FARMERS' CLUB

FARMERS' CLUB. Organized around 1860, the group met locally to discuss agricultural issues and make recommendations to each other. In 1861 a display of Dubuque County fruits and vegetables by the Club led visitors to suggest that a fair for those products could be made alone. According to a report at the time, the display resulted in hundreds of people planting apple, pear, plum and cherry trees and others cultivating gooseberries and strawberries. An editorial in the Dubuque Herald commented 'Dubuque County farmers should be ashamed at not having orchards' when one merchant the previous year had sold over $20,000 worth of apples 'from abroad' in four months. The newspaper went on the advise its readers to attend the meetings of the Farmers' Club on alternate Saturdays and to raise something to exhibit at the state and county fair in the fall. (1) In 1863 the secretary of the group was John KING and one of the members was Lucius Hart LANGWORTHY. (2)

At the November 1863 meeting, L. H. Langworthy announced his interest in purchasing 100 pear, 30 plum, and 30 cherry trees and desired the Club to make out a list of the best and hardiest for this latitude (43.5 degrees North). At the close of the meeting "a suitable catalog of trees was handed to Mr. L." (3)

A Mr. Wolfe from Strawberry Point warned of purchasing trees from "tree-pedlars (sic). He further recommended that trees be purchased from nurseries in the West rather than from the East. Those had not survived well. (4)

Members paid dues of fifty cents per year. For this they had access to books, cuttings, seeds and plants distributed free of charge. The club served as the agency through which the agricultural departments in Washington, D.C. and the state government distributed material. (5)

In 1879 the American Institute of Farmers' Club announced the belief that sparrows should be 'exterminated.' (6)

Farm bureaus promoted the development and growth of farmers' clubs. In 1913 Fred Ward, the county agricultural agent for St. Louis, Minnesota wrote

                the farmers' club should be the country community what the commercial club 
                is to the city. A farmers' club stands for organized effort... The success 
                of our country depends upon our homes...The country is a better place in 
                which to bring up children than the city...More important to the farmers than
                (what is raised) should he his boys and girls. How many of us have lived in
                farm communities where men thought more about their live stock than about 
                their children, with the result that...the children leave the farm...A farmers'
                club can do much to overcome these conditions...The most successful farmers'
                clubs will be made up of families of the community...The motto of every 
                farmers' club should be "Better Farm Homes."

Ward went on to describe how a farmers' club working cooperatively could purchase a pure-bred bull at a meeting. He suggested that asking the children to help with record-keeping including the amount of milk received from each cow and the amount of feed each consumed. Records of butter fat in the milk should be kept. Each record would serve to decide which cows should be culled out of the herd. In regions raising potatoes, farmers could readily see which varieties could be raised profitably and ensure buyers of volumes needed. A similar plan could be developed for nearly any crop.

Regardless of the amount of food farmers grew, they needed good roads to get it to market. Farmers' clubs using their memberships had a better chance of getting road improvement. Better roads also improved social conditions. West noted that farmers' clubs were responsible in some places for the installation of telephone systems and efforts to work out problems in farm credit. (7)

---

Source:

1. "horticultural and Agricultural Fair," Dubuque Herald, February 9, 1863, p. 4

2. "Farmers' Club," Dubuque Democratic Herald, November 3. 1863, p. 4 Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=A36e8EsbUSoC&dat=18631103&printsec=frontpage&hl=en

3. Ibid.

4. Ibid.

5. "The Farmers' Club and the Advantages It Offers," Dubuque Democratic Herald, January 6, 1864, p. 4. Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=A36e8EsbUSoC&dat=18640106&printsec=frontpage&hl=en

6. "But the Verdict Has Nothing to Do With Dubuque Birds(?)" The Daily Herald, Dec. 20, 1879, p. 4

7. Ward, Fred, "What the Farmers' Club Can Do for the Country," Dubuque Telegraph-Herald, October 10, 1913, p. 11