Part 5

I had 2 acres in cotton. My total cost was $31.50; the total amount of seed cotton, 3,150 pounds; total value of seeds and lint cotton, $289.52; net profit, $265.85; and net profit per acre, $132.90. My corn did not do so well. I only got 15 bushels from my acre. I hope to do better next year. My pig is fine. I have fed her six months. She weighs 200 pounds. I am proud to be a club boy and will continue next year.

A negro home demonstration agent in Wayne County, N. C., gave a very good statement which indicates what is being done by negro women agents in changing home conditions. It will be noted that she followed the desirable plan of putting other people forward to give testimony and express the sentiments of her people. There is a fine recognition of individual effort and community cooperation in this method of reporting which might well be commended to extension workers generally.

I have been in the county two years and seven months. It is a pleasure to note the improvement of the people along every line. They eat better food, sleep in more fresh air, are happier at work, take better care of their children, have higher ideals, and have learned to sell the surplus food instead of wasting it and to buy things which they need. More important than tangible results are their changed ideas and attitude toward the work. One man speaking at a community meeting said: “The agent has put new life into dead bones. I feel better and am doing better and everybody in the neighborhood is doing better whether he belongs to the club or not.” In the same meeting a woman said: “I am 57 years of age, have 20 children, 45 grandchildren, and 7 great grandchildren, but have learned more in two years about caring for children, my home, and health than I had learned in 55 years before. I have 7 milk cows and 75 hens. I sell eggs, milk, butter, apples, peanuts, and a few other little things and now I can see day breaking. I am just learning how to live.”

The negro home demonstration agent of Autauga County, Ala., sketches a general outline of progress which goes into a little more detail in regard to the various activities. She says:

Gardening is no longer a part-time project, but is carried on through the year by both women and girls engaged in club work. We have been able to keep vegetables the year round, even though we have had a long dry spell. The number of insects and other pests, such as worms and plant lice, have been kept down by the constant use of soapsuds and wood ashes. Our winter gardens are doing fine. I feel that beautifying the home and surroundings should get first consideration, due to the fact that most of the time is spent in the house. Homes have been whitewashed, yards cleaned, and flowers planted in each case. Instructions have been given from time to time in the care and handling of a cow and the care and handling of milk in the home. Very few women are taking this instruction, but these few are making and saving money. One separator and six sanitary milk pails have been bought this year. We have worked hard this year with poultry, trying to do away with scrubs and put in more standard breeds. I have succeeded in getting 30 women and 5 girls to buy standard-bred eggs. As a result we have 1,300 more standard-bred chickens this year than we had last year. Our aim is to turn out 100 pullets on each yard.

Canaan community in Montgomery County, Ala., furnishes a fine example of the ultimate objective of home demonstration work among negroes. It is a good illustration of the fact that demonstrations are progressive. When one step is taken and success is achieved, the very situation is a stimulus to additional steps until the whole home and its environment become an inspiring object lesson of better living. The following story indicates that practically all the homes in that community are in various stages of advancement in extension work:

Almost every house in Canaan community shows signs of effort in home improvement, and the demonstration home of this community is now in process of development. The house has been remodeled and the interior decoration completed. Plans for the yards, walls, and fences are under way. This community also leads in bedspread making, having 15 finished bedspreads. It is the plan of the agent to have one demonstration home complete in each community where demonstration work is carried on. The Smothers’ home at Mount Meigs is the best example of home improvement in Montgomery County. The State agent and the landscape specialist, with the cooperation of the county agricultural agent, laid off the walks, surveyed the road, and planted the shrubs, flowers, and Bermuda grass. The owner found that his two-room house was not in keeping with his surroundings and so he decided to remodel. He and his wife left the plans of the house entirely to the judgment of the State and county home-demonstration agents and were satisfied with the plans for an addition of three rooms, a kitchen, back porch, bathroom, and an 8-foot L porch. The plans were executed by an architect at Tuskegee Institute. The construction is now complete and as soon as the plasterers are through, the furniture will be installed. At the request of Mr. and Mrs. Smothers, the home-demonstration agent helped in the selection of new furniture. The curtains and draperies are being made by the club girls of Mount Meigs, and girls of another community are framing appropriate pictures.

