THE SKILLET CREEK FARMERS' CLUB
Toole, William
The Skillet Creek Farmers' Club "THERE ivill be the improvement in rural cundi-' I tiot.s in the country that is desired, until there is I first developed in the mind of the individual a sense mm...
...Professors from the state agricultural college, educators and legislators, doctors and editors and city officials, have met with the members of the club...
...Hamilton claims in the way of advantages to be derived from farmers' clubs has been fully sustained by the experience of the Skillet Creek Farmers' Club...
...Farmers' Alliance and Industrial Union, and others...
...This picnic was such an enjoyable success that it has been decided that the club will have at least one each winter...
...Matters of direct and immediate interest to every person in the community are selected for such discussions...
...The influence of farmers' clubs is helpful to any communities which unite in their use for mutual benefit...
...At these meetings, members are encouraged to take part in the discussions...
...In addition to discussions of strictly farm and home economics topics, we have considered the public schools, the county fair, road improvement, telephone extension, improving trade facilities...
...If one club in a neighborhood can accomplish so much good for its members as has the Skillet Creek Farmers' Club, it seems as if such clubs might become a great power for good if they were more general, and were united together in a state organization...
...And we have succeeded...
...An average program is about as follows: Roll call, reading of the minutes of the last meeting, music, presentation of one or more papers or discourses followed by discussion, music, visiting intermission of twenty minutes, music, reading or recitation, future business, announcements, closing song, dismissal...
...There were also competitive exhibits of brown bread by the ladies, and essays on corn products by pupils of three near-by district schools, competing for premium ribbons...
...The corn, which was of high quality, was judged by our County Superintendent, Mr...
...Every member of the family—man, woman or child— may join and the marked success of the club is due, in large measure, to this fact...
...This cannot be done by any system which does not recognize farm life in its social as well as its economic aspects, and relations...
...I quote the above from a report on farmers' clubs, written by-John Hamilton, farmers' institute specialist of the United States Department of Agriculture, in the Annual Report of Experiment Stations for 1908...
...promoting good fellowship ALL THAT Mr...
...The very general desire for novelty, which cannot always be gratified, causes many in time to lose interest in the cause...
...that does not provide in each community some fixed organization into which the better class of citizenship will come and around which the neighborhood can be rallied in a social way for general improvement as well as for pecuniary advantages...
...Good will, appreciation, sympathy, and kindness have been ofttimes manifest, and we know that the strength of fraternal regard in our community could not have been so fully appreciated if there had been no Skillet Creek Farmers' Club...
...Older people will remember how we were interested in reading in the New York Tribune, the proceedings of the American Institute Farmers' Club, and of the sayings and doings of Solon Robinson, Horace Greeley and others...
...These old time farmers' clubs have mostly passed away, and except in a few sections of the country they are not so numerous as they were forty years ago...
...Michigan has a state association of farmers' clubs, consisting in 1908 of about 250 clubs...
...A well organized farmers' club soon interests the whole community in the general welfare, and relieves the monotony of isolated farm life, by introducing interesting and profitable pleasures among the people in the form of social entertainment and intelligent discussions...
...How well we have done so, as far as promoting social intercourse among the farmers in the neighborhood is concerned, may be gathered from the following extract from the President's address at the last annual meeting of the club: "The social features of our organization ha e been a most gratifying success and the manifestations of good will which have developed in our visiting intermissions have found like expression at other social gatherings...
...At the first meeting of our club for the present year, early in January, President Snyder of the County Normal School gave an illustrated lecture on the value of a county agricultural school...
...One reason for the change was the springing up of the various organizations which united into larger bodies, as the Patrons of Husbandry...
...The practical nature of the discussions at the various meetings of the club is further indicated by the following recent programs...
...Besides these talks and informal discussions among members we have had many stimulating addresses by experts...
...Any wide awake community will find no difficulty in finding subjects for discussion or persons to help in carrying out the program...
...We know that during the four years or more of the club's existence it has accomplished many things that have proved beneficial not only to the immediate neighborhood, but also to the public at large...
...A talk by the president of the club on farmers' gardens...
...Farmers' clubs are probably among the oldest of organizations for the purpose of bringing farmers together for mutual benefit...
...During the summer and fall—the farmers' busy season—meetings are held but once a month...
...Our second meeting in January was a daytime winter picnic at the home of Willis Ryan...
...It has been demonstrated also that the club that includes the entire family is far more efficient than where the members of the family are divided...
...securing better hitching facilities for teams of farmers doing business in the city...
...Our constitution and by-laws are simple, but have been found entirely sufficient...
...One of the oldest and strongest farmers' clubs in the state was the Rosendale Farmers' Club...
...These essays were remarkably good for such young folks...
...George Hackett, an expert poultry judge, with live birds on exhibition to demonstrate the important points to be considered in judging poultry...
...Much of the lack of progress in the agricultural industry has been due to the isolated life that farmers lead, which has shut them off from personal contact with the more progressive and successful men of their profession, as well as from intercourse with wide awake and advanced thinkers in other occupations...
...They also have county organizations...
...We know that our club meetings have dune much to promote good fellowship in the community...
...Many years ago there were such clubs in various parts of the state of Wisconsin, as in other parts of the Union...
...Another reason why farmer's clubs and other associations have had but temporary existence is because the success of such gatherings depends largely upon the efforts of but a few persons, who may move away, or become tired of long service...
...And the end is not yet...
...The formation of farmers and their families into clubs for mutual improvement and business advantage is possible in every community, and experience has proved that the members of such associations are progressing in refinement and in intellectual and business capacity, far beyond their neighbors who have not availed themselves of such advantages...
...Everyone takes part in the meetings, and all heartily enjoy the social advantages of such gatherings...
...a talk on preparing for poultry shows, by Mr...
...The province of Quebec, Canada, has such an organization, consisting in 1908 of 58,310 members...
...The club does not exist to promote sociability alone...
...Any person is eligible to membership who is old enough to be interested in, or young enough to enjoy, the meetings, on payment of an annual fee of ten cents...
...The meetings are really in the nature of a clearing house for ideas...
...The Skillet Creek Farmers' Club "THERE ivill be the improvement in rural cundi-' I tiot.s in the country that is desired, until there is I first developed in the mind of the individual a sense mm of personal responsibility for such improvement...
...For future action we have for immediate consideration the purchase of an outfit for tuberculin testing of farm animals...
...A discussion of public school problems by the county superintendent...
...Davies...
...Everybody Takes Part THE Skillet Creek Farmers' Club is not a man's club alone...
...The next meeting was the annual com show...
...On the same evening County Road Commissioner J. T. Donaghey gave an illustrated talk on road improvement in the county during the past year...
...Skillet Creek is in Sauk County, Wisconsin, near the city of Baraboo...
...The purpose of the club is stated briefly in the constitution: "The objects of this club are to promote sociability and general prosperity among its members...
...discussing live problems WE HAVE succeeded in other respects also...
...and planning for a special club exhibit at the next county fair...
...About the same time, in an adjoining town, was the Excelsior Farmers' Clubhand its discussions were regularly reported in the Wisconsin Farmer...
...In organizing the club, the leading object was to promote better acquaintance among farmers living so near the city that they did not meet in a social way as often as they would if situated farther from the city's attractions...
...Thirty and forty years ago there was a Skillet Creek Farmers' Club in this neighborhood, and it was helpful to the intellectual and social life of the community...
Vol. 2 • April 1910 • No. 17
