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Firm hired for Dix land plan
Centennial CampusPolitical Experts: Polling Not Exact Science
Michael Cobb, political scienceBuyout needs Bush's signature
Andy Taylor, political science
Panel
backs four-month flounder season closure
BJ Copeland, zoology
Behind
the pink ribbons: A life's work
Jill Barnes, College of Veterinary Medicine
NCSU
fund-raiser assists Habitat
Shack-A-Thon
Letter
to the editor: Finding chancellors
written by Molly Broad
Metro
notes
Lydia M. Barovero, foreign languages and literature
Study
Results Leave Vitamin C Pork Poser
Eric van Heugten, animal science
Pumpkin
carving still a symbol of Halloween season
Cooperative Extension
Oct. 14, 2004
News & Observer
By RICHARD STRADLING
© Copyright 2004
A planning firm that helped design N.C. State University's Centennial Campus will lead the effort to draft a redevelopment plan for the Dorothea Dix Hospital campus next door.
The state hired LandDesign, based in Charlotte, to sort out competing visions for the 315-acre Dix campus, which is perched on a hill overlooking downtown Raleigh. The state plans to close Dix when it opens a new mental hospital in Butner in 2007 and must decide what to do with the Dix land and nearly 100 buildings.
"There will be a lot of ideas," said Rhett Crocker, LandDesign's lead planner on the project. "Our role is building consensus."
Crocker spoke Wednesday to a group of legislators and local officials who will oversee the plan. He told them LandDesign will aggressively seek public opinion about the Dix property, hoping to come up with a scheme that will please everyone.
That won't be easy, said state Rep. Jennifer Weiss, a Cary Democrat who is on the Dorothea Dix Campus Master Plan Oversight Committee.
Weiss said even advocates for the mentally ill are divided over what to do with the property. Some would like to see it turned into a park, she said, but others want it sold to the highest bidder and the proceeds used for mental health programs.
"It will be a challenge to make everybody happy," Weiss said.
The master plan will lay out one or more options for reusing the campus, but the final decision will rest with the governor and the General Assembly, said Rep. Deborah Ross, a Raleigh Democrat on the committee.
"It's the state's land," Ross said. "And the state is going to have to decide what to do with it."
LandDesign will hold a series of public meetings and workshops starting before the end of the year, Crocker said. So far, no meetings have been scheduled.
Lynn Hoke and Marjorie O'Rorke, members of a citizens group that would like Dix to become a park, were happy to hear Crocker emphasize public involvement.
"It sounded like they're on the right track," said Hoke, who is secretary of Friends of Dorothea Dix Park.
The city and the General Assembly each set aside $100,000 for the Dix master plan. LandDesign was one of 18 firms that sought the contract for the work. Joe Henderson, director of the State Property Office, said the firm's experience with Centennial Campus, a research park that covers more than 1,000 acres, did not tip the decision but didn't hurt, either.
"They've done a good job with Centennial," Henderson said.
Oct. 14, 2004
Jacksonville Daily News
By PATRICIA SMITH
© Copyright 2004
KILL DEVIL HILLS - The state Marine Fisheries Commission went against its network of advisers Wednesday and opted to omit an increased commercial size limit from a final draft of its Southern Flounder Fishery Management Plan.
Instead, in a 5-4 vote, the commission put forth its own strategy for a Dec. 1 through March 31 commercial and recreational inshore flounder season closure that critics said will do little to help the flounder fishery recover.
"All the analysis that has been done on this plan indicates it's very unlikely to end over-fishing," said Mac Currin, who runs a recreational guide service.
But those who supported it said they believe a commercial size limit increase is unnecessary for the recovery of the fishery in 10 years, as required by law.
"If I didn't think this would end over-fishing in 10 years, I wouldn't have made the motion," said commission member B.J. Copeland, professor emeritus in the N.C. State University Zoology Department.
The commission had taken to public hearing a draft plan calling for a 30-percent reduction of southern flounder harvests - the species of flounder most often caught in the rivers and sounds of North Carolina. Division of Marine Fisheries biologists said then that no less of a catch reduction would achieve recovery of the fishery in 10 years.
