An Introduction to Family Extension

"The gates are open, the bars are down, the stock is liable to do damage; they never notice it. They do not  know the names of the flowers that bloom in beauty on their grounds, nor the grasses that flourish in their fields, nor the forest trees upon their domain, nor the birds that fill the air with melody." -Dr. Seaman A. Knapp, founder of the Farmers Co-operative Demonstration Work in America

4-H girls preserving fruits and vegetables

This is a photograph of a preservation and canning test. In preperation for judging, these girls most likely made their own caps and apron.

North Carolina was not immune to the Progressive movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. An inter-state report on public welfare and social work published in 1923 cited a growing assortment of organized programs for North Carolina residents. Agricultural extension programs were among these organizations designed to promote the well-being of North Carolinians. The report stated, “It is interesting to notice the perceptible quickening in social consciousness in North Carolina which began around 1913."[2] Reformers were conscious of the deteriorating situation of Southern farmers in the early twentieth century. Throughout the century, family extension programs expanded to educate rural families and reform practices in gardening, food cultivation, preparation, preservation, textiles, sewing, health, and hygiene.

Extending education efforts to the farmer’s family was important because farming was a family business. Extension agents found that new practices were more likely to be adopted if all members of the family understood them.[3] Beginning in 1885, the North Carolina Board of Agriculture organized Farmers’ Institute meetings that engaged both farmers and their wives in agriculture education. The United States Department of Agriculture soon began to develop programs that expanded beyond the Farmers’ Institute, and in 1907 Cassius R. Hudson initiated demonstration work in North Carolina through the Extension Service. Home demonstrations became a significant tool for promoting agricultural reform. In fact, in the first annual report on demonstration work in North Carolina, Hudson recommended that a Cumberland County agent be replaced only because he was too busy for demonstration work. [4]

The passing of the Smith-Lever Act in 1914 officially extended Extension Service efforts throughout the United States. In North Carolina, this meant that the United States Department of Agriculture collaborated with what is now North Carolina State University to support the continued development of white boys' clubs and farm demonstration work. Eventually these programs expanded to meet the needs of white girls and women and, later, African American children and women.

Throughout the early twentieth century, the North Carolina Extension Service developed programs for women and children that allowed them to better themselves, their homes, and their families. County agents encouraged women and children to become active producers and income earners. The programs were also successful in organizing these individuals into groups that were easily mobilized in times of community or national need. However, within the success of the Extension efforts was the creation of gendered and racial divisions. In an effort to make rural life appealing to young boys and girls, reformers constructed new roles for women that committed them to the family economy. Furthermore, Extension resources came to many African American communities nearly forty years after the first white clubs were established, and counties that did sponsor African American Extension Services often received only a fraction of the support white clubs did. 



[1] Dr. Seaman A. Knapp quoted in Oscar Baker Martin, The Demonstration Work: Dr. Seaman A. Knapp’s Contribution to Civilization” (Boston: The Stratford Company, 1921), 3, accessed November 11, 2014) https://archive.org/details/demonstrationwor00martrich.

[2] Kate Burr Johnson and Nell Battle Lewis, “A Decade of Social Progress in North Carolina,” The Journal of Social Forces 1 no. 4 (May 1923): 4, accessed November 15, 2014, http://www.jstor.org.prox.lib.ncsu.edu/stable/10.2307/3004948.

[3] Lloyd J. Phipps, Successful Practices in Adult Farmer Education (Danville, Illinois: Interstate Printers & Publishers, 1954), 135.

[4] C.R. Hudson, “Report on Demonstration work for North Carolina,” UA102.002, Cooperative Extension Service: Annual Reports, NCSU Libraries' Digital Collections: Rare and Unique Materials, accessed November 17, 2014, http://d.lib.ncsu.edu/collections/catalog/1908fcs.

An Introduction to Family Extension