Transcriber’s Note
Italic text displayed as: _italic_
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF
AGRICULTURE
MISCELLANEOUS CIRCULAR NO. 72
Washington, D. C. October, 1926
A DECADE OF
NEGRO EXTENSION WORK
1914-1924
[Illustration: house]
Land ownership and home improvement
are vital in developing negro farm life
in the South.
CONTENTS
Page
Agricultural status of the negro 1
Development of negro extension work 3
Early history 3
Order of development 6
Value of cooperative association 8
Evolution of plan 10
Growth of personnel and finances 12
Cooperation with other agencies 13
Club work by negro boys and girls 14
The movable school 15
Stories of achievement 16
Demonstration results 21
Farm demonstration work 21
Home demonstration work 24
Agents’ activities 26
Outlook 27
Statistics 28
A DECADE OF NEGRO EXTENSION WORK, 1914-1924
By O. B. MARTIN, in Charge, Southern States, Office of Cooperative
Extension Work
AGRICULTURAL STATUS OF THE NEGRO
Home ownership is the largest factor in the solution of the so-called
negro problem. Cooperative extension work, especially since the
comprehensive organization of negro extension agents, has been one of
the greatest influences in encouraging and helping negroes to become
landowners and to succeed with land investments. Energetic negroes
soon learn thrift and have the ability to become good demonstrators.
[Illustration:
FIG. 1.—Negro home remodeled and beautified according to plans and
suggestions furnished by the negro extension agent. Home ownership
and improved living conditions are important factors in obtaining
a permanent upbuilding of the negro farm community in the South.
That negro agents are building well is indicated by their success
in influencing the construction of 569 new houses, the remodeling
of 1,002 old houses, and the beautification of 1,336 home grounds
during 1924.
]
In most parts of the Cotton Belt it has been possible during the last
few years for farmers to make a good living and to make a profit
besides. The migration to the North has perceptibly slackened, and
thousands of negroes who have been getting good wages as carpenters,
bricklayers, mechanics, and other artisans in near-by and distant
cities are saving money to buy land. Many of them left their families
at home and are sending them money for their support and for building
savings accounts to be used in buying a farm home. (Fig. 1.) Of
course, a large percentage will remain in the industrial centers of
the North, but the negro’s love for his folks and for the soil will
influence many to begin payments on farms at a time when wages are
high and when such crops as cotton, tobacco, and peanuts are bringing
good prices. Negroes, as a rule, know how to grow the cash crops, and
it has been found in many sections that negroes succeed with poultry,
truck, dairying, and other diversified interests when they own their
own small farms.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.—Field demonstration in cultivating cotton. The
negro is naturally a farmer and takes a keen interest in putting to
use the better practices learned at demonstration meetings.]
Because of the inevitable economic changes resulting from the World
War, many large plantations have been cut up and sold at low prices.
In some sections of the South, chambers of commerce and other
business organizations have been promoting campaigns to encourage
negroes to become landowners. In 1920 about 217,500 negroes in the
Southern States owned their farms and about 703,500 were tenants. In
some States negroes have been buying farms faster than white people,
and the rapid increase of ownership during the last five years is
most noticeable. It is not surprising that it has taken a backward
race a long time to acquire property and develop farms. It takes
white agricultural college graduates quite a while to do that. The
next 25 years unquestionably will witness a marked contrast to the
first quarter of the century in this regard. It is well that the
development is taking place along the lines of the negro’s training
and disposition. All of this confirms the judgment of Booker T.
Washington, the negro educator, who said:
The negro is, in my opinion, naturally a farmer, and he is at his
very best when he is in close contact with the soil. (Fig. 2.)
There is something in the atmosphere of the farm that develops
and strengthens the negro’s natural common sense. As a rule, the
negro farmer has a rare gift of getting at the sense of things
and of stating in picturesque language what he has learned. The
explanation of it is, it seems to me, that the negro farmer studies
nature. In his own way he studies the soil, the development of
plants and animals, the streams, the birds and the changes of the
seasons. He has a chance of getting at first-hand the kind of
knowledge that is valuable to him.
During the last few years many persons from different parts of Africa
have visited this country to study our methods of industrial and
agricultural education. Some of them have been Government officials,
some teachers in schools and colleges, and some missionaries. They
represented many different nationalities, all of which are interested
in the welfare of dark-skinned people. Such visitors are always
interested in Hampton and Tuskegee Institutes and usually have a
scholastic point of view when they arrive. On their return, however,
they are always enthusiastic about the men and women extension agents
whose primary responsibility is to reach the farm and home. They see
greater significance in demonstrations which proceed from the farm
and home to the school than they do in those which go from the school
to the farm. They seem to realize that the home is the fundamental
unit of civilization and that the agents are the apostles of a
better farm and home life, and therefore return to their work with
an optimistic determination to encourage demonstration work in their
countries.
