In the 1920s SC grown fruits and
vegetables were thought to have had enormously greater
quantities of iodine than produce from other states.
Thus, SC became known as the "Wonderful Iodine
State." The call letters of WIS radio and now WIS-TV
stem from "Wonderful Iodine State."
From the years that the boll weevil
struck cotton to the emergence of the peach industry in
the 1920s, asparagus bridged the gap in the coastal
plains of the state. SC was the 5th largest producer of
asparagus in the U.S. in 1923.
Kudzu seeds were imported from Japan
to SC in the early 1900s to be grown as a forage plant
for livestock? A farmer could produce 6 tons of cured
kudzu hay per acre. At that time, kudzu was thought to be
richer in protein than alfalfa or vetch hay.
South Carolina won first place in the
1993 Corn Derby Contest at the Orange County Fair in
Costa Mesa, California. South Carolina's corn kernels
outgrew that of 23 other states and sprouted to a
towering height of 11' 8". SC 's seeds won over corn
kernels from Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia,
Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan,
Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon,
Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah,
Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
The Rosinville/St. George area of
South Carolina is rich in pine timber and was once a
major center of turpentine production in the state. Sap
or rosin was drained from pine trees, placed in wooden
barrels, and hauled to St. George to be loaded onto
trains for shipment to other areas.
Some of the "novel crops"
that were produced in South Carolina in the late 1920s
included: narcissus bulbs in Yemassee, broom corn in the
Piedmont, flowers for florists, pigeons in Lancaster, and
squab in Sumter.
In a lifetime, the average American
will consume 1,290 chickens, 21 240-pound hogs, 7
1,000-pound steers and enough milk to fill 100 bathtubs.
Did you know that in 2001
South Carolina ranked:
2nd in
flue-cured tobacco production
3rd in peach production
5th in tomato production
8th in watermelon production
9th in turkeys raised
Tolerance for pesticide residues is
expressed in parts per million, billion, or trillion. The
following is a perspective on tolerance amounts.
1 part per million equals---1
square inch in a baseball infield
1 part per billion equals---1
pinch of salt in 10 tons of potato chips
1 part per trillion
equals---the diameter of a human hair in the
circumference of the earth, or 1 inch in 16
million miles (33 trips to the moon and back)
