BOYS^ FARM CLUBS 



activity and usefulness and were somewhat on the decline. 

 After the Farm Demonstration Work had been going on for 

 about four years, it was reported from Mississippi, from Texas 

 and other states in 1906-07, that the boys wanted to have a 

 hand in this new enterprise. Dr. Knapp realized the possi- 

 bilities of utilizing the energies of these newly formed pur- 

 poses. He realized, also, that a county agent could only look 

 after a limited number of individual demonstrators. For this 

 reason he said that ''We must organize the boys so as to handle 

 them in groups." He grasped the idea of having the Com 

 Club Boys demonstrate to the nation and to the world that 

 the South could grow large yields of corn. Of course he did 

 not lose sight of the fact that each of the boys would be help- 

 ing his community and his county with these same object 

 lessons. 



In the beginning of the systematic effort to organize boys 

 wherever the Farm Demonstration Work had gone, the fol- 

 lowing objects were held up to the agents, school officers, 

 teachers and others interested in promoting the Corn Clubs: 

 "(1) To place before the boy, the family, and the community in 

 general an example of crop production under modem scientific 

 methods. 



(2) To prove to the boy, his father, and the community gen- 

 erally that there is more in the soil than the farmer has ever gotten 

 out of it; to inspire the boy with the love of the land by showing 

 him how he can get wealth out of it by tilling it in a better way and 

 keeping an expense account of his undertaking. 



(3) To give the boys definite, worthy purposes at an important 

 period in their lives and to stimulate a friendly rivalry among them. 



(4) To furnish an actual field example in crop production that 

 will be useful to rural school teachers in vitalizing the work of the 

 school and correlating the teaching of agriculture with actual prac- 

 tice." 



[41] 



