The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1912-07-26
BOYS TEACH MEN
Introducing Modern Farm Methods
While Getting Benefit of Long
Experience.
Rv Bert Ball.

along the line of the old-fashioned
camp meeting revival. A small per-
centage of farmers have been brought
to the mourners' bench, and con-
siderable portion of them have back
slid, as converts have ever done.
Everybody says, THAT don't hit me;
that hits the other fellow" and he
goes on in his old rut.
1t is evident that the old methods
must be supplemented by something
new, and while it is not exactly true
to say that teaching the men through
the boys is new, yet applied to agri-
culture it is the keynote of many or
the plans which are now being laid
to crack the shell of the man who
thinks he knows it all because he
has been practicing his grandfather's
methods for nigh on to forty year.
AS valuable as the boys corn clubs
have been to the boys themselves, 1t
may be said that the men, who have
worked with the boys, who have sup
piled the prizes and given their coun-
sci and advice, have been even more
benefited than the boys themselves.
Man Partner for Each BOY.
Acting upon this principle the Crop
Improvement Committee of the Coun-
ell of Grain Exchanges has intro
duced many plans to put the boy up
against a real farmer, primarily for
advice, but really as factor in intro
ducing proper methods and eliminat-
ing the fallacies of the past.
1t is only a matter of time when all
of the rural schools will teach at
least elementary agriculture, and it is
only because the teachers themselves
have never been able to get regular
training that this course has not been
introduced long ago.
A Child for Each Farm.
Taking advantage of this condition,
the Crop Committee has succeeded in
getting a half million children to test
seed corn this year for termination,
and in most instances each pupil has
obtained his seed corn from differ
ent farmer.
There are about as many children
in an ordinary school district as there
are farmers, and sending the young
est child to father, older ones to
uncles, big brothers and grandfathers,
and others to neighbors who have no
children, for advice, we have estab-
Iished a line of communication be-
tween modern thought and ripened
experience, which is the first step in
winning the favor of the man who
honestly believes ne can still pick
seed corn by looking at it.
The story of how the preliminary
test is made in school, and how the
final test is made in the evening to
which all of the men partners have
been invited is very interesting. The
most important thing which has been
accomplished by this is that every
man sees his name on the blackboard
in comparison with the names of all
the other farmers in that school dis
trict, showing him conclusively just
where he stands among his neighbors
as a seed corn picker.
The pupil is encouraged to remain
in partnership with his own farmer,
and who can say but what the union
of boy and man is not the salvation
of the boy and the regeneration OF
the man?
Planting in Partnership.
The plans provide that this acre Oh
corn which has been tested in school
shall be planted in partnership, har-
vested in partnership, and introduced
the following spring in competition
as a Joint product of the man ard boy.
The beauty of this plan is that the
I,1H hoy re- hn Oa-
ment and has just as much chance
of winning a prize as the smart boy
who generally wins the prizes in corn
clubs, although such boy will win
out in life's battle in any event 1t is
the slow boy who needs the most at
tention. Laying all science aside, if
we could demonstrate to all those
below the average how those above
the average have succeeded, our prob
lem would become comparatively
simple.
Where Each Man Stands.
Now, therefore, we must make
every man realize just where he
stands in the agricultural equation;
how many there are who can beat
him raising corn or alfalfa or turnips
or anything else. How can we get
this information? Through the as
SCISSORS books? No! Our system of
taxation. has made Ananias and Sa-
phira look like amateurs.
We have already given every boy
a partner, and we furnish him with a
little blank on corn, on wheat, on
oats, on barley, on everything else
which makes up the yield of his
county. Each boy interviews his
partner How many acres of corn
did you put in in 1912" and, How
many bushels did you harvest from
those acres?" and after asking him a
few other pertinent questions he
takes these reports back to school
with him where the information SO
obtained becomes the foundation for
an arithmetic lesson, showing how
much more the successful ones gain
how ,,,oI,