Those unscientific creationists

George_Washington_Carver

This one might be a stretch because I couldn’t confirm that George Washington Carver was a creationist. But I think this quote is suggestive:

The public liked many things about Carver. His theatrical flair, his sense of humor and sincerity, and his ability to explain his subject in simple but vivid terms were keys to his success with lecture audiences. His deep religious faith was also important. In his speeches and interviews, he almost always referred to the Bible and divine guidance. His accomplishments, he was fond of saying, were not his doing but were the work of God. As he told a reporter for the Atlanta Journal who questioned him about the permanency of the clay paints he had developed: “Why should they not be permanent? God made the clay in the hills; they have been there for countless generations, changeless. All I do is prepare what God has made, for uses to which man can put it. It is God’s work-not mine.”

A small sampling of Carver’s accomplishments:

Carver developed techniques to improve soils depleted by repeated plantings of cotton. Together with other agricultural experts, he urged farmers to restore nitrogen to their soils by practicing systematic crop rotation: alternating cotton crops with plantings of sweet potatoes or legumes (such as peanuts, soybeans and cowpeas). These both restored nitrogen to the soil and the crops were good for human consumption. Following the crop rotation practice resulted in improved cotton yields and gave farmers alternative cash crops. To train farmers to successfully rotate and cultivate the new crops, Carver developed an agricultural extension program for Alabama that was similar to the one at Iowa State. To encourage better nutrition in the South, he widely distributed recipes using the alternative crops.

In addition, he founded an industrial research laboratory, where he and assistants worked to popularize the new crops by developing hundreds of applications for them. They did original research as well as promoting applications and recipes which they collected from others. Carver distributed his information as agricultural bulletins.

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