As a result, the draft plan proposed increasing the commercial size limit from 13 to 14 inches. It also proposed closing the commercial season from Nov. 8 to Dec. 31. The measures would impact the gill net and pound net fisheries the most, and fishermen spoke out against the plan.
Following the public hearings, division biologists used an updated computer program and found a 24-percent reduction in commercial harvest might achieve the goal, said Joe Grist, division stock assessment scientist. The division then revised its recommendation to endorse a 14-inch commercial size limit with closure from Nov. 25 through Dec. 31.
Biologists said the size limit made up 18 percent of the harvest reduction.
But some commission members said the biologists did not consider the number of pound net fishermen who have and will drop out of the fishery, and because of permit regulations will not be allowed back into it.
"Everything that you guys come up with is already happening," said commission member Tilman Gray, a commercial fisherman from Avon who earlier resigned from his seat but agreed to serve for one last meeting.
Bill Mandulak, who attended the meeting representing the Coastal Conservation Association of North Carolina, said he thought the commission's decision was absurd.
"They ignored every advisory committee," Mandulak said. "Even commercial fishermen wrote them a letter and said they'd go to a 14-inch size limit, and they didn't do it."
But commission member Bradley Styron, who runs Quality Seafood in Cedar Island, said the commercial fishermen agreed to the size limit increase only because they thought the only other option was a Nov. 8 closure.
"You backed them into a corner," Styron said.
The recreational harvest reduction was proposed in the form of an eight-fish creel limit that would rein in gig flounder catches. The commission opted to keep this proposal in the plan.
It also kept in several proposals for tougher commercial gear restrictions.
The draft plan now goes to the Joint Legislative Commission on Seafood and Aquaculture and the secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources for review before coming back to the commission for formal approval.
Political Experts: Polling Not Exact Science
Oct. 13, 2004
WRAL
By Valonda Calloway
© Copyright 2004
RALEIGH, N.C. -- In September, a Time Magazine poll showed President George W. Bush with an 11 percent lead over Sen. John Kerry. The same week, The Christian Science Monitor reported a tie. Experts warn potential voters that polling is not an exact science.
Sen. John Kerry came out of Friday's debate with a slight lead according to one poll, but experts say it is important to remember polls are just a snapshot.
"Most polling is fairly accurate. The trouble starts when you think that polling is making a prediction," said Michael Cobb, political science professor for North Carolina State University.
Cobb said polling methods vary widely. He had problems with a recent Gallup presidential poll.
"Their sample was comprised of about 7 to 8 percent more Republicans than Democrats and that would be fine if that was what America looked like, but it doesn't," he said.
Cobb also said opinions people give right after debates do not always last.
"That can change over a couple of days too as the pundits get their hands on the debate and explain what they think happened and that can often change people's perception of what they saw," he said.
Cobb said polls will be more accurate the closer voters get to Election Day.
"People are more certain whether they can going to vote and they are more certain about who they are going to vote for," he said.
Neither Republican nor Democrat officials put full faith in polls they don't control.
"Polling are not an exact science, but what they do do is give you a roadmap of where your campaign needs to go," said Republican media consultant Marc Rotterman said.
"I wouldn't put a lot of stock in any one single poll, but I would put some stock in the way the polls are trending," said Scott Falmlen, of the state Democratic Party.
Cobb said if the recent surge in new voter registration favors one party over another, that may not be reflected in polls because many of the new voters are not getting phone calls yet.
Those who rely solely on cell phones to stay in touch are not in touch where presidential polling is concerned. Pollsters cannot call cell phone numbers.
The U.S. Census Bureau said about 5 percent of households rely only on cell phones. Among young adults, though, the number is nearly 15 percent. However, pollsters claim those people often do not vote anyway and regardless, the number is too small to affect research.
Oct. 13, 2004
The Robesonian; The Sanford Herald
Staff and wire report
© Copyright 2004
RALEIGH - North Carolina lawmakers and farmers praised final congressional passage Monday of a tobacco buyout deal that was years in the making and will pay $3.9 billion to the state's growers and quota holders over the next decade.
