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About Southern Oregon miner. (Ashland, Or.) 1935-1946 | View Entire Issue (May 24, 1935)
SOUTHERN OREGON MINER [MEN OF EARTH By Russell ■ — , TEACHERS ON WHEELS HE first county agricultural extension «Kent I ever knew —1 can see him yet, as he comes g1ng<*rly picking hie way across corn stubble on my fa ther's farm to nsk Ernie, of all |>eo- ple, If he needs any udvlce. I see him as plainly an If It were yester day— about thirty, blue suit, white wssb tie, the general air of that If bo only bad a blacktiourd and some real ocholnrs he could explain everything. Thus gingerly he went bls way among us for years—al ways homesick for bls blackboard, always seeming gently to brush the chalk dust from bls hands as he spoke. Another, quite another sort, In California, the breadth of a conti nent away; red-headed, healthily ig norant, Immense and trig tn the put tees and sombrero of a forest rang er. Putting a geared up flivver at forty over rutted roads. Bolling It back on its wheels when it upsets. These two are my extremes; all the others fall somewhere between. One, now gray, who worked before there was a Smith Lever law, when there were only about twenty agents In all America Instead of some tweuty hundred. He tells how. In 1912, he wns called upon at one house to assist nt a birth and at the next to sbarfien a scythe. An other of that early day; he took orders for fertilizer, pocketed the commission, and when confronted with the Impropriety coolly »aid that It wns the most practical pro gram he could think of to Improve ths soil fertility of the county. The only downright shiftless and faith less one I ever knew, lolling around with the courthouse politicians and cussing farmers as "knockers.’' One who In a bad roads county walks twenty mile» many a winter day to keep Ids project committees going. A timid, credulous one. (These are rare.) He gratefully be lieves everything he henrs and reads— that women who smoke can't have babies, that Germany will be dry in two months, that the crap- ahootlng son of a local pastor real ly gave his coat to a shivering man T Lord ____________________ —r1 he met on the street. Of them* three things he solemnly assures me In five minutes' riding. But a good agent; his people respect bls sincerity and trust him. •'Characters": The tdg ex half back who In the first two minutes you met him had to know how old you were, whether you were mar ried and why not. The one who was always »bowing you Ids depu ty sheriff's badge nnd hunting moonshiners by moonlight. The one who lit matches In Ida coupe and waved them around ids head while driving, to show you how air tight he had everything. The one who told me. "God must love extension supervisors; he made so many of them." The one who nt a culling demonstration win confronted with evidence that one of a bunch of Ids cull hens nt n neighboring farm had actually Inhl nn egg. He said: “Well, folks, they stabbed Julius Caesar, and they made old Socrates drink the hemlock, and they burned Joan of Arc nt the stnke. I guess we all make mistakes I" An agent who never makes a di rect suggestion; another who makes nothing else, always In the tone of orders; both somehow, successful. The best agent In a big state—who, since he's not working at It now, I can name, John Hervey. Ho hadn't the slightest sense of humor; a crusader seldom has. Once, 1 remember as he wns driving me up to talk on hooks tn a remote township of Ids county—Washing ton county. Ohio—we trnlled. per force, on the narrow dirt roads of that send-moiintnlnous region, a In boring truck. Some rlbnld soul had erased a letter on the truck’s back side to give a ''Service" caption thereupon displayed, a gorgeously vulgar nnd on the whole more truth ful meaning. 1 never worked hard er at anything than I did to ex plain to John Hervey why 1 thought It wns funny. Finally: "1 see,” he said; then added reproachfully, “The very Idea of n man with your gifts! . . To John, everybody had “gifts.” They tell this story: A badly dis couraged club youngRtei trudged down from the hills of Washington county and bitterly demanded: Transformed poultry methods and "What's the use! What can ever brought considerably more egg grow, unyway. that's any good, on money to the small hill farms. Set going throughout those hill that blame old hill of ours?” townships, without the help of a “You can.” Mid John. 1 think that Is fine, and I Imagine county home demonstration agent— he said It. Anyone who known John through volunteer local leaders, Hervey can easily picture him say trained by a visiting specialist from ing It-rugged. Intense, self-forget the college only - practical and thor ful. the entire six feet of him oughgoing modern knowledge on Hiruat forward from an Inadequate clothing construction, child care, oh! desk chair; bls eyes a clear gray, nutrition, first aid and care of the worriedly squinted under those sick. sharply bulging brows; bls voice Without the help of a