5 j 2 American Agriculturist, June 7, 1924 
For Those Who Will Come After Us 
An A . A. Wednesday Evening Radio Talk Broadcast from WEAF 
I AST year 000,957 farm boys and girls, mem¬ 
bers of boys’ and girls’ farm clubs, grew 
J and produced for themselves products 
worth $8,648,254. A pretty good record 
this, when it is considered that the real object 
of those in charge was not merely the making 
of money but something far more tangible 
—the teaching of good methods ol agricul¬ 
ture and homemaking and the creation of a 
favorable attitude toward agri¬ 
culture and country life. 
A generation ago the farm boy 
or girl had little opportunity for 
contact with the outside world. 
Aside from the public school and 
the church or Sunday School, 
there was little to claim their 
attention, but the routine of farm 
society suggested, if they did not 
actually teach, that the only path 
to success was the path that led 
to the city. There was little 
inspiration in country life, few 
attempts to explain and interpret 
nature, few schools of agriculture 
or homemaking, no farm bureaus, 
no farm boys’ and girls' clubs. 
To-day the Extension Service of 
the State Colleges of Agriculture 
reaches out into the remotest 
corners of every state. Not only 
does the aduft farmer and his 
wife find themselves in close 
touch with their agricultural / 
college and experimental station, 
but the young people—the farm boys and girls 
find that there is something for them in the farm 
boys’ and girls’ clubs. This year three-quarters 
of a million of these boys and girls will be raising 
calves, pigs, poultry and other live stock; planting 
gardens, growing pota¬ 
toes and other farm 
crops, or they will be 
making clothing, can¬ 
ning fruit and vege¬ 
tables, or doing other 
kinds of household 
tasks. True farm 
boys and girls have 
always helped with the 
work of the farm and 
the home. There has 
always been work and 
plenty of it. More 
perhaps than any 
other group of young 
people, farm boys and 
girls have contributed 
to the family income 
through their labor. 
But in club work the 
members own their 
animals and have their 
own garden or acre of 
crops. It is their own 
enterprise. The profits are to be theirs. More¬ 
over, they are directed by a corps of trained 
experts, agents of the United States Department 
of Agriculture and the various State Agricultural 
Colleges, located in almost every agricultural 
county in every state. Therein lies the difference. 
Many of you within sound of my voice have in 
your youth wearily followed the cultivator day 
after day through the corn, vowing secretly that 
you would leave the farm at the very first oppor¬ 
tunity. Some of you did. And honestly some of 
you are sorry for it. What a difference it might 
have made if you had known some of the secrets 
of the growth of that corn, how the cultivator 
not only killed the weeds but conserved the mois¬ 
ture in the soil and set free food for the corn 
plant. Or what might have been your feeling if a 
part of that corn were yours and your profit 
depended on bow well and how skilfully you grew 
the crop? 
By J. W. WRIGHT 
State Leader of Junior Extension, New York State 
College of Agriculture 
Lest I be misunderstood, let me say that club 
work does not aim to keep every farm boy and 
girl on the farm. There is no inherent reason why 
every farm boy should be a farmer, or that every 
physician’s son should be a physician or every 
mg 
This Livingston County boy learned to know and appreciate good stock. His project was one 
of the stops of interest on one of the farm bureau tours. Aubrey Shaver, in the center, is the 
owner of these fine pure bred Ayrshires. 
lawyer’s son a lawyer. To keep every boy and 
girl on the farm would not only be a national 
economic folly, but to unduly influence a young 
person’s destiny in opposition to his tastes and 
. ... ■ a » , . 1 • • . 1 * a 
of depression which now r exists in many 
rural communities because of low incomes and 
high taxes. Is it surprising that the w r ages which 
industry offers are appealing and that farm boys 
and girls leave home and school simply to get a 
job? But there comes into their midst the county 
club agent and if happily he is a real leader, a 
transformation takes place. He may be able to 
assist in the reorganization of the social life. 