DEVELOPMENT OF NEGRO EXTENSION WORK
EARLY HISTORY
Farmers’ cooperative demonstration work was begun in 1903. At first,
all demonstration agents were white men and women. They enrolled
negro demonstrators who followed instructions so faithfully and
carefully that they were often more successful than white farmers and
home makers. Many instances were reported of negro farmers who got
started along the pathway of success because of the stimulation of
such demonstrations. County agricultural agents often reported that
25 per cent of their demonstrators were negroes and that many negroes
attended the field meetings and public demonstrations.
Booker T. Washington had a prominent part in beginning negro
extension work in the South. Tuskegee Institute, which he founded in
Alabama, already had carried instruction to negro farmers through
its faculty, through farm conferences at Tuskegee and in local
communities, and through printed bulletins. Doctor Washington also
used a “Jesup wagon,” provided with agricultural equipment to go out
among farmers and demonstrate better farming methods. Washington,
H. B. Frissell, of Hampton Institute, Va., and Seaman A. Knapp of
the United States Department of Agriculture, worked out the relation
of Hampton and Tuskegee Institutes with the department and made
arrangements for the appointment in 1906 of T. M. Campbell, of
Tuskegee Institute, the first negro demonstration agent, and of J. B.
Pierce, of Hampton Institute, a few days later.
In speaking of extension work a few years afterwards, Washington said:
It would be impossible to describe here all the ramifications or
all the various forms which this extension work has taken in recent
years. The thing that I wish to emphasize, however, is that we are
seeking in this work less to teach (according to the old-fashioned
notion of teaching) than to improve conditions.
His was a spirit of service. In the same connection he expressed in
the following excerpt an unusual and unique opinion of the pedagogy
of extension work. His experience and his observations constitute a
great inspiration for negro extension agents and educators generally.
I have sometimes regarded it as a fortunate circumstance that I
never studied pedagogy. If I had done so, every time I attempted
to do anything in a new way I should have felt compelled to reckon
with all the past, and in my case that would have taken so much
time that I should never have got anywhere. As it was, I was
perfectly free to go ahead and do whatever seemed necessary at the
time, without reference to whether that same thing had ever been
done by anyone else at any previous time or not.
General Armstrong, who founded Hampton Institute in Virginia for
Negroes and Indians in the reconstruction days immediately following
the Civil War, expressed somewhat the same idea when he said:
Many teachers seem to me to have disproportionate ideas of the
forces that make up man. * * * There is plenty of study of methods
and not enough study of men or of the problems of life.
Negro home demonstration work was also developed through the interest
and aid of white agents. White supervisory agents still take
sympathetic interest in negro extension activities. In view of the
fact that negro women and girls had always done much of the domestic
labor in southern homes and because negro schools and colleges had
given courses in home economics, home demonstration work for negroes
was started in the best possible environment and atmosphere. Many
white home demonstration agents and demonstrators took pleasure in
giving instruction in gardening, canning, and preserving to negro
women and girls whom they knew. But, as the work developed, it soon
became apparent that negro women agents could get access to negro
homes better than anybody else, so negro home demonstration agents
began to be appointed. Annie Peters, of Boley, Okla., was appointed
on January 23, 1912, as the first negro home demonstration agent, and
Mattie Holmes, of Hampton Institute, Va., on May 24, 1912, as the
second. Other appointments followed rapidly.
It has been possible to build up an extension organization in the
South for negro people, because of such institutions as Hampton and
Tuskegee. In fact, the influence of these two major institutions has
affected all the schools and colleges where negro agents have been
educated. Many smaller similar institutions have also contributed
much to extension work. Table 1 gives the percentage of negro men and
women extension agents who were graduated from Tuskegee and Hampton
Institutes and from the State agricultural colleges.
TABLE 1.—_Percentage of negro extension agents who are college
graduates_
—————————————————————————————————————+——————————————+———————————
Institution | Men | Women
—————————————————————————————————————+——————————————+———————————
| _Percentage_ | _Percentage_
Hampton Institute | 7.50 | 5.40
Tuskegee Institute | 10.16 | 5.40
State agricultural college | 9.09 | 2.70
+——————————————+———————————
Graduates of the three combined | 26.75 | 13.50
—————————————————————————————————————+——————————————+———————————
In beginning farm and home demonstration work for negroes in 1906,
the cooperation of the General Education Board of New York was most
valuable and effective. The board was liberal in its appropriations
and generous in the arrangements for the expenditure of them. The
money was turned over to the authorities of the United States
Department of Agriculture to be used as they thought best in starting
and promoting the work. It was because of the demonstrated success
of this plan of education that the National, State, and county
authorities were more disposed to support it.
