Mrs. Grundy. (Tracy City, Tenn.) 1903-1930, 1911-03-02
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township being the
standard unit of organizetton-and there are
county clubs in about sG0 different counties.
Circulars of instruction, prepared by DR.. S. A.
Knapp the government expert, who Is the Sol
onion of this movement, are prepared and
sent several times during the year to each in
dividual boy who is enrolled in this work
Seed selection and the preparation Of the
soil are taken up first in these courses of in
struction by mail supplemented by the advice
Of the field workers of the department who
are continually travelling about to supervise
and give practical Instruction. All the boys
who won the biggest prizes paid very careful
attention to the instructions this score and
plowed their acres from eight to sixteen inches
deep and thoroughly puverized their seed beds.
Even more careful advice is given the boys on
the very vital subject Of fertilization and rea-
son why many of these lads have at the first
go off gotten better crops than their fathers
have ever been able to produce with all their ex-
perence back of them is that the youngsters
have none of the contempt of the old foges for
newfangled ideas and have been not only willing
but eager to master general knowledge of nitro
gen, potash, phosphorus, ETC.. as agricultural aids
and the effect Of leaves, wood mold, barnyard
manure, etc.
The whole plan of computing and comparing
yields in this country wide corn-growing competi-
like manner. With swarms of keenly interested
boys watching each others crops like hawks
there is not much opportunity for deception of
any kind but in addition to this insurance of pub
licy of methods and yields the department of
agriculture has its own officers in the field all
the while and they rigidj2 investigate any
picious reports just as the field workers Of the
United States census have been probing into the
enumeration in any town or city that seemed to
show an undue increase in population since the
last census. Be 1t said to the credit of the boy
corn growers that almost none of them have
fallen under suspicion on any score
In making up the records of the young corn
growers and awarding the prizes that are offered
the government officials take into consideration
other things than the mere crop YIELD regardless
of cost of cultivation and every other factor.
Indeed, in making awards there are considered
in addition to yield, the cost per bushel the best
ten ears Of corn raised and the written history
Of the crop prepared by the boy who raised It,
Not all the boys who the big prizes and were
personally congratulated by President Taft in the
White House at Washington made the largest
yields in their states. The economical side was
anyways taken into consideration In giving out
the prizes and in apportoning the diplomas of
merit which Secretary Wilson personally pre-
sented to the boys who called on him at Wash
ington.
The boys who have won rank as Uncle Sans
champion corn growers In every instance made
good" by exhibiting their prize products at their
respective county fairs where their neighbors
could with their own eyes what they accom-
plished by the new method of filling the soil In
many counties the distribution of the county
prizes for corn growing was made red-letter
event this past autumn and as many as 1000 to
1900 persons have assembled at county seat