The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1916-06-01
'GEMMEL OUTLINES
COUNTY CLUB WORK
Bows and Girls of Benton County
Have Made Excellent Showing
in Art of Helping Themselves

The following story was written py
the editor of the Live Wire Sparks and
the conditions and prizes he speaks OF
apply to each locality in the state.
Mr.. Gemmel is hired jointly by the
county and the extension deparement
of the state college. .s
Fred Gemmel, who is in charge OF
the boys and girls club work for this
county, spoke of this work at the Fin
lev Grange last Saturday. For the
benefit of those who don't know what
the work is we will try to outline it
briefly.
It is a movement inaugurated by
the u. S. department of agriculture
and carried on thru the various state
colleges to teach the children how to
do for themselves. In order to do this.
the colleges work with the school Of
ficials to organize the children into diff
ferent competitive clubs-a club for
each line to be taken up, and prizes
are offered for the winners in each
line. The rules governing the club
work are similar turnout the United
States and boy from Finley enter
ing the poultry club, for example, will
have to keep the same records as a boy
over in King county or boy way back
in Maine. This uniform system of
competition entities the children to
compete for the local prizes, the coun-
ty prizes, the state prizes and the ma
tional prizes. In order to help the
children along the right lines, the state
college furnishes county instructors.
Mr.. Fred Gemmel is the instructor
for Benton county. We might mention
that Benton county is one of the only
five progressive counties in the state,
which have done enough work to quail
ify them for county instructors. The
children of the county, therefore, have
an advantage over most Of the. child
rem in the state in competing for the
state and national prizes. To show
that this is no small thing the club
making the best showing in the state
is to receive 100000 club house.
We predict that Benton county will
land that club house, for the Kiona
Canning club stands an excellent
chance of winning first prize. Other
state and national prizes that might be
mentioned are trips to Washington, D
c., trips to the state fairs, etc.
There are now four clubs organized
at Finley, with an enrolment of thir-
ty-four children. The corn club has
eight, the garden club six, the poul-
try club ten and the pig club ten. In
addition to this a number of local
prizes have been offered for different
lines of work. The prizes run all the
way from 10 cents to $3.50 cash prizes
and such articles as baseball gloves
for the boys, and dishes, scissors, silk
stocking, etc., for the girls, and if the
work comes up to a certain standard
a typewriter has been offered.
Thru this work in few months the
children will learn more self reliance.
more practical knowledge of farming
and business and will learn it in a way
that sticks, than many of them will
learn in years of school work and
home chores. In the one case the child
works for definite reward and does
a. ,,xo,l, - L., o1,,,, f,oo will e&,,Jx,;pr.
his problems as he goes along, because
he likes it. In the other it is often
too true that the child is educated
away from this kind of work because
he gets no reward and is forced to
look upon the chores as drudgery.
Finley is way behind the rest of the
county in this work and it is hard for
us to appreciate what the children
have actually accomplished elsewhere.
We older folk can learn a lot from
the kids, too, if we keep our eyes open.
Up at Prosser one boy raised pig on
alfalfa, SKINNED milk and shorts
which weighed 260 pounds at six
1IlOuLuS Olu S1Ilu OlA1O az q COSt VI 1858
than SIC per pound. Another boy
near Prosser got between $4,000 and
$4,000 off an acre of corn, selling it
for seed corn. The national potato
champion for 1915 raised 6O5k BUSH
els of potatoes on one acre. Is there
anyone who thinks we can't learn
something from these boys?
Objection has been made to the
movement on account Of the expense.
The direct expense is born jointly by
the state and national government,
while most of the prizes are donations
from men and women who appreciate
the worth of the movement. AS a
farming community, all we have to do
to reap the results is to encourage our
boys and girls to compete. IF those
who cry against the expense will take