How Southern Girls Earn Money 249 



It is not reasonable to assume that every well- 

 trained country girl will find it advisable to take a 

 college course. So, instead of saving up for college 

 expenses, she may be taught to lay by something for 

 the day of her marriage and with the thought of 

 helping equip a home of her own. As a matter of 

 fact, it is not a question of the specific purpose for 

 which the money may be set apart. The mam 

 issue is that of staying by her day after day and week 

 after week, and guiding and advising her until she 

 finally acquires good sense, mature judgment, 

 and self-reliance in regard to the business affairs 

 that may be expected to constitute a part of her 

 life as a keeper of a home of her own. 



How the southern girls earn money. One of the 

 most interesting and significant modern movements 

 in behalf of juvenile industry is that of the Southern 

 Girls' Tomato Clubs, originated in 1910 by Miss 

 Marie Cromer, a rural school teacher of North Car- 

 olina. Thousands of young girls are now partici- 

 pants in the new work, each one tending a small 

 plat of tomatoes and canning the produce for the 

 market. One girl is reported to have cleared $130 

 from one season's crop raised on one fourth of an 

 acre. The General Education Board and the Na- 

 tional Department of Agriculture have given lib- 

 eral support to this tomato-growing work. 



