The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1902-03-06
Pop Corn AMI Pretty Girls.
They Raise Both in the town OF Jackst

They Raise Both in the town OF oacksoh'
The town of Jackson is said to raise
more pretty girls than any other place
of its size in Maine A good number OF
them have gone to New York and Chi
cago and married milllonaires, and such
as have stayed at home are now actively
| engaged in solving the problem as to
how single woman can support her
self and make money on rocky hill
side farm.
To Judge from results the women
seem to have hit upon the winning
combination, The nest egg of the idea
was got from reading an advertisement
in which seed grower offered prize
of 800 to any person who could pro
duce two kernels of his popcorn which
should be marked exactly alike.
The girls of Jackson have studied per
mutation in the back part of the school
arithmetic, and knowing that there
could not be more than given number
of combinations made with any set OF
! figures, resolved to grow enough pop
corn to get outside the limit and thus
carry off the prize. They purchased
great quantities of seed corn, greatly to
the delight of the scotsman, they plant
ed wide areas to the corn and they grew
binfuls of ripe ears; and though they
did not find two kernels of lndeDtlcal
markings, they did solve the problem
of making an unmarried woman self
supporting without compelling her to
go out to work
After one wears trial the girls dis
covered that in order to win the prize,
according to the rules OF Formulation,
they would be obliged to go into the
business on a large scale, and as corn
was summer crop, they were natural
! ly led to seek some employment III the
winter. This drove them to raising
poultry as side issue, and before they
| knew it they We're making money with
corn and hens.
The system of culture as pursued III
Jackson consists Of dividing their farm
into three equal parts, one for hen
! yard, one for corn and one for clover,
| shifting the crop from one area to the
other every year, The woman who
| has a nine-acre farm puts her hen yard
of last year into corn this season, and
shifts her hen yard to last years clover
patch.
She relies upon the hen dressing left
| in the old yard to furnish fertilizer for
| her corn and when the corn crop is so
| high as to receive its last visit from
| the se-cultivator the land is soWed
to turnip seed and red clover between
the rows, which come up and grow i'll
the shade
AS soon as frost comes and all the
corn is removed to he husked the tur-
nips occupy the land, giving a nice
shade to the young clover plants and
producing turnips enough to keep the
poultry in green food until spring.
When the popcorn has been husked and
dried for six months, SO that 1t viii pop
readily the dealers pay ) cents a pound
for all they can get, buying it on the
cob.
AS the rate of popcorn harvest is
about 1000 pounds to the acre, and as
one pound of popcorn will pay for five
pounds Of ordinary Western corn, such
as is fed to hens, the girls not only make
their popcorn pay for all their hen food
but declare an annual dividend of about
400 per cent.
Some years they make money on their
hens, too, but as the aim of raising
poultry is to furnish dressing for the |
land, and as the corn is the money max |
ing crop, they do not care so much for
the poultry end of the investment. The |
clover crop, which fills i'll the third year
in the system of rotation, is harvested |
when in bloom and sold to the farmers
as hay OF put i'll the hen coOpS for the
poultry to scratch among and eat for
luncheon, as well as for a soiling crop
i'll summer.-kennebec Journal.