The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-03-22
Small Army of School Children
Will Cultivate Gardens.
Business Organizations Are In
tereSted in the Plan.
PRIZES WILL BE OFFERED
Best Amateur Farmers Will
Receive Valuable Rewards.
Two Hundred Dollars Has Al
ready Been Pledged.

A small army of Topeka school
! children will become amateur farm
ers this spring. Unsightly back yards
and vacant lots will be utilized as
garden spots.
1t is estimated that between three
and four thousand youngsters-boys
and girls-will put on their old clothes
after school hours and cultivate the
soil.
The experiment. last year made by
proved a success. Keen interest was
shown in the exhibition of produce
that was held at the manual training
building last September. Fifteen
hundred students entered the cOmpe-
tition for over ninety dollars in prizes.
This year the Topeka Real Estate
Dealers association, the Topeka Com
mercial club and the Women's Com
which has as its object the beautifica-
ton of Topeka and the giving of use
full and remunerative employment to
thousands of Topeka children.
Will Raise $500.
An effort will be made to raise $500
for distribution in prizes among the
youngsters that are most successful in
the growing of vegetables and flowers.
A new plan will probably be adopted,
however. Instead of having just one
contests at the individual schools in
Topeka And in each contest enough
prizes of a sufficiently tempting char
acter will be offered to assure a large
the winners in these contests will be
eligible to compete in a general con-
test in a general exhibition that will
probably be held in the manual train
ing building the latter part of Septem-
Der.
The Commercial club has subscribed
one hundred dollars to be used in
prizes and the Clearinghouse Realty
company has pledged the same
amount, which the firm has requested
to have divided into eight different
prizes, the largest of which is to be
$35. The eight prizes are for the best
gardens of given dimensions.
Wilmington in Charge.
G. H. Wilmington, instructor in ag-
riculture at the high school, will have
general supervision of the home gar
den work up to the time of the close
of the school. It is hoped by those
pushing tn projct to procure enough
money to employ the services of a
supervisor throughout the summer in
order to keep up the interest in gar
dening. Last year out of the fifteen
hundred persons that entered the con-
test in the spring only about two hun
dred and sixty children stuck to it
to the finish.
All the work will be done under the
general direction of c. c. Starr, su-
perintendent of city schools. An eff
fort will be made Immediately to pro-
cure the cooperation of the teachers
and parents of the children in the en-
terprise.
Organization Formed.
An organization composed of mem
bers of the Topeka Commercial club,
the Topeka Real Estate Dealers as
ISOLATION and the Women'S CONNER
cial club has been formed to raise the
required funds, and to push the work
in other ways The president of this
organization is N. COover' secretary
of the Topeka Real Estate Dealers
association, and the secretary is Mrs.
Helen /. Francis of the Women's
Commercial club.
n1edee for the arden nronos;tion and
they will probably do the same this
season. They strongly favor the plan,
as they are of the opinion that it will