He suggests some kind of club 
work which has possibilities of 
adding to the individual income 
of the members. They each have 
some individual farm or home 
enterprise. A competition is 
arranged to stimulate interest 
and activity. New or better 
methods may be suggested with 
the result of better crops pro¬ 
duced at less cost. The teacher 
is induced to give instruction 
along the line of the club project 
with the result that there is a 
greater interest in school. The 
discouraged youth may see a new 
vision. He is enthused by the 
opportunity to exhibit at the 
County Fair with the possibility 
of being selected for a trip to the 
State Fair or to a short course at 
the State Agricultural College. 
The new methods may be adopted 
by the adults with the result 
that the whole attitude of the 
community may be changed. 
Picture, if you can, the beneficial results in this 
community and you have an idea of what club 
work at its best can do and is doing in hundreds of 
communities. The leadership may sometimes 
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abilities is in itself a crime against humanity, lack training and not be fully efficient. The ideals 
But farm life should be more attractive, both and methods may not be fully standardized, but 
socially and financially. There wall be no national it is getting results in many places wdien all else 
calamity resulting from the present rush from has failed. .It is a virile, growing movement 
country to city. When the* production of food which has challenged the interest of men of affairs 
and clothing again becomes profitable there wall be throughout the country and of which President 
people and land to produce it. The Banger lies Coolidge recently said, “ Probably no* activity is 
rather in a less virile country people through the of more importance to the future prosperity and 
deflection of the more ambitious to the cities and social position of agriculture than Boys’ and Girls’ 
the eventual dissatisfaction among many country 
minded individuals who migrate to the cities in 
this time of economic stress and who may find it 
impossible to return to the country when farm 
conditions improve. It is the latter which club 
work aims to partially prevent. If it can hold the 
Farm Clubs.” 
Boys and Girls to be Guests of College 
T HE annual field days for boys and girls engaged in 
various kinds of club work in New \ork State are 
One of the good things about 
club work is that it is as good 
for the girls as for the boys. 
This is Helen Beck of Otsego 
County. 
worn aims lu parunny picvcm. n u '-cm uuiu <-uv. to Held on June 25, 26 and 27. The State College of 
interest of rural minded young folk in the country Agriculture at Ithaca is to be turned over on those days 
through this troubled period by focusing their to the boys and girls of the State who will make the trip 
attention on the advantages for them of country who are engaged in these agricultural and home-making 
life; it it can help them to better economic con- projects. Field days m the past have proved such a sue- 
ditions through improved methods of farming and « SS ‘hat the college has made the event an annual one. 
help in guiding them to develop a satisfying social 
life then it will have rendered a distinct service. 
Club work is not new or untried. It has proven 
itself through more than a decade of usefulness. 
It was not until ten years ago, however, that it 
became of national significance. The passage of 
the Federal Cooperation Extension Act in 1914 
provided the machinery and stimulated the ap¬ 
propriation of Federal, State and local funds tor 
extending the services of the Colleges of Agricul¬ 
ture to the people of their respective states who 
could not attend college classes. Out of this has 
come the county agent system which has placed, 
one or more trained men and women in most of 
the agricultural counties of the country and who 
bring directly to the people the latest and best 
teachings of the colleges and the United States 
Department of Agriculture. With the develop¬ 
ment of the county agent system, club work has 
grown until the 4-H clover, the emblem of club 
work, is knowm throughout the country. 
Picture, if you can, the feelings of thousands of 
farm boys and girls, young men and women, wdio 
Market gardening is a big business on Long Island and so 
the boys get in the game young. This Nassau County 
youn ster is after cabbage worms with a vengeance. 
The program will be practically the same as that of 
last year. The visitors will assemble at the college at 
lann uoys anu gms, yuung ixj.cn emu numv-u, »> noon and the remainder of the day will be spent in various 
normally like farm life and country living, but who par t s of Cornell University which will include a musical 
see no prospects for a satisfying social or economic period in the auditorium. The “wiener roast, so 
life in the country. Add to this the general feel- popular last year, will again be held on that evening. 
