The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1915-07-06
HOUSTON EXTOLS
CHILDREN'S CLUBS
Aid Young People to Become
MOrGEffiGiGnt and COntentad.
GROWING IN ALL SECTIONS.

Few States Without an Organization
and Demonstrators-Muc Money Is
Made In Washington and Oregon,
Where Boys and Girls Are Taught
scientifically to Can Salmon.
Notwithstanding primary object OF
the boys and girls clubs which are be-
ing organized throughout the country
with the assistance of the department
OF agriculture, but in cooperation with
state colleges of agriculture" says Sec
rotary Houston, sis to aid young people
to become more efficient and more con-
tented farmers and home builders.
THE clubs may be organized under
the leadership of the county superin-
tendent of schools or any of the teach
ers under him. If the educational au-
thorities of the county are not yet alive
to the possibilities Of these clubs the
county demonstration agent may take
charge of the movement, or If there is
no demonstration agent In the county
such organizations as local chambers
Of commerce, the grange, women's
clubs, etc, may the leadership.
The names and addresses of the boys
and girls included in the clubs are col
lected and SEN to the state agent, who
will furnish organization and cultural
Instructions upon request.
Experience has shown, however,
that the difficulty is not i'm organizing a
club with a large enrolment of men,
bers, but in inducing these members to
complete their work and to report on
the results. The test of efficiency is not
so much the organization of new clubs
as continuing interest in those already
formed. To assure this continuity of
interest various schemes have been
evolved TO make the club work pro
gressive.
"An example of agents adapting their
plans to circumstances is the canning
of salmon in Washington and Oregon,
mainly along the Columbia river.
There thousands of tons OF salmon
have gone to waste annually. At pres
ent twenty-five clubs Of about twenty
members each are canning salmon,
turning what has heretofore been vast
ed into a well preserved article of food.
"In the girls clubs new members
grow tomatoes only. During the sec
ond year they divide their gardens in
half and grow tomatoes and a few
other crops. The third year they have
more crops. Some Of the combinations
are tomatoes, beans and beets and to-
matoes. peppers and okra. After these
have been mastered the girls begin to
fill their gardens with perennial vege-
tables and fruits. In this way. by the
time a club girl is ready for high school
or college she will have started a per-
manent garden or orchard.
In practically every club it has been
noticed that some of the parents and
neighbors Of the members invariably
adopt the methods of the boys in their
various projects. The yields and profits
that the boys obtain are the best pos
sible demonstration of the value of
their methods. 1t has been said, for ex-
ample, that a single corn club boy in
VAC AOAAAkNuhAAg NAh AAOlC " cOhAiA
corn culture in his county than five
years of public ~lecturing could have ac-
complished.
"In the same way the success of the
girls with their canned products has
paved the way for women county
agents to demonstrate simple useful
lessons in cooking TO the mothers.
THE new movement of organizing
mother-daughter home canning clubs in
the north and west Is an outgrowth and
extension of the work already done by
the girls canning clubs. The club pro-
ject is confined entirely to the canning
of fruits and vegetables, and these may
be grown by the club MEMBERSHIP
mother-daughter team-or by some one
else and purchased for canning pur-
poses"