40 Fun Facts About 4-H

At the West Virginia camp counted as 4-H's first, which live animal did campers bring for the pot?

A chicken went into the cooking pot at Camp Good Luck in July 1915, where about 20 boys and girls slept in a farmer's barn. The campers killed a big rattlesnake on arrival.

Before Health took its place, which word did the fourth H of the 4-H emblem originally represent?

Hustle was the fourth H when a leaf was first added to the three-leaf design that early clubs in Iowa and Georgia had used. Health later replaced it.

In the parliamentary procedure 4-H clubs teach, which words correctly open a member's motion?

I move that is the proper opening, and 4-H officer guides single out I make a motion as the classic slip. The same guides tell members to rise before they speak.

The first state 4-H camp, in West Virginia, sits at the boyhood home of which Confederate general?

Stonewall Jackson grew up on his uncle's farm at a grist mill near Weston. Its owners deeded the property to the state in 1921, and it became the State 4-H Camp.

National 4-H Congress grew out of 1920s trips to a livestock show in which city's Union Stock Yards?

Chicago's International Live Stock Exposition drew a 1920 educational tour of more than 100 young men and women, the forerunner of National 4-H Congress. Delegates later earned the trip through their project record books.

Which Mercury astronaut, a 4-H alumnus, became the first American to travel into space?

Alan Shepard shares 4-H's alumni roll with fellow astronauts Peggy Whitson and Ellison Onizuka. Ten years after his first flight he walked on the Moon.

Which phrase is the official 4-H motto, as distinct from the 4-H slogan Learn by Doing?

To Make the Best Better is the motto, a call to keep improving on a finest effort. Learn by Doing, the slogan, describes how members are taught.

4-H is the youth program of which federal department, the one that also runs the Forest Service?

Agriculture has been 4-H's home department since Congress created the Cooperative Extension Service in 1914. Each state's land-grant university runs the program locally.

In 4-H meeting procedure, what do three taps of a club president's gavel tell every member to do?

Stand up is the signal of three taps, and a single tap seats everyone again. Two taps open the meeting, so a president can run the room without a word.

Which two colors, said to symbolize growth and high ideals, are the official colors of 4-H clubs?

Green and white are the 4-H colors: one for growth, as nature's most prominent color, the other for purity and high ideals. The emblem's official green is a single ink shade, PMS 347.

In the 4-H pledge, which of the four H's do members pledge to greater loyalty?

Heart is pledged to greater loyalty in a pledge adopted in 1927 at the first National 4-H Club Camp in Washington. Its closing reference to the wider world was added in 1973.

On the official 4-H emblem, which way must the stem of the clover point as a viewer looks at it?

To the right is the requirement, and the emblem's guidelines also forbid removing a leaf or printing anything over it. The 4-H emblem is not treated as a plain four-leaf clover.

Which president signed the Morrill Act, creating the land-grant colleges that now run 4-H?

Abraham Lincoln signed it on July 2, 1862, three years after James Buchanan vetoed an earlier version. Each state's land-grant university still leads its 4-H program.

Which 1914 law created the Cooperative Extension Service, giving 4-H clubs a national home?

The Smith-Lever Act tied county Extension offices to the land-grant universities and wrote club work for boys and girls into their charter. States have to match the federal money it provides.

In which state did A. B. Graham start the 1902 youth club often called the birth of 4-H?

Ohio is where Graham's club first met in January 1902, in the basement of the Clark County courthouse. He had recruited 85 students by touring local schools.

The 1970s 4-H television series Mulligan Stew taught schoolchildren about which subject?

Nutrition was the theme of all six episodes, which followed five young musicians and their mentor. The show's popularity helped lift 4-H membership to an all-time high in 1974.

National 4-H Week, when supporters are asked to dress in the 4-H colors, falls in which month?

October brings National 4-H Week, with one day reserved for dressing in the emblem's color. The TV series Mulligan Stew was premiered during the 1972 week.

Which U.S. president opened the National 4-H Center in Chevy Chase, Maryland, in the 1950s?

Dwight Eisenhower presided over the opening on June 16, 1959. Every president from Calvin Coolidge to Bill Clinton served as honorary chairman of 4-H's national support body.

Which 4-H club officer calls the roll and reads the minutes of the last meeting for approval?

The Secretary keeps the club's written record, and members vote to approve those minutes at the next meeting. One tip from 4-H officer guides is to vary the roll call so each answer is something new.

Which 4-H club officer gathers photos and stories into a scrapbook at the end of each year?

The Historian builds a book of memories and works with fellow officers to collect the material. Officer guides even suggest studying color, tone and balance to improve the layout.

