Part 4

FOOTNOTES:

Funds for cooperative extension work are appropriated for fiscal years ending on June 30, whereas extension agents are required to prepare their reports for calendar years. For this reason, statements of funds appearing in this section and in Table 3 are for fiscal years ended on June 30, and statistics of demonstration results appearing in a following section are for the calendar year ended Dec. 31, 1924.

COOPERATION WITH OTHER AGENCIES

From several years’ experience it has been found that negro agents cooperate closely with their schools and churches. Negro preachers have great power and influence among their people, not only in matters of religion, but also in farming and home making. Wherever an agent obtains the indorsement of a negro pastor, and also gets this pastor to do some good farming and make his home more attractive, he gets assistance that is impossible to obtain from any other source. A negro industrial school in a county is usually a center of influence in extension work as well as in public service generally. Such a school reenforces the instruction given by the agents and is a gathering place for demonstrators and club members. The demonstration activities improve and enhance the school work to a considerable degree.

In addition to the cooperation given by churches and schools, many organizations have assisted negro extension agents in carrying out local extension programs. Much assistance in this respect has been accorded by vocational educational workers, negro chambers of commerce, lodges, health societies, negro farmers’ unions, federations of women’s clubs, and others.

CLUB WORK BY NEGRO BOYS AND GIRLS

As has already been indicated, 4-H club work among negro boys and girls has been a secondary development, but it is now going forward by leaps and bounds. The work by negro agents among adult negroes was just getting well started when the Smith-Lever Act was passed. The effect of the act and of the increase of funds resulting from it was to strengthen and reenforce what was being done for negro farmers and home makers. As was to be expected, the boys and girls soon wanted to follow in the footsteps of their fathers and mothers. (Fig. 7.) There are excellent prospects for junior extension work in the near future. In fact, negro boys and girls have been making records that are stimulating white club members to greater effort and endeavor.

At the close of the 10-year period there was a total enrollment in 4-H club work in the Southern States of 21,721 negro boys and 27,114 negro girls. These figures show a big increase since 1916, when the enrollment of 2,551 negro club members was first recorded separately. At that time the State club agents suggested that negro boys should be organized into farm-makers’ clubs and negro girls into homemakers’ clubs. Prior to that time many negro boys and girls were enrolled in 4-H clubs, but they did not have such different classification as to make their work stand out and receive proper emphasis and recognition.

The end of the 10-year period also found a great many negro boys and girls demonstrating to their parents, their neighbors, and the world that they can clear $200 to $300 a year on their club enterprises and at the same time keep up regular attendance at school during the term provided for them by their respective counties and States. A 14-year-old boy or girl who can put $100 or more into a bank and continue saving each year as he or she grows older is assured of an education and a start in life. This gives the younger generation a big advantage and also furnishes a great inspiration to the agents who are working among these people. More work of this kind will result in considerable advance on the part of the younger generation of negroes.

THE MOVABLE SCHOOL

A development peculiar to negro extension work is the movable school. This is an automobile truck carrying equipment for demonstrations and accompanied by an automobile conveying instructors. (Fig. 8.) The equipment consists of farm and home tools and utensils necessary to illustrate better methods of farming and home making. The school goes to a home where arrangements have already been made by the local agent, and stays from one to three days. The novelty of the outfit and the rather spectacular nature of the occasion guarantee a good attendance of people from the vicinity where the work is to be done.

FIG. 8.—Negro movable school which carries equipment and instructors to local communities where the better ways of farming and home making are demonstrated. Such movable schools have supplemented the work of the local negro extension agent, who follows up and impresses on the community the lessons brought out.]

The local agents and the instructors agree in advance upon what is to be done. The program includes such things as pruning trees, terracing land, plowing properly, building a chicken house, building a sanitary privy, grading fruit, eggs, and vegetables, dressing chickens, making fireless cookers, canning, making work dresses and aprons, and whitewashing or painting the house and outbuildings. The people in attendance are divided into small groups and several enterprises are carried on at the same time. After the various jobs are completed, the whole crowd makes a tour of inspection and much incidental instruction is driven home by those in charge. In addition to having specialists in farming and home making, the school usually carries a public-health nurse who gives much needed instruction and demonstration. A necessary part of the equipment is a projector for showing films and slides during meetings at the school or church. Equipment is also carried to facilitate games and play for a short time every day after the regular work is done.

In view of the fact that much interest has been manifested in the movable school, it may be desirable to consider it from a strictly extension point of view. First, in the communities where the negro population is densest and where their welfare has been most neglected, more simple instruction and demonstration by the specialists and agents themselves are necessary. Just as fast as the farmers can make object lessons and assume leadership themselves, just so fast should that responsibility be passed on to them. Second, the movable school supplements the work of the local agent and is supplemented by it. When a home with its premises has been renovated and practically reconstructed by the visit of a movable school, and when the farmer and his family revolutionize their methods on the farm, then the question arises as to how many more farmers can be influenced to do likewise. The movable school does much to lay out the work of the agents, and if they do not follow up such work and impress its lessons, then little benefit is derived. However, the influence can be measured more successfully a year after the visit of the movable school than the day after.

