that time the increase in enrollees has been at the rate of about 40,000 a year.83 Since the beginning of the work approximately 6,000,000 boys and girls have been identified with it.84

In 1936 approximately 29 percent of the time of 7,597 extension workers was spent on club work. (See Table 16.) The apportionment of the same percentage of the total cost of the extension program (about $28,300,000 in 1936) to club work would give an estimated expenditure of about $8,000,000 for this activity.

TABLE 16.-Percentage of time devoted to junior extension work by 7,597 extension workers, by State, fiscal year ended June 30, 1936 1

1 Information supplied by Extension Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture. Data cover 4-H club work and older youth. The 7,597 extension workers include 522 State leaders and assistant leaders, 1,122 specialists, 3,730 county agricultural agents and assistants, 1,851 county home demonstration agents and assistants, and 372 club agents.

82 True, A History of Agricultural Extension Work, pp. 66-8.

83 Clarence B. Smith, Trends in Club Work and What Lies Ahead, U. S. Department of Agriculture Extension Circular No. 245 (mimeographed, June 1936), p. 2.

84 See Lucinda Crile, The Relationship of Age and Other Factors to Enrollment and Continuation in 4-H Club Work, United States Department of Agriculture Extension Circular No. 231 (mimeographed, 1935), p. 1.

In 1936, 479,232 boys and 666,276 girls were enrolled in 4-H clubs.85 Although 4-H club work has the farm group as its particular field, it reaches many of the nonfarm rural girls. Many boys and girls in the 10-to-20-year age group not now enrolled have been enrolled in previous years or will enroll in the future. According to calculations made by representatives of the Department of Agriculture, if the present proportions continue, at some time between the ages of 10 and 18 years, 67 percent of the farm girls, 50 percent of the farm boys, 30 percent of the rural nonfarm girls, and 15 percent of the rural nonfarm boys, or 44 percent of all rural boys and girls, will have had 4-H club experience. In 1930 there were 6,469,222 rural boys 10 to 20 years of age inclusive and 6,089,593 rural girls. Of these, 4,063,511 were rural farm boys and 3,663,370 were rural farm girls.8

86

In general the 4-H club work reaches the younger persons in the 10-to-20-year age group. In 1936, 12 percent of the 4-H club members were 10 years of age or less; 28 were between the ages of 10 and 13 years; 40 percent, from 13 to 16 years; 19 percent, from 16 to 20 years; and 1 percent, 20 years of age and older.87 In 1935 the average age of 4-H club members was about 14 years. The average age at which 1935 4-H members began their period of membership was about 12 years.88 The average periods of membership of 1936 club members were slightly over 2 years.89

The 4-H club membership is drawn chiefly from the inschool group of young people. In Iowa, for example, in the year 1931, nearly 87 percent of the 27,034 club members were in school.90

85 Wilson, op. cit., p. 5.

86 Fifteenth Census of the United States: 1930, Population, vol. II, pp. 599-600.

87 Wilson, op. cit., p. 6.

88 Barnard D. Joy, Statistical Analysis of Trends in 4-H Club Work with Special Reference to 1935, U. S. Department of Agriculture Extension Circular No. 247 (mimeographed, 1936), p. 16.

89 Wilson, op. cit., p. 6.

90 J. Brownlee Davidson, Herbert M. Hamlin, and Paul C. Taff, A Study of the Extension Service in Agriculture and Home Economics in Iowa (Ames, Iowa: The Collegiate Press, 1933), p. 218.

127403°-39-7

Only about 20 percent of the club members are in the 16-to-20-year age group. Of the 5,361,500 rural young people 16 to 20 years of age in 1930, only 1,847,998 were in school. In 1935 the percentage ratio of the in-school 4-H club members 16 to 20 years of age to this group was 8 percent, whereas the percentage ratio of the out-of-school 4-H club members 16 to 20 years of age in 1935 to the number of such rural young people out of school in 1930 was 2 percent.91

The Extension Service has in recent years given more consideration than formerly to youth group 16 to 20 years of age. Some States have added specialists to deal with this group primarily, and others have made the services of all specialists available. Community and county organizations of these young people have been formed, thus bringing them together in groups for social contacts and for study of the problems they face. Practically every State is now attempting to meet the needs of at least a limited number of them. In 1936 the groups other than 4-H club had a membership of 51,204 in the 48 States, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. The membership was nearly evenly divided between young men and young women. (See Table 17.) Activities with these groups are just developing and have not progressed far enough to crystallize into a definite program.

In spite of what has been done through the Extension Service to organize the older rural youth, the boys' and girls' club movement remains predominantly an activity dealing with those who are enrolled in the schools. With the tendency to prolong the period of schooling, the effort to organize the older rural youth will undoubtedly become more pronounced than it is at present. Even now the 4-H club work impinges on the work of the elementary school for a large number of young children enrolled, and to a limited extent overlaps with the work in vocational agriculture for the older youth.

91 Joy, op. cit., p. 17.

TABLE 17.-Number of extension work groups other than 4-H clubs, and number of rural persons 16 years of age and older participating, by State, 1936 1

1 Data obtained from Extension Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture.

There has been a growing recognition on the part of school administrators and teachers of the value of having children participate in practical work of the general character of the 4-H club work. The present organization of school children in 4-H clubs thus has a tendency to cut the schools off from the utilization of a very much needed curriculum element. From the point of view of sound educational procedure, the present program of the 4-H clubs is too narrowly conceived, in spite of the tendency in recent years to broaden it. The practical activities conducted by the children in their clubs should have their setting in a matrix of general education that can be most economically and effectively supplied by the schools. The present policy points too largely toward the development of another educational system paralleling and duplicating what the school system is or should be doing for rural children. The conclusion to be drawn from these facts is that club work and school programs should be pointed toward the day when work such as is done in the clubs will be a part of the school system.

This situation has frequently been considered in the past. The National Committee of the Land-Grant Colleges, representing the Association of Land-Grant Colleges and Universities, and the United States Department of Agriculture prepared a report on it that was published in May 1935. A memorandum of understanding was also drawn up between the United States Office of Education and the United States Department of Agriculture. Both of these documents were more concerned with defining limits and formulating definitions of relationships than with seeking means and measures by which the activities of the Extension Service and the work in vocational agriculture could together make the maximum contribution to the welfare of farm youth.

There is much popular interest in boys and girls and their development, and organizations having as their purpose the building of character and citizenship are strongly approved by the public. If such organizations help young persons to take their places as productive members of society, contributing to the betterment of the community and Nation and to the improvement of basic occupations such as agriculture