NEGRO Extension Work Promoted by Local Organization Activity
When negro farmers and home makers become interested in improving agricultural conditions a meeting is often called and a community agricultural organization formed. It may be called a community club, advisory board, executive board, advisory council, or auxiliary farm bureau, depending upon the State in which it is located. However named, such groups are all organized in about the same way and function alike. They meet with the county agents, study the needs of the community, select the important problems to be solved, and build a program of work intended to provide the solution of the problems.
The community organization brings accepted extension practices closer to the farmer than is possible in larger groups. After the election of officers its first activity is usually the selection of progressive negro farmers and farm women to act as local leaders for the extension work in the county. Local leaders are unpaid volunteer workers who help the county extension agents to organize a community for extension work. They arrange meetings, conduct farm and home tours, help in carrying on demonstration campaigns, and the like.
County supervisory boards or councils of agriculture are composed of residents or elected representatives of community agricultural organizations. Their meetings are usually held monthly, the county agent participating in the discussion of plans and the progress which has been made in carrying them out. The county organization also assists in conducting county fairs, campaigns, picnics, farm and home tours, and other extension activities.
State supervisory boards or councils of agriculture are composed of delegates from the county organization. These also cooperate with the extension service in carrying to successful conclusion programs approved by the director of extension work.
These different groups or organizations work for the needed county and State funds to be used in paying salaries to extension workers, aid in the development of successful local leaders, promote cooperative organizations for buying and selling agricultural products, and in many other ways assist the negro extension service in bettering farm production and marketing and living conditions.
A few examples of accomplishments are cited to show the influence that community, county, and State organizations have on improved farm and home practices.
A community club in Rowan County, N. C., repaired a bad piece of road cooperatively. The work was so well done that the county commissioners added this side road to the county system.
When extension work was introduced in Amherst County, Va., the people of Amherst community thought it a good thing for children but could not see where it would benefit the adults. The agent put forth special effort to make the work popular among the young people. The girls were organized into a 4-H club which met twice a month in different homes for club work. The mothers took as much interest as did the girls in tidying up the homes and serving refreshments. One of the women, seeing the value of the work, offered to serve as a leader and invited the girls to meet in her home at any time they wished. A year later 10 of the women of that community were organized into a home demonstration club which grew to 19 members. This club has not missed holding a monthly meeting during the three years of its existence. The following are some of the things it has accomplished: Six houses painted, 4 houses remodeled, 4 kitchens improved and arranged for convenience, 2 yards graded, 2 sanitary toilets built, and some general improvements made in each home represented in the club.
The advisory board of Powhatan County, Va., purchased 22 acres of land and erected buildings on it for community and county activities. The advisory board of Robeson County, N. C., obtained from the county tax funds an annual appropriation of $500 toward the salary of a home demonstration agent to work with the women and girls of the county.
The Virginia State Advisory Board represents the negro farm families of the State and cooperates with the State Advisory Council (white) in bringing about better farming conditions. At one of its annual meetings 79 farm men and women delegates from 28 counties represented 23,348 farm families. The delegates alone owned 11,495 acres of land having a total valuation, including buildings, livestock, and machinery, of over a half million dollars.
The following stories of Albert Lee and Sam Glover illustrate the type of person who is selected as a local leader. The results which they obtained through following the teachings of the negro extension agent have furnished inspiration to many others in their community.
Albert Lee of Nansemond County, Va., in getting ready for the annual inspection tour made by the farmers, painted his house, whitewashed his outbuildings, remodeled his barn, made his well sanitary and built a house over it, put a force pump on the back porch, and built a shed for housing his farm implements—all of which was done in one year. He is a leader in his community.
Sam Glover of Orangeburg County, S. C., began demonstration work in 1916 on a farm of 25 acres of land in a low state of cultivation. He had one horse and no livestock of any consequence and lived in a house worth about $300. His first demonstration was the growing of 3 acres of corn and cowpeas; the results were very gratifying. The following year he grew 10 acres of cotton, 5 acres of corn, and 5 acres of small grain; the yields were good. The third year he added, through purchase, 25 acres to his farm, and the combined farms were worked according to demonstration methods.
One of his daughters was graduated from the negro State college at Orangeburg and teaches in the rural schools of Orangeburg County, where she carries out the lessons learned in developing rural people. Three of the Glover children are in the State college at present. Sam Glover is a leader in his community club and in county-wide extension activities, and field meetings are often held on his farm.