county club agent, lie had run his annual 4-H low and urgent. But: “No, I never could have club enrollment (“Junior extension") put It that pat,” said John, anxious up to 900. In one year 23 “gradu ly, the last time I drove out over ates" from his clubs enrolled for Ids county with him. “I've always the four-yenr course In agriculture had trouble expressing myself at the State university. Boys who That’s always been one of my han had passed through his clubs, then dicaps. All 1 could get of college through the university, were now was two years, the special course back In the county as homebred nt State. I know what I want to leaders. One was president of the say nil right but most of the time county Jersey association; another, I Just have to flounder around tin president of the strongest local til people begin to see what I'm ' farmers' club. A third was teach after nnd can work the thing out i ing vocational agriculture In the for themselves. But Hint's what I’d ' high school. A fourth was presi have wanted to have said That's dent of the winter farmers' Instl- nlways been my foundation Idea of | tutes. another Hervey Innovation, the county agent's Job: to build up propelled entirely by local talent— the oncoming crowd; to help peo music, readings, talks, and all. ple, especially young people, grow. The county had a club camp, the “My father had a lot of gifts I ground nnd shacks donated or paid could use Wonderful personality. for entirely by resident farmers. Wonderful way of greeting people, ’The pt ;■ • who built It called It telling Jokes and so on. A quiet Ciimp llervlda. to honor John Her- man but he'd have made the best i vev and his wife, Ida. Two hun- county agent you ever saw I still I dred children had a blanket-and- get some of my best Ideas from the campfire vacation there for a week thing» he did for me, |e gnve me each summer, and nfter that farm responsibility ns soon ns I could wives camo In nnd camped for » walk. Always consulted me. never eek together, us gay ax flappers In tried to overshlne mo. He was more their bloomers, braids and blouses. like an older brother to me than Thnt week there were for them no a father ' hands to cook for, no babies to “I wns the only boy. When I wns , mind. eighteen a fast Pennsylvania flyer The hundreds of people who hit his wagon. Before I could reach backed the work, and Joined In It. him he -vas gone. The hardest thing Idolized Hervey. "He's the great I ever had to do In my life was to est thing thnt ever happened to this go up to the house nnd tell my county" They ran his salary vp mother." (• $4.500 a year. “I'm afraid John had a ten-year fight of It of thnt." said John, the last time I single-handed on that fnrm. hut he was In his county. "The ones who built up a herd of purebred Jersey», never come out of the hills, and nnd a retail milk trade, nnd: “By never want to. are rnlslng Caln. 1915 I hnd things coming pretty And then there's some pretty pow good. My nelahlmrs were nil ship erful ones. too. commissioners and ping milk to Pittsburgh. They got so on. I don't |i:>e with at all." Into a big row with the Pittsburgh Three people were waiting to see dealers. "I hnd my own trade. The Pitts him In Ids office In the courthouse burgh price wns nothing to me. At at Marietta when I got there that first 1 couldn’t see whore It wns morning, nnd a fourth had him on nny of my business. But nil along the telephone. An organization prob my milk route I kept thinking about lem The l.ndletf Aid of some It and I finally decided to go to the church wanted a dress-making and home-mnde millinery club for girls. meeting. "1 got there ten or mnybe fifteen The local lender of club work hnd minutes late. They were still doubts. If this church got the club, wrangling about who was to preside. mightn't the Baptists, across the Somebody sang out, 'Here's Hervey! rond. hold their daughters out? lie's neutral.' They made me chnlr- John, grasping the telephone with the same strong bluntnesx with man. "In eighteen months we had Pitts which he used to grasp plow burgh’s milk supply cut wav down. handles, settled that. A worn old man with fine eyes The papers there were calling us baby killers and the city people next claimed him. drawing him Into were al) up In arms. We had to n corner. whl»perlng long and get somebody down there right huskily. “Some persona) trouble." nway to make them see our »Ide of John told me afterwards. He lis It—thnt farmers have children, too. tened patiently nnd carefully, saying »nd thnt tills was our fight to feed, little, occasionally shaking his head dolefully. The old gentleman clothe and educate our children "They put It on me. I had to seemed Immensely relieved, almost go. I walked nway from ten acres cheerful, when he departed. As he of hay. down In the field, nnd 1 came to the door, he said: "Thnt was a good hen demonstra didn't get home ngnin for thirty days, not until the strike was over. tion you give, up there at the “When the war came nil my help