When it is realized that various Southern States are gradually
increasing the appropriations to the State agricultural colleges,
and also that a $9,000,000 endowment fund for Hampton and Tuskegee
is being completed, it is possible to look forward to better-trained
negro agents. Progress can be faster now because the way is clear.
Every Southern State now has a group of efficient negro agents, whose
numbers are increasing. (Fig. 3.)
In view of the facts that Booker T. Washington gave the credit
for his own success to the influence General Armstrong had over
his life and that Tuskegee Institute is an extension and modified
enlargement of Hampton Institute, it is well to trace a further
development of such teaching and also to get the observation of
the recognized leaders. Long before the World War and before the
migration of negroes to the North, Booker T. Washington saw the South
as the permanent home of his people and he urged them to develop the
resources of climate, soil, forests, and folks. He saw conditions
clearly and urged his people to train for skill, to practice thrift,
and to grow better by doing better. This was the best of preparation
for the negro agency force now in the field.
[Illustration:
FIG. 3.—Virginia negro extension agents assembled at annual
meeting. This group is typical of the efficient negro extension
agents throughout the South who, with vision and good judgment,
are influencing negroes to follow the best methods of farming and
home making in order to increase their earning capacity and improve
their living conditions.
]
In the first farmers’ conference at Tuskegee in February, 1892,
which, by the way, was the forerunner of farm congresses at
agricultural colleges for white people in various parts of
the country, the following resolution, among other important
deliverances, was adopted:
In view of our general condition, we would suggest the following
remedies: (1) That as far as possible we aim to raise at home our
own meat and bread; (2) that as fast as possible we buy land,
even though a very few acres at a time; (3) that a larger number
of our young people be taught trades, and that they be urged to
prepare themselves to enter as largely as possible all the various
vocations of life; (4) that we especially try to broaden the
field of labor for our women; (5) that we make every sacrifice
and practice every form of economy that we may purchase land and
free ourselves from our burdensome habit of living in debt; (6)
that we urge our ministers and teachers to give more attention to
the material condition and home life of the people; (7) that we
urge our people not to depend entirely upon the State to provide
schoolhouses and lengthen the time of the schools, but to take
hold of the matter themselves where the State leaves off, and
by supplementing the public funds from their own pockets and by
building schoolhouses, bring about the desired results; (8) that
we urge patrons to give earnest attention to the mental and moral
fitness of those who teach their schools; (9) that we urge the
doing away with all sectarian prejudice in the management of the
schools.
ORDER OF DEVELOPMENT
[Illustration:
FIG. 4.—Negro county agricultural agent helping a farmer to select
fattening hogs. Negro farmers desire helpful information on
specific things that can be put into immediate use with noticeable
results. In this respect, demonstration activities have rendered a
valuable service in meeting their needs.
]
It has been extension experience that negroes are especially
responsive to the demonstration method, because of their faith,
confidence, and optimism. Demonstrations have reached the most
ignorant and most needy better than any form of academic instruction,
because demonstrators must be doers before they become teachers.
The effect and power of a demonstration are measured by the
success of the enterprise and the standing and influence of the
demonstrator. The demonstration method has proved to be not only
the best for the ignorant, but also for the intelligent. Certainly
the more intelligent farmers can carry object lessons further than
the ignorant ones. Furthermore, it is safe to assume a fair amount
of good farm and home development in an intelligent, prosperous
community. Perhaps one reason why farmers tire of institutes and
lectures is because they feel that they have reached a stage of
knowledge where they can do things fairly well and have thus become
teachers and leaders themselves. They do not care to accumulate a
lot of information upon diverse subjects just for the purpose of
acquiring information. They want usable knowledge upon specific
things. (Fig. 4.) The negro has made sufficient progress for
extension agents to find men, women, boys, and girls in every
community who can demonstrate better farming and home making.
The history of extension work for negroes has not been exactly
parallel to that of the whites in the Southern States. The white
agents started work with men demonstrators, followed in succession
by boys, girls, and women. Negro work started with men and women
first. The agents tried to meet the most urgent needs of the farms
and homes. At the time when the Department of Agriculture and State
agricultural colleges first began to appoint negro agents, the club
work of white boys and girls had drifted somewhat away from the
demonstration feature and was emphasizing the club feature. When the
negro agents began later to enroll boys and girls they did so because
they felt that these young folks should have an influence in farming
and in home making in their communities. It was not so much a matter
of teaching and telling as it was of doing and growing. One agent
expressed it by saying, “We are emphasizing work rather than clubs.”
Of course, in the natural process of evolution, agents came to pay
more attention to meetings, organization, recreation, and group
activities in general, but the central theme is the demonstration.
