NEWARK, Del. Mary Lou
Parry knew she wanted to teach
agriculture, but wasn’t sure
whether she belonged in a formal
high school classroom or in the out
of-school extension system. By the
time she graduates from the
University of Delaware this
December, she’ll have a much
clearer idea.
Parry, who just completed her
reign as Delaware Dairy Princess,
is scheduled to student teach this
fall. Now she is learning about
extension work as the University of
Delaware Cooperative Extension
Service’s first all-around summer
student intern.
In the past, extension interns
have spent their summers an
swering questions about gardening
or canning, assisting with 4-H
programs, or helping in the fields.
Parry is the first to work in all
these areas, and others besides.
With her farm background, her
experience as dairy princess, and
the broad range of courses she has
taken as an agricultural education
major. Parry is equally com
fortable teaching artificial in
semination, explaining the
nutritional value of yogurt, or
answering a gardener’s question
about blossom end rot. Until this
summer she wasn’t sure which
aspect of agricultural education
she preferred. To help her find out,
extension service administrators
Dr. Samuel Gwinn and Dr.
Richard Fowler assigned her to a
variety of duties in the New Castle
and Kent County extension offices,
for which she received both
academic credit and a small
salary.
In June, as the 1983-1984 school
year was drawing to a close,
Parry’s first task was to visit New
Castle County elementary schools
that had been growing chicks
through the 4-H embryology
project. Next she helped the 4-H
office prepare for the annual
pumpkin growing contest, the first
of many summer projects. Hun
dreds of children had responded to
4-H’s offer of free seeds, fertilizer,
and pumpkin-growing in
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Del. daiiy princess spends summer es extension intern
structions. Those orders had to be
filled, and that’s where Parry fit
in.
Parry also hoed with 4-H gar
deners, helped extension 4-H agent
Mark Manno establish a new
program for the handicapped, and
trained a county 4-H dairy judging
team for the Delaware State Fair.
She accompanied extension
home economist Debbie Amsden
on nutrition lectures, and county
agent Dean Belt on farm visits.
At the Delaware State Fair in
July, she completed her official
duties as out-going dairy princess,
NEWARK, Del. - Many far
mers have noticed an orange
thread-like weed growing in their
clover or alfalfa this summer.
Delaware extension agricultural
agent Dean Belt says he’s had
many calls about this pest, which
isn’t new on Delmarva, but seems
to be more troublesome than usual
this year. The weed is called
dodder.
It is a parasitic plant that ger
minates from seed and grows in a
twisting manner around host
plants, often pulling them down to
the pound. Dodder sends small
root-like projections into these
plants and lives off their juices.
This is why dodder-infested hay is
hard to cure the dodder is the
last thing to dry down.
Often, the first question powers
ask Belt is where did the weed
come from? Usually it arrives with
the legume seed. States have strict
laws on how much dodder can be
present in clover or alfalfa seed,
but it’s very difficult to eliminate
because of its size. It doesn’t take
many dodder seeds to create a
problem, as one plant may cover
an area 10 feet in diameter and
seeds can remain dormant for 10 to
20 years.
Livestock which eat hay con
taining dodder will spread the pest
further, since its seed passes
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then lent a hand with the farm
animals on display.
During the latter part of the
summer, she answered Kent
County homeowners’ gardening
questions and helped county
agents Dave Woodward and Bob
Hochmuth analyze crop production
problems in local fields. Before
speaking up themselves, the
agents often let Parry draw her
own conclusions about the par
ticular disease, insect or
nutritional imbalance that could be
causing trouble. She also ac
companied extension en
vironmental specialist Ross Harris
Dodder
undamaged through the digestive
tract. So dodder-infested hay is
another way to acquire this pest.
Dodder often grows along river
and stream banks, which means
the seed can be transported from
upstream sources during periods
of high water.
The parasite requires plenty of
moisture to germinate, which is
why there’s so much of it this year,
Belt says.
Controlling dodder isn’t easy.
Usually farmers can count on dry
periods to reduce infestations.
When possible, the county agent
suggests they try to keep it from
spreading by treating small pat
ches as soon as they appear. Small
areas can generally be controlled
by flaming the patches or by closly
mowing and .then burning the
vegetation. Spot control requires
follow-up treatment every two
weeks to catch new regrowth.
When dodder is widespread over
a field, consider other measures
such as rotation into a row crop
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on farm visits as he showed far
mers safe methods of manure
handling and storage.
Parry concluded the summer at
New Castle County’s' 4-H day
camp, teaching a class for would
be veterinarians. She showed her
young students that loving animals
is not enough. They also had to be
willing to dissect a chicken and
artificially inseminate a cow.
Some of the children are now
rethinking their career plans.
In the process. Parry refined her
own career goals. Of all her ex
tension activities, she most
is pesky weed in hay
that will allow the soil to become that IraiMent mil
dtyah the surface and -ill shade LST&^JTSaSS
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treatments with Chloro-rPC, we
Casoron or Dacthal wUI also help. you’re less
to see this’in your crops
bicide selected is cleared for use on np , in „ “unless vnn
the particular crop being treated, you
REBUCK - The Nor
thumberland County Conservation
District is sponsoring a no-till
twilight meeting on Thursday from
6:30 - 9:30 p.m. at the Marlin
Rothermel farm, Washington
Township. The Rothermel farm is
located on Township Road T-365
near Rebuck.
The first part of the meeting will
be an inspection of Rothermel’s no
till corn demonstration plot. Also
highlighting the meeting will be
presentations by several chemical
company and agency represen
tatives on various aspects of no-till
planting.
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Northumberland no-till meeting
Chemical, will speak on designing
a no-till cropping system. Neal
Orr, Ciba-Geigy, and Steve Fisher,
FMC, wiU speak on no-UU weed
control and insect problems in no
tiU, respectively.
Other speakers wiU include
George J. Phillips, Nor
thumberland County Conservation
District; Kevin Blake, Soil Con
servation Service; and Vernon
Brose, Cooperative Extension
Service.
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preferred trouble-shooting in the
fields. But since it takes a graduate
degree to become a county agent,
she plans to start as a classroom,
agricultural teacher, gradually
taking advanced plant science
courses at night.
Parry is grateful for the op
portunities the summer provided.
“Being an intern is one of the best
things I could have done this
summer,” she says. “I learned so
much, and I have a much better
idea of what I do and don’t enjoy.”
She hopes other students will enjoy
the same opportunities.
For more information on the
meeting, call the Northumberland
County Conservation District
office at 286-6997.
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