Dyarses'; we liked that.” "When was that?" asked John. was drafted. I sold my herd and took a temjmrary Job ns war time The old man figured. "In July It wns, two years ago." orgnnlzer for the farm bureau, 1 tell this only to show how long "The war ended nnd they offered me this Job here. I took It but I the old man had remembered thnt surely wns afrnld of It I" lesson, given out of doors, before a He had been five years In Wash small group of hill people In a ington county when, an amateur henyard, by an authorized Instruc extension specialist, I began riding tor of the State university. More dny conches over all Ohio. I found than that: by a real teacher. It no Ohio extension worker who did sounds funny, but I have been out not by that time ngree that he was with Hervey on those poultry cull the best county agent In the state. ing demonstrations; 1 have seen Here are some of the things thnt, him back in those hills, with a lousy at the end of ten years, he hnd old hen on his arm. set people’s done: minds aglow, make their eyes shine Induced the dairymen of the with desire to know more, to be whole county to pull together on more. The rest of the office visi one breed of dnlry and another of tors disposed by, we got Into the beef cattle, nnd mnde the county car to answer some calls. We saw a man who wanted to known as a Jersey center. know how to go about ga.-ming rats, and a boy whose father wanted to take him out of high school, nnd a lady who wante<| to get some help In rearranging her kitchen. At eight In the evening, I asked. “Do you go this gait all the time?" “Pretty much. In nine weeks there last fall I got In Just four evenings at home. A county agent's wife has a lot to put up with. You know my luck there. I've got a great one. I can be late for meals If I have to or bring home unex pected company and always be sure It's all right; no after-clap. And with our camp and women’s work, and so on. she's a wonderful help. . . . Hold on: here's Just one more fellow 1 want to see." Out of the moving pictures of Its memories the mind makes images. My mind has been building the pic ture of a county agent who Is not any one of them but all of them— all, that Is. of the same hundreds 1 have known, worked with, and gone forth with as a reporter among the farms of most of the states. Gall him Average, this composite Amer ican county agent: nearing thirty, lately married; strong, bronzed and something of a roughneck. He looks and thinks more like a forest ranger than the executive secretary that the organization spirit of American agriculture all but made of him. He Is laconic. Ironic, ear nest, puzzled. Half prepared. If that, for his Job; Smith-Hughes teachers of high school agriculture get two years’ special training, but few agricul tural colleges have even a man des ignated to advise students on courses In preparation for the far tougher teaching a county agent has to do. He decides to take a whir) at this county agent business, dances his bead off senior week, says so-long to the boys at the fra ternity house, takes his diploma, marries the girl, works two weeks or a month under an older agent, and then Is thrust Into one of the lesser agricultural counties to learn to swim by swimming. Often he starts headlong, trying to do everything people ask of him. He may solicit members for the farm bureau, or keep books for the co-operative creamery, or wear out good tires following the no-longer favored “farm advisor" Idea of county agenting—the Idea that the agent Is there as a sort of farm doctor, to give free service to In dividuals. But midway In Ids second year he begins to feel firm ground un der him. He realizes that the only way to help people is to get them to help themselves. He sees that his Job is to teach a few, and to have these few organized to dem onstrate to the others. And he finds that, somehow, he has got a hold on many of these key people, these “leaders." Then he begins to make headway—and often gets a better offer and goes to another Job. There are 2,100 of him in Amer lea. assisted by half as many wom en, home demonstration agents and by 300 club agents. That multi plies him in my mind. I see him go ing out on horseback In Texas coun ties so vast that he takes tentage and stays out four days or a week. I see him In New England town meetings, big and trig In his Sun day blue, laboriously getting over the idea that democracy Is more a matter of works than of politics. Bunnlng potato demonstrations on Massachusetts fields with corner drug stores. Jumping Into Illinois ditches to see If tile Is properly Joined. Showing Arkansas farmers how to get at the gist of market reports. Stumbling and blushing a little as he Introduces a dress-form specialist to Florida farm wives. Playing handball with the boys at a county club camp in Oregon. 1 am not a bit ashamed that for a number of years I took the gov ernment's money, as one of the 1,200 “subject matter specialists'* who help get him the facts and back him up. WNU Service
