American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1915-06-10
HOW TWO GIRLS WON A PRIZE

We are two girls, fourteen and sixteen, attend
ing our local high school, which is a sub-school of
the state agricultural college. At our fathers re-
quest we have taken agriculture two years, and
liked it just fairly well until the experiment 1 am
going to tell you about, and since then 1t has been
our favorite subject.
Last spring the agronomist requested each pu-
Pill to secure a piece of ground, not exceeding one
half acre and grow something with a view to the
commercial part and hand in a written report not
later than October LIST.
Mr.. Enthusiast, Wen call him that, visited the
class and upon learning of the plan said he would
duplicate the largest amount any pupil could earn,
the pupil doing all the work or paying for 1t out
OF the proceeds.
We were all greatly interested. The majority
Immediately decided on corn, either sweet or field
corn; one boy took celery, another white beans,
and the rest, excepting ourselves, potatoes. We
had a hard time deciding on anything. Being the
only girls in the class we naturally wanted to
make a good, If not the best showing.
We studied our text books and read all the farm
papers we could get hold Of and then settled on
melons. They always brought a good price es-
pecially il they were early, and this we intended
to make our chief point.
We selected the earliest variety of seed we could
find and asked father for a piece of ground on
the south side of a forty foot machine shed. This
had not raised anything more than a luxuriant
growth OF weeds in several years.
Work on Seed Bed.
We measured off a plot forty feet square and
then spent one entire Saturday in raking and burn
Ing the IIter tnat naQ accumulated. Inc next
Saturday father allowed the man to take the team
and work half a day under our direction. The
first thing he hauled a load Of well rotted manure
and then plowed the land twelve inches deep; ov-
or this he scattered a small load Of hog manure
and then narrowed it several times. This gave us
q nice melon-seed bed.
We had gathered up all the boxes and nail kegs
We could find several days before and now re-
moved both top and bottom and sunk them to q
depth Of six inches in the soil, then banked them
to the top and planted our seeds on the eighteenth
Of April. which is very early for North Dakota. We
had twenty hills and put in a liberal supply Of
raddish seed to discourage the different pests that
enjoy feeding on young vines.
At night we covered the boxes with sacks COW
sring them securely at the corners so there was no
risk of blowing off.
The soil was warm and contained plenty of
moisture and in less than a week our seeds were
up. We pulled all but four plants in each hill.
Their growth was rapid and in a short time we
had a box full Of leaves and vines and began to
fear we had planted too early.
The second week in May we were visited by a
cold, sleety rain, that later turned to snow and
then we had to don coats and rubbers and get busy.
We placed several thicknesses Of newspaper on
top Of the sacks and then a generous armful Of
straw on top and around the boxes.
The storm lasted three days and 1t was three
more before we considered 1t was fit to remove the
covering; then with fear and trembling we COM
menced. Not one hill had been damaged, In fact
they had thrived. Perhaps not as much as with
sunshine. but they had taken on less of a hot house
appearance.
We began hardening them by leaving off the
covering nights and then removed the wall on
the south side and smoothed back the litter. A
few days later, the east side, etc.
The vines blossomed on the 26th Of May Just
about the time other people were sowing their
seeds. The 18th Of May we pulled and sold IL
punches Of radishes. also presented the agrono-
mist and Mr.. Enthusiast with a generous bunch.
The ninth OF July we found two ripe melons;
one was presented to Mr.. Enthusiast and the other
to the agronomist, who pronounced them the larg-
est they had ever seen grown In the state, and their
flavor was excellent.
The twelfth Of July we began sending to the To-
cal market and they sold like "hot cakes" as the
old expression goes.
The report we handed in early In September read
like this: