Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-07-27

calf to endollar gold piece and knew that here was
the girl who would illustrate what her sex doing in
clubwork throughout the United States.
s. asked the specialist for the story OF this girl.
Here it is:
garden and canning clubwork in Kentucky. The State
Fair, business organizations, and private individuals
jumped in and welcomed the effort by offering many
prizes to girls who complied with the governments
official outlines for this work.
Everybody was talking about it. Many wondered
if any girl the farm could make such showing
people said would be made when the prizes award
ed And among those who heard of this work was little
Mertie Hardin, who lives near Camden. She believed
that she could raise tomatoes and other vegetables just
as we'll as man could. And as to canning and pre-
serving things-well, Merte had her ideas as to
what she could do
aIm going into this work." she told the home folks.
Don't worry about how III get the time for it. Just
let do it in my own way.
So with will she set to- She had to have cold frames
to start her tomato plants There none that she
might use; SO she built her own frames She made her
her own hands And she cultivated the patch too.
Onetenh of acre it Each step she took IN &C
codance with the printed instructions furnished her by
the Department of Agriculture.
Pretty people began to stop on their way past
her garden and wonder just how much OF yield the
girl would make for the vines didn't look like ordinary
thrifty strong, and heavily laden with fruit about them
But Mertie said nothing.
And when she had harvested her crop, sold it, and
canned the surplus, she showed what little
with will and way could do What did she do? This
Made net profit Of $1O7.40 from this LILO acre of
tomatoes. And because she made such profit and
Weld she won the prize trip to Columbia, South Caro-
na during the time when the National Corn Show
in full blast. One week she stayed there with all her
expenses paid.
Mertie thought she knew thing two about
nng but she tried herself in this She sent to the
State Fair of Kentucky the best exhibit of fresh and
canned vegetables displayed there For this the fair
gave her thoroughbred Jersey calf In addition she
gave them the whole story of her work with the toma
toes in daintily prepared manuscript entitled "How
l Made My Crop" Her canned tomato products num-
bered sixty-six.
Altogether she had one hundred and twenty-six diff
ferent kinds of canned food products exhibition
and she did them all herself. She wasn't at all selfish
the whole secret of her One entitled The
Life History of the Tomato; another, Garden and
Canning Arithmetic; then, Tomato Recipes" They
gave her cut glass bowl for of these manuscripts
Just to show them that her fingers quick
her brain, and accurate, she entered contest IN
labelling tin filled with food products. In ten
minutes she had the largest number labeled and took
back home with her pair of Indian ducks for
her trouble. The State Fair also gave her ireess
best, and for which this cooker offered. And if
not mistaken there ten-doar gold pieces
she took as prizes with her ducks cooker calf bowl.
Other girls have done nearly well Mere. Other
boys have done as we'll as Lester Bryant. The move
ment grows each day; the ranks swelling Give
them chance, these boys and girls to show the stuff
that's in them All they ask is a chance. Big-hearted
Uncle Sam has read this in their faces and hearts He
pats them the back, and doesn't lie awake nights
wondering what is to become of his abandoned farms"
For his faith is planted in the generation