Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88Between Turnrows • 27 Chapter 2 • The Seedsman Carl Phipps was born and raised on a small farm near Melbourne, Arkansas. The middle child of a family with nine children, Carl remembers his parents raising cows, chickens, hogs, corn, and fruits and vegetables, both to sell and to provide for their growing family. “I can remember my daddy using a horse and plow to grow corn and my momma canning things they grew in the garden,” Carl says. After Carl graduated from high school he was drafted into military service. Once he completed his training, Carl volunteered to go to Vietnam, where he served eighteen months as a construction engineer. After his discharge from the army, Carl returned home determined to go to college on the GI Bill. He says, “I knew that to get ahead in life you had to have an education. I got a degree in plant science and agronomy from ASU (Arkansas State University) because in this part of the country if you applied for a job and they saw that you had a degree in agronomy or plant science you had a lot better chance.” After Carl graduated from ASU, he went to work for the state of Arkansas inspecting rice fields for seed certification. One of the companies Carl performed seed inspections on was Taylor Seed Farm in Hickory Ridge, Arkansas. One day while he was helping Taylor Seed with the certifications, the owner, Howarth Taylor, asked if he was looking for another job because he needed an assistant manager for his operation. Carl said “yes” and started his career as a seedsman in 1974. After only three months on the job, the manager of the seed company informed Carl that he was leaving to take a job out of state and that he was recommending Carl for the manager job. Carl remembers sitting down with Mr. and Mrs. Taylor and telling them, “I can do this. I can handle this job, because I knew that if I was ever going to do anything this was the chance.” Carl Phipps busy at the Fisher facility.