Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1908-05-15

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The work of corn development, d.
most entirely new in the State of Mis-
sissippi, is bearing fruit. There is an
abundance Of reasons why we should at
least produce the corn we consume, and
the number who do this, and even bet
ter, is increasing reasonably fast. Last
year saw the first competitive corn
growing contest inaugurated among the
boys Of the public schools, and this year
more than twenty counties have taken
up the work. If those who contended
that the average yield in Mississippi
was approximately twelve bushels to
the acre few years ago were correct,
the increase already shown is salts
factory. Statistics gathered last year
by this department proved it to be six
teen bushels then Shall we allow the
good work to stop or shall it be prose-
cuted with renewed vigor?
Although we have never been recog-
nized as corn State, there are those
who are beginning to cast their eyes in
this direction, attracted by the result
of efforts to improve the yield. Capt.
j. F. Merry, who has long been con-
nected with the Illinois Central rail
road and is we'll known to scores of our
people, writes the department of agri-
culture and commerce asking that Mis-
sissippi, from the abundance of splen-
did corn that will be shown by our
school boys this fall, select q compre-
hensive exhibit and place it on display
at the Omaha Corn Show to be held in
December. He has noted our accom-
plishment and feels sure that Missis-
sippi can show alongside the banner
corn States of the Union.
The suggestion is well worthy of con-
sideration, and had your commissioner
the funds for defraying the expense of
such an exhibit, it would be made.
There should be no fear that Missis-
sippi might not show we'll in compari-
son with Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and
Illinois. The corn shown at the State
fair last fall, judged by the Holden
method or any other, was as good as
could be produced anywhere in the
world. There is an ear in this Office
now that will judge fully 81 per cent,
according to the Holden score card.
We produce multiplied thousands OF
such ears every year, and the only
thing necessary is to take care in the
selection and select only the best. II
is likely that this proposition of Capt.
Merry will be acted upon, and that
when the gates of this great show with
its $50, 600 in prizes opens this winter,
o Southern State will be there to COM
pete for the prizes offered. If Missis-
sippi could only win honorable mention
In q contest where the hardest compe-
tition in the world is to be encounter
ed, there is plenty in that to cOmpen-
safe for the time and slight expense.
Corn is the crop of second Importance
in Mississippi, and the legend of its
creation points to this as the location
of its birth. 1t is said that Mondamin,
the friend Of man, and sent by Gitchie
the Mighty, came down to earth one
sunny and beautiful afternoon, shaking
his fair yellow hair and gently rustling
his willowy green garments. He, Hia-
watha wrestled, but did not conquer.
For four days at twilight came Mon
DAMN and defantly challenged Hia-
watha. On the fourth day he was
thrown and conquered.
Hiawatha covered the body of his
vanquished foe with bort and mold in
the fertile field alongside forest and
near to flowing stream. Then he sat
vigil over the grave, as Gitchie Mani
tou had said.
When the warm spring rains had
come and moistened the earth and the
suns rays had kissed the ground, there
peeped from the mold of the grave
some bright green blades as of grass.
All summer long Hiawatha watched
beside them as they grew and unfolded
into the royal plant.
And when autumn breathed his
frosty breath upon the forest and grow
Ing plants, there on the grave of Mon
DAMN stood golden corn.
1t was the gift that Gitchie Manitou,
the Father of Life, had promised Hia-
watha's people If he should throw
Mondamin.
This was countless hundreds of moons
ago. Each autumn since the Indians
have wrestled with Mondamin-strip-
ped the corn of its husks and silks and
carried the golden grain to their wig.
vans.
For three hundred years the white
mon have wrestled with Mondamin.
For nigh on to one hundred years the
people of Mississippi have wrestled
with him.
This wrestling is the farmers eter-
nal problem. How to make two grains
Of corn grow where only one was wont
to grow before, and thus to get the
best of Manitou's bounty is the ques-
ton that concerns him always.
Last year Mississippi gathered ap-
proximately forty million bushels OF
corn from Mondamin's grave. A grain
of corn is little thing, but if only one
grain could have been added to each
ear last season the yield would have
been increased four thousand bushels.
II the yield can be increased this season
onlo one bushel per acre it will mean
two million bushels more, two thousand
five hundred car loads, making train
twenty miles long, and worth million
and half dollars.
This great corn movement in Missis-