The Liberal democrat. [volume] (Liberal, Kan.) 1911-1924, 1914-02-06
Let The Children Farm

vegetables used during the year.
Comparatively few lot owners in
towns and cities and villages grow
enough vegetables for summer use,
let alone growing anything for
canning. There ars enough waste
places on every farm to grow
vegetables for the years use.
There are enough idle lots in the
average Kansas town to supply
vegetables for great many fami-
lies. There are not half enough
flower gardens; we do not grow
half enough potatoes; not one
tenth of the tomatoes we eat.
The Agricultural College is try
ing totget twenty thousand boys
and girls interested in one or
more contests, including contests
in corn and kafir, growing poultry
and pig rising, bread and sewing
contests fruit and vegetable can
ming contests, etc., and teachers,
bankers, and everybody is urged
to get in the game" The College
will assist IN special campaigns
in a few counties where local COM
mittees are interested, paying half
of salary and expenses for about
a month for a local man or wom-
an to organize the boys and girls
The family garden" contest
ought to interest a great many
boys and girls. 1t calls for a plot
of ground 50x50 feet or 50xl00
feet. The tomato contest" is for
boys or girls, and each committee
is advised to make its own plans,
either one tenth acre or one rod
square, or committee may author
ize twenty-five plants, the girls
to plant as they choose, cultivate
carefully and can the tomatoes.
The College will send circulars
about the growing of vegetables
, and about canning fruit and vege-
, tables. Then there is the flower
garden" contest and the lawn
contest. Is there a village or 8
town in Kansas that could not be
made more beautiful by proper
handling of yards and lawns4
Why not start by organizing 6
tin can" contest and clean up
campaign and get the little ole
town clean9 Then get the schools
to organize contests until all the
boys and girls are enlisted in one
contest or another. Next October
each village and country and town
school should have an exhibit
day." and every child should be
encouraged to bring somthing he
or she has grown or made and the
whole town should visit the school.
An industrious boy or girl who
will use brains as well as tools
should grow in one season between
two and three hundred pounds of
vegetables for the table. OF course
crops must be in succession, from
lettuce and radishes in March to
turnips as late as August, and
there must be two or three of
certain staple vegetables. Every
foot of this tenth acre should be
producing somthing all the time.
These boys and girls contests
ought to have the help of all people
interested in building up our State.
Womens clubs and city officers
could we'll afford to get behind
this movement in the villages and
towns and do it now" Farmers
Institute officers, bankers, and
county superintendants are begin
ing to pnsh the contest work
among the boys aud girls of the
country. Why should not local
committees plan to send prize
winners in these contests in "A"
class (between Is and 81 years. to
the State Institute next winter
Pamphlets about all this work
may be had by addressing the
College Extension Division of the
Agricultural College at Manhattan.