BOYS' AND GIRLS' CLUBS 235 



Potato Clubs. Cumberland County in East Ten- 

 nessee has a schoolboys' Potato Club, that has 

 taught the farmers of that section an important les- 

 son. It had been supposed that potatoes were not 

 a profitable crop in that state. It was claimed that 

 tlie cost of raising an acre of potatoes there, includ- 



Courtesy of U. S. Dept. of Agriculture 



Fig. 114. Idaho hoys and girls receiving -field instructions on 

 the diseases of the potato. 



ing labor, fertilizer, and the rent of the land, was 

 about $75 per acre, while the crops raised hitherto 

 at the rate of fifty .cents a bushel brought a return 

 of only $40 an acre. But the Boys' Potato Club told 

 a different story. One lad raised on one acre 384 

 bushels and his net profit was $78. Another boy 

 raised 379 bushels which gave him a net gain of 



