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 Doris Jean and Hayes Harbour hosted the Carolina Log'N Demo and Forestry Show
in 2005 on their farm in Vass, North Carolina, and there couldn't have been a more splendid place to spend a day. It is a farm that is rich in history, tradition and yes, forestry.
One of the early owners of the property, Thomas Matthews, Jr., was a prominent
lieutenant in the Continental Army and later served as a justice of the peace in the area.
His tombstone is on the back half of the Harbour farm and stands a short distance from where the Matthews home site
once stood.
On the opposite end of the Harbour’s farm, you will find more recent
links to the past with the Johnson Grove Cemetery, which was founded in 1885, and the spring where the church once drew its
water from. At one time, the Johnson Grove Church stood in the center of the
cemetery, but a fire destroyed the church and the parishioners constructed a new church in Vass.
Over the years, the Harbour’s have been gracious hosts whenever the church
has held commemorations. When the church was celebrating its centennial, church
members requested to visit the old spring. Doris Jean and Hayes were happy to
oblige with Hayes even constructing a shelter over the spring.
"The spring is where the church got its water from,” explained
Doris Jean. “One elderly lady told us one day that the young girls and
their boyfriends would pretend that they wanted some water in order to come down to the spring to court.”
The evolution of this farm provides a glimpse of a simpler, more rural, North
Carolina.
“We bought this farm in 1955 as part of a partnership my father and three
brothers had,” explained Hayes Harbour. “That lasted until 1962 when
we split up and Doris Jean and I got this farm. It was a good partnership. I mean, nobody had any squabble or anything.”
In many ways, the Harbour family fortunes, for better or worse, went stride
for stride with an America that was emerging from the Great Depression. Hayes’
father, Mallory Harbour, was one of the first Maytag dealers in North Carolina, peddling washers, the majority of which were
gasoline powered washers since most folks in the country did not have electricity.
“He started selling Maytags in 1934,” recalls Doris Jean. “He displayed his Maytags around at different little towns. He had a platform on the back of his car and he would haul a Maytag out into the country. He would ask the lady, “Can I just leave this here on your porch and you use it for a couple weeks
‘till I can come back and get it?” He never picked one up! When he went back, they’d have fought him for it.”
In those days, a sales man not only had to be persuasive, he had to be patient.
“A lot of times, he would get his money for maybe three years,”
stated Hayes. “Cause a tobacco farmer only got money in the fall and so
my dad would wait for him.”
Over time, Mallory Harbour consolidated his efforts into a general store in
Cameron, North Carolina.
“You could go to M.W. Harbour and Sons and get anything you wanted,”
stated Hayes.
When the family decided to dissolve the land partnership in 1962, Hayes and
Mallory formed a business partnership by opening a Laundromat in Southern Pines. Hayes,
who was now a Maytag dealer himself, maintained a portion of the Laundromat featured Maytags for sale.
Initially, Doris Jean and Hayes tried to be both merchants and farmers at the
same time while maintaining their residence in Cameron. As they took ownership
of the farm, there was an existing stand of peach trees and they tried to grow small grain, soy beans, corn and tobacco.
“We found out that tobacco was the only thing that could carry us,”
stated Hayes.
The Harbours decided that their energies would be better spent on their retail
business and raising their family rather than working the fields. To this end,
the Harbours entered into what they both called a “perfect relationship” when they came to an agreement some 30-plys
years ago with the Murphy Family, a couple that had two sons roughly the same age as Hayes.
“We furnished the farm house and the land,” explained Hayes. “They furnished the labor and the equipment and then we divided the profits. It was a perfect arrangement.”
From the outset, Hayes and Doris Jean sought to put those lands that were not
in tobacco production into some other use.
“When we realized that we had land that we didn’t want to utilize
in other crops, we just decided that we would start setting pines,” explained Hayes.
“We thought it would help us put the children through college,”
added Doris Jean with a chuckle. “That didn’t happen, but it might
put the grandchildren through.”
Since the early 1960’s, Hayes and Doris Jean have been American Tree
Farmers, eagerly accepting advice and guidance from forestry professionals. Over
the years, they have lived the do’s and don’ts of various landowner assistance programs.
“Tom Morgan with the North Carolina Forest Service got me started back
in 1964,” stated Hayes. “He drew up my first plan. From there, he made a lot of suggestions for me to follow. Some
I did, and some I did not. Then, Bill Holmes drew up my second plan. He was with Stone Container. Somewhere in this time, I joined
the Weyerhaeuser Company Tree Farm Family Program and they gave me technical advice that was good.”
Due to the nature of their planting habits, planting a new stand of trees on
whatever land that was no longer going to be put in agricultural production, and the different sources of assistance, the
Harbour Family Tree Farm is an experimental forest of sorts.
“One suggestion that did not pan out was the Forest Service’s love
affair with Slash Pine,” stated Hayes with a smile. “We planted 20
acres. From what they tell me, we ended up with the best stand that they had
ever seen.”
In another area on their farm, Hayes was dragged into an agreement with the
North Carolina Division of Soil and Water Conservation. Some 17 years ago, Hayes
received a phone call from the Soil and Water Conservation’s Jacob Crandall to set up a meeting.
