The Colorado statesman., 1912-04-13
HAMPTON NEGRO CONFERENCE
SEVERAL HUNDRED coLoREp
FARMERS OF VIRGINIA MEET
AT HAMPTON UNIVERSITY TO
DISCUSS CONDITIONS.

hampton, Va.-The Hampton insti-
TUE annual meeting of the Negro
Farmers conference brought together
several hundred enterprising and
prosperous farmers of virginia. who
are eager to improve their farm prac-
'ioe ana secure increased yields per
acre.
rear by year the farmers confer
ence has brought to Hampton a larger
number of visitors from other
states. This year the visitors came
from twelve states and Canada, and
included number of government
workers from Washington, d. C. This
conference is managed by the agri-
cultural department, of which Mr..
Charles K. Graham is the director.
INTERESTING EXHIBITS.
The large school gymnasium which
accommodates over fifteen hundred
people, was filled to overflowing with
interesting exhibits of farm, school,
and home products. The entries of
corn alone reached one hundred and
seventy. The showing of seed wheat
and rye was extremely good. Similar
statements could be made concerning
all the exhibits. Surely the Hampton
Farmers conference was a telling
testimony to the thrift and progress
OF Virginia negroes and an indca-
ton of what is being quietly done
through the cooperation of many
agents-the preacher, the teacher, the
farm demonstration agent, the busi-
ness man, the housewife-to solve the
race problem.
WOMEN'S MEETING.
The welfare of the negro race is so
closely associated with the life in
the home that Hampton institute
gave prominent place to the discus
sion of home problems in the farm
ers' conference. The heads of the
domestic arts and domestic science
departments, as well as others who
are interested in home economics,
met the colored women and discussed
the practical problems relating to
health and hygiene, and gave some
interesting demonstrations in carin G
for the sick
FARM MACHINERY.
lie advantages anu purposes Vi
various farm implements, as well as
the conditions under which they can
be used to advantage, were informally
discussed by men who had had prac-
tical experience in farming. Plows,
harrows, and farming machinery re-
ceived attention.
NEGRO CANNING CLUBS.
30 To no
Wis, Richmond. Va, state supervisor
of elementary schools in Virginia
and with the cooperation of the sew
! enteen colored supervising teachers
who are working in eighteen counties
of Virginia, a splendid movement for
teaching negro girls the art and value
of canning vegetables and fruits has
been in successful operation ever
since the spring of 1911. This orga-
nization is known as Negro Home
Garden association,
DRESSING POULTRY.
] Miss Mary Yates of Toronto, Cana
da, who is recognized upon two con-
tinents as the greatest authority upon
the subject of table poultry, gave
a demonstration of dressing poultry
for roasting Miss Yates was at one
time connected with the royal house
hold of England, and was poultry in
structor at the Studley Agricultural
college, England. She is now on the
Ontario government lecturing staff
DIR. FRISSELL SPEAKS.
DR.. Hollis B. Frissell, the principal
of Hampton, expressed his satisfac-
ton with the excellent progress which
the colored people are making in ag-
riculture and in kindred lines of work
throughout the south. He declared
that the best people of the whole
country are intensely interested in
what the colored people are doing
to better the conditions in the home,
In the farm, and in the schoolroom.
He emphasized the Importance of the
negro preacher in the forward move
ment among the colored people. He
showed the relation of DIR. Wallace
Buttrick. secretary of the general ed
ucation board, to the securing by the
people of better schools, better homes
and better agricultural results. Co.
operation, in his opinion is the great
word of our modern times.
MAJOR MOTIONS ADDRESS.
Robert R. Motion, the well-known
commandant of cadets at Hampton in
stitute. spoke to a large audience OF
white and colored people on the value
of teaching children to love the
things by which they and their par
ents have lived and must continue to
live. He said that men were slowly
getting over the idea that anybody
could be Just farmer" While he
values reading, writing and arithme-
tic. nevertheless he rates living as
much more important than mere &C
ademic studies.
POTATO RAISING.
Prof P. T. Cole of the Norfolk