Negro club members have manifested a disposition for the boy to do
the farming and the girl the home making. That tendency is general in
all extension work, of course, but the line of differentiation has
not been so clear in adult activities. Because of the limited funds
available, few counties have been able to afford both negro men and
women agents. Thus it comes about that the men agents do more home
work and the women agents more farm work than in counties employing
both county agricultural and home demonstration agents. As time goes
on and more agents are appointed, this matter will adjust itself.
During the present period of readjustment and reconstruction it
is becoming more and more apparent to students of extension work
that the greatest ultimate reform will take place where the most
successful demonstration of content and size are conducted and
where such demonstrations are multiplied in the greatest numbers.
Many negro agents seem to have the ability to encourage their
demonstrators and magnify the influence of their work. They have
caught the philosophy of the founder of demonstration work, Seaman A.
Knapp, when he said, “Your value lies not in what you can do but in
what you can get other people to do.” Negro agents seem to appreciate
the standing in the community of a man or woman who has done better
work than anybody else. They enter into the thought and life of the
demonstrator who estimated that more than 50 men in his neighborhood
had been influenced by his success with 10 acres of cotton along the
roadside. They know that the boy who said, “My club acre has been
noticed by many people in this section and I am sure it will cause
some of my boy friends to join the club next year,” had developed in
himself the real spirit of service. They appreciate the feeling of
pride and satisfaction that came to the girl club member who raised a
dairy calf, built a good house for it, and then saw more than a dozen
like it built within a radius of 5 miles of her home. (Fig. 5.) The
result has been to make each person carrying on a demonstration feel
that he has a responsibility as a leader and teacher in his community.
The culminating evidence of these efforts toward improvement through
the object-lesson method is found in the results obtained in home and
lawn beautification. Particularly in recent years negro extension
agents have brought about marked progress in the renovation,
painting, and whitewashing of houses and outbuildings, and in the
growing of flowers, grass, and shrubbery in the front yards.
VALUE OF COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATIONS
[Illustration:
FIG. 5.—Negro club member who made sufficient profit from the
sale of butter and buttermilk to pay her way through Tuskegee
Institute. The benefits which accrued through her club activities
were far-reaching in that her neighbors and friends were inspired
to follow the best dairy practices in an effort to emulate her
successful results.
]
Negro farmers have manifested considerable interest in cooperative
marketing. They belong to cotton, tobacco, peanut, potato, and
similar associations. They usually follow carefully instructions
in grading and standardization. They appreciate the opportunity of
purchasing fertilizers and other supplies through the farm bureau and
other organizations engaged in such enterprises. In some counties
where associations have given special attention to marketing carloads
of hogs, chickens, potatoes, pecans, and other products produced in
surplus quantities, the negroes do their share. It has come about
that most marketing plans which have been developed include negroes
in their operations better than any other form of productive and
educational enterprise. In cooperative-marketing associations the
commodity is considered rather than the person or the community.
Clarendon County, S. C., is a very good example of such development.
The market bureau, which was established at the suggestion of the
county agricultural agent and which is conducted largely under his
direction and guidance, has the names of more than 700 negroes
on its mailing list. These negroes have cooperated not only by
shipping potatoes, hogs, peanuts, chickens, and other commodities,
but by procuring better seed and stock in order to grow products of
better quality for shipment. As this work develops in any community
it gradually brings about a general improvement. It begins with
individuals but always influences the entire community. (Fig. 6.)
[Illustration:
FIG. 6.—A demonstration of home conveniences designed to lighten
the labor of the negro home maker and allow her more time for
self-improvement and recreation. Such demonstrations by local men
or women have stimulated the adoption of good practices and have
done much to bring about a general community improvement.]
Such cooperation has increased self-respect and has strengthened
mutual confidence. This activity has emphasized the fact that men and
women limited in ambition and will power may be greatly stimulated to
successful effort by the esteem and encouragement of their neighbors.
The county agricultural agent of Clarendon County reported that every
negro farmer in his county knows No. 1, No. 2, and Jumbo potatoes. He
also reported that they are striving to produce No. 1’s because they
realize that products of such quality will receive the commendation
of everybody concerned and also will bring in larger returns. This
realization of the value of superior products has brought about a
great improvement in the type of chickens, pigs, and other farm
animals raised for market.
Marketing has tended to unify and systematize extension organization
in the counties more than any other work that has been done thus far.
It has enlisted the active interest of all farmers, both white and
colored, and of local business men. Some of the counties which will
have full quotas of both white and colored extension agents, and
good representative working organizations are developing extension
programs to a fuller degree than has been possible heretofore. It
is an enormous task to change the customs and habits of centuries
or even of decades. Negroes who have grown practically nothing but
cotton are slow to become dairymen, poultrymen, and truckers. They
change mainly because of economic necessity.
