BOYS' FARM CLUBS 



bushels of corn on his acre at a cost of 20 cents per bushel, 1,623 

 pounds of seed cotton on his second acre, and 3,354 pounds of oats 

 in sheaf and 1,974 pounds of peavine hay on his third acre, winning 

 a second percheron mare from Central of Georgia R. R., for four 

 crops on three acres. Thus this young farmer won a fine pair of 

 draft mares to continue his high-class demonstration farming. He 

 has recently married Miss Margaret Brown, one of the North 

 Carolina prize winning girls, whom he met on the trip to Wash- 

 ington in 1913. They are developing a model farm and home. 



From 1906 to 1908 the enrollment in the Com Clubs 

 began to show up in several of the states. Some agents inter- 

 ested the boys and started them to work. Some county super- 

 intendents of education helped enlist the boys and aided in 

 the instruction of the groups. The first county superin- 

 tendent of education who thus organized Corn Clubs wels 

 W. H. Smith, of Holmes County, Mississippi, later president 

 of the Agricultural College of that state. He was appointed 

 Collaborator by the United States Department of Agriculture. 

 The first Demonstration Agent to take up this phase of work 

 and promote it actively and successfully himself was Tom M. 

 Marks, of Jack County, Texas; 1909 was the first year in 

 which the Com Club Work was organized and promoted gen- 

 erally throughout the Southern States, It is very interesting 

 to see the number of boys who produced yields of more than 

 100 bushels to the acre in the first five years of this intensive 

 activity in the Boys' Club Work. This record is as follows: 

 1909, 52; 1910, 171; 1911, 327; 1912, 493, and 1913, 374. 



A Department Circular giving results of the Corn Club 

 Work in 1911 made the following observations : 



"The Boys' Demonstration Work teaches the boy how to make 

 a crop successfully and economically; hence, there is an element of 

 economic management and profit in it. It inspires a love of the 

 soil and, above all, when the boy is successful there is a consciousness 

 of achievement, which is of great value. It is not merely a Boys^ 



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