Why Maggie Brown in a Home Demonstration Member, 1951

In 1951, Mrs. Maggie Brown, Caswell County, was one of hundreds of Home Demonstration Club members who told the North Carolina State Extension Service why they belong to an HD Club. Here’s Mrs. Brown’s list:

I belong to a home demonstration club because a warm welcome always awaits me at each of my club meetings.

[I learn the] most economical ways of conserving nature’s resources to help build a healthy, happy, strong America.

A kind and generous home agent working through State College’s great Extension is always ready and seems willing to assist me in all matters which make for better living.

It has created within me a desire to find my place to serve the interests and help in the improvements of my community.

By widening my circle of acquaintances it enables me to select a large number of good companions.

It saves valuable time by allowing me to visit all of my good neighbors in one single afternoon.

It teaches enough first aid to enable me to keep my remedy cabinet sufficiently stocked to save an unbelievable amount in doctor’s bills each year.

It is a unit school of National Community rural women in which we are happily learning more about how to be appropriately dressed, well groomed, and many other lessons valuable to anyone interested in improving themselves.

It helps all who are interested in civic righteousness by tightening the cooperative length between the church and the community.

It affords a splendid opportunity and helps us to do The Great Three of material things: Get all we can, give all we can, and save all we can.

The Club’s Collect helps me to streamline my mind and stand ready to encourage our children to become good hospitable citizens and help capable girls educate themselves in home economics.

I have found it to be the key which unlocks the door to a successful happy home on earth with a target that points the road which leads to that Eternal Home of Everlasting Peace and Rest.

--Mrs. Maggie Brown, Caswell County, 1951

Fighting the War One North Carolina Farm at a Time, 1942

The following stories are from the columns of F. H. Jeter, State Extension Editor, and Ruth Current, State Home Demonstration Agent, in the March, April, and May 1942 issues of The Southern Planter.

Copeland 4-H Club Excells

The Copeland 4-H Club of Surry County was named the best 4-H Club in North Carolina in 1940 and when an organization reaches the top here is no further to go.

But the Copeland Club didn’t know that. In 1942, the club exceeded its former activities, believes Arthur P. Graham, principal of the local high school, who says that he gladly adjusts the school work so that club members can go about their many activities.

The Copeland Club collected over 30,000 pounds of scrap metal which was sold for $125 and the money divided between the Red Cross and the President’s Infantile Paralysis fund, and the Junior Cross war fund. Old paper is being collected and more than 500 defense stamps were purchased. Two pigs were bought for $24, fed on waste from the school cafeteria, and sold to pay the hospital expenses of a fellow club member who had smashed his shoulder. Seventy dollars was secured from a tobacco campaign and $109 from a beauty contest. All of these activities were in addition to the usual project work and community efforts in health, physical education and practical religion. School-man Graham is of the opinion that the club lived up to its motto and made “the best better.”

One Farmer Doing His Part

R.V. Lockhart of Monroe, Route 1, has bought a $1,000 defense bond. He is selling all his scrap iron and donating the proceeds to the Red Cross, in addition to other contributions. His hens are producing 700 eggs a day; he milks five cows and is feeding them better than usual so as to produce more milk; he plans to grow soybeans for oil producing purposes. His son is an officer in aviation, and he intends to buy more bonds as he makes more money.

Other than that, the 70-year-old patriarch told County Agent Tom Broom, he was not able to do very much.

Save Baling Wire

David S. Weaver, agricultural engineer, is authority for the statement that American farmers throw away enough baling wire each year to build three mighty battleships or 3,000 medium tanks. Yet, he says, all of this wire can be recovered and saved with a little care. Most of it is allowed to rust away on the farm.

One Beef Calf

Harold Cotton, a member of the 4-H club at Kipling, Harnett County, worked hard with his beef calf last year and had the animal in such excellent finish and condition at the time of the North Carolina State Fair last fall that the calf sold for $191.14. Harold immediately invested $75 in defense bonds, paid his father $75 for feed used, and placed the remainder in the bank. Now he has bought another calf to fatten this year and had enough money left over to buy another defense bond for $18.75.