EVOLUTION OF PLAN
The evolution of an agricultural plan of work among negroes,
in a general way, followed that of the whites. It began with
demonstrations in the improvement of staple crops and then proceeded
step by step into crop diversification, animal husbandry, and
conservation. The whole development may be briefly expressed as
follows: Crop production, livestock production, soil building, and
marketing. Fortunately, this program is so logical and so appropriate
that demonstrators and club members are naturally disposed to follow
it. This does not mean that they all do the same things at the
same time. In livestock activities, one group may be emphasizing
dairy cattle and another hogs. The retroactive influence upon crop
production in one direction and soil improvement in another is very
potent. Seaman A. Knapp evidently had this whole evolution in mind,
and he was familiar with the work among negroes, when he told the
agents not to go before the people with elaborate programs. He said:
“The average man, like the crow, can not count more than three. Do
the next thing.” General Armstrong was dealing with the same people
and, to some extent, with the same thought when he said, “I try to
get at bottom facts, and then take the next step.”
A general agricultural plan of work, of course, is applicable
everywhere at any time. It is flexible, and requires individual
initiative and resourcefulness. The more experienced farmers and
club boys will be in the advanced stages while the novices will be
taking the first step. The whole procedure goes forward in cycles. As
each cycle comes around, modification and adaptation take place in
accordance with the progress science has made in the meantime. For
instance, in corn demonstrations in most parts of the South, where,
in former years, farmers planted one-ear varieties, they are now
using prolific varieties, especially where interplantings of peas and
beans and where hogging down and grazing are to be done.
The Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station recently came to the
conclusion that vetch is the best winter legume for most of the soils
in Alabama. Thousands of negro farmers have accepted that instruction
and are using vetch as a winter legume and soil improver. The negro
farmers have also accepted the teachings of the experiment station in
regard to the kinds and quantities of fertilizers to be used.
The negro home program also has been developed through certain
logical processes, which may be indicated briefly as follows:
Production, utilization, construction, and beautification. This,
too, is a natural program which may be followed consciously and
intuitively by every person who is properly started in the work.
The negro women and girls commence with growing vegetables in the
gardens, beginning with the most needed food crops and enlarging
their operations gradually. Then they undertake to conserve enough
for home use during the winter. They sell the surplus vegetables,
both fresh and canned. It is an easy step from canning vegetables to
the preservation of fruits. Better bread comes next because of its
importance as food and because flour, meal, and grains in general are
available. Then eggs and butter are standardized, and poultry meat
is properly cooked and canned. Such activities, in turn, stimulate
better work with pork, beef, and other meats.
Success in such enterprises suggests and encourages home improvement,
involving demonstrations in rearranging kitchens, living rooms,
and homes in general. Better furniture is procured and paint and
whitewash are in demand. Demonstrations with textiles and fabrics
are considered incidentally all along. The girls and women want
simple neat dresses in their work. The club idea suggests uniforms
for public demonstrations and meetings. In hundreds of instances the
program culminates with an attractive new home in a setting of trees,
shrubbery, and flowers. Such a self-developed program, the germs of
which exist in the plans and hopes of the people who are actually
doing the work on the farms and in the homes, is infinitely more
important than one developed for them.
It is fortunate that negro extension work started with demonstrations
by individual farmers instead of with organization for instruction
purposes. Organization arose spontaneously. People who did the same
kind of work in the same way were easily organized. Negro farmers
and members of their families who had the same kind of poultry,
for instance, and who built the same kind of houses, were brought
together for mutual stimulation, help, and instruction. Every farmer
who had an object lesson in growing vetch, soy beans, velvet beans,
or peanuts was glad to join a tour to see similar activities on farms
in other parts of his county. Field meetings, tours, camps, and short
courses have the elements and principles of organization within
them. They constitute a focus or converging point for activities
that are mutual. If the white agents who did negro work in the
beginning or the negro agents who took it up later had proceeded on
an organization basis first, the whole proposition would have been
misunderstood by both white and colored people.
Observation of the experience of the people who made negro extension
work possible and its success notable, naturally calls attention to
the elementary methods which have been used. The various processes
may be stated in a half dozen words: Consultation, demonstration,
emulation, publication, organization, and multiplication. Whether the
agents are working with the approximately 217,500 negroes who own
their own farms or with the 703,500 who are tenants, deliberation,
conference, and good judgment are required to establish the work
without creating friction. In the pioneer counties, where the
demonstrations were most successful, the introduction was done in
a quiet way. The general public did not know much about it until
good object lessons in crop production were available, and nothing
prevents or stops criticism so readily as successful demonstrations.
