BOYS' AGRICULTURAL CLUBS 113 



The work in Delaware County is a typical example of 

 how the education of a county or township system may be 

 redirected by means of boys' clubs. Springfield Township, 

 Ohio (142), Keokuk (61) and Page (144) counties, Iowa, 

 Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, Winnebago County, Illinois 

 (145, 146), Wexford County, Michigan, and many other places 

 might be mentioned where boys' agricultural clubs have not only 

 been the means of improving school conditions but by their 

 success have led to similar work being introduced in other 

 places. 



Although not connected in any way with the public schools, 

 the work of W. B. Otwell, editor of the Otwell's Farmer Boy, 

 Carlinville, 111., deserves special mention. Mr. Otwell is chiefly 

 responsible for the beginning of the state-wide development of 

 boys' corn clubs in Illinois, and had charge of their exhibit at 

 the St. Louis Exposition, where 1,250 boys' exhibits received 

 awards. By means of his paper he is interesting a large number 

 of boys of the Middle West. He conducted in 1910 a corn con- 

 test in which 25,000 boys were competing. 5 Another feature of 

 his boys' club is an annual encampment for those who can attend, 

 for the purpose of agricultural study. 



In order to give description in sufficient detail, the foregoing 

 discussion of boys' agricultural clubs has been limited to a few 

 typical examples of what is now actually being accomplished. 

 References have been made from time to time to the public inter- 

 est in the clubs and to their influence upon the public schools. 



It was the intention in preparation of this chapter to include 

 a fuller discussion of the relation of this movement to rural 

 education than space will permit. Opinions have been gathered 

 from a number of state superintendents, and from others in- 

 terested in rural education as to the reaction of the agricultural 

 club movement upon the rural schools. These opinions are well 

 summed up in the following: 



Keeps boys in school longer; gives teacher greater influence and power; 

 convinces farmers that school people want to and can be useful to the 



'Otwell's Farmer Boy, Carlinville, 111., December, 1910. 



