BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB PROJECTS

There is an advantage in having as large a district membership in the clubs as possible. We are asking each club member to try to interest the other boys and girls in the district to join one or more of our clubs. But it is not desirable to urge any one to enroll who will not likely find a growing interest and pleasure in club work. Better a small clubtwo or three members thoroughly in earnest-than a large club with a part of the members a drag on the others.

Choose at least one project and carry it through-two projects, if you can handle that many. The Gardening Club Project and any one of the Animal Husbandry Projects go splendidly together, since you thus create a "market" for the surplus products of your garden by selling to your "A.H." project. A combination of this kind is desirable. As a rule, where a garden project is chosen, it is only a little more work to undertake an "A.H." project with it, while the pleasure and satisfaction will be doubled.

With the exception of the Dairying Project, which is for boys 13 years of age or older, and the Home Butter-Making Project, which is strictly a farm project and only incidentally related to boys and girls club work, all the other projects are open to boys and girls between the ages of 10 and 18 years who first enroll in one or more of our Extension Clubs. We will not refuse to enroll any boy or girl who is almost 10, if very anxious to join. The three clubs are:

Boys and Girls Home Economics Club

Boys and Girls Gardening Club

Boys and Girls Animal Husbandry Club

Reservation-The Extension Division reserves the right to make such minor modifications of the projects hereinafter outlined as in the future may be found desirable, after giving due notice to all contestants.

The detailed plan of the Garden Club project will be found in the project report, form Ex. 3.

There will be two general classes of Garden Club projects, namely, Rural Projects and Town Projects. The Rural projects comprise the five plats A to E, inclusive (see Table), and the Town projects comprise the five plats F to L, inclusive.

In choosing a plat be governed by the amount of work there is in growing the crop or crops you have selected as well as your age and strength. There is quite a range of choice in respect to size of plats.

All gardens will come under one or the other of the following four kinds:

General Garden*-Where a variety of vegetables, not exceeding eight kinds, are grown for the home table, marketing, and canning.

Special Garden*-Where the entire plat is devoted to a single crop. Mixed Garden*-Where one-half the plat is devoted to a special crop, the other half general garden, limited to eight varieties in all.

Town Garden-Any garden on a town plat.

SIZE OF GARDEN PROJECT PLATS

"A.H." Where the contestant is conducting an Animal Husbandry Club project at the same time and is devoting a part of the crops, or the unsalable surplus, as feed for pigs, baby-beef, sheep, or poultry, add the letters "A.H." after the garden name as given above.

Explanation of Table-The plat chosen for a garden project must be rectangular in shape and one of the ten sizes designated by the letters in the first column by exact measurement. The length and breadth may vary when necessary from that given in the fourth column, provided there is the exact number of square feet called for in the plat.

The rental of Plats A to E, inclusive, is based on 1 cent for each 25 square feet of surface; of Plats F to L, on 1 cent for each 5 square feet of surface.

In scoring contestants, the relative weights of the first five plats (A to E) will be the same, or 100 per cent, when the ages are as given, or when a contestant has selected a project in advance of his or her age. Where a contestant from necessity or otherwise selects a plat smaller than prescribed by age, 5 per cent for each size of plat below the minimum for such age will be deducted from the final score.

Plats F to L are specials for boys and girls living in towns and cities, whose gardens of necessity must be in back yards. Town gardens will be in a class by themselves.

Fencing the Plat-The garden plat does not require any fence if it is within another inclosure from which chickens, pigs, and other animals are excluded. Otherwise, it will need some kind of a protecting fence. If unfenced, the plat should have stakes or posts at the corners with a wire or cord stretched along the sides and ends, or else stakes set at intervals, to designate its boundaries.

Sign-At the entrance of the plat put up a signboard with your name and club number on it.

WHAT TO GROW

Grow the crop or crops that you can put to the best use, namely: First, that you can market at the most profit, and, second, that will be of value for the home table or in feeding home liye stock, preferably an "A.H." project.

Following are crop suggestions for the three different kinds of gardens: (1) General Garden-Tomatoes, lettuce, peas, sweet corn, pop-corn, string beans, beets, onions, Swiss chard, spinach, early potatoes (to be sown early and marketed as new potatoes), celery, egg plant, Brussels sprouts, cucumbers, turnips, radish, peppers, cabbage, cauliflower, parsnips, summer squash, etc. For Southern Nevada add: Bermuda onions, canteloupes, field corn, sweet potatoes, casabas, Mexican pink (frijole) beans, etc.

Do not try too many varieties. Choose a limited number that you can grow and market to best advantage, not over eight in all. Tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, Swiss chard, string beans, and celery are usually profitable crops.

(2) Special Garden—Potatoes, onions, pop-corn, tomatoes, lettuce, celery, and the "A.H." crops hereafter mentioned. For Southern Nevada: Sweet potatoes, field corn, peanuts, Mexican frijole beans, as also tomatoes, lettuce, and pop-corn. NOTE-Onions and celery are difficult crops to grow and should not be attempted in any large way until you have had experience. Pop-corn requires about 135 days to mature, and should not be planted extensively until it is certain you can mature it. Best try these crops out in a small way first. Potatoes and tomatoes are fine special crops for northern Nevada. For southern Nevada pop-corn, frijole beans, and Bermuda onions would seem to offer crops that can readily be marketed.

(3) Mixed Garden-Any one of (2) with selection from (1).