The following extract from the report of the home-demonstration agent of Washington County, Tex., is typical of the numerous examples of good work accomplished by negro club girls:

Lena Williams, age 16, of Washington County, Tex., has learned to can vegetables and make jelly and pickles so well that her services are in great demand. This year, after attending to her work at home and keeping up her club activities, Lena made a profit of $63 by canning for other people and even a greater profit from the sale of some of her products, both canned and fresh. With this money she bought a purebred Poland China pig, costing $10, and 12 purebred Rhode Island Red pullets and 1 cockerel, costing $14. Lena also attributes her good fortune in having some good warm, tasty apparel for school to her activity in canning, as she invested the remaining $39 in clothes for school wear, and plans to start a bank account from her investment in chickens and pigs.

It should be noted that any girl club member who makes the right start in productive enterprises is almost sure to go ahead into other phases of better home making and self-improvement. It is therefore very essential to make the proper start. The initial stage from the viewpoint of the demonstrator is most vital. The importance of the starting point was emphasized by Seaman A. Knapp, when he said:

Where to commence is the first problem of reform. Shall we trust the people and commence by increasing their resources, or shall our efforts be directed to improving farm dwellings and home conditions, the construction of better highways, the introduction of the telephone, rural free delivery, a community library, or improved social and religious privileges? Evidently it depends upon the degree of advancement in rural communities. The remedy that would help one might be utterly unapplicable to another. For example, if it were found that the average farmer in a rural township lived in a house valued at about $100, without barn, garden, cow, or pasture, with an insufficient supply of poultry, and unable to read and heavily involved in debt, it would be the height of unwisdom to commence the rural uplift by establishing a public library or even a school. The rural toilers must be first properly nourished, clothed, and housed. It is the order of greatest necessity. The means to do this can not be given to them and if it were, there would be no uplift. They must be shown how to earn it by a better tillage of the soil, and how to husband their earnings by greater thrift. A low wage, a small amount of work accomplished in a day, and an uneconomic use of resources are a part of any civilization limited by a low earning capacity.

No more frequent mistake is made than to assume that the low wage is the result of oppression. As a rule the wage is determined by the accomplishment. In India it requires from 14 to 24 servants to do the work of a small household, where 2 would do it better in some portions of the United States.

Upon the farm one man in the United States with a good team and modern machinery can do the work that 50 to 100 men do in many oriental countries. Consequently, when oriental farm laborers are paid 5 to 10 cents per day they are paid up to their earning capacity and that capacity is insufficient to sustain a high civilization.... In attempting to raise the condition of the colored man, we frequently start too high up, and in talking of the higher progress talk right over his head. When I talk to a negro citizen I never talk about the better civilization, but about a better chicken, a better pig, or a whitewashed house.

DEMONSTRATION RESULTS

At the close of the first decade of negro extension under the Smith-Lever Act, it is well to make permanent record of some of the achievements of the negroes in extension work, not only as a matter of recognition and commendation, but also to set up milestones to mark progress. At the close of the next decade these figures will have even greater interest than now. In fact, they will increase in importance and value with the passing of time.

The statistics which follow are not complete because they pertain to the activities of negro agents only. Hundreds of white agents have done some work with negroes, which is not reported separately. It is probably safe to say that the numbers represented in the 1924 report might be doubled. Since a system of extension work for negroes by negroes has been evolved, the tendency has been to turn the responsibility over to negro agents. The most harmonious relations prevail between white and negro agents in all the States and white agents always stand ready to advise and help.

FARM DEMONSTRATION WORK

During the calendar year 1924, 3,659 negro farmers undertook demonstrations with cotton and 3,072 carried the work to completion and submitted reports. These demonstrations represented a total of 23,043 acres. In addition, 2,630 junior club members planted an acre or more of cotton and 1,734 of them completed the work and submitted reports. Many of these boys cleared more than $100 each on their acres and some more than $200. This is not bad for boys who attend school regularly. Making the usual allowance of about 140 work hours in a year in the production and harvesting of an acre of cotton, these club members earned an average of about $1 an hour for every hour they worked.

Corn has always been a favorite crop for demonstrations by adults and juniors in the South, because it is used so much for food and feed and because it responds so well to special attention in that section of the country. The 1924 annual reports show that 4,317 negro farmers undertook demonstrations with corn and that 3,292 finished them in good shape. The demonstrations covered 25,442 acres. Of 8,018 club members who planted an acre apiece, 4,308 completed the work with marked success. If each successful demonstration should influence only five neighbors, the totals would be impressive, and demonstrations of outstanding size, success, and continuity are even more far-reaching. From a demonstration viewpoint alone, it is estimated that a million negro farmers and home makers are being influenced effectively.