By request of leading white citizens of Dallas County, Ala., the movable school concentrated there for a month and covered the whole county. Many plantation owners, bankers, and business men visited the school and saw it in action. Their commendation was most encouraging and inspires the hope that this enterprise may be used to facilitate the reform and readjustment of farm and home life among negro farmers who are to remain in the South and improve their conditions. A prominent English woman, who recently visited a movable school, was most favorably impressed. Her only criticism was that it was liable to cause confusion because of the wealth of instruction given in so short a time. She thought that the instruction included more than could be assimilated and utilized in a week. She rather facetiously remarked that it would not surprise her if some of the women were to go home and put their babies down in water glass and make “pinless outfits” for the eggs. Her observation still further confirmed the belief that the movable school and the local agents should be mutually helpful.

STORIES OF ACHIEVEMENT

A few typical stories taken from numerous narratives of success quoted by negro extension agents will suffice to give trends and tendencies. Floyd Stokes, of Gloucester County, Va., told the following story of the help given him through extension work (fig. 9):

When I got married back in 1903, I left home to begin life as a renter. The little house to which I moved was on 3 acres of land which I worked when not engaged in fishing or oystering. After having lived on this place three years, a young man, the first demonstration agent I had ever heard of, came to me and began talking soil improvement and how I could make a living out of it. Just about this time the agent induced me to buy 9 acres of land near by which were for sale. Four of these acres had been cleared and there was an old house on the land that had been used as a barn. I sawed some timber, had some doors and windows made for the barn, and moved into my own home.

Under the instruction of the agent I planted the 3 rented acres to melons and sowed cowpeas between the rows at the last cultivation to be turned under as green manure. This crop of melons netted me $300. On the 4 cleared acres I began soil building and the rotation of crops, as follows: In the spring I sowed cowpeas for hay, followed by crimson clover, which was turned under the following spring and planted to corn. Cowpeas were sown at the last cultivation. A good crop of corn was produced the first year. The cornland was planted to garden peas the next year, followed by crimson clover to be turned under and by potatoes the year following. The potatoes were followed by cowpeas, which were cut for hay in the fall. In the meantime, I had cleared the other 5 acres on which I planted melons, followed by crimson clover to be turned under for soil improvement.

FIG. 9.—Farm home and buildings of Floyd Stokes, of Gloucester County, Va., an outstanding negro farmer who attributes his unusual success to following the advice and suggestions of the negro extension agent. ]

Back in the early days when I began work with the agent, my land was very thin and light, being of a sandy texture; hence, it would not produce over 15 bushels to the acre. By following closely the system of crop rotation taught me, the same land is producing at this time an average of 45 bushels of corn per acre and other crops are doing equally well. From a sand bed, my land has been brought to a high state of cultivation.

In the fourth year after I had bought my first 9 acres, I purchased 7 additional acres. From 1911 to 1917 I rented 13 acres adjoining the 16 acres I owned. At the expiration of this period I succeeded in buying this piece of land, paying cash for it at the rate of $100 per acre. Two years later I bought 20 acres more for which I paid $3,000 in cash, making my total holdings at this time 49 acres. The land on which my house stands cost me $800. I have since been offered $6,000 for it. On the 20-acre plot is a good house which I rent out, although the land is retained for my own use.

In 1923 I began to remodel my house. The necessary timber was cut from the 20 acres purchased last. I planned to add all modern conveniences to the house. A lighting system has been installed and I plan to put in a complete water system next year. I have sheds for housing the farm tools when not in use, and insist that they be kept there. My net income averages around $2,000 per year. I have sold $1,600 worth of green peas this season and just to-day received $300 in small checks from neighboring farmers for seeds and plants grown by me. My farm is self-supporting. I do not buy anything that I can grow, and sell all surplus crops. I have eight children, all of whom are being educated as fast as they are ready for it. Two of my children are graduates of Hampton Institute.

I was one of the first to take up demonstration work in Gloucester County and through it showed that money could be made out of growing garden peas and other truck crops. Since most people at that time were practicing fishing and oystering, no one believed that truck gardening could be successful. When my success became known, one after the other began to take it up until to-day Gloucester County has become a great trucking center.

What success I have had in land buying, soil improvement, home making, and education of my children may be credited to the extension service through its agents who have rendered me most valuable service for which I am deeply grateful.

In Gloucester County, Va., more than 90 per cent of the heads of negro families own their own homes, the jail is usually empty, and the courts have little to do.

FIG. 10.—Herschell Glenn, of Rockdale County, Ga., who made a profit of over $265 through club work in 1924. (Photograph furnished by Georgia Extension Service) ]

One of the best records made in boys’ club work in 1924 was made by Herschell Glenn, of Rockdale County, Ga. (Fig. 10.) He made a profit of over $265 on his club work during the year and also had for his own use 15 bushels of corn and a pig weighing 200 pounds. He has had the satisfaction of knowing that his good work has aroused and inspired hundreds of other boys in Georgia, including a large number in his own community and county, who will try to excel his record in 1925. In reporting to his local agent he used the following simple and expressive language: