Las Vegas Age

State 4-H Club Story Contest Won
By Miss Merle Jones of Overton

Not satisfied with winning first place in the canning contest at the state club meet this fall, Miss Merle Jones of Overton went after further laurels and won. She took first prize in the 4-H club story contest for Nevada, with the story reproduced below. Miss Jones is now in Portland at the Pacific International Livestock show, this trip being the prize for winning first place in the canning contest.

By MERLE JONES, Overton, Clark County, Nevada

My club work began about six years ago, when Miss Ellen Le Noir, County Extension Agent, came into our community and organized a 4-H club. But first let me tell you where our little community is. I live in Overton, Clark Co., Nevada. We are located about sixty-five miles east of Las Vegas, our county seat. We are just thirty miles north of the Boulder Canyon Dam Site. Our valley is called "The Moapa Valley". This valley is noted for its asparagus, melons, cantaloupes, winter vegetables and for the tomato plants which we export. Our valley depends on irrigation. We will all be very glad when this new dam goes in so that we will have a better market for our produce. We also need reservoirs to supply more water, then we can increase our truck gardening and someday have a cannery in our own community.

We girls organized into a sewing club when we were ten years old. Like all other girls we were anxious to learn to cook and sew. For four years we centered our efforts on sewing and completed the four years outlined for clothing projects.

Two years ago we girls were organized into a canning club and now completed two years of work in canning.

All through our club work it has been our desire to attend the 4-H Club Camp at the University Farm at Reno, Nevada. When we had been in Club work for five years our dreams were realized. We left the little valley Sunday morning, our folks taking us to the station at Moapa. There we bade them good-by and boarded the train for Caliente, where we were joined by County Agent, J. H. Wittwer, and one of our Lincoln County club workers, Mr. James Hollinger. From Caliente we traveled by auto over the Lincoln Highway to Reno. We arrived at Reno Monday night, tired but glad to be there. Those days at Club Camp will never be forgotten by us. We saw for the first time Club leaders of our state and we became acquainted with many boys and girls from all over the state. I entered the canning contest and won first prize. Our group won a number of prizes.

We returned home happy, but determined to return to Club Camp the following year.

We earned the money for our next trip by selling ice cream at the shows and on the Fourth of July and by giving dances. We also gave a play, "The Winning of Joy," in which we five girls took part. Six boys of the community taking the male parts. Our parents and friends contributed the rest.

In one year I have canned 103 quarts of fruit, 12 quarts of vegetables, 11 quarts of pickle and one quart of meat. This year I have assisted much with the home canning. I was very happy to do so as I have spent one hundred-eight hours in canning fruit and vegetables this last summer.

About two months before leaving for Club Camp I heard about the Kerr Glass Manufacturing Company's contest. I inquired of our county agent, Miss Orpha Miller, about the rules for the contest and bought some Kerr bottles. During the summer I have canned as much of my fruit as possible in the Kerr bottles and I have found them to be very good grade of glass. They seal air tight without trouble. I entered the contest by sending my fruit to Reno by express. I entered one jar each of carrots, string beans, squash, peaches, plums, cherries, pickles, peppers and chicken. When I arrived in Reno, I found my fruit was there but two of the bottles were broken, due to careless handling of the box of fruit. I immediately went into Reno bought more bottles and vegetables. I canned them early that morning and entered the contest at Reno. I was very happy when told that I had won the prize trip to Camp Plummer, Oregon.

As a club girl on a farm, I feel that this trip is a trip that I would have never been able to take had it not been for the 4-H clubs. All during the trip I am going to learn things about the cities and states through which I pass. I am going to learn as much as I possibly can at Camp Plummer from the demonstrations and classes which I will be privileged to attend. I wish to express to the Kerr Glass Manufacturing Company my appreciation for this wonderful trip which they have offered for the first prize in club canning. I am proud that I could win this trip. I am sure it will be quite an education to me. Something I shall remember all my life.

To me, one of the most wonderful things about Club Work is that there are similar canning clubs in almost every farming community in Nevada and in the whole United States, for the organization to which I belong is a national organization. Every girl in our country can have this training if she will accept it. Club work has not only helped me, but it has helped my mother, by my being better able to take care of my own clothing and by my taking part of the responsibility of the family canning off her hands. Home canning increases the variety of our family diet, which will give us better health, save our farm products from going to waste and cut down the cost of feeding the family.

I hope that in the future I may be able to keep up with my club work, for I know every boy and girl will be a better citizen after having been a 4-H club member.