DATE:     9/30/98
CONTACT:  Dr. Ben Kittrell, (843) 662-3526
          Dr. Don Manley, (843) 662-3526
WRITER:   Tom Lollis, (803) 284-3343

Pee Dee REC Hosts Students

     FLORENCE -- Clemson University's Pee Dee Research and
Education Center will open its doors to the region's school
children for two weeks of tours beginning Oct. 5.
     Ben Kittrell, resident director at the Pee Dee REC, expects
about 3,000 children in kindergarten through fourth grade to take
part in the annual Fall Agricultural Tours. Students will come
from the counties of Florence, Darlington, Dillon, Marlboro,
Williamsburg and Clarendon.
     "The tours give children a chance to learn a little about
agriculture and find out why we do research here at the center,"
Kittrell said. "We'll also give them a chance to see some crops
in the field and pick a few bolls of cotton to take home with
them."
     Each tour will consist of a ride on a wagon pulled by a
tractor with stops featuring cotton, horticulture, and wildlife
and the environment.
     Tours will be conducted twice a day Oct. 5-9 and Oct. 12-16.
The first tour each day will last from 9:15 a.m. to 10:45 a.m.
and the second from 11:15 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.
     Don Manley, the Clemson Extension entomologist who chairs 
the tour coordinating committee, said the tours started in 1987.
Since 1993 the South Carolina Farm Bureau has provided staff
members to drive tractors and help with the program.
     "Tours will depend on the weather, and if it rains one day,
that day's tours will be canceled," Manley said.
                            END