Echoes From The Attic and Poems, LSU Experiment Station, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana Submitted to the USGenWeb Archives by Don Johnson, Mar. 2001 Typed by Belford Carver Written by by Edna F. Campbell Copyrighted by Edna F. Campbell With special thanks to her family for permission to use her works. ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ FIRST LSU EXPERIMENT STATION RESIDENT RECALLS EARLY FARM DAYS Surrounded by garden-fresh flowers in her home and myriads of shrubs and blossoming plants on the grounds, it is not difficult to analyze that gardening is the true first love of Mrs. Boleslaus Szymoniak, known to her friends as Edna. The Szymoniaks established the first Fruit and Truck Experimental Station now under the supervision of Hody Wilson. It was on a cold day, February 6, 1922, that Boleslaus and Edna Szymoniak arrived in Hammond. She was a teacher of school gardening in the Plaquemine High School and he was a horticulturist at Louisiana State University. This Polish-born horticulturist and French teacher organized plans to see how they could help the farmers in southeast Louisiana. Edna Szymoniak said the Chamber of Commerce was very active at that time, and Emmett A. Herring, the secretary met them when they arrived. Through maneuvering with the Tangipahoa Parish Policy Jury and others, the farm place belonging to Byron Bankston was purchased by the parish and donated to LSU for an experimental station. The Bankstons lived there with their 13 children. Considered now as a humorous incident, but a far cry from being funny then, Edna Szymoniak tells how they missed their first publish appearance with the Hammond Chamber of Commerce. "We were all set to go, both dressed to make a good impression when our old Ford got stuck in our own yard, and we could not make it budge. We did not make the meeting and to make matters worse, wh had no telephone to get the word to the group why." The farm house boasted of no water, no lights, no electricity. Furthermore, there were no roads for travel. However, the big plan got underway with Will Nalty, then president of the Hammond State Bank, managing the financial transaction. The great interest in the station stemmed from a growing demand of strawberry culture. The Klondike, the only variety, was developing diseases and production was on the decline. In cooperation with the LSU Experiment station and the county agents throughout the state, with the experimenting with various fertilizers and crop rotations, many fruits and vegetables and the first soybeans were developed. The Szymoniaks lived at the experiment farm for 16 years. When they left, they were replaced by Hody Wilson, who is still carrying on the post as superintendent. After leaving the station, they went to Robert where they purchased a farm. This was developed into a beautifully-landscaped show place named "Cedar Lake." While here, Boleslaus taught school at Champ Cooper and Edna recalls the days when she managed the Houlton Investment Company. "My husband's ill health forced us to give up our farmsite and we then moved to Hammond and improved our place on Michigan Street," the present home. Edna Szymoniak then went into the landscaping field planning grounds of many fine homes. Among these are the Vaughn Olivers, Carl Barretts, Ford Grahams and Dan Durham grounds. Her pet project was working and organizing the mall landscaping working with Street Commissioner Conrad Anderson. Also she landscaped and worked on the grounds of Seventh Ward General Hospital, Heritage Manor Nursing Home and Oak Knoll Country Club. Among her treasured possessions is an award plaque given to her for service rendered by the Hammond Chamber of Commerce. Her interest in camellias and gardening won for her invitations to speak at various clubs. Her talks at the Orleans Club and Junior League Garden Club in New Orleans were widely publicized. In addition to caring for her late husband during his 20 year illness, Mrs. Szymoniak found time between her landscaping duties to play golf. Golf is another of her favorite pastimes and she manages to find time for bridge playing with friends. (From ECHOES FROM THE ATTIC, VI, 1971, by Edna Campbell) (Pic of home) (Bunnie Wascom followed Mr. Wilson as superintendent. Today, Dr. Roy Constantin is the resident director of the Hammond Research Center. He said that the work is primarily with fruits and vegetables, breeding strawberries, agriculture mechanization engineering, protective production, new fumigants, and irrigation methods. BEC 2/8/01) ******************************************** March, 2001 Update With her life-long interest in horticulture and personal history with the experiment station, it was inevitable that Mrs. Szymoniak meet and become friends with the current director and his wife (Roy and Dale Constantin) when they moved to Hammond in 1980. She visited her former residence and experiment station many times, not only sharing stories about her experiences at the station but eagerly learning about new research being conducted. After Mrs. Szymoniak's death, her family donated an oil painting of Boleslaus Szymoniak to the experiment station. This painting of the first superintendent of the Fruit and Truck Experiment Station is presently displayed in the office building. In 1990, the two large live oak trees at the station's main entrance were accepted into the Live Oak Society and named "Boleslaus Szymoniak Live Oak" and "Edna Szymoniak Live Oak" as a memorial to these two dedicated horticulturists. The station itself has undergone changes in name, administrative leadership, and research direction since that time. Originally established as the Fruit and Truck Experiment Station, the name was changed in 1979 to the Southeast Horticultural Experiment Station and then changed again in 1983 to the current name-Hammond Research Station, one of 20 statewide research stations of the LSU AgCenter. In 1936 (after Mr. Szymoniak's resignation due to illness), Mr. Walter F. (Hody) Wilson, Jr. was appointed as Superintendent and remained in this position until his retirement in 1975 when Dr. Bunnie W. Wascom was appointed to the position. After Dr. Wascom's death of a heart attack in May, 1980, Dr. William L. (Larry) Brown was appointed as Acting Superintendent until the appointment of Dr. Roysell J. Constantin as Superintendent in August, 1980. In 1983, the title of superintendent was changed to Resident Director, the position Dr. Constantin currently holds. Research goals have also varied greatly over the years. The station was originally established to conduct research on fruit (mainly strawberries) and vegetable crops. Over the years, ornamental, turfgrass, and herbicide/weed control research projects were added and subsequently discontinued. Current research is primarily with fruit crops, vegetable crops, and agricultural engineering for horticultural crops. Examples of ongoing fruit research include breeding of strawberries, along with fumigant and establishment studies. Freeze protection research is also being conducted on strawberries and citrus. Other fruits being evaluated are blueberries, figs, grapes, mayhaws, and muscadines. Vegetable research includes cultivar testing and cultural practices, such as studies on fertilization, spacing, multiple cropping, and pesticides. Research on agricultural engineering for horticultural crops has involved planting multiple rows of vegetables per bed, followed by precision cultivation. Development of equipment to assist farmers has also been part of this research, along with testing of spreaders used to apply fertilizers and pesticides to horticultural crops. Dr. R. J. Constantin, Resident Director Telephone: 985-543-4125 Hammond Research Station FAX: 985-543-4124 21549 Old Covington Highway e-mail: rconstantin@agctr.lsu.edu Hammond, LA 70403-0533 Edna Szymoniak died on March 23, 1987 and is buried in the Scared Heart Church Cementery in Ville Platte, LA. Roy Constantin - 20 Mar 2001