The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1913-04-09
The Most ImportantWork
Ahead of the Nation.
BOYS AND GIRLS OF THE FARM
Should Be Taught That Their
Destiny Is, One of the
Greatest Possible.
FAMILY CONTESTS ARE GREAT

our boys and girls IN the couHli'
and in the city to sing in school ant
public assemblage of the Star
Spangled Banner and how 1t Ions
may wave, but no one has ever sug
gested that they lift their voices In
praise or alteration of the potato
the corncob or the wheat sheaf
without which there would be little
nourishment in our national an
thems. The time is coming along
for epic thoughts on crops, and the
future generation must be taught
to build those epic thoughts. says a
writer in the Country Gentleman.
Round about election time stump
orators go through the rural places
to read the voting farmer a psalm
of platitudes; how great and impor-
tant he is; how he is the bone and
sinew OF the nation-the sturdy
oak upon which the city parasites
Irvine and feed. The farmers boy
/ Is pdlltu lHt htdu anu
informed he will be a man before
his mother; that Abraham Lincoln
was once a barefoot boy, and that
George Washington was raised on a
Virginia farm, and MIXED cows and
fed pigs before he chopped down
the cherry tree.
The farmers daughter also comes
in for a few compliments, and then
the willy politician goes on his way
figuring on the vote he has secured
for himself or his candidate. But
once the vote is counted, the farm
er, his boy and his girl are forgot
ten, and the SNUG orators concen-
trate all their energies on getting
out of politics all there is in it, with
now and then a sop thrown over the
fence to keep the farmer good ma
tured.
The very best feature about the
present Government work in behalf
of the boy and girl on the farm is
that it is administrative and not
egislative-that is, it is not sub
ject to bills and measures, caucuses
and committee conferences. The
Bureau of Plant Industry and the
Office of Farm Demonstration are
doing their very best to let the
world know what is doing.
Agents of these bureaus are
working in the North, the South,
the East and the West to establish
boys and girls corn clubs, garden
clubs. domestic training clubs and
scores of other little enterprises to
rouse the farmers-to-be and their
wives-to-be to realization that
farming is a mighty big thing and
filed with more wonders and mys-
teries than obtain in all the applied
sciences punched together.
1t is up to the parents of these
boys and girls to take hold and CO.
operate with Uncle Sam in this
awakening and also to urge Uncle
Sam to extend and vitalize the
work. Too much publicity cannot
be given the effort and too many
bulletins and circulars and pamph-
lets cannot be written and printed
and sent broadcast.
The parents of young Ernest
Joye, of Williamsburg county.
South Carolina. didn't think much
Of the notion of boys corn clubs at
first. but when Master Ernest mark
ed OF an acre of his fathers fields
and raised 2O7 bushels of corn on
1t last summer. Mr.. and Mrs. Joye /
experienced the proudest and hap
piest moment of their lives. Son
Ernest was awarded the prize of a
free trip to Washington. where he
was petted and praised by many of
the great and famous who guide
the helm OF state.
Carlous Reddock, OF Smith coun-
ty. Mississippi. cropped zoo bushels
from his acre and was one of l6
boys from IL Southern States who
got a free trip to the capital city.
rwenty-one boys joined in this mer-
" junket from Northern and West
srn States, 16 being from Illinois.
where boys corn clubs are being
organized in every county and town
hip and where every rural commun-
ty is bending on it's toes to the dis
'overy that once you get the boys
md girls stirred up over the big.
possibilities of farm life
md farm work, those boys and girls
ire going to stop right at home and
be Just as big and important folks
As farmers and farmers wives as
aver they could be as merchants 4
Ind merchants wives. lawyers and
awyers' wives. bankers and bank
'rs' wives and SO on through the