Willingboro Township Public Schools

George Washington Carver was born in 1864, in Diamond, Missouri. He took a keen interest in plants, natural pesticides, soil conditioners and became known as the “plant doctor”. In 1896, George Washington Carver earned his Master’s Degree in Agriculture and worked closely with farmers. George Washington Carver learned that years of growing cotton had depleted the nutrients from the soil, resulting in low yields. He encouraged farmers to grow nitrogen-fixing plants like peanuts, soybeans, and sweet potatoes, to restore the soil. Due to the surplus of peanuts and other products, George Washington Carver experimented with legumes and sweet potatoes to make lotions, flour, soups, dyes, plastics, and gasoline. George Washington Carver found hundreds of uses for peanuts including food, milk, cooking oils, paper, etc. George Washington Carver became the first African American scientist to be memorialized in a national monument.