Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 April 1917 — TO HELP THE YOUNG PEOPLE [ARTICLE]

TO HELP THE YOUNG PEOPLE

Is One of the Objects of the Better Farming Association. The Jasper County Better Farming 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 farmers are usually born and reared in the country. The boys and girls who drift to town and theti 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 girjs in their surroundings enough to prevent their leaving the farms, „ The industrial club work carried out under the direction of the BetFarming association has for its

j rime purpose the interesting of boys apd girls- in various phases of farm life. It ft; open to the young people of the county between the ages of 10 and IS. ' * In the Boys’ Corn club each boy will grow an “acre or more of corn, keeping a record of the time and expense of caring for the crop. HA will be visited from time to time by the County agent, who will give him suggestion!? and encouragA ment 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 corn. The poultry club is open to both the boys and the > girjs 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 contestant will also 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 bread-mak-ing club will be organized.- Each girl will be required to make fifty loaves of bread in the’home during the summer. At the time of the poultry, show a bread-making congest will be held and the quality of the bread will be judgedI A pig club will be conducted for the boys and girls in which each 'contestant will select a litter of pigs and keep a record of the feed and pasture used. The boy or girl producing the greatest ahd cheapest gains will be considered the Winner.

While, the,hoys and girls will not be encouraged to enroll for the sole purpose of winning prizes, a number of awards will be available for them. The'Txperience and increased interest in the problems of the hohie and farm are themselves .prizes which every child who enters will win. For the first time a sNtooj garden club will be formed in Rensselaer,- open to the boys and girls of the grades. During the spring the work will be in charge of Mr. Stoneburner and during the vacation a special instructor will b-> 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 conntv 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. "