DATE:     10/7/97
CONTACT:  Dr. Ben Kittrell, (803) 662-3526
          Dr. Don Manley, (803) 662-3526
WRITER:   Tom Lollis, (803) 284-334

Thousands of Children
Will Tour Pee Dee REC

     FLORENCE -- About 3,000 children will descend on Clemson
University's Pee Dee Research and Education Center over a
two-week period beginning Oct. 13.
     Taking part in the Pee Dee REC's annual Fall Agricultural
Tours will be students in kindergarten through the fourth grade
from schools in Florence, Darlington, Dillon, Marlboro,
Williamsburg and Clarendon counties, according to Ben Kittrell,
resident director at the center.
     "This gives the children a chance to become better
acquainted with agriculture, learn why research is needed and see
some crops in the field," he said.
     "Most children today grow up in cities. They've never seen
cotton in the boll ready to pick, and many are surprised to learn
that peanuts grow underground," Kittrell said..
     Tours on wagons pulled by tractors will be conducted twice a
day Oct. 13-17 and Oct. 20-22, the first from 9:15 to 10:45. and
the second from 11:15 to 12:45. One tour a day will be scheduled
for Oct. 23-24, from 10:30 to noon.
     The children and their teachers will get a look at cotton,
turfgrass and examples of agricultural technology. 
     "They'll get to pick a few bolls of cotton to take home with
them," Kittrell said.
     He says the fall tours started in 1987, two years after the
new Pee Dee REC facility was dedicated. Since 1993, the S.C. Farm
Bureau has been providing staff  to drive tractors and help with
the program.
     Kittrell said the tours depend on the weather, and if it
rains one day, that day's tours will be canceled. Extension
entomologist Don Manley chairs the committee that is coordinating
the tours.
                        END