The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-09-15
1000 ATTEND
FARMERS PICNIC
Big Gathering at State Farm Near
Fort Madison Yesterday Brought
Them From all Over
the County.
AMEs PROFESSOR TALKS
The Day Was One Crowded With
Both Instructive and Entertain
ment Features Provided
by Committee.

FORT MADISON, Iowa, Sept. IS
The little red school house formed
the center Of attraction for the entire
rival district of Lee county yesterday.
The school house was at Hickory
Grove, mile north of the peniten-
t1ary. and where the farmer picnic, in
connection with the agricultural ex-
pertinent station at the state farm adj
Joining, was held during the entire
day. The school grounds took the
form of fair grounds and everybody
picnicked. A large frame pavilion
had been built near the entrance to
the grounds and members of the pic
mic committee dispensed cooling bev-
erages and other picnic articles. The
gaudy cane and balloon man was
there. The Fort Madison band played
selections morning and afternoon,
the ladies' society of one of the local
churches servci dinner at one of the
state farm houses and ladies of an
other church at the other farm house.
Many brought their dinners in bas-
kets and enjoyed their meal on the
lawn while the bend played.
Over thousand were In attend
ance. Wagons, buggies. autos and
other vehicles streamed towards the
school house all day long The yard
was lined with horses ard wagons
and many others were tied up along
the road fence. Four hacks, an auto
truck and number of autos provided
hack service for those who had no
other means of transportation.
Farmers and residents OF the cities
| came from every direction. The re
cent rains had put the roads in
such condition as to make travel slow
and the main part of the crowd ar
rived late. For this reason the morn
ing services were postponed until the
afternoon.
Prof. NJ. L. Mosher Of the agricul-
tural extension department had charge
| OF the plot of corn which constitutes
the experiment station The prime
reason for the picnic was to demon
strate the corn growing possibilities
of Lee county. Earlier in the season
samples of corn were received from
farmers in every section of the coun-
ty and these samples were planted in
separate patches OF the f1fteen-acre
plat. This plat Is about four blocks
from the school house and Prof.
Mosher spent the day in escorting
delegations of farmers through the
plat, explaining the reasons for the
| poor corn and the good corn and
demonstrating how to improve the
yield.
A most suitable illustration was
found in the first batch of corn in
spected. that of T. ]. Huebner. Mr..
Huebner's corn was planted In several
rows of sixteen hills each The seed
for each row was taken from a sep
arate ear. The first fourteen rows
from his seed corn have averaged
very good In the number of stalks and
quality of corn. The fifteenth row
was an excellent one, with practically
every hill represented with healthy
stalks and nice ears, but the six.
teenth row was almost blank. two or
three scrawny stalks being all there
were to represent the corn which had
/ been planted. All of which. as Mr.
| Mosher explained, demonstrates the
value of testing the corn. Ear No
16 had been an apparently good ear
for seed but had it been properly test
ed its deficiency would have been
discovered and considerable loss In
tn, total yield prevented.
Each mans corn is planted in
squares eight hills each way and
each sample was also planted in -four
different parts of the field, SO as to
have an equal chance with the others
Thus, if one square has been damag
ed by conditions which did not affect
the entire patch, its sample was aver
aged by the yield in the other three
squares. For instance, the grasshop
pers damaged many stalks near the
edge; at another place the stalks
stood in water several days aftel
each rain, and such squares were mo-
included in the final average.
For the highest percentage in The
germinatiin test, Samuel Hazen O
Denmark gets the honors of the sta
ton, one Of the ears of his sample
furnishing, out of 100 grains, g.
which grew and bore corn.
The day was not without the en-
tertainment features. The exercise,
started about 100 with a selection
by the band, followed by selections
by the prison colored quartet
| Invocation was given by Rev. G
w. w Amick, after which Warder
Sanders delivered short address o
welcome, expressing the sentiment o
the event when he added to his hos
pitable greeting a plea for not onl,
the cultivation and improvement o
our corn crops but the cultivation anc
improvement Of self and all othel
possessions with an enthusiasm equa
TOT that which attended the corn ex