Growing Your Own Sweetener

Zeb Norville of Union Mills, Route 2, in the Cane Creek section of Rutherford County sees no need for any farmer to worry about sugar rationing when sorghum cane will grow as easily as it does in North Carolina. “I planted only 1.7 acres of Silver Drip sorghum last year and made 370 gallons of fine syrup in addition to 50 bushels of cane seed,” said Zeb. “We had all the syrup we needed at home and sold the balance for $1 a gallon. We also sold the surplus cane seed for $1.75 a bushel.

4-H Mobilization

The 60,000 4-H Club members in North Carolina will be mobilized into a food and feed production cambaign during the week of April 5 to 11, says L.R. Harrill, State Club Leader, who said that this mobilization week will take the place of the National Club Camp, which has been cancelled for the duration.

“We aim to make a great contribution to the cause of victory by helping to produce food and feed this year,” Mr. Harrill said. “We shall, through our projects, increase milk production and grow pigs, poultry, corn and certainly a ‘Victory Garden.’” Home and community improvement will be continued as will attention to the ideals and patriotic traditions of the nation.

Women Filling Income Gap

There are 278,276 farm families in North Carolina whose gross income as indicated by the 1940 census was $790 per farm. To relieve this unhappy situation, 2,334 women produced and sold $458,101.92 worth of products on organized curb markets in 1941. Other sales to merchants, hotels, institutions and individuals reported from 60 counties totaled $419,373.87—a gross total of $877,475.79.

Feed Bags Into Dresses

A Granville County feed dealer told the home agent that a home demonstration club woman had come into his store to buy three bags of dairy feed. He got them and started to put them in her car when she told him that she wanted three bags of the same material. He had to go back and take down about 100 bags of feed to meet her requirement. This he said taught him a lesson for thereafter he carefully put all bags alike together and let the women select their next dress as well as the feed they wanted.

Year-Round Gardens Will Help in Defense Program

Gardens were grown by 218,788 farm families and of these 62,746 were year-round gardens. We want to keep in mind this year that there are more than 278,000 farms in North Carolina and to have only 62,000 year-round gardens is a small percentage. If we do our part in the defense program, these figures will have to be increased considerably in the next 10 months.

The North Carolina Farm Goes to War

The program committee has been announced and plans are already underway for the North Carolina State College Farm and Home Week scheduled for Raleigh, August 10-16. Governor Broughton and the elected officers of the cooperating organizations have definitely agreed that the meetings should be held. “The North Carolina Farm Goes to War” is the theme around which the following committee is already at work: Chairman F.H. Jeter, State college Editor; Frances MacGregor, Assistant 4-H Club Leader; Pauline Gordon, Home Management Specialist; Roy H. Thomas, Vocational Agricultural Education; Paul D. Sanders, Editor, The Southern Planter; Harry B. Caldwell, Master, State Grange; and R. Flake Shaw, Executive Secretary, State Farm Bureau.

Growing Peanuts in Anson County

The farmer who hesitates about growing peanuts in 1942 because he is not familiar with the crop or because he has light, poor land will find comfort in the experience of Cliff Ratcliff of Morven, Anson County. Mr. Ratcliff tried nine acres last year and made a profit of $349.73 despite the fact his inexperience made it necessary for him to replant because the seed came in contact with the fertilizer. He harvested 110,000 pounds, which he sold to the oil mill at $67 a ton. He also harvested 10 tons of nice hay, which he valued at $15 a ton or $150. His entire crop was worth $515.

Help a Tenant

North Carolina ranks at the top in the number and value of home gardens. Out of 278,276 farms in the state, 247,127 have gardens. That is 89 per cent of the total, but there are still 31,149 farms without home gardens and most of these farms are operated by the very people who need a balanced and adequate supply of nourishing food grown at home. The farms lacking gardens are operated by tenants largely, says H.R. Niswonger, and it is entirely possible that some of them do not have the extra money with which to buy seeds and fertilizer. Therefore, land-owners on whose farms these tenants live have a patriotic duty to see that this condition is remedied. May landowners are meeting this obligation this year and are pointing out to the tenant that added incentive of the $1.50 payment offered by the AAA for each properly planted and well managed garden.

