By Robert H. Wells
Delta Research and Extension Center

STONEVILLE -- A Mississippi State University researcher is working to reduce a growing expense for Mississippi cotton farmers -- managing tarnished plant bugs.

“Some Delta cotton producers made as many as 15 insecticide applications for plant bugs in 2007,” said Jeff Gore, Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station research entomologist at MSU's Delta Research and Extension Center.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Four qualified 4-Hers will have a unique opportunity to see state government in action as they briefly work at the state capitol in March.

The Mississippi State University Extension Service 4-H program and the Center for Governmental Training and Technology are recruiting youth to serve in the Legislative Page Internship Program March 17-21. The youth will serve as pages in either the Mississippi Senate or House of Representatives for one week during the 2008 legislative session.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- The Mississippi State University Extension Service’s 4-H therapeutic riding program is taking applications for riders and volunteers.

The spring session will run each Tuesday from March 25 through April 29, and classes are conducted at the Mississippi Horse Park. Rider applications and volunteer information forms can be found at the MSUcares.com Web site. Volunteer training is March 18.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Mississippi State University’s Animal Health Center continued its tradition of exceeding its previous accreditation score when the American Animal Hospital Association conducted its review in 2007.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Catfish sales soared years ago when producers began to consistently deliver delicious fillets to consumers, but they continue to fight the off-flavor problem.

With today's tight markets and strong international competition, it is especially important for farmers to deliver a high-quality product to the marketplace as efficiently as possible.

Terry Hanson, an agricultural economist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said off-flavor is a very serious problem for the farm-raised catfish industry.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

As you contemplate what plants to try when winter has finally run its course, let me recommend using a lot of colorful foliage. There are amazing choices available today in both leaf color and texture.

In our Mississippi State University trials last year, two coleuses attracted quite a bit of attention. Both were planted in full sun, but they would do equally well in filtered light.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Alan Blaine of Starkville has been named the winner of Farm Bureau’s Distinguished Service Award for 2007 at the organization’s annual meeting on Nov. 29.

Blaine serves as the head of the North Mississippi Research and Extension Center in Verona. He is recognized as one of the top soybean specialists in the United States.

CLARKSDALE -- Covered only with a coat of rust and adorned with a string of lights from a Christmas past, the vintage machine sitting on the edge of Highway 49 near Clarksdale is a reminder of a revolution that took place in southern agriculture more than 60 years ago.

The M12H International Harvester cotton picker was produced in the late 1940s and was among the second generation of commercially successful cotton pickers to hit the market. It is located on the Hopson Plantation, the site of field tests for mechanical pickers from the 1920s through the 1940s.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

As we enter the New Year, most of us have planted everything we are going to plant until spring, making this a time for reflecting on how things went the past growing season and to plan for next year's flower border.

Last summer, we were filming our Southern Gardening TV news segment at a site with beautiful bedding plants. If I made a poster of the photo I took and put a title on the picture, it would be something like “Adjectives and Accolades.”