Evening journal., 1910-12-06
BOYS SOLVING
A BIG PROBLEM
Over 10000 Lads Engage in
Corn Growing Contest in
Southland
EFFORTS LARGELY
INCREASE DIXIE CROPS

WASHINGTON, Dec 6.-Twelve
boys, ranging in age from IL to 10
years, winners in as many Southern
states of championships as boy raisers
of corn, are due here for the week
beginning December II, during which
the Secretary OF Agriculture and his
assistants will determine from sub
mitted data which lad is the cham
pion among champions. The boys are
coming here as the guests of various
farm and commercial associations OF
their respective states, and entertain
ments are In store for them, the best
of which, TO their eyes, will be their
reception by President Taft
Under the direction two years ago
of demonstrators from the Agricult-
ural Department corn clubs we're or
ganized throughout the South. Each
! boy was to take one acre of ground
| and plant it to corn and was given
] scientific instruction how to attain the
maximum in yield profit and quality
] of crop. This year 46,225 Southern
boys were enrolled. Cash prizes TO
the amount of over $4,000 were offer
ed by farmers and merchants asso-
Citations, boards of trade, chambers Of
commerce, bankers organizations and
the like, and in addition there were
special prizes of gold watches, suits
of clothes, rifles, bicycles, horses and
ponies.
Jerry II. Moore a 15-year-old lad
from South Carolina, produced 22S
bushels of shelled corn, record that
has been exceeded but once I'm all
history, and then by an adult scien-
tihc farmer In Wake caunty, North
Carolina, who grew 230 bushels OF
shelled corn from a single acre.
South CarOlinian's Feat.
Archie Odom. another South Caro-
lima boy. won a prize for his work
This lad is a poor orphan of little
schooling, who has had bitter strug-
gle to earn his own living. He got
into the corn contest on his nerve
renting an acre of ground and buying
seed corn and fertilizer on credit
His acre produced 1T bushels and
three pecks of shelled corn, and il
cost him an astonishing low amount
per bushel. He missed the state
championship. but he met with a sur
prise. for when the crop was garnered
the manager of large plantation IN
his neighborhood sent for the lad and
asked him to come TO the plantation
and teach his methods to the men en-
ployed there Moreover, he told the
boy to name his own salary. Archie
is 10 years old.
Earl Hopping. of Rogers, Ark, a
STRIPPING Of IA years. won his laurels
by surmounting seemingly impossible
difficulties. He prepared and planted
his acre, using his fathers one spar
Of mules. Then crop troubles came on
and Earl was up against Il In the mat
ter OF cultivating his corn. Most boy
would have quit then and there. bu
Earl had a different sort Of stuff Il
him He had a team OF goats and h
rigged up a small cultivator fror
= parts Of a iscardedomachine. Wit
that outfit he cultivated his acre an
hushanded II to such advantage tha
: It yielded so bushels-three times III
r average corn yield for the state o
e Arkansas.
S Conditions of Contest.
s The boys who join the club are give
scientific instruction by a government
demOnstrator during the winter AM
early spring months. and they stud,
Q 'arm problems in books from the gov
( ernments travelling libraries. Eacl
, One cultiyates a single acre. He ma,
get it free from his father. or he ma,
rent It, but-he must charge a certaii
rental as exnense In reckoning hi
S profit. He must select his own seed
4 fertilize and nlow the ground. plan
and cultivate the crop and finally har
!. vest H. and select and arrange his owr
SAMPLES from which the quality Of hi
> corn is 70 he iudppd He rnuct hoe
!. books carefully and be able to sho'