The $10.1 billion buyout deal was part of a $136 billion corporate tax package approved 69-17 in the Senate and now headed to President Bush to be signed into law.
U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre called it the "dawning of a new day" for farmers in Robeson County and across North Carolina.
"It will provide a much needed economic boost for Robeson County," McIntyre said. "And it's not only farmers that will benefit. There will be $4 billion allocated here in North Carolina and that will positively influence every sector of the economy.
"Now, it's up to President Bush to sign it, which I am confident he will."
The buyout is poised to end decades of leaf production under a Depression-era quota system that kept prices artificially high and critics said put U.S. growers at a disadvantage.
Under the system, a person has had to hold a quota to be able to grow a specific number of pounds of tobacco. Overall U.S. production has been limited to what domestic cigarette makers intended to buy, with unsold tobacco going into reserve.
Over the years, high prices and declining domestic demand for tobacco have caused U.S. cigarette makers to look to foreign growers for cheaper tobacco. The amount of tobacco that can be grown under a quota has tumbled nearly 60 percent since 1997, and tobacco growers worried the quota would fall even farther in 2005.
With President Bush's signature, the government will pay $10 for each pound of quota. In cases where quota holders rent their allotments to other people to farm, $7 will go to the person who holds the quota and $3 to the farmer who rents it.
Payments, to be made over 10 years and funded by a fee on tobacco manufacturers, will be based on 2002 production levels. Those who quit farming before 2002 will receive nothing.
With about 76,000 tobacco farmers and allotment holders, North Carolina should receive the largest portion of the $10.1 billion buyout. About $500 million of the money will be used to buy all tobacco left in reserve from the quota system.
Farmers have said that with a buyout, those who want to get out of growing tobacco will be able to leave the business with dignity; those who remain will be able to pay off debts and buy equipment to better compete in the free market.
The payments also are expected to inject a financial shot in the arm for the state's anemic rural economy.
N.C. lawmakers on Capitol Hill who had ardently sought a buyout for years basked Monday in their triumph.
"Passing the tobacco quota buyout has been my top priority since arriving in the U.S. Senate and I'm thrilled that we were able to get this done," said Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., who voted for the bill Monday.
Added Rep. Bob Etheridge, D-N.C., a part-time tobacco farmer who voted for the compromise bill in the House late last week: "Years of hard work by farmers, legislators and many others have paid off. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!"
Democratic vice presidential nominee and North Carolina Sen. John Edwards was campaigning Monday and didn't vote. With the bill projected to pass by a wide margin, Edwards didn't see the need to return to Washington, said Mike Briggs, an Edwards spokesman.
Jimmy Lee, a Johnston County quota holder worried that the buyout comes too late to save the state's tobacco industry.
"It didn't have to wind up this way," said Lee, who this year rented out his allotment for the first time since starting to grow leaf 32 years ago. "It would have been a lot better if we had gotten it three or four years ago."
The buyout has been an issue in several North Carolina political races this year, including the tight U.S. Senate campaign between Democrat Erskine Bowles and Republican Richard Burr.
A five-term congressman from Winston-Salem, Burr served on the conference committee that recommended the compromise package.
He drew Bowles' ire last week when he voted against the Senate's proposed $13 billion buyout, which Bowles said would have meant $790 million more for North Carolina growers. That version also would have allowed the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco as a drug, unlike the version passed Monday.
Bowles, who said he wanted a buyout with or without FDA regulation, traveled to Washington to lobby Democratic senators to support the buyout provisions. But Burr argued Bowles was ineffective because several senators he spoke to still didn't vote for the bill.
Andy Taylor, a political science professor at North Carolina State University, said the buyout's passage "takes the wind out of the sails of the issue" in the Senate race.
While the buyout affects a relatively small number of North Carolina residents, Taylor said the approval may help Burr in the election.
"There's still this notion that tobacco ... is at the heart of North Carolina interests," said Taylor, and that a Republican Congress and president got it passed.
