Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 69, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 April 1917 — County Agent Notes. [ARTICLE]

County Agent Notes.

The Jasper County Better Fanning Association has an interest in the boys and girls. It 'believes that the world faces a permanent food shortage and that more and better farm men and women are needed. Good fanners are usually bom and reared in the country. The boys and girls who drift to town and then go back to the farm are not as a rule the most successful. One of the great problems of rural community building is to interest the wide awake and progressive boys and girls in their surroundings enough to prevent their leaving the farms. The Industrial chib work carried out under the direction of the Better Farming Association has for its prime purpose the interesting of boys and girls in various phases of farm life. It is open to the young people of the county between the ages of 10 and 18. In the boys’ com club each boy will grow an acre of more of com, keeping a record of the time and expense of caring for the crop. He will be visited from time to time by the county agent, who will give him suggestwns and encouragement for the benefit of his work. In the fall the association will arrange to check the yields and grade the boys accordingly. Each boy will also make an exhibit of ten ears of corn at the county show and will be given an opportunity to judge in competition with the other boys of the county, giving practice in selecting and placing samples of com. The poultry dub is open to both the boys and girls of the country and town. Each contestant must set at •least one setting of eggs and exhibit a pen of the birds raised at the county poultry show. The contestants will receive training in the judging of poultry during the show and awards will be made upon the rating of the pen exhibited, the skill in judging and the quality of the record and composition prepared for the judges. For the girls alone a breadmaking club will be organized. Each sirl will be required to make 50 loaves of •bread in the home during the summer. At the time of the poultry show 1 a breadmaking contest will be held and the quality of the bread will be judged. A pig club will be conducted for the boys and giris, in which each contestant will select fitter of pigs and keep a record of the feed and pasture used. The boy or girl producing the greatest and cheapest gains' will be considered the winner. For the first time a school garden club will be formed in Rensselaer, open to Hie boys and girls of the grades. During the spring the work will be in charge of Mr. Stoneburger

and duimg the vacation a special instructor will be employed. The contestants may elect either to grow their gardens at home or upon a plot furnished by the school. The teachers of the county and the county agent are in charge of the enrollment and can give to any of the boys or girls of the county full information relative to these clubs and the association hopes that a large number of the boys and girls avail themselves of the opportunity and join one or more of the clubs.