A decade of negro extension work, 1914-1924

by O. B. Martin

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.

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.

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.