The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1916-02-02
Fast BY Employing Mod
ern',MethOds.
WHAT FARM CLUBS ARE DOING
in Demonstrating POssibi1i'
ties Of the Soil In Va
riOuS Sections.
JHE FARM AGENTS GOOD WORK

would feed a great many people.
That is the amount OF cured pork
raised in 1914 in eleven counties of
Georgia where there are pig clubs.
The pig clubs have been organized
not only in that part of Georgia but
throughout the United States. They
are composed of boys and girls. The
membership now amounts to about
nine thousand. The organization
and encouragement OF these pig
Clubs is part of the work of the De-
partment of Agriculture. In this
respect, as in many other respects,
the Department of Agriculture is a
sort of department OF education. 1t
is training American boys and girls
40 understand the country in which
they live, and to take part in its de-
Selopment. There are four thous-
and members of poultry clubs. The
United States Government is taking
Al long look ahead when it thus
reaches out to make American boys
and girls fit for country life and sue
cessful in rural business.
Altogether in the Southern States
there were 10000 boys and girls
enrolled during the year in the va
s'ious kinds of agricultural clubs. OF
the sixty thousand boys, says Mr..
Houston, Secretary of Agriculture,
in his recently issued report, many
We're interested in growing winter
legumes for soil improvement. Four
crop clubs were formed in some of
the States, with rotation on three
acres of ground, to show the inan-
Cial advantage of improving soil
fertility. There are a good many
city people who have no idea what
legumes are, and have even less
idea of the significance of a four
crop club. And yet such matters
are familiar to these boys and girls.
The fifty thousand girls who are en-
rolled in the canning clubs are
taught to make home gardens and to
preserve for home use the garden
products as We'll as the waste fruits
and vegetables of the entire farm"
This work of educating country
boys and girls is not merely the
work of the Federal Department of
Agriculture, but it is the joint work
of that Department and various
State agencies, including agricultur-
al college and county agents.
In addition to the 10000 boys
and girls in the South, there are over
$50 200 boys and girls enrolled in
the Northern and Western States.
Some of the members of these clubs
are buying land, and in this way ac-
curing, as Secretary Houston says,
the habit of thrift and the sense of
the dignity of land ownership"
1t is not, however, only the boys
and girls that the Department of Ag-
Ticulture and the various States are
but also older people.
The farmers are being taught how
10 be better farmers. Farmers
wives are being taught how they can
make their work more efficient and
more labor-saving. Under the De-
partment there has been organized,
as the result of legislation by the
last session of Congress, the Estates
Relations Service" This brings into
cooperation the agricultural educa-
tional activities of the various State
institutions and the Federal Agri-
cultural Department. There is pro-
vided in this way "a Nationwide
system of instruction for the farm
ing population" During this first
year, of course, it has been necessary
to work out the general lines of the
system. The Department urges the
importance of establishing in every
county an agent with permanent
headquarters, who can Serve as the
Joint representative of the local COM
munity, the agricultural college,
and the Department" There are
now in the United States more than
a thousand counties with such
agents, and in these there are sew
eral hundred women employed.
These agents give farm demOnstra-
lions.
In the fifteen Southern States
there Were, for example, three thous-
and silos built under the direct in
struction of agents. "a silo, by the
way, is a structure in which corn is
preserved for fodder) More than
seventy-five thousand hillsides were
terraced to prevent erosion, home
gardens were planted. thousands OF
acres were drained. cooperative en-
terprises were established for the
breeding of live stock. handling
seed, marketing crops, etc. The wom-