"A.H." Crops-For pigs, barley, field corn; for poultry, wheat, kale; for babybeef, sugar-beets; for sheep, Canadian field-peas. (These feeds are desirable as .a supplementary ration to the ordinary feeds of an "A.H." project, and may or may not be grown, as the contestant thinks best. The garden, in any event, will supply considerable "A.H." feeds from culls, tops, etc.)

Canning Tomatoes, peas, sweet corn, and string beans are the most desirable garden crops for canning.

KEEPING THE EXPENSE ACCOUNTS

All accounts representing labor and expense connected with the gardening project must be accurately kept on the forms prescribed. The following rules will govern:

RULE 1-Enter daily the hours and minutes you are employed on the garden project, as follows: (a) in preparing the ground for seeding (except plowing or spading, see Rule 4); (b) in planting the crop; (c) in cultivating, weeding, irrigating, or otherwise caring for the crop; (d) in harvesting the crop; (e) in preparing the crop for market, gift, the table, or an "A.H." project, and (f) in canning. Time devoted to finding a market, or customers, or in delivering the crop from the garden to customers or point of shipment (see Rule 8) is not to be entered.

RULE 2-If any one else helps you in the gardening work, keep a memorandum of their time, computing their labor cost (whether paid or not) at the rate prescribed in Rule 3, if under 20 years old, and for adults 25 cents per hour, subject to Rule 4. Where a horse is used in cultivating, charge 10 cents per hour for one horse, 15 cents for two.

RULE 3-Charge for your labor entered under Rule 1 at the rate of 1 cent per hour for each year of your age. (For example, 10 cents per hour if 10 years old, 11 cents if 11 years old, and so on.)

RULE 4-Your own or hired labor employed in plowing or spading a rural project plat is not to be entered by hours as provided under Rules 1 and 2, but is to be charged at the rate of $2 per acre for the acre or fraction of acre in the plat.

RULE 5-Charge the expense account with fertilizer (barnyard manure) at the rate of $2 per two-horse load and apportion among the crop numbers according to area. For any other fertilizer used, the market price, apportioned likewise. Spraying mixtures charge in same way, or to the specific crop on which used.

RULE 6-Charge each crop for the cost of seed at the market price, even though a gift.

RULE 7-Charge each crop for all bags, paper, twine, boxes, cans, or other containers, wrappers, or other material used in marketing or canning it, where any material value is represented.

RULE 8-Railroad freight, expressage, or parcel post, charge to each crop, but cartage to point of shipment or sale is not to be entered. (That is, there is to be

no charge for team, wagon, or labor in hauling or carrying the crop from the garden to the freight, express, or postoffice, or to a customer.)

RULE 9-The following items need not be entered as expense, namely, purchase or use of garden tools, fencing or marking the plat, and making the club member's sign.

KEEPING THE MARKETING ACCOUNTS

All crops grown must be disposed of in some economical way and an accurate record thereof kept in your note-book. The several ways of disposal are as follows:

(1) Home Table-A record of everything from the garden that is consumed on the family table must be kept, by pounds, bunches, or dozens (the way the same are commonly sold), and by quality, and final entries made.

(2) Gift-Everything from the garden that is given away must be recorded as in (1) and final entries made as in (1).

(3) Sold-Everything from the garden that is marketed must be recorded as in (1) and the amount received stated.

(4) Traded-Everything from the garden that is traded for something of value must be entered.

(5) Home Live Stock-Everything from the garden that is fed to live stock or poultry on the farm must be recorded in kind and weight and final entries made.

(6) "A.H.” Project-In the advent that the contestant is conducting a pig, baby-beef, sheep, or poultry project at the same time as the gardening project, everything from the garden that is fed thereto must be recorded in kind and weight, and final entries made.

(7) Canned-Everything from the garden that is canned.

Quality-Grade everything harvested as "First Quality" "Second Quality" and "Culls" First Quality are crops which in size, maturity, appearance, and flavor would be satisfactory for a store or customer to purchase. Second Quality are inferior to the above, but satisfactory for

home consumption, etc. Culls are immature, diseased, or inferior portions of the crop worth only their value as animal food.

Schedule of Prices-The Extension Division early in the summer will issue a schedule of prices for project crops which will govern the basis of computing crop valuations.

BOYS AND GIRLS GARDENING AND CANNING CLUB

The detailed plan of this project will be given in a special bulletin on Canning which will be issued in June (1916). The canning project may be undertaken supplementary to the gardening project, or independently.

(1) Schedule-The Boys and Girls Pig Club Contest will begin and end on the following dates:

Begin the first Saturday in June, and end the twenty-sixth Saturday thereafter-For all of Nevada other than Clark County and Pahrump Valley, Nye County.

Begin the first Saturday in May, and end the twenty-sixth Saturday thereafter-For Clark County and Pahrump Valley, Nye County. Number of days in each instance, 182.

(2) Ownership-On the first Saturday in May, or June, as the case may be, each club member who elects to enter the contest must own and have in his or her possession one or more pigs that are between eight weeks and twelve weeks old. Club members may acquire pigs by gift, purchase, or by giving their individual notes for the cost of the same, payable when the pig is marketed.

(3) Weighing-On the Saturday the contest begins, every pig entered in the contest must be weighed accurately by some responsible disinterested person and the weight entered in the report blank (furnished contestants), and certified to by such witness. Or, where there are several contestants in a district, they may all meet at some convenient place and the pigs brought there for weighing, or else all the contestants may go from place to place in a body and weigh the pigs. In such instance, all the contestants in the district should sign as witnesses to the weights.