County Girls Profit In Extension Service Canning Clubs, 1914

By Susan O. Elliott from the Cleveland Star, as reprinted in the Western Carolina Democrat and French Broad Hustler, December 17, 1914

Girls of the County Grow $1,399.90 Worth of Tomatoes, $61.50 on One-Tenth Acre

There were enrolled in this county for canning club work from December 1913 to December 1914 85 members. Only 38 of them made reports. Their reports state that 25,838 pounds of tomatoes were produced on club gardens and that 7,581 3-pound tin cans were put up from same. 2,275 glass jars and tin cans of tomatoes, string beans, peaches, apples, berries and other edible products of the farm have been produced.

Total value, $1,399.50

Cost, $349.60

Profit, $1,049.90

Average cost per member, $9.20

Average profit per member, $27.44

Miss Annie Alexander of the Faillston club made the best record. She put up 322 3-pound cans of tomatoes and 36 10-ounce bottles of tomato catsup from her one-tenth acre garden. These products represent $61.50 in cash values. She put up 480 glass jars of fruits and vegetables other than from her club garden.

The second best record was made by Miss Johnnie Dixon of the same club. She put up 500 3-lb cans of tomatoes valued at $50.00 from her one-tenth acre garden. She put up 72 glass jars of fruit and 200 cans of peaches in sugar syrup.

Miss Mildred Allen of Elizabeth club made the third best record. She put up 322 3-lb cans of tomatoes and used some fresh from her one-tenth acre garden. Her crop represents $43.50 in cash value.

Owing to unfavorable weather conditions and some other things our girls have not made as good record as girls in some of the other counties, but our financial returns are great enough to encourage us to continue the work. In these times of depression it would seem the part of wisdom to put as much into it as possible. Our people are beginning to see that at all times wholesome food is a marketable commodity, and that the surplus on their farms may be turned into a substantial income.

Earnest teachers cannot serve their communities better than by interesting their girls in the canning club work. Through it they may have an opportunity of co-operating with their parents in providing better fruits and vegetables, and a greater variety of them for home use, and of making some money of their own. The pleasures they get from club meetings, canning parties, etc., and the feeling of independence that comes from having money without having to ask father for it will go a long way towards keeping them content on the farm. Some girls are making enough to pay their expenses through school that could not have gone if they had to depend on their parents for funds.

Then it is a work that a girls can carry on and live in her own home, one that her parents approve, and one that helps to fit her for good housekeeper and home maker. Her training is not to stop with learning to can well. Each county agent is expected to grow gradually into a consultant housekeeper for the county, promoting home economics in the country schools by her small cooking clubs, giving instruction in butter making, marketing farm products, grading and packing eggs, impressing the gospel of sanitation and promoting “get-together clubs.”

It is impossible to me to say how many miles I traveled during the four months I worked, as the roads are not posted and I have no way of determining the distance. I wrote about 150 personal letters and mailed about 250 circular letters and mailed about 250 circular letters, held 25 meeting and canning parties and helped individuals with their canning. Our girls were so scattered I could not serve them as well as I should like to have done. Next year we hope to have larger clubs where we are organized and have new ones.