In parliamentary terms, what is the minimum attendance a 4-H club needs to conduct business called?

A quorum is the number of members necessary to carry on business. The word is Latin for of whom, taken from the wording once used to commission English justices of the peace.

Which 1876 manual by an Army officer set out the parliamentary procedure that 4-H officers learn?

Robert's Rules of Order began as a pocket manual by Major Henry Martyn Robert, who adapted the practice of Congress for ordinary societies. He had found meetings in San Francisco chaotic.

Under the parliamentary procedure taught to 4-H officers, when does a club president cast a vote?

To break a tie is the president's one occasion to vote. Members can vote by voice, by rising, by a show of hands, by secret ballot or by roll call.

Which 4-H center near Eatonton is the largest of Georgia's 4-H centers?

Rock Eagle takes its name from a mound of thousands of rocks laid out in the shape of a large bird. Scholars do not know which species its builders intended.

Georgia's Burton 4-H Center, a tidal-marsh classroom near Savannah, sits on which island?

Tybee is where Burton's campers study wildlife-rich tidal marshes and the coastal birthplace of the state. Camp Jekyll and Tidelands are 4-H's other centers on the Georgia coast.

G. C. Adams started the boys' farm club that grew into Georgia 4-H in which county?

Newton County's school superintendent launched the club in 1904 to interest boys in crops other than cotton. Adams himself spent no more than a year in school.

Louisiana 4-H traces its start to a boys' club formed in 1908 to grow which crop?

Corn was the crop of that 1908 boys' club, and the state marked a century of 4-H in 2008. A survey that year found more than half of Louisiana's legislators had taken part in 4-H.

Grant Walker 4-H Educational Center, Louisiana's 4-H summer camp, is in which town?

Pollock is home to the center, long known as Camp Grant Walker, which was developed as Louisiana's state 4-H camp in 1935.

Which Louisiana 4-H alumnus, an Army general, led military relief after Hurricane Katrina?

Russel Honoré, the ninth of twelve children from Pointe Coupee Parish, took command of Joint Task Force Katrina on August 31, 2005. His blunt style drew wide praise.

Which Iowa teacher is remembered as the Mother of 4-H for the after-school clubs she began in 1901?

Jessie Field Shambaugh went on to run all 130 country schools in Page County, visiting each one by horse and buggy. Her three-leaf award pin of 1910 carried an H on every leaf.

Otis Hall, the state 4-H leader who worded the pledge adopted in 1927, worked in which state?

Kansas was Hall's home base, and state club leaders meeting in Washington voted to adopt his pledge for universal use. Reciting it still comes near the start of a club meeting.

Which Space Shuttle carried a 4-H flag into orbit in 1989 with astronaut Mary Cleave aboard?

Atlantis carried the flag on a four-day flight in May 1989 whose crew launched the Magellan probe to Venus. It was the first planetary probe deployed from a Shuttle.

Which writer and philanthropist gave National 4-H Council a $50 million gift in 2022?

MacKenzie Scott's $50 million was, when announced, the largest gift 4-H had ever received. The program is otherwise funded by federal, state and local governments and by corporate partners.

Which country was among the first outside the United States to start 4-H, by 1913 at the latest?

Canada had its own 4-H program by 1913, with Sweden following in 1918 and England in 1921. Dozens of countries have since set up versions of their own.

Which first lady of the 1960s had reared a calf as a young 4-H member?

Jackie Kennedy had a calf as her 4-H project while growing up. Pat Nixon, another first lady who came through 4-H, showed a pig and won a red ribbon.

The earliest forerunners of 4-H included pig clubs and girls' canning clubs named after which crop?

Tomatoes gave the girls' Tomato Clubs their name, and Georgia soon had garden and canning clubs for girls as well.

In the parliamentary procedure 4-H officers learn, what happens to a motion laid on the table?

It is set aside for now and can come back at the next meeting. Like any other motion, the request to table has to be proposed by a member in the proper form.

Seaman Knapp's 1903 farm demonstrations, a root of 4-H's Extension system, fought which cotton pest?

The boll weevil had entered the United States in 1892, and Knapp was hired to show Southern farmers how to cope with it. His demonstrations led toward the 1914 law that set up Extension.

What did the federal government issue in 1952 to mark the 50th anniversary of 4-H?

A postage stamp worth three cents marked the anniversary, which counts from the first clubs of 1902.

In 4-H parliamentary procedure, which motion formally brings a business meeting to its close?

To adjourn is the last item on a typical club agenda, coming after old business, new business and announcements. Meetings open with the call and the pledges.