Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-10-29
GIRLS FINE FARMERS
Successful Under Tutelage of
Agricultural Department.
STARTED WITH TOMATOES
Now They Raise All Varieties Of
Vegetables and Fruits.
CAN THEM AFTER HARVESTING
Members of Clubs in Several South
ern States Also Go in for
Poultry and Eggs.
CAN THEM AFTER HARVESTING

Girls have more sense than boys any
how.
That is one Of the reasons that the De-
partment of Agriculture advances for the
success Of the girls farm club that is
just finishing it's second year of crop
growing.
About two years ago the late DR.. S.
A. Knapp of the Department of Agri-
culture conceived the idea of organizing
girls tomato clubs in the southern states.
something on the order of the boys corn
clubs which had been run in previous
years.
Unfortunately DR.. Knapp died before
| this work was ready for its public dem
onstration, but the idea took hold among
| the farm girls of the southern states and
the results obtained this year are con-
sidered by the Department of Agriculture
officials as most remarkable.
| The work started out with the idea of
having girls raise tomatoes and possibly
| can a few of them. 1t has developed
| however, into the girls going in for to-
matoes. poultry and eggs and canning
| not only tomatoes, but all sorts of fruit
| and vegetables. so that in the state OF
| Oklahoma alone the girls this year have
canned ninety varieties of fruit and vege-
| tables, making the famous pickle fac
| tory look like back number.
About $4,000 Girls Enrolled.
| There are about 5000 girls now enroll
| ed in twelve of the southern states, and
| work could be greatly extended if more
| money were available for instruction. 1t
| is estimated by business men and the
department that the girls club work has
been worth just about S1,O0O,O0O to the
| state of Oklahoma this year. The basis
on which this estimate is made is the
| fact that early in the previous season
one of the farm demonstrators tried to
| find in the city of Oklahoma some Of the
| sort of cans that the department Is using
| in the girls club work. He found them
| in only one store and that was lot that
had been shipped in by mistake. During
the past season 100000 of these cans
| were shipped in to the state. and in Ok
| lahoma City 100000 were sold.
One girl, who was a member of the
canning club in the state Of Oklahoma
| made a net profit of S101 off one-tenth
of an acre. 1t is not assumed by any of
| the officials that she could have made a
profit of $101 acre off a hundred
acre farm. but her showing is a very
good indication of what the girls can
| do in a business line when they get
started.
Canning Works an Object Lesson.
The canning works have been an object
| lesson to many of the grown people in the
| states where they have been in operation
| One richard man near Oklahoma City
| had quite a large orchard off which he
could not sell the fruit at profit and he
was about to abandon the whole enter
prise when he casually attended one of
| the girls canning demonstrations. He
was so impressed that he invested about
| $50 in the biggest home canning outfit
| he could get and canned all of the fruit
on his place. He cleaned up nearly
| $4,000 on the seasons work and decided
| to retain the orchard.
Many of the girls have gone in for
poultry raising as well as for canning.