Origins of 4-H in Virginia

F. Southall Farrar, farm demonstration agent for Southside Virginia, organized the state's first corn clubs for boys in 1909. Such clubs, a feature of the nation’s emerging agricultural extension movement, had originated in the Midwest to promote progressive farming methods and improve rural life. Farrar’s initial recruits, 100 Dinwiddie and Chesterfield County boys, each grew one acre of corn and, on average, outproduced local farms by more than three times. In 1910 Ella Agnew established the first canning clubs for Virginia girls. By the early 1920s, these organizations for children, administered by Virginia Cooperative Extension after 1914, evolved into 4-H clubs.