convergence

CONVERGENCE : CONVERGENCE The Development of Agricultural and Extension Education in North Carolina


Early Instruction in Agriculture : Early Instruction in Agriculture Around 1901-1903 the state school laws of North Carolina indicated agriculture was to be taught It is something of a mystery where this mandate came from.


Where did the mandate to teach agriculture come from? : Where did the mandate to teach agriculture come from? There is no legislative record of the state legislature requiring it. There is no state school board record of it being mandated. Some unknown individual added it; perhaps State Superintendent of Public Instruction James Joyner who assumed his position in 1902 (this is the view of several individuals)


Agriculture in the Schools : Agriculture in the Schools The 1903-04 report of the Superintendent of Instruction indicates that 6,975 white children are enrolled in agriculture in the state.


Agricultural Education at NCSU : Agricultural Education at NCSU In the early 1900s special summer schools were held at NCSU for school teachers. Elementary school teachers were taught the fundamentals of agriculture.


Agricultural Education at NCSU : Agricultural Education at NCSU The 1904 North Carolina A&M College Summer School and Farmer’s Convention report said that 834 teachers were enrolled and “Great interest was shown in all subjects . . . especially agriculture, nature study and drawing.”


Rural Schools : Rural Schools Rural schools in North Carolina were dilapidated and run down. The schools for black children were worse.


Rural Schools : Rural Schools Julius Rosenwald, President of Sears and a noted philanthropist, was very concerned about the condition of schools for black children in the south. Between 1917 and 1932 The Rosenwald Foundation provided funds to build 813 elementary schools in NC for black children.


Rosenwald Schools : Rosenwald Schools Schools in rural areas “…were not to provide only formal and theoretical ‘book larnin’ but also practical work and to have at least one room for shop and home arts and two acres of land available for farm gardens. In addition, to their lessons, the girls were expected to learn sewing and cooking and the boys farming and simple work with tools.”


General Education Board : General Education Board In 1903, the oilman, John D. Rockefeller established the General Education Board


General Education Board : More Later General Education Board The Board’s goal was to improve agriculture and education in the south "without distinction of race, sex or creed.” Funds were used to build high schools in the south Funds were used to support farm demonstration and extension activities in the south


The Anna Jeanes Fund (1908) : The Anna Jeanes Fund (1908) The Fund provided “Jeanes Supervisors” for hundreds of Black school districts to supervise healthcare, child rearing and home economics. Most of the supervisors were Black ladies who had received special training.


Who was Anna Jeanes? : Who was Anna Jeanes? Anna T. Jeanes, a Quaker from Philadelphia, was one of ten children in a wealthy family. She was a well-to-do single woman in the 1800s who was interested in the causes of her day. None of her brothers and sisters left heirs. So in time, she inherited a great deal of money. Around the turn of the century, she began to donate her fortune to charity, and in 1907, shortly before she died, she gave one million dollars to a fund of income-bearing securities, to provide education to black students in rural areas of the South.


Need for Agricultural Instruction : Need for Agricultural Instruction After agricultural colleges were established it was seen that more was needed to reach the masses Colleges were only serving a minute number of students


The Media : The Media Education is “as it was 60 years ago in our boyhood, so it is today in 99 out of 100 schools. Not a grain of progress that will help the country boy to a better understanding of the problem of agriculture.” - Hoard’s Dairyman, 1895


The Media : The Media We need to abandon “the cut-and-dried formula of a period when a man was ‘educated’ only when he knew Greek and Latin” - Wallace’s Farmer, 1908


Farm Life Schools : Farm Life Schools Jan 1911 - Guilford County Board of Education, County Commissioners, & the educational committee of the Farmer’s Union formed a committee to draft a law to present to the NC Legislature to provide agricultural instruction in Guilford County Bill passed March 1, 1911


Farm Life Schools : Farm Life Schools NC State Superintendent of Public Instruction submitted a bill to the state legislature to establish and maintain Farm Life Schools in 1911. The bill passed on March 3, 1911


Farm Life Schools : Farm Life Schools Similar law to Guilford County’s was passed on March 4th, 1911 for Wayne County The Wayne and Guilford laws differed from Joyner’s because they allowed more than 1 school per county & farm life feature could be added to established schools


Farm Life Schools : Farm Life Schools The first 3 Farm Life Schools were opened Sept, 1911 in Guilford County Pleasant Garden Monticello Jamestown Nov 1913 Craven County opened the only Farm Life School to be established under Joyner’s bill


Farm Life Schools : Farm Life Schools Legislature of 1913 made Guilford County Act statewide 21 schools were established from 1911-1917 One additional school was established after passage of the Smith-Hughes Act


Farm Life School Curriculum : Farm Life School Curriculum Agricultural subjects were substituted for Latin All other traditional subjects were taught (literature, etc) School had to have a farm and adequate facilities


Cary Farm Life School : Cary Farm Life School Students at Cary lived in this dormitory


Cary Farm Life School : Cary Farm Life School This student from Edgecombe County was a boarder.