Cow Educates Girl

Jean Lyda, a former 4-H Club member of Flat Rock in Henderson County, is a student at the Woman’s College of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and from all reports is getting along right well. She has a self-help job to help with her expenses but, principally, she is able to stay in college because of a Guernsey cow she bought as a calf in 1937. The cow has produced plenty of milk for the Lyda family and the calves have been sold to add to Jean’s savings for an education. With the money her widowed mother is able to send from home, Jean thinks she will be able to complete her education.

Spending Records Reveal Surprises

Mrs. Maurice Grant, president of the White Plains Home Demonstration Club in Alexander County, kept a complete Farm and Home Record in 1941 and says her experiences and the results have been helpful for better planning for the year to come. “You know,” she says, “we found we spent more on our car than we did for food. We just used it for short trips like to town and around in the community. All the expense was for gas and oil except one tire and the license.”

Mrs. Frank Walden of the Rocky Springs Home Demonstration Club, also in Alexander County, says “I didn’t think I ever had any new clothes scarcely until I kept a record. We found out we had [spent] more than we thought we had.”

Editorials on Cotton and Poultry, 1942

Boll weevils were a serious problem in cotton crops. The federal government had entered this battle, spending $110,668 in fiscal year 1932 to fight the problem. But that amount was dropping steadily and was just $48,000 in 1941. This prompted the following editorial in The Southern Planter, March, 1942 issue:

While the boll weevil is annually destroying from 10 to 30 per cent of the South’s cotton crop, Congress is constantly cutting the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s appropriate for cotton insect investigations. Some farmers in Virginia and North Carolina last year lost over half of their cotton crop from weevil damage. The boll weevil is today, and has been for a generation, a burden of the first magnitude on the South’s living standard. Don’t Southern Senators and Representatives understand this fact, or is their indifference due to contempt for the farmer?

While Southern political leadership at Washington has orated on the “tariff,” “Southern womanhood” and “white supremacy,” the agricultural South has spent up to a third of its time working to feed the boll weevil and Got only knows how much time working to feed its politicians.

The insect control appropriation for the tobacco crop, another great Southern staple, has also been slashed in the budget now before Congress. What’s the matter Congress? Tobacco last year paid about 13 per cent of all Federal taxes and contributed heavily to state and local treasuries. It is the only agricultural commodity that pays a Federal tax. Tobacco taxes this year will amount to a billion dollars. Tobacco is a major source of cash income on 400,000 farms, and supports one of America’s greatest industries.

Southern cotton and tobacco are too important to the South, the Nation and the world, to be made the scapegoat of a bewildered Congress.

-=-=

The Southern Planter also promoted the Food for Freedom campaign in an editorial entitled “The Little Man Holds the Key” in the same issue. In making his point, the editor referred to the success on demonstration farms in North Carolina:

The average hen in North Carolina lays 84 eggs a year. Yet 221 flocks containing 61,801 birds in North Carolina State College demonstrations, scattered all over the State, averaged 164 eggs per hen in 1940. Hens in the demonstration flocks were well-bred birds, they received a balanced ration and regular care, and were properly housed.

We said these things before Pearl Harbor and we repeat them now with detailed directions elsewhere in this issue for their execution. For the sake of yourself and your country, produce more “Food for Freedom.”

Farm Effort in 1942

One question on the lips of every landowner: “What can I do in 1942 to help win the war?” the answer is simple: “Achieve the war production goals set for your farm.” And to do this at a profit to yourself and family and without depleting your land, good production practices must be followed. Big increases in the oil-bearing crops, peanuts and soybeans, are needed to offset reductions in vegetable oil imported from the Orient.

Last year, Southern farmers grew 1,964,000 acres of peanuts; 5,000,000 acres have been requested by the government for 1942. And to insure fair returns to those who plant nuts this year, prices will be supported at 85 per cent of the comparable price as of the beginning of the marketing year (August 1), but in no event less than $82 per ton for U.S. No. 1 White Spanish type peanuts, $78 per ton for U.S. No. 1 Runner type peanuts, and $70 per ton for U.S. Class A Virginia type peanuts, delivered to an approved local receiving agency. Steps are being taken to assure than an adequate supply of peanut picking machinery will be available.