Behind the pink ribbons: A life's work
Oct. 14, 2004
News & Observer
By VICKI CHENG
© Copyright 2004
Jill Barnes came to breast cancer research almost accidentally. She was a veterinarian who studied how substances known as "stress proteins" affect the way animals develop. As a postdoctoral fellow at the Environmental Protection Agency, working in the carcinogen division, she developed a human cell line to use in her studies.
When Barnes was hired at the N.C. State University College of Veterinary Medicine, she brought her cell line with her. Now, she is studying the way stress proteins are expressed in breast cancer cells.
"It was a big family of proteins," she said. "I was interested in moving from that into cancer. I just never knew how it would end up impacting me."
Two things happened shortly after Barnes was hired at NCSU three years ago: She met and hired Patty Spears. And Barnes' own mother was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer, a very aggressive form.
Barnes' mother was 58 and seemed healthy. She had what looked like an infection in her breast. It was red and swollen, but not lumpy. By the time doctors figured out she had breast cancer, two months had gone by, and the cancer had spread.
She was diagnosed Sept. 11, 2001. "That was a bad day," Barnes said.
For two years, her mother went through chemotherapy, radiation therapy, a radical mastectomy. In March, she died of cardiac failure.
Now, the women in Barnes' family are much more vigilant about breast cancer. The experience has brought Barnes and her sister closer. And Barnes will study breast cancer for the rest of her career, in hopes of getting closer to a cure.
"I think about it every day," she said. "I think about her every day. It gives my research a lot more meaning."
Letter to the editor: Finding chancellors
Oct. 14, 2004
News & Observer
© Copyright 2004
Your Oct. 10 editorial "On top at State" rightly lauded the election of N.C. State University Provost Jim Oblinger as the institution's next chancellor. I am convinced he will be a forceful and effective leader for this important campus of UNC, and we were delighted to promote such an individual from within our own ranks.
That same editorial, however, included an oft-repeated concern that under my administration "an inclination to go off-campus has seemed to dominate, prompting expensive national searches." I welcome the opportunity to offer a fuller perspective on the recruitment and selection of UNC chancellors.
Since the 16-campus university was created in 1972, every president and board have sought out the very best individuals available to lead our campuses. In each administration, a number of those leaders have come from other states and institutions. It simply is not in the best interests of our campuses if we fail to look outside. And in fact, federal affirmative action laws and our own commitment to diversity now demand that we demonstrate equal opportunity in the selection process.
The campus-based chancellor search process is led by the local board of trustees and includes representatives from all key constituencies. By statute, I must nominate a chancellor from a short list of finalists recommended by the board of trustees, or declare all candidates unacceptable and call for the search to start over. With very rare exception, when the finalists have included an individual with strong ties to the campus and/or North Carolina, I have nominated that person as chancellor. And I have done so with great joy and institutional pride.
In the past few years, we have seen a growing trend in which our home-grown administrators have been able to compete with the best we can find nationally. The promotion this past spring of Appalachian State University Provost Jim Peacock to chancellor is yet another very recent example.
The development of stronger leaders within the university is an important goal as well as a source of great pride. In fact, the Board of Governors recently created the William Friday Institute for Higher Education Leadership to advance that important effort.
Molly Corbett Broad
President
University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill
NCSU fund-raiser assists Habitat
Oct. 14, 2004
News & Observer
By staff report
© Copyright 2004
Last month's "Shack-A-Thon" at N.C. State University raised nearly $18,000 for Habitat for Humanity, the organization announced Wednesday.
During the project, students representing 21 organizations lived for 96 hours in 14 shacks on the N.C. State Brickyard. The shacks were occupied day and night by members of the student organizations, who filled the time panhandling for Habitat and helping to educate others about the cause.
The money they raised will go toward the building of Habitat homes in Wake County.
This year's event realized more than twice what was raised last year, Habitat officials said. The annual fund-raiser is organized by the N.C. State Habitat Chapter which has more than 1,000 student members.
Writer's crusade incites NCSU faculty
Oct. 14, 2004
Frontpagemag.com
By TIM SIMMONS
© Copyright 2004
David Horowitz stirred up the crowd in a manner of minutes when he visited UNC-Chapel Hill three years ago.