Cary Farm Life School : Cary Farm Life School First year: general principles of agriculture farm carpentry use of tools construction of things needed on the farm


First Year : First Year


Second Year : Second Year Field crops different soils, fertilizers, cultivation seed selection & testing Fruit growing orchard location setting trees, budding, grafting pruning & marketing


Second Year : Second Year Vegetable gardening construct hotbeds each student has a garden plot on farm becomes familiar with the vegetables that should be grown on the farm


Second Year : Second Year


Third Year : Third Year Livestock different breeds & characteristics feeding livestock judging breeding dairying poultry raising


Third Year : Third Year


Fourth Year : Fourth Year Soils types laying of terraces, drainage methods Farm Management apply business methods to farming Rural Economics marketing problems


Fourth Year : Fourth Year The Cary School Farm


Cary Farm Life School : Cary Farm Life School Agricultural subjects on the Report Card


Cary Farm Life School : Cary Farm Life School The Poultry Co-Op was operated out of the Cary Farm Life School.


The Philosophy : The Philosophy The Cary School is not satisfied to train men to produce more grain to the acre, or more pounds of meat from a balanced ration, but the students are being shown how to become leaders in their communities; how they may “make agriculture a fine, progressive art, which in the future shall provide a more stable and satisfactory basis for thrifty, intelligent, refined, and happy rural communities.” J.S.Howard, Agriculture Teacher Cary High School


1929 FFA members - Cary : 1929 FFA members - Cary Girls?


Meanwhile, back in Texas : Meanwhile, back in Texas The boll-weevil was rearing its ugly head, 1903-04. The situation was desperate.


Farm Demonstration Plan : Farm Demonstration Plan Dr. Seaman Knapp (who was 70 years old) proposed that a demonstration farm be established near Tyrrell, Texas to fight the boll weevil However the farm would be owned by a local farmer and the community leaders would select which farm to use (past demonstration farms were owned by the government) Local community raised an insurance fund of $1,000 to pay the farmer if the demonstration failed


Farm Demonstration Plan : Farm Demonstration Plan The Walter Porter farm was selected Different cultural practices were used Porter made $700 more than he would have using his old farming methods Soon, there is a great demand for this “on-the-farm” type of demonstration work USDA Bureau of Plant Industry provided funding for additional demonstration efforts


Farm Demonstration Work : Farm Demonstration Work Dr. Knapp put in charge of demonstration work 1904 - 24 demonstration farms in operation in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas 1905 - work was expanded to include Mississippi and Oklahoma


Come Together - 1906 : Come Together - 1906 Funds from USDA to support Farm Demonstration work were limited The General Education Board (GEB) took a interest in the work and joined with USDA to support farm demonstration agents GEB paid salaries of agents USDA paid $1, gave agents official USDA status, and gave franking (free mailing) privileges


The first agent : The first agent W. C. Stallings, first county agent in the United States Appointed November 12, 1906 Smith County, Texas


Who is Seaman Knapp : Who is Seaman Knapp Knapp is commonly called the “Father of Extension”


Seaman Knapp : Seaman Knapp Born - December 16, 1833 at Schroon Lake, New York Early education from the Troy Conference Academy 1854 - entered Union College, received a classical education


Seaman Knapp : Seaman Knapp After college he taught Latin and Greek at Fort Edwards Collegiate Institute Then, served as Vice President and taught rhetoric and criticism at Ripley Female Seminary Severely injured his knee in a softball game and became a cripple. Doctors told him to go west for his health.


Seaman Knapp : Seaman Knapp Moved to Iowa in 1866 and started farming 1867 - 1869, Methodist Pastor 1869 - Superintendent of the Iowa School for the Blind 1874 - returned to farming (Berkshire hogs, Shorthorn cattle). A sheep ran into his crippled leg and he was healed. 1877 - Edited the Western Stock Farmer and Journal


Seaman Knapp : Seaman Knapp 1879 - Elected Professor of Agriculture at the Iowa State College of Agriculture, responsible for the “Hay-Seed Boys” 1883 - Became president of the Iowa State College of Agriculture..


Seaman Knapp : Seaman Knapp For years Knapp had advocated the establishment of agricultural experiment stations. He promoted this as a paper editor and as a college professor. In 1882 Representative Carpenter of Iowa introduced a bill that would eventually become the Hatch Act. Knapp helped draft this bill and later served on a committee to revamp it.


