Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1912-08-15
NORTH DAKOTA won
FROM y STATES
PROUD OF SHOWING MADE IN
COMPETITION WITH OTHER
AGRICULTURAL STATES.

North Dakota can we'll be proud
of winning that cup" said Senator
Wesley Mcdowell, in an utterance
regarding the cup won at the bank
ers' and educators conference in
St. Paul.
'The state made remarkable
showing" continued Mr. Mcdowell,
There were twenty-five states COM
peting, but the most active competi-
tors were Minnesota, Illinois, 1ndi-
ana, Kansas and Nebraska.
"P. A. Pickett of Leal presented
the argument for North Dakota, US
ing a system of charts and his show
ing was so good l would like the
people of the state to hear some
thing about it.
"Of course the biggest single
showing made by the state was the
great work of the Better Farming
association. Mr.. Pickett showed
how the business men of the entire
state had united in backing the
movement and how it had the active
support of the bankers.
Then Mr.. Pickett proved that
North Dakota has some of the best
laws in the United States for the de-
velopment Of practical education.
He mentioned the law which conf
pels the teaching of agriculture.
Another law makes teaching of ag-
riculture in the normal schools
necessity, and there were other laws
mentioned to show that the state
realized that it's most important as
set is agriculture and that it is
training it's boys along lines which
will make them really useful citi-
Zens.
"He made strong showing for
the great work that the agricultural
college is doing, telling of the spec
ial farm trains that have been run,
the institute schools that have been
held, and showed that it was the
only state in the Union where the
citizens voluntarily paid for better
farming training.
The Better Farming association
now has twenty-five men in the field
and is organized in fourteen coun-
M~ DinL toll
phasized the bringing of the eighty
nine boys for an encampment at the
state fair and showed what interest
and enthusiasm this aroused
throughout the state.
''He spoke of the rural aid for
school laws which encouraged the
country schools to take up agricul-
tural education, told of the five ag-
ricultural high schools of the state,
drawing $4,000 apiece from the
state for teaching, maintaining
separate department for agriculture,
told of the corn contests last year in
which 1900 boys were entered, and
of the prizes for corn growing con-
tests given by the banks, notably
the $1,000 prize given by the First
National bank of Fargo.
Another thing which he men
toned was the giving of three schol-
arships to the A. c. by the Third Ju-
dicial District Banking association,
including Cass, Trail and Steele
counties.
The North Dakota Bankers asso-
citation distributed $4,000 bulletins
regarding good plowing and 10000
bulletins regarding rotation of crops
last year.
"A somewhat amusing incident
came up when Minnesota laid great
stress on the number of consolidat-
ed schools in that state. The state
ment was made that in the eleven
years prior to last year, only nine
consolidated schools were organized
and that now the state has sixty
schools. This seemed like a good
showing until Mr.. Pickett showed
that North Dakota has ninety-six
consolidated schools, all organized
in the past few years.
1T made the North Dakota dele
cation feel like doing some yelling
when it was announced that this
state was the winner, taking into
consideration that the population Of
the entire state is only little more
than that Of the Twin Cities in Min
nesota.
"The judges were President San
derson Of the West Virginia Agricul-
tural college, President soule of the
Georgia Agricultural college, and
kr. .Woodside Of, South Carolina.