This time, the conservative author and commentator didn't even get to town before faculty at N.C. State University made their feelings clear.
Horowitz, who will speak Saturday at the McKimmon Center on the NCSU campus, is touting a document called the Academic Bill of Rights. He says it is needed to keep the views of conservative students from being stifled on college campuses.
Members of NCSU's Faculty Senate beg to differ -- so much so that they approved a resolution this month to underscore their opposition.
"When this issue first came up, it seemed almost like a frivolity," said Robert Bruck, chairman of the Senate's Academic Policy Committee. "But I have come to appreciate that this is serious business -- as serious as this body can undertake."
At the heart of the faculty's concern -- and the push by Horowitz -- is the question of who should be in charge of making sure campuses welcome a full range of views on any topic. To give his effort more teeth, Horowitz has enlisted the help of sympathetic lawmakers throughout the nation.
Insulated by design to encourage independence, faculty members have harshly criticized Horowitz's efforts even as they have defended his right to speak. They see it as a sophisticated power-grab timed to take advantage of a growing conservative presence on many campuses.
Given the immense scope and size of higher education throughout the nation, NCSU faculty say some mistakes by instructors are inevitable. But they also think abuses are isolated.
When a UNC-Chapel Hill student, for example, was accused by his teacher in February of promoting hate speech because of comments he made about homosexuals, the repercussions rippled for months. But it was still one incident, faculty members say.
Horowitz responds to this by rattling off other examples from a well-rehearsed list. He likes to talk about a professor who announced to his class that the "R" in Republican really stands for racist. He tells of attending a class at Bates College in Maine a few years ago in which the sole text "was a 500-page tract put together by the editors of New Left Review."
Past controversy
He knows how to deliver these lines for maximum effect. A former radical activist, he is now a mainstay among conservative authors and commentators. "I'm the kind of guy who actually likes an argument," he said.
Underscoring his reputation as the outsider on campus, Horowitz was accompanied by bodyguards during a speech at UNC-CH in 2001. There was no violence, but it wasn't long before more than 100 students walked out, angry over newspaper ads he purchased earlier titled "Ten Reasons Why Reparations for Slavery is a Bad Idea -- and Racist Too."
Such conflict isn't likely when Horowitz joins several speakers at Saturday's full-day conference, "Freedom and the American Campus." The event is sponsored by the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, a politically conservative organization based in Raleigh. Registration for the conference is $20.
Although NCSU is not sponsoring the event, Faculty Senate members say they think it makes no sense to let the conference pass without comment.
"These are outright challenges to the function and structure of universities," said Bruck of the Faculty Senate. "For us to be arrogant and say no mistakes have ever been made ... would be the greater error in the scheme of the politics of this situation. But we have internal mechanisms to take care of them, and we do take care of them."
Horowitz does not agree. He said he thinks university professors do a poor job of policing themselves and that many incidents go unreported by students who fear retribution by teachers.
He has taken his fight to various state legislatures where he has asked lawmakers to approve non-binding resolutions supporting his Academic Bill of Rights. His most notable successes have come in Colorado and Georgia. He would be happy to work with legislators in North Carolina, he said.
On this point, the two sides agree.
"I'm sure he would be happy to introduce something here," said Cat Warren, an associate professor of English and a member of the Faculty Senate. "This is not a time for complacency. We are in a fight for the public opinion."
Oct. 14, 2004
Providence Journal, RI
By staff report
© Copyright 2004
Providence College news: Ten Providence residents were recently appointed to teaching positions at Providence College.
Lydia M. Barovero, appointed assistant professor of Spanish, earned her doctorate from Pennsylvania State University. Assistant professor of foreign languages and literature at North Carolina State University, her expertise is Latin American literature, especially 20th-century narrative, theater, and women writers.
Louis A. Beaubien, appointed instructor of management, is completing doctoral degree work at the University of Western Ontario in Canada. He has worked as an investment banker and consultant and specializes in information systems.
