The Chesterfield advertiser. [volume] (Chesterfield C.H., S.C.) 1884-1978, 1916-02-10
Many Southern Girls
Help Their Families


1915 in the girls canning clubs
carried on comparatively by the
State agricultural colleges and
the department of agriculture.
The purpose of these clubs is to
encourage girls 10 to 19 years to
grow tomatoes and other vege-
tables in tenth-acre gardens and
to can their products for home
use or for sale. These clubs are
under the supervision of nearly
400 women agents, who repre-
sent jointly the Office of Exten-
sion Work, South, of the States
Relations Service, and the ex-
tension department of the sever
al State colleges.
During the first year memb ber-
ship, those in charge find that
caring for one crop, preferably
tomatoes, in a tenth.acre garden
and selling or canning the pro-
duct, gives even a very ambiti-
Gus girl all the work she can do.
In the second and later years,
however. the girls are encour-
aged to raise two or three differ
ent kinds of vegetables III their
plots and to extend their can
ming operations. as their skill
grows, to other surplus products
of the farm, and especially to
the putting up of small fruit,
orchard fruits, ard native wild
fruits, which make a palata BILE
or marketable product when pro.
cessed. The principal object of
the club is to teach the girls
how to keep the surplus fruits
and vegetables from going to
waste, and by canning, to make
them a valuable addition to the
food supply of the farm home,
especially through the winter.
Many ambitious girls, however,
not only put up enough canned
goods and jars of fruit for home
consumption, but make a tidy
monetary profit besides. While
the figures Of profits for 1915 are
not yet compiled, it is known
that in 1914, 7,793 canning-club
girls who renered full reports of
their work put up 1,91S,O24 cans,
jars, and other containers of
fruits and vegetables, which
were worth, according to conser-
vative estimates, 1884, $50, of
which nearly 100000 could be
credited to profit. 1t is estimat-
ed that the average profit per
mber was $23.30. These fig
'ures Of course, do not include
the products of many thousands
of children who failed to send in
accurate reports but who, it is
known, raised and canned thous-
ands of dollars worth of products
from their own gardens and from
their fal Tiers truck patches.
Many of the better-traired
club mem bers, not content with
the raising of gardens during
the summer, have taken up
gardening in the winter where
climatic conditions were suit
able. Many of them are grow
ing such vegetables as spinach,
cauliflower, lettuce, endive, as
/ paragus and celerv, some of
which were entirely new to the
girls who have taken them up.
Here is the story of an II year
,old Virginia club girl who, on
November 16, 1914, began win.
ter garden 20 feet wide and sc
| feet long, which was a part OF
[ her tenth-acre garden cultivated
the previous summer. Spinach
lettuce, radishes, rape, kale, and
mustard were planted in Novem
ber and Dece n ber, and in Marcl
and April potatoes and peas
She gathered in all 357 pound
of vegetables and sold from he
cold frame 700 collard plants
800 cabbage plants, and 400 to
mato plants. This crop wa
, i NJ