it has played in the rebuilding of a
sound financial structure on the cold oshes of a glorious
post . . . looking forward to the time "when the nations
of the world shall beot their swords into ploughshares"
. . . imbued with the belief that humbleness of friendly
service transcends all the other attributes of the code
of business ethics . . . keeping step with the march of
progress . . . hopeful of a bright ond prosperous future
. . . confident of enlarged opportunities .
Bank of Yanceyville
“ The Only Hank If hose First Interest is
Caswell County ”
Member Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
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