Agriculture: Green Ex-Pastures

On his 84 acres in Cleveland County, N.C., Namon Hamrick barely managed to scratch a living as a farmer. He tried cotton, grains and cattle at various times, but, he says, “I never cleared over $1,000 off of farming in one year in my whole life.” Then Hamrick tried an entirely new kind of crop. He has prospered so well with it that farmers all over the nation have telephoned him to ask for advice. Hamrick’s new crop is golf.

Back in 1961, leathery, ham-handed Farmer Hamrick started playing golf with fellow members of the local Lions Club on the only public golf course in the county. That gave him the idea of opening a course of his own. “I just started planting grass instead of cotton,” he says. To raise capital, he sold 28 cattle for $2,800, mortgaged his property. With the help of a golf pro and an equipment salesman, he laid out and landscaped a nine-hole course on about 60 acres. Soon golfers flocked to his place and paid to play — $1 on weekdays, $1.50 on weekends. That year he grossed $9,000, more money than he had ever dreamed of raking in as a farmer.

Hamrick, 44. wanted to expand his links to 18 holes, but he lacked capital to buy more land. To the rescue came that openhanded giant, the federal Agriculture Department. Agriculture Secretary Orville Freeman has adopted a policy of helping marginal family farmers convert some of their land to recreation uses. That approach, Freeman hopes, will both make a dent in farm surpluses and enable some poor farmers to earn a better living. Congress has obliged by broadening the lending authority of the Farmers Home Administration. When Hamrick read about that in a local paper, he sent in an application, got the very first loan guarantee granted under the new program: $32,500 at 5% interest, repayable over 40 years. Last week Hamrick was working away in his ex-pastures, getting his second nine holes ready for playing—and paying.