If the demonstrators have been carefully selected, if they are men
whose conduct has been exemplary, the conviction is all the stronger.
The first negro demonstrators were proud to wear the button furnished
by the Department of Agriculture containing the word “Demonstrator.”
These buttons were often given out in churches as awards of merit and
distinction. Negroes are very susceptible to commendation and praise.
It means a lot to a man, woman, boy, or girl, who has started out
on a demonstration program, to receive recognition from his pastor,
his neighbors, and especially from the leading white citizens.
Whenever a county paper calls attention to the outstanding results
obtained by a negro farmer, he immediately measures up to the added
responsibility and goes forward on the path of improvement. Whenever
there is a considerable number of demonstrators of that kind, it is
safe to do organization work along agricultural and home-economics
lines. In fact, negroes who have demonstrated that kind of enterprise
and dependability are ready for cooperative marketing or other
welfare organization. The great task that is before the negro
extension force is to multiply the numbers of good demonstrators.
In this way, they will develop leaders and magnify the kind of
activities which will meet with universal approval.
GROWTH OF PERSONNEL AND FINANCES[1]
The gradual increase in the number of negro agents and also in the
appropriations for their support during the last 10 years gives much
promise for the development of this work in the future. On June
30, 1915, the end of the first year under the Smith-Lever Act, 49
negro men agents and 17 women agents were employed, and the total
cost of the work during the year was $31,589. In 1919, 459 negro
men and women agents were employed and the cost was $247,509. On
June 30, 1924, the end of the first decade under the Smith-Lever
Act, 299 agents were employed, of whom 191 were men and 108, women.
The total amount expended during the fiscal year 1924 was $426,266,
which was derived from Federal, State, and county sources, and which
represented the peak in the amount of money devoted to this work.
More agents were employed during the war period, but many of them
devoted only part time to extension work. All things considered,
therefore, negro extension work is making steady and substantial
progress every year.
From Table 3, page 28, it will be noted that the increase in the
number of negro extension agents and in the cost of maintaining
them went forward in two distinct stages during the 10-year period
immediately following the enactment of the Smith-Lever Act. The
number of agents and the number of club members increased very
rapidly during the World War, which was followed by a period of
unrest and transition. After that came a settling down and then an
era of solid and substantial development. There has been a gradual
and steady increase in the amount of money devoted to negro extension
work. Although it is true that not so many agents were on duty in
1924 as in 1919, yet more than four times as many were employed in
1924 as in 1915. Furthermore, the finances had increased more than a
dozenfold. This indicates a better-trained class of negro agents and
a greater public willingness to support negro extension work.
Texas, which receives more Federal money than any other State,
had 36 negro agents in 1924 and spent $55,424 for their salaries,
travel, and other necessary expenses. Alabama had 34 negro agents,
men and women, and $50,057 was spent in the maintenance of their
work. Mississippi had 36 agents and the cost was $48,876. Virginia
had a total of 34 agents and the cost of maintaining this force
was $44,787. Georgia had 26 agents and expended $30,452. Several
other States have a large agency force and the financial support is
becoming more and more liberal.
The percentage of negroes to whites is different in each of the
Southern States and this fact would be taken into consideration
in any study of appropriations for negro work. At the last
census, Georgia had 1,689,114 white people and 1,206,365 negroes;
Mississippi, 853,962 whites and 935,184 negroes; Alabama, 1,447,032
whites and 900,652 negroes; South Carolina, 818,538 whites and
864,719 negroes; North Carolina, 1,783,779 whites and 763,407
negroes; Texas, 3,918,165 whites and 741,694 negroes; Virginia,
1,617,909 whites and 690,017 negroes; and Oklahoma, 1,821,194 whites
and 149,408 negroes.
It will be observed from Table 3 that practically all of the States
which took up negro extension work first have the greatest financial
support and the largest number of agents in proportion to their negro
population. Alabama and Virginia appointed their first negro agents
in 1906; Mississippi, in 1908; Georgia and South Carolina, in 1909;
Oklahoma, in 1910; North Carolina, in 1911; and the other States in
rapid succession.