Giuseppe Butera, appointed assistant professor of philosophy, earned a doctorate in philosophy from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Most recently, he was a visiting professor at the University of Dallas in Texas. He did post-doctorate work at the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and at the Center for Philosophy of Religion at the University of Notre Dame. His areas of expertise are Thomistic philosophical psychology and Thomistic natural law theory.
Peter R. Costello, appointed assistant professor of philosophy, received his doctorate from Pennsylvania State University. He taught in the philosophy department at St. Peter's College in Jersey City, NN.J. His expertise extends to phenomenology, the works of Edmund Husserl, 20th-century philosophy, ethics, and the history of philosophy.
Cassandra J. Walsh, appointed instructor of accountancy, is pursuing a doctorate from the University of Connecticut. She holds a master's degree in accounting from the University of Illinois and is a certified public accountant in Massachusetts. A former senior associate at Coopers and Lybrand in Boston, her research concentration is in cognitive psychology, specifically the judgment and decision-making of accountants and instruction of accounting students.
Alexander F. DiPippo, appointed adjunct instructor of philosophy, is a Ph.D. candidate at Boston University. He received a master's degree from Boston College. DiPippo was an adjunct instructor at Providence College for two years and was a teaching fellow at Boston University. His areas of focus are epistemology, metaphysics, German idealism, Martin Heidegger and aesthetics.
Peter E. Doerschler, appointed adjunct assistant professor of political science, earned a doctorate from Pennsylvania State University, where he was an instructor of political science. He is an expert on comparative politics, immigration and Germany.
The Rev. Paul J. Keller, O.P., appointed adjunct instructor of theology, received his licentiate of sacred theology from the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. He is finishing his doctoral dissertation from the Pontifical Athenaeum of Sant' Anselmo in Rome. A scholar of sacramental theology, he taught in the college's Department of Theology and has served as associate pastor of St. Mary's Parish in New Haven, Conn.
Melissa T. Labonte, appointed adjunct instructor of political science, is a doctoral candidate at Brown University, where she earned her master's degree. She has served as executive director at the United Nations Association of Greater Boston, program director for the Academic Council on the U.N. System and as a researcher for the Governance in War Torn Societies Project. Her academic interests include international organizations, nongovernmental organizations, humanitarian affairs, conflict resolution, peacekeeping/peacebuilding and Africa.
The Rev. Bernard Mulcahy, O.P., appointed adjunct instructor of theology, earned his licentiate of sacred theology from the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. He served as assistant director of Catholic Information Service in New Haven, Conn., and as a court guardian for children ad litem in the Archdiocese of Boston. His area of expertise is systematic theology.
Study Results Leave Vitamin C Pork Poser
Oct. 13, 2004
Farminglife.com, UK
By staff report
© Copyright 2004
Eric van Heugten, North Carolina State University pig adviser, says several investigators have reported improvements in pig growth and meat quality when the diet is supplemented with vitamin C. However, other studies have yielded inconsistent results, as some investigators have documented no effects or even negative effects of vitamin C supplements.
Vitamin C's effect on pork quality may be the result of changes in the metabolism of glucose and glycogen. One of the breakdown products of vitamin C is oxatic acid, which has shown to slow the breakdown of glucose. This can result in a reduction of lactic adic production from glucose after slaughter and may prevent the rapid drop in pH associated with poor meat quality. Further, vitamin C has been reported to decrease the severity of pre-slaughter stress response, which further reduces the amount of glucose and glycogen available for lactic acid production.
Vitamin C is water soluble and can easily be supplemented through drinking water for short periods of time and at critical times pre-slaughter. Thus, adding vitamin C to pigs' water could be a practical method of supplying vitamin C and affecting pork quality.
But vitamin C is rapidly excreted in the urine when high doses are supplied, and researcher need to understand how rapidly vitamin C is broken down and how soon after consumption it is excreted. With this knowledge, vitamin C can be supplemented more exactly to obtain a positive response in pork quality.
Pumpkin carving still a symbol of Halloween season
Oct. 14, 2004
Associated Press; Kane County Chronicle (IL)
By Dean Fosdick
© Copyright 2004
Credit the Irish with putting a colorful face on Halloween.