It is worth while to trace the influence of demonstration in increasing the production of cotton and corn, but it is equally significant to trace the influence of demonstrations on the growing of other crops. Additional attention during the last few years in the South has been given to work with legumes. In order to continue the production of large crops of cotton and corn there must be some soil building. (Fig. 11.) This can be done most readily with such crops as cowpeas, soy beans, vetch, velvet beans, clover, and alfalfa.

FIG. 11.—Negro agent advising a farmer regarding the value of cowpeas, soy beans, and other legumes for soil improvement. During 1924, negro farmers conducted 9,860 demonstrations with cowpeas, soy beans, and other leguminous and forage crops, of which 8,358 were completed on a total acreage of 54,366.]

It is very encouraging to note that the negro farmers carried on 9,860 demonstrations with leguminous and other forage crops in 1924 and that 8,358 of these enterprises were completed on a total acreage of 54,366. In connection with these totals should be considered 2,679 club members who were enrolled to grow legumes and 1,799 who completed the work on their acres. When it is considered that most of this work was done on rented land and that most of these crops require inoculation and special care, these figures have unusual value. Of course all the legumes were not planted for soil-building purposes. Some of them were cash crops and some were grown for feed. The order of popularity of the principal crops among these demonstrators is indicated by the number of demonstrations begun in 1924, as follows: Cowpeas, 2,885; velvet beans, 1,498; peanuts, 1,313; soy beans, 1,269; lespedeza, 476; and alfalfa, 272. Vetch, which was included in a miscellaneous total of 384, is increasing in popularity faster now than any other winter legume.

The success of negro farmers with such crops as sweet potatoes, tobacco, and potatoes shows a strong tendency on their part toward diversification in cash and food crops. During 1924, 1,817 demonstrators were enrolled to grow sweet potatoes and 1,461 of them completed the demonstrations and reported their results at the close of the season. The club enrollment for this popular crop was 836, of whom 590 completed their enterprises and reported. The enrollment for potatoes was 993 adults and 619 juniors and the completions were 878 and 448, respectively. In tobacco demonstrations 229 men were enrolled and 211 finished and reported. In junior extension 482 boys grew tobacco. In field-crop activities the enrollment of negro girls has been very small, just as it has been among the whites, which clearly indicates that the boys do most of the work on the farm and the girls in the home.

As a further contribution to the effort of the South to feed itself, the activities of negro farmers with cereals other than corn are indicative. In 1924 demonstrations were undertaken with wheat, oats, rye, barley, and other cereals, and 2,580 men, 983 boys, and 5 girls were enrolled, of whom 1,871 men, 682 boys, and 5 girls completed. In these demonstrations the yields were much larger than those of near-by farmers or county averages; frequently they were twice or three times as large. When a person undertakes, as a representative of his county, State, and Nation, to make an object lesson to his neighbors, he assumes a large responsibility.

Some of the most successful demonstrations in truck farming, from a financial standpoint, have been made by negroes. Good stories of their work with melons, berries, cabbage, turnips, carrots, celery, and other similar crops come in constantly. Some of the enrollment figures in horticultural demonstrations deserve attention and favorable comment. Negro farmers undertook 1,392 demonstrations in trucking and market gardening and completed 971 with marked success. A total of 8,729 persons were enrolled to make object lessons in home gardens and 6,502 of them were carried through to completion. The enrollment in fruits was 2,045, of whom 1,403 completed. Some extraordinary service was rendered by these farmers in spraying and pruning, which made their results more satisfactory and their examples more potent. In fact, many demonstrators became teachers and leaders through the merits of their work.

Unusual significance may very properly be attached to the livestock demonstrations of negro farmers. The large number of cows, hogs, and chickens owned by them indicates increased land ownership by negroes. It throws light also on the increased production of feed crops. The annual reports for 1924 show that 9,936 adult farmers and farm women were enrolled as livestock demonstrators, of whom 7,379 completed the year’s work and submitted reports. It is safe to assume that most of the 264,432 animals used in these demonstrations were purebred. Likewise, it means progress when it is realized that negro boys and girls cared for 102,070 high-class farm animals in their club enterprises. The enrollment of negro boys and girls in livestock work is worthy of the detailed statement given in Table 2.

TABLE 2.—Enrollment of negro boys and girls in livestock demonstrations, 1924

——————————————+———————+—————— Line of work | Boys | Girls ——————————————+———————+—————— Hogs | 3,774 | 682 Dairy cattle | 505 | 2,732 Beef cattle | 83 | 4 Poultry | 2,154 | 7,753 ——————————————+———————+——————