The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-09-21
MISSISSIPPI BOYS
 WORK FOR PRIZES
Boys Corn Clubs Will Soon Re-
 port Results of Contests
FIGHT ON BOIL WEEWL
Special Agents of United States De- partment of Agriculture Are Max ing Appeals to Farmers to
 Burn Cotton Stalks.

Jackson, Miss, September 20.-(Special) The thousands of Mississippi boys who have been striving for the prizes offered by the several county fairs and state fair for the greatest yield oi corn per acre will soon begin their harvesting. Some very valuable prizes are offered in some of the counties and by the state fair also For instance the list of prizes offered in Covington county include the following, most of them being by private individuals, and are sufficient to inspil @ every boy in the county with desire to excel; Best on-half acre, s25; second best, s15; third best, spring tooth cultivator; best 10 ears, $20 watch second hest 19 ears, corn planter; third best, cultivator; best easr, $15; second best, hat: third best. pair Plymouth Rock chicken; best stalk of corn, trip to fair at Jackson second best. valuable books third best. year $ subscription to three papers.
 In addition to these the Covington Coun- ty Fair association and the Covington Farmers union offer valuable cash prizes.
 Those who have kept in touch with this Boys Corn club movement are satls fled that it has done the state more real good and lasting benefit than anything ever before attempted, and the contests will be kept up and encouraged more and more every year. Boys who grow more than 100 bushels of corn per acre are worth something to their state, and so no of these have gone to 40 bushels, which is. remarkable.
 B. l.. Moss and other special agents of the United States Department of Agricul- ture, are taking time by the forelock and advising and appealing to the farmers in the boil weevil infested sections of the state to fortify themselves against the in- vasion that is sure to come next year by burning all their cotton stalks and cleaning up the trash on their fields A great many of the farmers of Mississippi took that advice last fall and winter, and they have made something like a crop this year. Those who laughed at the idea that the boil weevil was going to eat them out of house and home in one year, now see how foolish they were. They have made next to nothing.
 Professor Moss is also urging the farm CTS to try flat cultivation next year, be- lieving that the farmers of this section lose from s3 to an acre every years be- cause of throwing their rows up in ridges | He knows that land cultivated on tn, ridge plan suffers worse from drouth ani dry weather than does the land cultivated I flat, and thinks the farmers of Mississippi especially those in the sandy region. of the south. would find it a money. maker
 The Greene County Lumber company whose headquarters seem to be in the city of Mobile, Is advertising in this sec ton of the county for tomato growers, and their proposition being so very liberal there is no reason they should not got them in great numbers. The tomato grow CT Is asked if he would settle at BaXley. Greene county, if presented with a deed to 40 acres of land, and 1t is explained that BaXley is a station on the Mobile, Jack son and Kansas City railroad, 90 miles mort . of Mobile. There are thousands of successful tomato growers in this part of Mississippi and doubtless great many of them are working rented land. If SC here is the chance of lifetime.
 There is every reason to believe that the New Orleans Great Northern Rail- road company ig going to do some more building in the southern part of the state. The company owns large areas of pine lands to the east of Columbia, a town int which 1t now runs three-mile spur track and 1t Is necessary to have access to this timber, so that 1t may be cut and hauled to the big mills owned by the company at Bogalusa. That road is to be built at once it is said, but may be just a log gng road for the present. In the mean time this road may form a connection with a new road being built out from Hattiesburg, and 1t is understood tha, their consolidation would mean the ex- tension of the line to Demopolis, Ala running through as fine a farming coun- try as there Is in the south.
 Hon. G. H. Afford, member of the leg islature from Pike county and commits sioner of agriculture for Claiborne coun- ty, has been appointed by the United states government as a special commis- sioner to take charge of the boil weevil eradication work in the counties of Clai- borne, Jefferson, Adams and Warren, and will enter upon that work October 1. The government will find in MT. Afford one of the most tireless and most conscientious workers on his great payroll.
 
 son Richard, has been visiting relatives and friends in Louisville. Lexington and Owenton, ky, since the early summer re- turned yesterday.