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 totrace 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.
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.
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.
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, ofwhom 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
Some idea of the substantial nature of the accomplishments of negro agents may be found in the record for 1924, which shows that they helped to procure better sires for the flocks and herds of 3,552 farms and that they had flocks and herds culled on 4,848 farms. They also introduced better balanced feeding for farm animals on 9,520 farms.
Negro demonstrators used 68,126 tons of fertilizer and 8,288 tons of lime in their exemplary farm enterprises in 1924, and they plowed under 13,547 acres of cover and green-manure crops in their soil-improvement operations. Terracing was done on 1,738 farms and soil erosion was thereby prevented on 43,299 acres. Drainage systems were installed on 573 farms and 18,405 acres were thereby made more productive and valuable.
The climax of negro extension work comes in the constructive features just as for the whites. Special import should therefore be attached to the fact that the agents had 463 barns, 411 hog houses, and 787 poultry houses built according to approved plans. Some rural-engineering work of a constructive nature was done on 3,967 farms under the guidance of negro extension agents. All this development means that thousands of the best negroes are learning lessons of thrift, economy, and enterprise. They are coming to realize more and more the importance of owning land and building permanent homes. Another decade will probably show even greater results along these lines.