,1070 



Young Farmers' Clubs. 



[Mar., 



With crops the arrangement must vary slightly. Either the 

 donor of the Club is asked to provide a plot of land and the 

 necessary fruit trees, to take by way of rental the sum of 3s. a 

 year (for about a 4-perch allotment) from the child, or the 

 children use a measured plot of ground on their own farms or 

 gardens. Prizes are awarded for the best cultivated plots 

 and for the best kept records, showing cost of fertilizers, etc., 

 and the best kept tools. All surplus produce raised on the plot 

 is marketed through the Club, who credit the member respon- 

 sible with the value, less 10 per cent, contribution to the Club 

 fund. At the prize distribution at the end of the season, the 

 net proceeds are returned to the members. 



The founder of the Club provides all the necessary tools 

 against a note of hand for their value from the parent, and 

 the repayment of the cost of tools becomes a first charge on the 

 sale of produce. In some cases it is possible to allow members 

 to carry on the Club work in their own gardens. When this 

 is done the gardens are handicapped according to their size 

 and degree of cultivation at the start of the contest. Where 

 young fruit orchards are planted for the purposes of a Club, 

 the children are instructed in inter-cropping vegetables while 

 the trees are coming to maturity. Alternatively, when the 

 person who is promoting a Club does not himself rear or raise 

 the stock to be issued to the children, does not want to buy it, 

 and (or) is not prepared to advance the necessary capital free of 

 interest, — then the advance is made to the Club direct by the 

 promoter at an agreed rate of interest, and the Club holds the 

 notes of hand from the children's parents. Tn such a case 

 repayment of capital and interest is made a first charge upon 

 the sale of produce or stock. The Advisory Committee, with 

 the assistance of the local Divisional Inspector, supervises the 

 purchase of the stock most suitable to the locality. 



Such is an outline of the formation and working of the Clubs. 

 Their advantages are obvious. 



They bring the agricultural college to the door of the young- 

 sters by means of lectures and demonstrations, and enable them 

 to put into practice the facts obtained from scientific books, 

 and the bulletins of the world's leading agricultural colleges. 



Scientific research is continuously going on in agriculture, 

 and the Young Farmers' Club enables the rising generation of 

 agriculturists to take immediate advantage of laboratory dis- 

 coveries by their practical application. 



All the time the Club is dignifying the farmer's vocation, 



