The LSU AgCenter’s Natchitoches Parish Extension Service held its 4-H project day at Prather Coliseum on the NSU Campus Friday April 28, 2006. Nearly 200 4-H'ers, leaders and volunteers were in attendance. During this past school year the 4-H club meetings focused on agriculture and its relation to them. Members learned that we are all dependent on agriculture in some way and not just by the food we have on our table. Even though there are only a few people who directly produce our food and fiber, many are dependent upon agriculture for their livelihoods. Grocery stores and their employees are dependent upon agriculture. So are truck drivers, fast food employees, food service workers, petroleum and chemical industry workers, wood mill workers, processing plant workers and so on. Everyone depends on agriculture in some fashion.
Since agriculture was the focus this year in the clubs, so it was at project day.
4-H'ers were taught about eating right and healthy. They even got to taste some microwaved soybeans. They are better than you think and are healthy, as were the sweet-potato chips.
4-H'ers were taught about forestry and wood products. (Yes trees are an agricultural crop.) They were shown many uses of wood products that are taken for granted. These products range from lumber for our wood to pencils to paper to mulch products to toilet paper.
4-H'ers were taught about what it takes to raise an animal. The animal that was use was a rabbit, but much of this can apply to basic care for any animal. It takes a responsible and dedicated person to raise animals that are our put into our food supply.
4-H'ers were taught about the ag crops that we grow in Natchitoches Parish and their uses. They were shown and touched crops as they are in the field and also some finished products. They were shown wheat and flour, corn and corn meal, cotton and cloth, soybeans, grain sorghum, sugar, oats and oatmeal and rice. They had many questions about “How do they ?“ They were told how these products get from the field to the consumer.
4-H'ers were taught by our Master Gardeners how to make a non-chemical recycled item for their home garden to discourage animal pests. They made scarecrows using milk jugs, clothes hangers, aluminum foil, old clothes and a few assorted other items. The youngsters enjoyed this. The scarecrows may be viewed at the LSU AgCenter office at 624 Second Street.
| | Master Gardeners Marilyn Wood, Carol Sewell, Joan Breedlove, Ruth Anderson, Jeanne Brewton and Elizabeth Hilburn show how to make scarecrows |
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