….

An increase in soybean production from 5,855,000 acres harvested for beans in 1941 to 9,000,000 acres in 1942, has been requested—a 54 per cent increase. To encourage the production of this acreage, the U.S. Department of Agriculture will support the price of the 1942 crop for oil at 85 per cent of the comparable price as of the beginning of the marketing year (October 1), but in no even less than $1.60 per bushel, farm basis, for U.s. No. 2 yellow soybeans of recognized varieties of high oil content.

….

More milk, meat and eggs are needed to (1) send our allies abroad, (2) feed our enormous armed forces, and (3) supply an unprecedented demand for these vitamin-rich foods among the civilian population. In requesting an increase in milk production in 1942 of 8 per cent over the big 1941 volume, the U.S. Department of Agriculture adds, “In no case is the production goal to be considered an upper limit in milk production.” In other words, produce all of the milk you can in 1942. The price of dairy products will amply justify the effort.

….

Hogs are always high in war times. Good prices and the Government guarantee last year sent hog process skyward last fall. [North Carolina farmers had increased the number of sows due to farrow this spring over 1941 by 30 per cent.]

….

An increase of 13 percent his year in egg production over last year is requested. Prices will be supported to insure good incomes.

…

Just as industry has been called upon by the government to change over from the manufacture of automobiles, refrigerators, radios, tires and countless other peacetime goods, to the production of airplanes, tanks, guns and other weapons of war; so is agriculture being asked to produce, in abundance, those commodities needed most in the war effort. With huge stocks of cotton, tobacco, wheat and corn already on hand, it would be folly in 1942 to waste valuable time, plant food and labor to add further to these surpluses, when our armies and our allies must have more milk, meat, eggs and vegetable oils. These products are agriculture’s airplanes, tanks and guns.

From The Southern Planter, March, 1942 issue. The article had no byline.

Radio News from NC State, August 18, 1952

Carolina Farm Features: Radio News from North Carolina State College, For Release Monday, August 18, 1952

Three Tar Heel women won honors in the Associated Country Women of the World essay competition. Miss Verna Stanton, Assistant State Home Agent at State College, reports that Mrs. Donald Herring of Wayne County won first place with her essay telling of her rural home. She says that there have been so many changes in the home during the past 25 years that one can hardly compare rural living now with rural living then. Mrs. Herring’s essay describes all of the changes that she has made in the house that was her husband’s homeplace.

The second place essay in the in competition was written by Mrs. Charlie Gough form Yadkin County. Third was an essay written by Mrs. Edison Davenport of Washington County. These three entries have been sent to London, England, to represent North Carolina in the international essay contest.

-=-

Folks Gather for Farm and Home Week

Within a matter of hours, thousands of farm people from all over North Carolina will be assembled on State College campus in Raleigh for the opening exercises of the 1952 Farm and Home Week. Arrivals will be registering during most of today. The official program begins this evening with a welcome from State Extension Director David S. Weaver. Greetings from the two organizations sponsoring the event will be given by State College Chancellor John W. Harrelson, and Commissioner of Agriculture L.Y. Ballentine.

The amateur talent contest, which will continue each evening during Farm and Home Week, begins tonight. In addition, a big recreation program, including classes on homemaking, farm management, and insect control, plus a joint session in the morning featuring the new “Challenge” program.

Remember, there’s still time to come to Farm and Home Week at State College. It continues through Thursday evening.

-=-

Boost Income With Turkeys

If you’re looking for a profitable source of income to add to your present farm operations, better look into the turkey business. Arthur Wooten of Pender County tells his neighbors that raising a turkey flock every year can really pay off.

He got started in 1938 with a flock of 100 birds. It panned out so well that the next year he raised 800 and started hatching poults. Business grew year and after year until the present time, Wooten has 1,800 breeding turkeys and a hatching capacity of 42,000. He also has 4,200 young turkeys.

