Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1911-04-22

written Specially for The Bulletin.)
This is in part, the story of Jerry
Moore, a South Carolina boy.
Jerry is one of the farmers sons
who competed, last year, for the
prizes offered by, the department OF
agriculture for the best acre of corn
wholly grown by a boy. 1t isn't my
purpose to tell how Jerry grew his
crop,-tbe fertilizers he used, the Gull
tivation he gave, nor any of that sort
of thing. He must have put on a
good deal of work and fertilizer, you'll
admit, when he owns up, himself, that
his shelled corn had cost him AZ cents
q bushel.
8 psoks on his acre. This. when I first
read Ii, made me wonder whether
his name ought not to have been
Ananias instead of Jerry. But, when
j found that the crop was grown on
On acre measured by agents of the de-
partment and that three of the de-
partments most reliable men were sent
down on purpose to weigh and meas
ure the crop / had to take back that
unworthy suspicion. The fact seems
to be established beyond doubt that
this lad raised simply tremendous
tines as big as the average corn-yield
per acre OF the country. (Which Ia only
PA bu.); that he raised it himself,
all alone. except for such advice as
any corn grower may ask and accept.
That the department has no doubt of
his accomplishment is shown by the
fact that it paid him his prize, and
that he was one of the invited guests
of honor at Washington, last winter.
1t would not have accorded him this
distinction If it had felt any shadow
of doubt.
L. ho hu6
mighty good luck with his corn. 1t
Is also apparent that he did lot of
hard work on it, His good luck has
followed him since the crop was gar
nered. for, in addition to prizes ag-
gregating nearly $500 which were
reputation for his corn that he has
been able to sell it all for seed at SO
a bushel, making 1884 more, or very
nearly a thousand dollars for his work
one season on one acre of land. Take
the s9s which he admits the crop cost
got or neglected to charge, making
the assumption that his corn really
cost him 1896 to produce, and he still
has about $500 as pay for his years
work on one acre.
Of course, not every boy on every
farm can raise any such crop of corn.
Nor. If 1t were possible for many to do
so. would 1t be possible for them to
yell their crop for seed at any such
fancy price. This particular Jerry
leeems to have had mighty good
ground to begin with. and a mighty
9ood season for corn. to follow his
planting, and mighty good advice all
through the work.-and almighty good
luck in selling his crop. Let 1T go at
that.
But suppose some other little Jerry,
up in Windham county. should do as
hard work and get only half as big a
crop. and sell It. for only third as
much. money per bushel, he still would
get x11A--and he would, even then,
have about four times better than the
average grown-up corn grower of the
United States. including those in the
famous corn belt itself.
Consider a minute the story of an
other boy, Earl Hopping of Rogers,
Benton county, Ark. Earl is now six
teen years old. He was fifteen last
spring. when his father let him have
what Is described as ''the rockiest acre
of ground in Benton county" to try
his luck raising corn. The whole acre
is said to have been literally covered
with flint rock, loose in the soil and
upon it, Earl was allowed to use his
fathers mule team to pillow the ground
and harrow 1t. All the rest of the
work he did either with his own hands
or with the help of his goat. First he
made a goat-wagon in which he haul
ed of the stones which were too big
TO let the cultivator roll them around
But Il didn't bother with them unless
they were as big as a mans head"
says Earl. Then the goat helped him
mark the field, and he dropped and
covered by hand. Il then took the goat
and his cart and hauled about 500
csrt-loads of manure and put on the
crosses" he explains. For first Guilt
walton he used an old onion plow"
drawn by the goat: the rest of the
cultivating was done with small cul-
tivator. also goat drawn. This faith
full animal did the work WE'LL though
slowly. and probably with less damage
to the stalks than horse would have
caused. All the work Earl did was
according to instructions issued by the
u s. Farm demonstration bureau. He
took little over fifty bushels of good
corn off this rocky acre.
This was small yield, consid-
ing the crops grown by some of his
competitors. But Ii was a whacking
crop. considering the rock-heap on
which it was grown. and the fifteen-
year old boy that grew it,-and the
goat that did the teamwork. Do you
hoow. as read the story in an Arkan-
eae paper. / felt like taking off my hat
to that goat? My early education had
led me to consider goats as animals
quite useless, beyond their habit of
eating tin-cans and butting small boys
into the middle of next week. 1t is
evident that ! must revise my coneep-
tions Of goat-hood. Earl Hopping's
crop of only fifty bushels to the acre
is. it must be remembered. almost
twice the average crop produced by
the average adult farmer on the aver
age good acre. i don't know whether
Earl got any prizes or not But
know he deserved a big reward And
j hope he got it, in some way.
Last year = p.sBtic spirited and pro-
gressive farmer of Tulsa County, Ok.
induced forty discouraged ranchers to