Like Tomatoes? Join the Club! by Cindy Regnier

 We’ve all heard of 4-H clubs and the remarkable opportunities 4-H makes available to children. 4-H clubs had roots in a variety of resources and organizations, but most folks think the idea of 4-H probably began with Tomato Clubs. Are you familiar with that term? Yeah, me either. Let’s find out what it was all about.

In the early 1900s, something called Corn Clubs began springing up in rural areas of America. Corn clubs were local organizations for farm boys. The young men cultivated corn on one acre of land (usually on their father's farm) under the supervision of a local club leader. At the end of the season, yields per acre and production costs per bushel were calculated and compared among the boys in the club. It was an opportunity for guided learning for those who planned to follow in their father’s footsteps by becoming farmers.

“What are we doing for the farm girls?” Marie Samuella Cromer raised her hand to ask this question after a 1909 talk on the success of Corn Clubs for boys in the US South. Cromer’s question pointed out that programs like these could never reach their full potential by focusing only on the boys. By 1910, Cromer successfully organized a girls’ tomato club so that the girls would "not learn simply how to grow better and more perfect tomatoes, but how to grow better and more perfect women.”

The care of the farm family, plus maintaining the house and garden, was generally the domain of the farm wife, who completed chores in a difficult work environment. Few farms had running water, most, no electricity and the drudgery of housework was a reality. Girls' tomato clubs quickly developed after the Corn Club success to improve farm life for women. Furthermore, belonging to a tomato club provided an otherwise scarce opportunity for social interaction. 

In 1913, a farm girl named Sadie Linner composed an 11-page report on her tomato garden. She wrote in her neatest cursive and most formal prose style, and tied the pages with a green ribbon. In the report, she described making her own fertilizer from cottonseed meal and acid phosphate. She related her battles with cutworms and drought. She told about washing her plump ’maters in a lard tub and packing them into tin cans, providing both dinner and income. “My tomatoes supplied the table for a family of six all summer, as we had no others,” she wrote, adding that she sold the excess for a dollar and a dime. “A girl can make money for herself if she desires and still stay right on the farm. I met some very nice girls there,” Sadie wrote. “It will be a pleasure to keep up the acquaintance with them.”
 The method of establishing the first tomato clubs was dependent on the agricultural conditions in the area and the willingness of individuals to lead the clubs. These leaders were often schoolteachers already familiar with the problems of farm life. Girls were enlisted for club membership with the consent of their parents and agreeing to cultivate one-tenth of an acre of tomatoes. Plots had to be measured, seed selected, and instructions given on how to cultivate, stake, and harvest the fruit. Next the tomatoes had to be harvested and the girls taught about food preservation. Besides food for their family, the girls were encouraged to sell the excess of their product.

Sounds a lot like 4-H, doesn’t it? The Tomato Clubs even coined the motto “To Make the Best Better.” What do you think? Would you have been part of a tomato club back in the day?

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