Seaman Knapp : Seaman Knapp Even though Knapp is known as the father of extension, he should also be known as the father of the federal legislation for agricultural experiment stations. Knapp left Iowa State in 1886.


Seaman Knapp : Seaman Knapp Moved to Louisiana in 1886 as a principal in the North American Land and Timber Company Had problems selling the land to farmers, so he offered one “reduced price” farm in each township if the farmer would farm according to Knapp’s general directions.


Seaman Knapp : Seaman Knapp Because of the important of rice in Louisiana and the need to plant better varieties, he was appointed an “Agriculture Explorer” in 1898 by the USDA and traveled to Japan, China and the Philippines looking for new rice varieties 1898 - 1905, editor of the Rice Journal and Gulf Coast Farmer


Seaman Knapp : Seaman Knapp Knapp worked out of Houston, Texas between 1904 and 1906 in his boll weevil farm demonstration work. 1907 - Knapp’s Headquarters moved to Washington, DC 1911 - Knapp dies


Quote from Seaman Knapp:“What a man hears, he may doubt; what he sees, he may possibly doubt; but what he does himself, he cannot doubt.” : Quote from Seaman Knapp: “What a man hears, he may doubt; what he sees, he may possibly doubt; but what he does himself, he cannot doubt.”


North Carolina Gets an Agent : North Carolina Gets an Agent 1907 - The General Education Board sent Cassius R. Hudson to North Carolina to start demonstration work Hudson was a graduate of Auburn


Hudson Stone Walled : Hudson Stone Walled Hudson plans to start work in Raleigh area but receives cold shoulder from the North Carolina Department of Agriculture NCSU would like to help but lack any resources to do so


Go West Young Man : Go West Young Man Hudson moves to Statesville to start farm demonstration work Hudson, with local input, appoints James A. Butler to be the first county agent in 1907. Butler serves Iredell county.


Demonstration Work Grows : Demonstration Work Grows Eight counties were involved in Hudson’s demonstration farms by 1908 20 counties had demonstration agents supported by GEB and local farmer contributions by 1909


Meanwhile, Back in Raleigh... : Meanwhile, Back in Raleigh... 1907 - The North Carolina Department of Agriculture appoints T. B. Parker to head up Farm Demonstration Work (in addition to running the Farmers Institute Program).


Meanwhile, at NCSU... : Meanwhile, at NCSU... 1909 - The USDA and NCSU sign an agreement to cooperate in extension type activities


USDA-NCSU Agreement : USDA-NCSU Agreement Department of Agricultural Extension started at NCSU - July 1, 1909 I. O. Schaub became the first Professor of Agricultural Extension (May 1) Responsible for Boys Corn Club work Salary and Travel came from the General Education Board


Corn Clubs Grow : Corn Clubs Grow The first official organized corn club was in Hertford County in 1909. The Hertford County Superintendent of Schools was a strong supporter of the idea - his name was Tom Browne (Browne also was a Farmers Institute Lecturer on corn production) By 1910 Corn Clubs were operating in 60 counties


Corn Clubs : Corn Clubs Schaub worked closely with State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joyner to promote corn clubs in schools Schaub also worked with T. B. Parker who did boys club work for the NCDA Until 1916 the NCSU Corn Club agent reported the results of his work to Joyner The Superintendent’s office listed the Corn Club agent as an officer of the DPI


Growth of Corn Clubs : Growth of Corn Clubs


Girls Clubs : Girls Clubs 1911 - NCSU hires Jane McKimmon to work with girls clubs and do home demonstration work. She had been a Farmers Institute lecturer. Girls clubs concentrated on tomato canning and gardening By 1914 32 counties had 1,500 girls in club activities


Home Demonstration Work : Home Demonstration Work Mothers of girls in the girls clubs demanded to also learn better methods McKimmon gained support to hire home demonstration agents by 1914 there were 37 home demonstration agents


Convergence I : Convergence I Schaub and NCSU persuade Mr. Hudson to leave Statesville and come to State in 1911. Hudson does this and becomes State Farm Agent. He continues the demonstration work he has started. 1911 - The Department of Agricultural Extension has three employees Schaub, McKimmon, Hudson


Convergence II : Convergence II 1912 - Corn Club work conducted by NCDA is transferred to NCSU 1913 - Schaub leaves (he will return 10 years later as Extension Director). Tom Browne replaces him. 1914 - Smith-Lever Act officially establishes the extension service. 1917 - Smith-Hughes Act officially established agricultural education in public schools.


Summary : Summary While most of the slides are about North Carolina, similar activities were going on in other states.