Pender County Assistant Agent William Chaffin says his success is mostly due to good management.

-=-

Penny-wise, Pound-foolish

Remember the old story of being penny-wise but pound-foolish? Well, a Wayne County dairyman, Kemp Barden, Goldsboro, Route 2, has proved the moral to that one. Recently he and his father bought a purebred cow for $1,100 dollars and a grade cow for $400. At the same age, the two cows were fed the same kind and amount of feed. After several months, the Bardens are convinced that the purebred cow will pay for herself before the grade cow will. They’ve learned that it isn’t always the cheapest cow that pays off in the long run. In this case, the $1,100 purebred turned out to be the bargain.

-=-

Grain Storage No Problem

Grain storage will be no problem for Simon P. Jackson, who is the largest small grain producer in Lenoir County. F.J. Koonce, his county agent, says he’s installed eight steel grain bins with 91 hundred bushels capacity, plus a drier. This year, Jackson grew 300 acres of wheat and 85 acres of oats.

Report from Franklin County's Emergency Home Demonstration Agent, 1933

During the Great Depression, Extension hired Emergency Home Demonstration Agents to help families on the dole plant gardens and home can foods. Extension enlisted volunteers and supplied the teaching, the vegetable seeds, and the equipment for canning. Families did the work with the goal of putting up enough fruit and vegetables to supply their needs all winter long.

Below, Margaret E.H. Clifton reports to the state Extension office on her work in 1933 as an emergency agent in Franklin County.

In looking about to find leaders and helpers in our work to organize for the caning program to be put in our county for relief, we naturally turned to our Home Demonstration Clubs in the county. The clubs are composed of a group of women who have, for years, been trained by efficient Home Demonstration Agents sent out by the state in cooperation with the counties. Our work was cut out in the county when we needed it terribly, and, when I was appointed as the Emergency Home Demonstration Agent, my thoughts naturally turned to the clubs and their personnel. From each club, two women were selected. These were called together for a get-together meeting, at which time, our plan of canning and distribution was explained.

On the twentieth of June, Mrs. Morris and Miss Hendly from the State Department came down and held a canning demonstration for leaders and others who might be interested. About 125 attended this meeting. In the afternoon of the same day, we had a meeting for the colored workers.

The leaders which were chosen have gone out into the county and helped wonderfully in putting over the program, and others have volunteered their services and have also done splendid work.

The relief people have been most appreciative of all help rendered them, and, I think, the lessons taught them in canning will be of untold value.

Of course, there is a great deal of prejudice among some people, and one prejudice we had to combat was the fact that the majority were afraid to can in tin for fear they would be poisoned. Just prior to our canning project, two teachers in one of the communities ate some canned food and it made them both very ill. One can easily see how the above would affect the canners. I explained to these people that it was not nearly as dangerous to can in tin as it was to put canning powders in products canned in glass, the latter being a violation of the United States pure food law.

I am sorry to report that the early relief gardens were almost complete failures, due to the exceedingly dry weather. The later gardens, however, came in and enabled us to can many more vegetables than we had anticipated. Four of five relief families, that I have in mind, had all the vegetables they could consume, canned two or three hundred quarts and then sold corn, tomatoes, butter beans, snaps and now have a good winter garden. A few winter gardens have been reported, collards are small and numbers of families are without the usual salad patches.

I would suggest that a plenty of seed be given all relief families for the next year gardens.

Some of the homes that were visited are scrupulously clean and neat, but the majority did not contain either a good cook stove or large vessels with which to can. The majority are in terrible condition. Also, most the houses are run-down and wide open.

The drinking water situation is not given near enough of the consideration which is its just due.

The pellagra situation is appalling in some sections of the county. Some cases are receiving physician’s care, but a good deal are not. Two hundred pamphlets on the pellagra subject and 100 pamphlets on infant care were distributed throughout the county. The women were very anxious to receive the latter.

Our canning program was not of as great magnitude as it was in some counties, but the good that was done in filling cans for families to use through the winter months will be of untold value. We had no community garden, therefore no community canneries. We had no donated equipment from the county, and had to use individual sealers, two of which I bought in order to make my work more effective. They were needed terribly as we were held up constantly due to our inability to get the few sealers we had around to the different communities.

