George Washington Carver, Plant Lover

by Elissa Gathman, 19 June, 1999

One out of all the many things Mr. Carver discovered about plants was crop rotation. This is how he discovered it: Before Mr. Carver went to the Tuskegee Institute to teach, the students planted cotton. But when Mr Carver came, he said, "This soil is worn out. We should plant seet potatoes to change the nutrients." So that year, even thought the students disagreed, they planted sweet potatoes. The next year they planted cowpeas, and the next year they planted cotton again, except this time it grew bigger and stronger than before.

When Mr. Carver was little, he learned a Bible verse that went like this: "Lift up thine eyes." So one day, George happened to look up in a tree. When he did, he saw little bugs on one of the limbs. He knew the tree would die because the bugs were eating the leaves, and the bugs would spread quickly.

He ran to tell the Carvers (who were like his parents). But they would not listen to him. So he went and found the saw, and started sawing down the limb. Just then Mr. Carver came out, saw him, and told him to stop. But George would not until it was sawed all the way through. When it was, he jumped down and showed him the bugs.

This shows how much Mr. Carver loved plants and how he did not want them to die.