Carving jack-o'-lanterns is a Halloween custom brought to this country by Irish immigrants arriving to escape "the Hunger," or the Great Potato Famine of the 1840s.
"A legend grew up about a man named Jack, who was so stingy he was not allowed into heaven when he died," a U.S. State Department publication said. "He couldn't enter hell, either, because he had played jokes on the devil. As a result, Jack had to walk the Earth with his lantern until Judgment Day."
The Irish began the "Jack of the Lanterns" or jack-o' lantern tradition by slicing frightening facial features into turnips, beets or potatoes.
"But when the Irish brought their customs to the United States, they carved faces on pumpkins because in the autumn they were more plentiful than turnips," the State Department said.
The practice eventually spread worldwide, becoming an enduring symbol of Halloween and the autumn harvest.
Pumpkins are native to the Americas. Historians believe they were featured on the first Thanksgiving Day menu — probably cut into strips and roasted by the Indians.
Increasingly, a strong back can be more important than a green thumb for growing pumpkins. It isn't uncommon for some of the larger hybrids to produce fruit weighing more than 1,200 pounds, said Everett Davis, who directs the North Carolina State University Cooperative Extension Center at Lumberton.
"Certain varieties grow much larger than the typical, but they're not all that edible," Davis said. "Folks that grow the giant pumpkins take things very seriously. They give their plants meticulous care. They treasure their seeds, making them family heirlooms."
The world's record runs well over 1,300 pounds. Fanciers predict that with the right seeds and the proper nurturing, it won't be long before pumpkins are produced that top a ton in size.
Pumpkins are grown most often for their ornamental value, although they're also a popular ingredient — often used interchangeably with squash or sweet potatoes — in pies, soups, stews and breads, among other things.
"Most people don't take the time to cook like that anymore," Davis said. "The Connecticut field variety (with pumpkins maturing at 10 to 20 pounds apiece) is usually grown for jack-o'-lanterns. Miniatures the size of softballs are used for displays on tables."
Pumpkins favored for cooking — the sweet or small sugar varieties — usually are planted in spring and mature by mid-summer, Davis said. Ornamentals can be planted as late as July, making them ripe for harvest by Halloween. Figure 110 to 120 days to maturity.
Most pumpkin cultivars are fragile. They're especially susceptible to frosts at planting and when nearing harvest. If you live in an area with a short growing season, you would be wise to start the plants indoors and then transplant the seedlings after the average date of the last killing frost.
Pumpkins need plenty of elbowroom, with a single vine growing to more than 30 feet in length. But the vines are pliant. Their tendrils can be draped around companion plants like field corn or attached to fences to guide them along. Growers have been known to ripen pumpkins on their decks or from apartment balconies after training segments of the clingy vines, which have been freed of their fruit, to climb trellises.
Since the average pumpkin is about 80 percent water, it figures they need a steady supply of moisture to make it to maturity. "Pumpkins crave a lot of direct sun; anywhere from six to 10 hours a day," Davis said. "And watering is important. Most of the people striving for record sized pumpkins use trickle down systems that provide constant water to the plants. You can provide fertilizer through the water to enrich."
Pruning also is important — pruning both the vine and the fruit, Davis said. "You want as much leaf surface as you can get to catch the sunlight and the rain," he said. "But remove all the fruit developing on the plant save one. All the (plant's) energy then goes to that single pumpkin."
Pick your pumpkins after the shells harden and they turn from green to a rich orange, but leave six inches of stem or more on each. That helps them remain fresh.
Let the pumpkins sit in the garden for another week to 10 days to mature, then store (be careful if stacking) them in a cool, dry shed. Given the proper conditions, pumpkins will last through the heart of winter.
If you have found a variety you like, then you're in luck. Simply gather a few seeds from your prize pumpkins, dry and store them. They will be ready to produce a new crop for you with the next growing season.
———
On the Net:
For more about Halloween, see the U.S. Department of State:
http://www.usconsulate.gr/Halloween.html.
For more about growing pumpkins, consult North Carolina State University Cooperative Extension:
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/robeson/edcolumn/2002/082202.html.