Mason Farm

In the chronology

1. August 30, 1935 The federal government opens a Soil Erosion Experiment Station on the University's Mason farm The Department of Agriculture made Chapel Hill its southeastern headquarters for experiments with plants to control erosion, taking over the University's 800-acre Mason farm off the Raleigh road. Work began on August 30, when six men from the relief rolls started clearing a 50-acre plot for 11,000 plants from the government nursery at Statesville; the WPA supplied the labor, and an arboretum was planned. The Chapel Hill Weekly, August 30, 1935, p. 1
2. by July 7, 1939 The Soil Conservation Service nursery on the Mason farm ships about 7,000,000 seedlings Joe Jones reported that the University's Mason farm on Morgan Creek had become one of the largest U.S. Soil Conservation Service experimental stations and nurseries, worked by CCC and WPA crews on about 200 acres. It had shipped about 7,000,000 seedlings the previous winter, chiefly loblolly and shortleaf pine, black locust, lespedeza and dogwood, to the 23 soil conservation projects and camps in North Carolina and beyond. The Chapel Hill Weekly, July 7, 1939, p. 5
3. October 19-21, 1945 Five hundred Boy Scouts camp at the Mason farm for the Occoneechee Council camporal About 500 Scouts of the Occoneechee Council camped on the old Navy Pre-Flight camp grounds at the Mason farm, with Chapel Hill troops as hosts. Frank P. Graham spoke to them on Sunday before they broke camp. People: Frank Porter Graham The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), October 25, 1945, p. 1
4. by August 12, 1948 Chapel Hill and the University break ground for a $400,000 sewage disposal plant on the Mason Farm In the week before August 12, 1948, Mayor R. W. Madry turned the first spade of earth for a sewage disposal plant on the Mason Farm near Chapel Hill, a $400,000 joint project of the town and the University. The Charlotte firm of Boyd and Goforth, which held the contract, began work that week. People: Robert W. Madry, Frank Porter Graham, Edwin Sidney Lanier, Gilbert W. Ray The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), August 12, 1948, p. 1
5. by November 11, 1948 Soil Conservation Service grows Kentucky 31 fescue seed at its Mason Farm nursery The Soil Conservation Service brought a bushel of the new Kentucky grass known as Suiter's grass, or Kentucky 31, to its plant nursery on the university's Mason farm near Chapel Hill to increase seed. Service chief Hugh H. Bennett, by the paper's report, called the grass a revolution for Southeastern pasture farming because cattle could graze it the year round. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), November 11, 1948, p. 1
6. July 26, 1949 Chapel Hill's new $425,000 sewage plant goes into operation After an inspection by town and University officials, the new sewage disposal plant on the Mason Farm south of Morgan Creek began operating. Begun in August 1948 by Boyd and Goforth of Charlotte, the trickling filter plant cost $425,000, the University paying $225,000 and giving the land and the town paying $200,000, and was built to serve 17,000 people for about 20 years. People: Edwin Sidney Lanier The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), July 28, 1949, p. 1
7. 1952 UNC trustees set aside Mason Farm land for a botanical garden The university's Board of Trustees allocated about 72 acres of its Mason Farm property for the North Carolina Botanical Garden, officially establishing it. Botanist H. R. Totten's efforts helped procure the site. UNC Libraries: North Carolina Botanical Garden of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Records, 1952-1997

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