The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1913-09-25
FOSTER COUNTY
CORN CONTEST
SOME VALUABLE POINTERS RE.
CElVED IN THE BIG CONTEST
THAT HAS JUST BEEN CON-
cLUDED AT DARLINGTON --
MUCH FINE SEED SAVED.

The commercial club Of Darlington
conducted a corn contest for Foster
county last spring. The conditions
were that each contestant should grow
a field of at least five acres of corn.
Prizes were secured, the first being
$50 in cash, n the other prizes in
Guided merchandise, such as corn
planters, harness. suit of clothes, 100
pounds of alfalfa seed. bushel of seed
corn, groceries, articles of clothing,
a~ggregating In the total over twenty.
The judging of the corn was done
on Sept. 20, % and "a. This was quite
a task as the corn fields were scatter
ed over the whole county, SO it was
necessary to do a lot of driving. The
judging was done by w. c. Palmer OF
the agricultural college. Mr.. Palmer,
who returned to Fargo yesterday,
found that the corn fields We're, most
Of them, very good. Some of them
were exceptionally fine.
One Of the great drawbacks was the
securing of seed corn. In many cases
this had been secured from seedmen
and had been grown too far south to
mature soon enough TO make the best
quality Of corn. Where the seed had
been secured in the state and especial
ly where it had been grown on tile
farm the results were the best. These
farmers are all saving a nice lot Of
seed corn so that they will be well
fixed in this respect next year, IN
fact most of them are saving enough
seed to last for two years.
Another difficulty is to continue Gull
tiVation long enough. When haying
and harvesting start in they demand
all the labor sc there is no more time
to put on the corn field. Even if it is
cladn ut fhia fin1n fharn ic 1hor,oa for.
considerable weeds to grow ron this
time on. 1t was also quite apparent
that it was much more difficult to keep
the corn clean when it was sown in
rows than when put in hills so that it
could be cultivated both ways.
The prize winners in. the contest
were, First, Mrs. Montgomery; second,
Thomas Lutz; third, Calvin Hiatt;
fourth, A. 0. Snyder.
The distribution of the prizes was
arranged as follows: The one that has
first prize had first choice OF the prizes,
the one getting second prize had second
choice, and so on. In this way the
different parties would be- more apt
to secure the prize that would be the
most useful.
This corr contest has created a great
deal of Interest in corn growing, and
it has demonstrated that corn can be
. " L tSAASA 1 1ASAAS 5NSSSSo IA TIL
parts of the country.
1t is also interesting in this con-
nection to note that the commercial
club a arranged for another corn
contest for next year. The prizes have
all been secured INT are being adver-
tized. The Darlington Commercial
club has also arranged an alfalfa on
test which comes off next year. In
going about the corn judging some of
these alfalfa fields were seen. The
enc on Mr.. Montgomery's farm was
particularly fine. This was sown in
drills about July /, this year, and ut
the present time is almost a perfect
stand and the plants are heavily load
ed with seed. Mr.. G. S. Newberry
has an eleven acre field of alfalfa that
was sown last year.. This year he
secured two cuttings and the alfalfa
now stands over a foot high. 1t is q
fine stand over the whole field and
gives a splendid demonstration of the
success with which alfalfa can be
grown.
The committee hat had the corn
contest in charge are W. +. Moore,
T. M. Putnam, w. e. Hopes and G.. S.
Newberry. Mr.. NeWberry had charge
of judging the corn and accompanied
the judge on the whole trip. Mr.. Put
nam was along part of the time. This
committee deserves a great deal Of
credit for the energetic way in which
they have carried or this corn and
alfalfa contest. Corn, and alfalfa are
two crops that will do more for the
state than wheat, and when these
crops are made a part of the farm
rotation crop production will be great
ly increased and also made more indie
pendent of the season.