Relief families filled about 2,000 of our glass cans and returned half to be placed on our shelves for relief or lunches for the under-nourished school children this winter. The other thousand we have outright to families who had no jars.

Of the 17,400 tin cans we exacted one-fourth toll, and, with the vegetables donated, we have nearly 5,000 filled tin cans for use in school lunches this winter. These tin cans, added to the $75,000 glass cans fund in relief homes throughout the county, will bring the grand total to around $100,000.

We used any equipment we could find, from lard tins, wash pots to hog-scalding vats. The latter make the work much easier as we are able to process a larger number of cans at one time.

Next year, if the weather is more favorable and the gardens more bountiful, the equipment will not begin to be adequate because, if we could have started earlier, we could have doubled the amount of canned goods.

During the time that I was not engaged in canning, I attended and held the meetings of the Home Demonstration Clubs. The women were interested to the fullest in the canning program, and they have, individually, put on a big canning program, which will be reported later. The club women ordered over 6,000 tin cans for home use. The clubs have been well attended, and a good number have added members, six being added to one club.

Thanks to our county commissioners, Home Demonstration work was reinstated in our county, and the agent, Miss Priest, began work on October 1, 1933.

I feel that a great favor was bestowed upon me by allowing me to serve as Emergency Home Demonstration Agent during the past summer. My work as been a pleasure, and my contact with the women of the county, both club women and relief families, has been a wonderful experience.

Durham County Home Demonstration Clubs, 1913-1929



Sewing lesson at a Durham County Home Demonstration Club meeting in 1929. (Photo North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service, Durham County Center)



In Durham County Family and Consumer Sciences Agents and Durham County Extension Homemakers helped the then rural county progress into the economically vibrant urban county Durham is today.

The Extension Homemakers of the County’s Home Demonstration Clubs promoted and promulgated the mission of Family and Consumer Sciences Agents. The first Home Demonstration Club in Durham County can be traced back to the Women’s Betterment Society founded in 1913. Home demonstration work began in the county in 1915 after the first home agent, Mrs. Beulah Eubanks, was hired. Eventually the Women’s Betterment Society became a platform for Extension and home demonstration work and grew into the Oak Grove Home Demonstration Club. During the first five years, home extension work was done in communities around the county.

Extension Homemakers heeded the call of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help supply food for the troops in Europe during War World I. Durham Homemakers canned 94,672 containers of fruits and vegetables that were ultimately sent to our servicemen abroad.

The first new club to be organized, after the Women’s Betterment Society converted to a Home Demonstration Club, was the Bahama Home Demonstration Club founded in 1919, and a year later the Nelson Home Demonstration Club was organized.

In 1920 Miss Anna Rowe came to Durham County to assume the role as Home Demonstration Agent, and she was charged with forming permanent community home demonstration clubs. During Miss Rowe’s tenure in Durham, 20 clubs with a total of 745 women were organized. Among the most significant accomplishments of these 20 community clubs was the founding of the Durham County Home Demonstration Curb Market. These early twenty demonstration clubs remained operational and met regularly through the remainder of the decade and through two more home demonstration agents who followed Anna Rowe between 1924 and 1927.

In 1927 Rose Ellwood Bryan was appointed the Home Demonstration Agent for Durham County, and under her leadership, the number of home demonstration clubs grew to twenty-six. The names of the clubs corresponded with their communities: Alston Avenue; Airport; Bahama; Belmont; Bethesda; Bragtown; Chandler; East Durham; Fairview; Glenn; Hillandale; Holt; Lake Michie; Lowes Grove; Nelson; New Hope; Oak Grove; Pinehill; Pineland; Riverview; Rose of Sharon; Roberson Grove; Rougemont; Sherron Avenue; Umbra; and White Cross.

For the full story of Home Demonstration clubs and agents in Durham County, go to http://durham.ces.ncsu.edu/files/library/32/ECA_FCS_Centennial_news_release.pdf.