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Show VOL. 5, NO 13. ROOSEVELT, UTAI7. FIFTY CENTS PER YEAR i' jLY 1, 1928. Projects That Grow With The Boys Smith-Hugh- es (By E. E. GALLUP) Haying noticed that project work often fails because it does not sufficiently challenge the mentality of the boy and particularly that such project work does not seem to relate him to his home community, we, in Michigan, have jyorked on a plan whereby our projects will be adapted to the mental development of the boy. They will go hand in hand (with studies that are being pursued in school and, what is more fundamental, will make the boy an integral, responsible, thinking part of the community upon his graduation from the high school. And if he chooses to go to college, the business that he has built up through his projects will help defray his college expenses. More than this, the relating of club work to Smith-Hughproject work is carried on so as to give a sequence of work, and more the effective make thereby both of energy organizations. The club generally starts boys in the 7th and 8th grades in either crop improvement or animal clubs. A calf club generally comes first. A boy of that a'ge is drawn to a calf, pig, or sheep something that is alive, the care of iwhich interests him more then than it hit-or-mi- gaging study, that his alfalfa is the basis of most profitable milk production, that the proper balance of grains is required, and on the other side of the fence, he finds that he can grow most of the concentrates that enter in the ration of the growing herd. This takes him into the realm of better grains and gets him interested in the aims ss anchors him to the farm and community. The challenge to ever-increasi- the--hom- e ng responsibility, providing the boy with a permanent farm labratory to test his class work, inculcating in him a love for Nature and interesting him most vitally in his home farm community are the things that we emphasize in the Smith-Hughand personnel of the Michigan Crop project work in Michigan. association. A little later he finds that it is impossible to grow the best crops on the borne farm without giving careful attention to liming the soil, the proper fertilizers to use, and when and how to use them for the best results. In his feeding work, he has also learned that ensilage is a very important nart of the winter ration of the dairy cow, and so as a part of his course in farm mechanics, he convinces his father that a silo on the farm would prove a paying investment and helps to build the silo as a part of his project in farm mechanics. In the meantime, he has become not a member of the community, as many of merely an onlooker, the young folks are, but an actual member, borrowing cooperative money from the bank for worthy would later. money depositing purposes and Let us say that he starts with a from cream and milk checks or surdairy calf. When he comes into the plus stock sold, he has became a agricultural department of the high part of the community, with a busschool, he has a purebred heifer, iness interest in its and a feeling often with a calf at side, which i of responsibility for its progress. may challenge his ability as he Keeping his project records has school. proceeds through high taught him the fundamentals of During the first year in high farm bookkeeping. Then during his school, enrolls in zoology, this is mo last years, when be studies farm tivated and made purposeful by the management and economics and fact that he has these purebred ani- ends with a course in special econmals upon which he can apply the omics, he is ready to step right inprinciples of animal improvement to the community as a vital part and breeding that he is studying. of it. The way in which some boys He also has agr itural botany. are cut adrift from the community Already the problem of raising on the morning after they graduate, the home farm the proper feeds for leaves small wonder that they are this purebred heifer and the calf lost to the farm. are engaging his attention. And so I could point to scores of young in the spring of his first year, he farmers In Michigan as proof that gets started on some crop, general- their hgih school project work bas ly alfalfa, because that has been kept them on the farm. In fact, brought to his attention as the therg are several such young men queen of all the legume roughages. that I should like to get into the es Improvement IS MAZIE WORLDS MOST PROFITABLE HEN? bank-depositin-g, 4-- H es 4-- H i An 'Rngftgfme Study. Then as the herd develops, he bas a chance to go further in his 6tudie9 In Inheritance and breeding, always with a practical laboratory in iwhich to work right on his fathers farm and in his own possession. Be finds that feeding is a most en the teaching ranks, but they prefer have farm and the business they built up. It will be seen that when he such a young fellow graduates, herd either has a purebred dairy of alwith a silo and an acreage startfalfa on the farm, or he has ed a business in purebred seeds that iMazie, the famous White Leghorn hen owned by the University of British Columbia farm, known as hen No. 6, the worlds champion layer with 351 eggs in a year, is a great revenue producer. Last year tfee sale of pedigreed .ultry stock Mazie returned originated from to the university $2,225. Two cockrels of hers brought $500 each from a poultry raiser in Ohio. Another sold in New Jersey for $300. Two other cockrels were disposed of at $150 each and two pullets at $100 each. Proceeds from 17 hatching eggs were $425. Do you know of a hen that can beat Mazies record, either as an egg or revenue producer? THE 4-- H CLUB WORK club work is a nationThe in wide undertaking and grows each community every year, appealing to the rural sections of the 4-- H country, with their operations being by extension workers and of the department of the state agricultural colleges. The figures on the number of farm boys and girls who carried on work last year have been announced by the government, totaling 619,712, and these figures mean that those young people undertook to demonstrate an improved farm' ing or homemaking method, and in an effort to benefit 4-- H Control of Erosion Is Serious Problem The loss in soil fertility, caused frcm erosion, is considered one of the biggest financial losses annually, that can come to farmers throughout the country, according to soil experts of the government. This vast loss is estimated to ba more than a billion dollars each year, and methods to control the erosion are one of the problems that confront the department. It takes 10,000 years for nature to form a foot of fertile soil from the rocks of the earths crust; therefore erosion control mcst to practiced to prevent loss of rich earth which has been forming for generation upon generation. Farming today is altogether too much like hydraulic mining. The growth of agricultural science points the finger of scorn at the one-cro- p farmer, the soil robber, the fertility miner who grows constantly decreasing crops of the same variety and returns nothing o the soil in the way of manure, leguminous green manure or fertilizer. A soil expert has commented upon it as follows: Conservation is this most imand importportant fundamental ant of all resources is seldom seriously considered by anyone associated with a farm. Erosion is a very big problem and it is doubtful if the farmer can handle it alone. Vice President Dawes has announced that he will spend a quiet vacation this summer at Evanston. We cant imagine anyone having a quiet time in Chicago. Is plentiful up where President Coolidge is going to spend .club work, with its four his summer. One thing about it, he The fold development of hand, head, wont scare the fish away by health and heart through physical experience in the latest and best The organist who played, Onmethods for agricultural and home economic activities under the di- ward Christian Soldiers as a wedextension ding match the other day, should rection of workers, furnishes a great oppor- probably have played as a postlude. Just Tefore The Battle, Mother. tunity. This club work is growing each In this day and age of supply and year not only in our country, but in every section of the country demand, one of the most outstandwhere such work is being carried ing results of over production was the recent Mississippi river flood. on. their communities. 4-- H Fishing |