Scrappy Gordons are sitting pretty.

• Position: Gordon Industries Inc.

Turf grass now rivals North Carolina's biggest cash crop - tobacco-in terms of economic clout.

At least, that's what the press release from the Turfgrass Council of North Carolina said. Referring to a study by the N.C. Department of Agriculture, it bragged that "while tobacco accounted for 18 percent of the state's farm income, turfgrass registered an impressive 14 percent."

Impressive: yes. Accurate: no. In fact, when James Olson, director of statistics at the Agriculture Department, was asked to verify the figure, he said, "I can't. I won't."

The Agriculture Department does not record farm income from turf grass, he says. In 1986, however, the department did do a survey on turf grass at the urging and expense of the Turfgrass Council. Gov. James Martin wrote a letter of congratulations for the report, noting that "few people stop to think about the significant contribution the turfgrass industry plays in improving the quality of life in our state."

Which, no doubt, is true. But the council asserted that money spent on mowers, fertilizers and weedkillers is comparable to farmers' cash receipts. Cash receipts represent the gross amount that the farmer receives, says Jim Devine, the Agriculture Department's director of public affairs. "When you talk about farm income, you talk about commodities produced on farms," he says.

Maybe in its zeal the group got carried away, acknowledges Ray Avery, council president and greens superintendent at Quail Hollow Country Club in Charlotte. The organization was just trying to show that "we are a significant factor in the state's economy," Avery says.

And that they are. Maintenance and production of turf grass will generate an estimated $1 billion of revenues this year.

That's almost as much as another big Tar Heel cash crop - the grass some people smoke. According to the State Bureau of Investigation, marijuana grown in the state in 1988 had a street value of $1.5 billion.

Scrappy Gordons are sitting pretty

What synergies can there possibly be for a company whose two main lines of business are furniture sales and metal recycling?

Brass bedsteads from scrap? Bookshelves out of beer cans?

Credit the founder of Gordon Industries Inc. in Statesville for forging a connection. Back in 1917, Louis Gordon was hauling scrap iron - mostly farmers' discarded plow points - to a foundry. Gordon decided he had two things he could put to better use: a vacant building that stood on the land he was leasing and his...