The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1915-03-04
The Board of Trade Banquet.

The Board of Trade banquet in Memorial
Hall last Friday evening was success in every
particular. About the hall were posters bear
Ing the following sentiments
"We are working for bigger buster Bel
fast"
Fifty new members have Joined the Board
of Trade"
"Blow for the Belfast Board of Trade"
"One hundred per cent. gain in membership
Help the Boys Clubs by joining the Board
of Trade"
III you are not member, ask Mr.. Dckey.'
I'VE want 100 more members, will YOU be
one of the hundred?"
On the tables. which were most attractive
with floral decorations, covers were laid for 100
and every seat was occupied. Rev. haraden S.
PEARL pastor of the North Congregational
! church, offered prayer, and the ladies of the
North church. who catered, then served 8
menu of cold meats, escaloped clams hot
rolls, cake, doughnuts and coffee. Mrs, John
W. Jones and Mrs. Charles NJ Craig had charge
and were assisted by Mrs. R. F. Dunton, Miss
Margaret A. Duntoa, Mrs. E. J. Morrison, Miss
Belle Mathews, Mrs Charles W. Atkins, Mrs.
Shaw, Mrs. Clarence O. Poor, Miss Julia
Perry, Mrs. Fred R. Poor, Mrs Herbert E.
Seekins. Mrs. Frank E. and Miss Bertha A.
Wiley. Mrs. Charles A. Pilsbury, Mrs. W. L.
West, Mrs. Mary c. Mansfield, Mrs. Della l..
Limeburner. Mrs. John R. Dunton, Misses
Anne and Helen M. Kittredge, Mrs. Harry L.
hllgore, Mrs. w. F, Weshe, Miss Margaret L.
Keene. Mrs. Maine Hills, Mrs. Jes sic S. Pat
tee, Mrs. Harold Hayford, Misses Annette
Holt and Marguerite Owen.
The table at which the officers the guests
and the toastmaster were seated was parallel
with the stage, the other tables running
lengthwise of the hall, so that all could face
the speakers. McKeen's orchestra, stationed
on the stage played during the banquet and at
Intervals during the talk that followed
DIR. West opened the post prandial exercises
with few appropriate remarks and then call
ed upon Charles R. Coombs, the newly elected
president of the Belfast Board of Trade, who
said, in part:
I'VE are entering upon new of unim
tied possibilities and the opportunities of Wal
90 county, and of the whole State of Maine,
were never better, but we must endeavor to
better the conditions and way to bring
this about will be to encourage a better and
more general cultivation of the soil. We can
not realize. and can hardly believe. that in
Maine and Waldo county we have to be thank
full for one the most desirable spots on Gods
footstool to call our home. We have passed
through period of depression, but it is to be
followed by The tide of prosperity and no
place more than Belfast and Waldo county
will reap greater benefits when they ride back
on the crest of the returning wave. We must
have the spirit of unity and good fellowship.
We must get together and pull together for
our business interests and then stand ready to
help Belfast and her industries We want
many more new members in the Board of
Trade, but we want you to come forward and
join of your own free will and accord, and
united in this organization. let US help to make
Belfast bigger and better and put it on the
map where it belongs"
DIR. West then introduced Prof. Ralph P.
Mitchell of the Agricultural department OF
the University of Maine, and the head of the
! Boys Agricultural Clubs of Maine, managed
by the University. Prof. Mitchell said that he
was born and brought up farm and knew
of the desires, longings and limitations of the
lads of the isolated, rural communities The
purpose of the Boys Clubs is to give them the
cooperation which they lack and which their
city cousins have naturally and through the
many organizations, clubs, Y NJ {. A, etc.
The clubs make for better communities in
every way ,and in States where they have been
most successful schoolhouses, better roads
and better conditions in every way have been
| the result. The movement was started in 1898
under the auspices of Cornell University and
has spread until there clubs in nearly every
State in the Union 10000 boys being enrolled
in the Southern States alone. The record for
largest yield is held by an Alabama lad, IA
years old, who raised 231 bushels of shell
beans acre. This is the worlds record
The movement was started in Maine in 1918,
but owing to the lateness of the season not
much was done until 1914. There are now 27
clubs in ten counties, with total of 300 boys
enrolled. The highest yield of potatoes in the
! State last year, was made in Waldo county by
John Hobbs, Jr.. member of the Boys Agri-
cultural Club, who raised 573 bushels TO the
acre ,at the cost of 13 cents a bushel. The
Boys Clubs in Maine were started in 1918, and
are now located in ten counties. The average
State yield from Boys Clubs have beeen 343l
bushels of potatoes to the acre, and Master
| Raymond Hall of Brooks was a close second to
| Master Hobbs with record of $40 bushels to
the acre. Plans for boys clubs in thisState under
the direction of the University of Name are
worked along two lines. the poultry club and
the potato club. The poultry club for boys has
the greatest outlook and is the most remuner-
alive to the producer, showing return of
s. 35 to each dollar, while the growing of sheep
shows return of but 81 cents on the dollar.
Poultry products are always readily turned in
to money.
Belfast is to be represented in this work, the
Belfast Board of Trade, having pledged 5000
for prizes to he awarded under direction of
the University of Maine. The clubs will be
organized and supervised by Prof Mitchell,
and are made uI of six or more boys, who form
what is known as the local club. They have
meetings at stated intervals and are under the
supe rvision of some practical man as guide
The next is a general club, in which boys in
remote communities where there are not
enough toaform local club, can become mem
| bar, Tban coy, as he County cIuh uada n,, Of