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George Washington Carver accepted Booker T. Washington’s offer to be the director of agriculture at Tuskegee Institute. The year was 1896.
He remained there for 47 years, until his death in January 1943. That day in 1896 would change the course of his life. It would also change the lives of poor farmers in the South. And the economy of the whole region. As the story goes, it was so significant to Carver that he added “W.” or “Washington” to his name to honor Booker T.
Carver had never been to the Deep South. On the train trip from Ames, Iowa, to Tuskegee, Alabama, he saw for the first time the poverty of sharecroppers scratching a living from the land. (A sharecropper is a farmer who works land for the owner. In return, the sharecropper gets a share of the value of a crop.) These observations would guide Carver’s lifelong work and commitment to serve his community. Below are some of Carver’s remarks about what he saw. ▶
When my train left the golden wheat fields . . . of Iowa for the acres of cotton, nothing but cotton, my heart sank a little. . . . The scraggly cotton grew close up to the cabin doors . . . stunted cattle, boney muscles; fields and hillsides cracked and scarred with gullies and deep ruts . . . not much evidence of scientific farming anywhere. Everything looked hungry: the land, the cotton, the cattle, and the people.
▲ Carver’s first laboratory at Tuskegee was in an old shack. To get the equipment he needed, Carver searched through junk piles. There, he found bottles and pans and other objects he could repurpose. Carver used his creativity to create equipment where there was none. He made a funnel and beaker from a long-necked glass bottle. He soaked the bottle in ice water. Then he tied a string around the thick part and lit the string on fire. Heat from the fire broke the bottle in two. One part was the funnel and the other part was the beaker. Above, Carver works with students in a laboratory at Tuskegee in 1902.
One of Carver’s most important research projects was to explore the effect of different crops on the nutrients in soil. His research showed that cotton plants take nitrogen from the soil. (Nitrogen is an important nutrient for crops.) Farmers in Alabama grew mostly cotton. As a result, each year the soil had less nitrogen. So it grew poorer. And the cotton crops grew smaller. Smaller crops had the effect of keeping farmers poor. In his research, Carver learned that other crops returned nitrogen to the soil. Two of those crops were peanuts and sweet potatoes. ▶
◀ From his research, Carver figured out that rotating crops helped keep the soil rich with nutrients. Rotating crops meant planting cotton one year and other crops, such as peanuts or sweet potatoes, the next. As crop rotation took hold, the soil improved. So did the crop yields, or the amounts harvested. Today, Carver’s approach of crop rotation is used all over the world. It’s called regenerative agriculture. (Regenerative means “growing back” or “renewing.”)
▲ Carver had come up with a solution for low crop yields. But how could he get the word out to farmers? One answer was his agricultural bulletins. Over time, Carver wrote 44 bulletins similar to the one shown here. The language was simple and straightforward. The bulletins offered practical advice even the poorest farmers could use. For example, use acorns instead of store-bought feed for hogs. Carver’s goal was to help the poor farmer – the farmer with one horse and a bit of land, the farmer struggling to survive. About his approach, Carver said:
The primary idea in all my work was to help the farmer and fill the poor man’s empty dinner pail. My idea is to help the ‘man farthest down,’ this is why I have made every process as simple as I could to put it within his reach.
▲ Carver’s bulletins were great sources of information. But they were not enough. Carver needed to take the knowledge they contained out into the community. To do that, he created the Jesup Wagon. The wagon was named for Morris Jesup, the person who funded the project. It was like a mobile school. The wagon had all the equipment Carver needed to demonstrate his new approaches. It also had fertilizers, seeds, a cream separator, a milk tester, and more. Jesup Wagons became the basis for Tuskegee’s Movable School program. Modern versions of the Jesup Wagon are still used today.
Carver’s work was extremely successful. The result? Bumper crops of peanuts and sweet potatoes! Peanuts and sweet potatoes are nutritious foods. But Carver needed to find more uses for them. Again, he came up with a solution. At Tuskegee, he developed over 300 products made from peanuts and over 100 made from sweet potatoes. Everything from flour to laundry soap. From hand lotion to paints, and even shampoo! Not to mention recipes for using peanuts in soups, breads, and candies. ▶
Think Piece!
Consider Carver’s life and time at Tuskegee. What words would you use to describe his character? Share ideas about why you would choose those words.
