The Port Gibson reveille. [volume] (Port Gibson, Miss.) 1890-current, 1910-02-10
The Secretary of Agriculture Hon
ors the Boys, Prize Winners
in the Boys Corn Club
Contests.
Contests.

The following communication
from the department of agriculture
was received few days ago:
There was an interesting occasion
in the Office of the Secretary o.
Agriculture December IA, 1909, al
q:3o o'clock. Secretary Wilson
presented diplomas to Bascomt
Usher of South Carolina, Dewitt
Lunday of Mississippi, Elmer Hal
ter. of Arkansas, and Ralph Bell
wood of Virginia.
These boys were among the I2,-
500 in the Boys Demonstr-
alton Work in the South who
planted one acre of corn apiece
and worked it under instructions
from the United States Depart
ment of Agriculture. DR.. S. A.
Knapp, who has charge OF the Farm
Demonstration Work, offered a
trip to Washington to the boy from
Mississippi who should get the
best results. The State Bankers
Association in Arkansas offered a
similar prize in that State. Citi-
zens of South Carolina and Virginia
duplicated the offers there.
The above named boys, all un-
der eighteen years of age, visited
the Department of Agriculture and
other interesting sights OF the Cap
ital, and were received by the Pref
dent.
Thousands of dollars worth of
prizes have been offered this year
to these boys clubs in the South
by merchants, Boards of Trade
and public spirited citizens gener-
ally, under regulations furnished
by the United States Department
of Agriculture. These regulations
do not encourage freak yields, but
are drawn to encourage profitable
farming. The basis of awards
rests on showing of profits, writ
ten records, exhibits of ears and
stalks, and yield per acre. The
greatest yield does not get the
prize. i'll every case. Still there
were some fine yields this year.
The prize winner from South
Carolina made I52H bushels per
acre; "a boy in Mississippi made 147
bushels; a boy in North Carolina
made 135 bushels, and the Virginia
winter I22 bushels. More than
fifty boys made 100 bushels per
acre. In several counties no boy
fell below So bushels per acre, and
the club average was about 90.
Arrangements are being made in
all of the Southern states to send
the prize winners to Washington
next year.
In a brief address to the boys
Secretary Wilson declared that
they and the boys engaged in like
work are "the only hope we have
for the continued greatness and
prosperity of the country" He
pointed out that the South now, in
manufacturing, was prospering, as
never before, because the men and
women of the South had put into
the work their own energy and a.
bility and in no sense were depen-
dent upon the capital or the indus.
try of people from other parts of the
country.
"These diplomas" he concluded
ssare unique. No boys ever have
seceived a similar recognition of
their merit. Nothing l have done
since I have been Secretary of Ag-
riculture has given me more pleas
ure than to present them to you.
You have earned them. You have
begun right. You now are in line
to achieve the highest honors of
your respective states"
Prof. w. H. Smith, County Sup
erintendent of Holmes County, Mis-
sissippi, and one of the leaders in
the Boys Corn Club movement of
the Farmers Cooperative Demons
tration Work, came to Washington
to witness this interesting event.