It is greatly to the credit of the pioneer agents that their work has
met with the approval of county commissioners, boards of education,
and public authorities generally. Nothing is quite so encouraging
about the whole development as the wholesome public sentiment which
has sustained the work and encouraged the agents. This support is
based upon knowledge of good work done and results achieved. A large
metropolitan daily paper, speaking of the present work of the man who
was the first negro agent appointed by the United States Department
of Agriculture, said:
His principal duties are to see that negro county agricultural
agents obtain outline maps of each county and properly distribute
the work; that at least one house in each county is built at
stated intervals according to an approved plan; that one or more
electric lighting systems be undertaken in the county; that at
least one house be whitewashed or painted in each demonstration
community; that one or more water systems be undertaken in each
county; that at least one farmstead home grounds be developed in
each community; that at least one sanitary toilet be constructed
in each demonstration community; that at least one crop-rotation
demonstration be given; that one or more permanent pastures be
established; that at least one person in each community be taught
the use of the farm level; that one year-round garden demonstration
be established; that at least one farm be properly laid out
or plotted in each county; that one playground be equipped in
each community; and that one or more demonstration orchards be
established in each county.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Funds for cooperative extension work are appropriated for fiscal
years ending on June 30, whereas extension agents are required to
prepare their reports for calendar years. For this reason, statements
of funds appearing in this section and in Table 3 are for fiscal
years ended on June 30, and statistics of demonstration results
appearing in a following section are for the calendar year ended Dec.
31, 1924.
COOPERATION WITH OTHER AGENCIES
From several years’ experience it has been found that negro agents
cooperate closely with their schools and churches. Negro preachers
have great power and influence among their people, not only in
matters of religion, but also in farming and home making. Wherever an
agent obtains the indorsement of a negro pastor, and also gets this
pastor to do some good farming and make his home more attractive,
he gets assistance that is impossible to obtain from any other
source. A negro industrial school in a county is usually a center of
influence in extension work as well as in public service generally.
Such a school reenforces the instruction given by the agents and is a
gathering place for demonstrators and club members. The demonstration
activities improve and enhance the school work to a considerable
degree.
In addition to the cooperation given by churches and schools, many
organizations have assisted negro extension agents in carrying
out local extension programs. Much assistance in this respect has
been accorded by vocational educational workers, negro chambers
of commerce, lodges, health societies, negro farmers’ unions,
federations of women’s clubs, and others.
CLUB WORK BY NEGRO BOYS AND GIRLS
As has already been indicated, 4-H club work among negro boys and
girls has been a secondary development, but it is now going forward
by leaps and bounds. The work by negro agents among adult negroes was
just getting well started when the Smith-Lever Act was passed. The
effect of the act and of the increase of funds resulting from it was
to strengthen and reenforce what was being done for negro farmers and
home makers. As was to be expected, the boys and girls soon wanted
to follow in the footsteps of their fathers and mothers. (Fig. 7.)
There are excellent prospects for junior extension work in the near
future. In fact, negro boys and girls have been making records that
are stimulating white club members to greater effort and endeavor.
[Illustration: FIG. 7.—This negro club boy is learning seed-corn
selection from his county agricultural agent.]
At the close of the 10-year period there was a total enrollment in
4-H club work in the Southern States of 21,721 negro boys and 27,114
negro girls. These figures show a big increase since 1916, when the
enrollment of 2,551 negro club members was first recorded separately.
At that time the State club agents suggested that negro boys should
be organized into farm-makers’ clubs and negro girls into homemakers’
clubs. Prior to that time many negro boys and girls were enrolled in
4-H clubs, but they did not have such different classification as to
make their work stand out and receive proper emphasis and recognition.
The end of the 10-year period also found a great many negro boys and
girls demonstrating to their parents, their neighbors, and the world
that they can clear $200 to $300 a year on their club enterprises
and at the same time keep up regular attendance at school during the
term provided for them by their respective counties and States. A
14-year-old boy or girl who can put $100 or more into a bank and
continue saving each year as he or she grows older is assured of an
education and a start in life. This gives the younger generation a
big advantage and also furnishes a great inspiration to the agents
who are working among these people. More work of this kind will
result in considerable advance on the part of the younger generation
of negroes.
THE MOVABLE SCHOOL
A development peculiar to negro extension work is the movable school.
This is an automobile truck carrying equipment for demonstrations
and accompanied by an automobile conveying instructors. (Fig. 8.)
The equipment consists of farm and home tools and utensils necessary
to illustrate better methods of farming and home making. The school
goes to a home where arrangements have already been made by the local
agent, and stays from one to three days. The novelty of the outfit
and the rather spectacular nature of the occasion guarantee a good
attendance of people from the vicinity where the work is to be done.
[Illustration:
FIG. 8.—Negro movable school which carries equipment and
instructors to local communities where the better ways of farming
and home making are demonstrated. Such movable schools have
supplemented the work of the local negro extension agent, who
follows up and impresses on the community the lessons brought out.]
The local agents and the instructors agree in advance upon what
is to be done. The program includes such things as pruning trees,
terracing land, plowing properly, building a chicken house, building
a sanitary privy, grading fruit, eggs, and vegetables, dressing
chickens, making fireless cookers, canning, making work dresses and
aprons, and whitewashing or painting the house and outbuildings.