“We met at the farm and he said, “We have found highly eroded land
on your farm.” I said, “That’s not good, is it?” He said, “No, it’s not.”
As it turns out, it was determined that only 10 acres were impacted by this
decision. Jacob, a man Hayes recalls to this day for his ability to flash a smile,
gave Hayes a list of options for these acres. None of which were too appealing
until the last.
“And you can plant pine trees,” he said,” recalled Hayes. “I said, “Really.” And he said, “Oh, yeah, and you get paid
for it!” and he grinned. I liked that.”
Just like that Hayes was enrolled in the CRP Program. While he figured he had taken the road of least resistance by becoming an unwilling CRP participant, Hayes
soon learned the hook on this program that paid him to plant trees on that acreage.
“The next surprise was when I got ready to harvest some needles some
ten years later,” explained Hayes. “You can’t harvest anything
on that CRP land. Nothing. Not even
pine needles. So, I got out of the program.”
Today, the pine needles from that original Longleaf stand generate income on
an annual basis and sold the Harbours on the value of planting Longleaf.
“I don’t know if we got lucky 17 years ago or what, but we had
a near about perfect stand. The last five or six years, we have been desperately
trying to get a good stand of Longleaf. Our experience is that a Loblolly, you
can throw him out on the ground and he’ll grow. But that ain’t so
with Longleaf. He’s a different animal.”
While the Harbour Tree Farm showcases Loblolly, Longleaf and Slash Pines, the
disparity in age groups in small tracts of land is not exactly the ideal for a forester such as Dave Henderson, who has worked
closely with the Harbours for the past 20 years.
“At some point, we will need to consolidate the little sections here
and there and create larger tracts where we can still attract a logger to come in and conduct a quality timber sale,”
stated Henderson as he reviewed the layout of the farm prior to the Log’N Demo.
 “David gives us guidance,” stated Hayes. “We had a clearcut
10 years ago. We had nine bids from 60,000 dollars to almost 200,000 dollars. If we had just gone in the middle, say $100,000, you see how much money we would have
lost. I wouldn’t think about making a timber sale without a forester. I would say that’s the biggest benefit.
You get good, free advice from the North Carolina Forest Service, too.”
The Harbours’ on-going practice of replanting former agricultural fields
with trees is a trend that many in the forestry field expect to happen in the next few years as landowners such as Doris Jean
and Hayes accept the tobacco buyout and plant more trees.
“We are going to take the buyout,” confirmed Hayes, adding that
over the years the allotment had been reduced by nearly 50 percent.
By accepting the buyout, the Harbours are officially out of the tobacco business. Fred Murphy, one of the sons and the lone survivor of the Murphy family that once
worked these fields, still resides in the farm house in a new arrangement with Doris Jean and Hayes that gives him lifetime
rights to the house.
Tobacco was once the only crop that would bring home a profit, but this is
a new era for many of our rural communities. Some 50 years after getting their
hands into farming, Doris Jean and Hayes stumbled on the number one crop of all time when the State of North Carolina once
again came calling with a proposal for their land. This time, it was a new highway,
the Route 1 By-Pass, which connects major highways directly to Pinehurst.
“Originally, we had about 275 acres in this farm,” stated Hayes. “The state took 13 acres of the land to build the highway. We didn’t like it to begin with.”
The state, which was trying to complete the project prior to the start of the
2005 U.S. Open, compensated the Harbours for the 13 acres of highway access as well as an additional three acres that were
shaved off the edge of the property, but the real benefit for these tree farmers came from the S.T. Wooten Corporation, the
company entrusted with building the road for the state. Wooten needed dirt. The Harbours had 20 acres worth.
“We made more money on dirt than we ever did on tobacco,” stated
Hayes as he broke into laughter. “Selling dirt is the best way to get money.”
Wooten took the dirt from an elevated field on the edge of farm that was once
in agricultural production. They pulled off the top soil, dug out the dirt they
needed, and then returned the top soil to the site.
“We had a 20 acre field that was kind of high and they just leveled it
out,” stated Doris Jean. “Now, we have planted 20 acres of Longleaf
there.”
Doris Jean and Hayes have been married for “57 years – we got married
in July of 1948” according to Doris Jean or just “a long time” according to Hayes showing that remembering
one’s anniversary is a universal disparity for women and men.
They have four children and 8 grandchildren.
Three of their children, David, Jane and Anne, all reside in North Carolina.
One son, Steve, lives in California.
The Harbours are excited to be a part of this year’s Carolina Log’
N Demo and just as proud of their forestry success over the years, despite what their neighbors might think. They enjoy walking their farm, planting a tree here and there and evaluating their progress.
“At our age, you know, some of our friends scratch their heads about
Hayes and Doris Jean,” related Hayes with a smile. “They’re
crazy,” they say. “Aren’t you 79 years old?” They ask. Yep. “Are you going to live for
ever?” they ask.”
“No,” replies Doris Jean, “but our descendants will.”
The Harbour Family Farm is much more than just a family farm. Within its boundaries lie the history of our nation in its Revolutionary War site and multiple farm houses
and barns, the fabric of our culture from an era gone by in its spring water and cemetery, and a glimpse towards the future
in a newly planted 20 acre field of Longleaf Pines.
www.nctreefarm.org
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