Rural Retreat times. [volume] (Rural Retreat, Va.) 1892-1918, 1912-03-22
BOYS COTTON CLUBS
Principal Crop Grown by Farm
ers in the South.
Education of Youth Will Be Far From
Complete Unless He Has Made
Study of Wonderful Plant
objects of Work.
(By BRADFORD KNAPP.)


In most of the territory now COW
e--sd by the Farmers Cooperative
Demonstration Work, cotton is the
principal crop grown by the farmers.
The education of a southern boy will
be far from complete unless he has
made study of this wonderful plant
which does SO much to clothe the
world, and which in recent years is
becoming important as source OF oil
and feed. Sufficient investigations
have been made and trials had to
convince us that there is need and
demand for cotton clubs.
The objects of the Boys Demonstra-
ton Work are: First, to afford the
rural teacher simple and easy meth
cd of teaching practical agriculture in
the schools in the way it must be ac-
quired to be of any real service, name
iy, by actual work upon the farm.
Second, to prove that there is more in
the soil than the farmer has ever got
ten out of it; to inspire boys with
love of the land by showing how they
can get wealth out of it by tilling it
in a better way and thus be helpful
to the family and the neighborhood.
Third, to give the boys definite,
worthy purpose and to stimulate a
friendly rivalry among them.
These objects were stated in the
beginning, and the boys corn clubs
organized in pursuance thereof, open
ed the eyes of the south to its posi-
bilities in the production OF corn and
have stimulated an interest in agricul-
ture and especially in the produc-
ton of home supplies. Practical les
sons like the lessons in any system
of education must be progressive.
Hence we believe the time has ar
rived when few of the best of the
corn club boys can progress from corn
production to cotton production and
thus widen their useful knowledge and
at the same time give them basis
for thorough system of modern ag-
riculture The lessons of prepare
ton, seed selection, and intensive cul
tiyation will be continued as applied OF
COtlOQ anu III DOAl WSSNH 5SCtloHo
they will be shown the departments
method of raising cotton under boil
weevil conditions. AS in the case OF
the boys corn clubs, where the work
is being organized the county superin-
tendent of education and teachers, can
best reach the boys in all sections of
the country and thus can the teacher
best be able to maintain interest in
things of the farm and the boys to
acquire valuable knowledge The les
sons of diversification will be made
prominent 1t will, thus become an
easy matter to impress the members
of the clubs with practical and econo-
mic principles of farming such as
abandonment of the system of raising
all cotton and the using of more acres
for food crops, more for soil improving
crops and relatively less for cotton in
each general farm plan. The advent
of the boil weevil makes such sys-
tenn imperative.
No better agency can be found to
teach these great lessons than the
energetic, persevering southern boys
who have made such a great success
in the corn clubs. Nor is it proposed
that interest In the corn clubs shall
be allowed to decrease. 1t is sug.
gested that the cotton clubs be organ-
lied as an advanced class. The boy
who has made a study of corn for one,
Two, or three years is far more com
petent to take up the more complicat-
ed study of cotton. 1t is recommend
ed therefore that boys entering our
clubs for the first time be urgec 70
join the corn clubs and that the o:s-
or clubs be organized 50 far as pea