322 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



BOYS' AND GIRLS' AGRICULTURAL CLUBS. 



The interest in this form of school-extension work continues to 

 grow tlirou«rh()ut the country. Corn growing for boys and bread- 

 making and sewing for girls are the basis for most of the competitive 

 contests, but in some States other lines of effort are specially encour- 

 aged, such as cotton growing, potato growing, fruit growing, and 

 poultry and live-stock study. The annual reports of superintendents 

 of education, notably those of O. J. Kern. Winnebago County, 111., 

 and of State Superintendent E. C. Bishop, of Nebraska, give special 

 attention to this work. Page County, Iowa, and Berks County. Pa., 

 may also be mentioned as typical of the interest this form of school- 

 extension work is receiving. As one result of the work of Superin- 

 tendent V. L. Roy in promoting club organization in Avoyelles Par- 

 ish, La., he was appointed to the chair of agricultural education in 

 the State agricultural college, and such work is now to be generally 

 organized throughout the State. 



Another indication of such interest is found in the issue of bulle- 

 tins of information on the subject from state superintendents and 

 agricultural extension departments, such as the one entitled "A Corn 

 Primer," by C. S. Knight, issued in the Teachers' and Pupils' Series 

 of the Kansas Agricultural College, and the " Boys' Corn-Growing 

 Contest," by S. M. Jordan, i^iblished by the Missouri board of ag- 

 riculture. These contests frequently culminate in a " farmers' w^eek" 

 gathering, at the State agricultural college, such as that held at Cor- 

 nell University, February 22-27, 1909, in which exhibits from 28 

 boys' and girls' clubs were shown, accompanied by 150 drawings, 

 150 essays on " How to grow corn," and 200 letters on " IIow we cele- 

 brated corn day in our school." 



These state contests are sometimes concentrated at the annual state 

 fair, and include not only awards for club exhibits by school pupils, 

 but also for contests in the judging of such exhibits. The last Iowa 

 state fair offered prizes ranging from $25 to $200 for boys in com- 

 petitive corn judging and from $25 to $100 to girls offering the best 

 prepared food products, with reasons for the work done. A varia- 

 tion from this plan is followed by the Colorado state fair authorities 

 in offering a scholarship worth $125 in any of the regular courses at 

 the state agricidtural college to the boy doing the best work in judg- 

 ing live stock and corn and a scholarship Avorth $100 in any college 

 or university in Colorado to the girl showing the best work in the 

 preparation of certain foods and giving reasons for the methods 

 used. 



Still another outgrowth of this interest is the organization of sum- 

 mer encampments combined with a "' corn show," and careful instruc- 

 tion in the breeding and cultivation of corn. Such a "farm boys' 

 encampment " at Glenview farm, Mo., is described by S. M. Jordan 



