American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1915-09-30

tN'S
pertinent stations but his old army
was not giving much heed to the ad-
vice OF the commander-in-chief. In
fact there was open mutiny on the part
OF many Of them and when finally
Uncle Sam found out that he could
not get his old soldiers to adopt bet
ter methods In the field, he decided
tina: he must have an entirely new
army, an army trained up to the
new standard and who, when called
upon could meet the new conditions
which were sure to confront them.
In other words he found out that there
we're not many old dogs to whom he
could teach e tricks.
About this time down in Illinois
theer was a country school teacher
who seems to have been thinking very
much along the same lines and in a
small way he was developing some
thing which he thought was at least
the foundation idea. His name was
Benson. Benson seems to have bee'
a dreamer and a good dreamer. He
was called a faddist mad an idler at
first right in his own community. Mr..
Benson was struck with the s~lip-shod
methods of farming n the careless
manner OF breeding and developing
live stock and having read and studied
much along those lines he arranged a
line of vacation work for himself and
some of his school boys. He organized
a corn club, a pig club and a potato
club and that year those boys and
their teacher carried on a careful and
intelligent system of scientific farm
ing on their demonstration farm. The
local newspaper man seems to have
been a live one and becoming interest
ed in the work he from time to time
printed stories of what the boys were
doing and at the end of the season
wrote a summary of the seasons work.
1t had been successful. Somehow or
other that story fell into the hands
Agriculture and Mr.. Benson was in
vited to comedown to Washington and
explain his plans. The upshot of the
whole matter was that Mr.. Benson was
assigned to the important duty Of
organizing a department OF Boys and
Girls chool Farm clubs. Today that
is the greatest educational work being
carried on in the United States.
How Club Work Came to Idaho.
During Miss Grace Shepherds ad-
ministration of the office of state sup
erintendent Of public instruction she
began the formation of school clubs
In Idaho and for the first year car
ried on the work under the supervision
of her office. SO rapidly did the work
grow however, that she was COM
PEELED to create the office of state sup
ervisor Of club work and called to her
assistance, Mr.. T. w. Potter, then
superintendent of the Twin Falls
schools and who had already in an
other state had much experience in
the work. Later the extension de-
partment of the state university at
Moscow took up the work and then
a little later the United States De-
partment extended its cooperation. For
carrying on this work the state of Idaho
receives from the federal government
through what is termed the Smith
Lever fund, a liberal financial support,
the amount of money received each
year depending entirely on the amount
appropriated by our state legislature
or the purposes of the agricultural
extension department. In this county,
for instance you are now receiving a
part of that money to assist in pay
ing for your recently acquired county
agriculturist. II is the purpose or
agricultural extension department
through its boys and girls school clubs
to extend to your boys and girls very
early in life the advantages of a
scientific education In agriculture; in
horticulture: in dairying: it extends
the benefit of manual training where
there is no manual training course; IL
gives to the boy away out in the coun-
try district the opportunity Of studyins
the proper breeding .anah uoaj of
a dairy co .rd md tect nm Do, hsso-
800 ~ Elerick End. ..oe
rises to the team, change Cd how Ia
,u cache shin the value
r,er bred hogs; better bred corn
/ better methods of handling pasture
lands; 1t seeks to lay In that boys
mind early in life the foundations OF
a useful and ambitious lite; seeks te
develop and maintain in his mind thu
beautiful, fact that most dignified o
all the professions of men is the pro
fession of agriculture. II seeks t.
teach our girls that there are man.