The people in attendance are divided into small groups and several
enterprises are carried on at the same time. After the various jobs
are completed, the whole crowd makes a tour of inspection and much
incidental instruction is driven home by those in charge. In addition
to having specialists in farming and home making, the school usually
carries a public-health nurse who gives much needed instruction and
demonstration. A necessary part of the equipment is a projector for
showing films and slides during meetings at the school or church.
Equipment is also carried to facilitate games and play for a short
time every day after the regular work is done.
In view of the fact that much interest has been manifested in
the movable school, it may be desirable to consider it from a
strictly extension point of view. First, in the communities where
the negro population is densest and where their welfare has been
most neglected, more simple instruction and demonstration by the
specialists and agents themselves are necessary. Just as fast as the
farmers can make object lessons and assume leadership themselves,
just so fast should that responsibility be passed on to them. Second,
the movable school supplements the work of the local agent and is
supplemented by it. When a home with its premises has been renovated
and practically reconstructed by the visit of a movable school, and
when the farmer and his family revolutionize their methods on the
farm, then the question arises as to how many more farmers can be
influenced to do likewise. The movable school does much to lay out
the work of the agents, and if they do not follow up such work and
impress its lessons, then little benefit is derived. However, the
influence can be measured more successfully a year after the visit of
the movable school than the day after.
By request of leading white citizens of Dallas County, Ala., the
movable school concentrated there for a month and covered the whole
county. Many plantation owners, bankers, and business men visited the
school and saw it in action. Their commendation was most encouraging
and inspires the hope that this enterprise may be used to facilitate
the reform and readjustment of farm and home life among negro farmers
who are to remain in the South and improve their conditions. A
prominent English woman, who recently visited a movable school, was
most favorably impressed. Her only criticism was that it was liable
to cause confusion because of the wealth of instruction given in so
short a time. She thought that the instruction included more than
could be assimilated and utilized in a week. She rather facetiously
remarked that it would not surprise her if some of the women were to
go home and put their babies down in water glass and make “pinless
outfits” for the eggs. Her observation still further confirmed
the belief that the movable school and the local agents should be
mutually helpful.
STORIES OF ACHIEVEMENT
A few typical stories taken from numerous narratives of success
quoted by negro extension agents will suffice to give trends and
tendencies. Floyd Stokes, of Gloucester County, Va., told the
following story of the help given him through extension work (fig. 9):
When I got married back in 1903, I left home to begin life as a
renter. The little house to which I moved was on 3 acres of land
which I worked when not engaged in fishing or oystering. After
having lived on this place three years, a young man, the first
demonstration agent I had ever heard of, came to me and began
talking soil improvement and how I could make a living out of it.
Just about this time the agent induced me to buy 9 acres of land
near by which were for sale. Four of these acres had been cleared
and there was an old house on the land that had been used as a
barn. I sawed some timber, had some doors and windows made for the
barn, and moved into my own home.
Under the instruction of the agent I planted the 3 rented acres to
melons and sowed cowpeas between the rows at the last cultivation
to be turned under as green manure. This crop of melons netted
me $300. On the 4 cleared acres I began soil building and the
rotation of crops, as follows: In the spring I sowed cowpeas
for hay, followed by crimson clover, which was turned under the
following spring and planted to corn. Cowpeas were sown at the
last cultivation. A good crop of corn was produced the first year.
The cornland was planted to garden peas the next year, followed
by crimson clover to be turned under and by potatoes the year
following. The potatoes were followed by cowpeas, which were cut
for hay in the fall. In the meantime, I had cleared the other 5
acres on which I planted melons, followed by crimson clover to be
turned under for soil improvement.
[Illustration:
FIG. 9.—Farm home and buildings of Floyd Stokes, of Gloucester
County, Va., an outstanding negro farmer who attributes his unusual
success to following the advice and suggestions of the negro
extension agent. ]
Back in the early days when I began work with the agent, my land
was very thin and light, being of a sandy texture; hence, it would
not produce over 15 bushels to the acre. By following closely the
system of crop rotation taught me, the same land is producing at
this time an average of 45 bushels of corn per acre and other crops
are doing equally well. From a sand bed, my land has been brought
to a high state of cultivation.
In the fourth year after I had bought my first 9 acres, I purchased
7 additional acres. From 1911 to 1917 I rented 13 acres adjoining
the 16 acres I owned. At the expiration of this period I succeeded
in buying this piece of land, paying cash for it at the rate of
$100 per acre. Two years later I bought 20 acres more for which
I paid $3,000 in cash, making my total holdings at this time 49
acres. The land on which my house stands cost me $800. I have since
been offered $6,000 for it. On the 20-acre plot is a good house
which I rent out, although the land is retained for my own use.