Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-15
SOUTHLAND NOW FRONTIER
In VAST DEVELOPMENT
Awakened Farmer, Credited With Strides
and Consolidation of Schools, Has
Furthered Transformation.

! phorus and potash he is using for
! fertilizer, and why.
These boys show their leadership by
going forward into another organiza-
ton, the Future Farmers of America.
Young Head Their Elders.
Yet another offshoot of this move
ment is the Boys and Girls Fourth
Club movement, now famous for the
projects carried through by their young
people themselves, along strictly scien-
tific lines. These young leaders fire.
quently convert their own parents to
the new and scientific agriculture.
However, it is the evening class move
ment, the movement among adult
farmers, that promises to transform
Southern agriculture.
The evening class for farmers from
10 to 80 years old is the most impressive
thing in agricultural education that has
developed in this generation. Already
in some States there are more farm
erS enrolled in these classes than there
are farm boys in the vocational agri-
cultural subjects in the high schools.
In the last six years this phenomenal
growth has taken place. We may call
1t Southern movement because in 10
Southern, States there are more eve
ming classes for farmers than in all the
other 36 States combined. The 10
States of the South which now have
more than SO per cent Of these classes
are: Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana,
Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma,
South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and
Virginia.
What is an evening class for farmers
and why is it so important? It is i'm
portant because it gets hold of a few
farmers in the community who are
hungering and thirsting after knowl-
edge. These men are in a receptive
mood. Since they are actually practic-
ing the vocation of farming, there is
no lost motion, lost effort or lost time
In teaching them agriculture.
The teacher must stick to the facts as
worked out by the various experiment
stations. Farmers in the class are en-
couraged to contribute ideas proved
| sound in their own experience. These
discussions help farmers discover their
own problems. A problem once clearly
stated is half solved.
A class running one hour and six
evenings a week does not change the
practices of all the farmers in the class.
Some are skeptics, but this situation is
successfully met by having the class
run for three consecutive years in the
same schoolhouse. If the teacher the
first year teaches some new doctrine
about the kind and amount of fertilizer
to use on cotton, some of the farmers
will use this information, some will not
The second year the results obtained
by those who used the new knowledge
will be discussed in the class. BY the
third year the new practice has become
practically universal among these men.
In one group, for instance, where the
teacher showed the correct amount of
ammonia to be used, the farmers in the
class got 100 pounds of cotton per acre
more than neighboring farmers who
stuck to the old customs.
Agriculture is competitive now as
never before. Tariff laws, farm relief
laws-these are but palliatives at best.
The farmer, like his city cousin in in
dustry or commerce, must meet the new
competition by lowering his own costs
OF production and improving the quality
OF his product. The evening classes,
as long as they stick closely to a better
production program, are doing more to
lower the farmers cost Of production
and to improve his quality than any
other agency. They are using the re-
suits Of all the other agencies COM
bined.