The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1915-09-10
BOY FARMERS IN
THE UNITED STATES

There was a time when boys wer,
, relegated to back seats and told the,
} must be seen but not heard. Tha
, day is passed now and boys, lik,
!, their mothers and sisters are comm,
to be very much in evidence. 1t /,
now boys brigade. and boy scouts
and even boy farmers. Just few
years ago VIII Orwell, a live wire
farmer up in Macoupin county, Iii
nois. conceived the idea that if hi
could get the ear of the boys of thai
State he could transform the whole
farming proposition. Instead Of
the farmer boys all running off to
town as soon as a mustache sprouted
and leaving the farm forever, he
proposed to turn the tide of affairs
and have town young men turn their
faces farmward.
First of all he began the publica
tion of farm boy paper. Then he
arranged for round up of the boys
In his own county. In year or two
he extended the round up to the boys
of other states, and they rode hun
Greds of miles, those wide-awake
farmer boys, to be present. 1t was
sight well worth seeing. But what
1t all stood for was better than the
mere seeing. 1t meant that the farm
er boy of that Western country had
come to the front and there he would
stay henceforth.
About. the same time to Govern
ment officials at WASHINGTON began
to realize that if the boys could be
induced to take hold of single acre
and demonstrate just what could be
done on it, pace would he set which
the fathers would be forced to follow
and that thus great advances in the
matter of farm production would be
made. And so the one-acre boy
farmer came into existence, and
what he has done is not only a oen-
uine surprise, but it has been really
marvellous.
Here as few samples: Arnet
hose, a boy in Ohio, won the honor
OF being the champion corn raiser in
the. State two years in succession.
growing 1871 and 1853 bushels on his
acre ach year respectively. But the
work of the boy farmer was not CON
fined to Northern or Western seq
tions. 1t spread southwark, and Jer-
ry Moore, of South Carolina, grew
o2S bushels of corn on his acre farm.
That was going some for old China.
and it stirred up the boys and their
fathers not only in his own state but
all over the whole of North Ameri
ca I'm 1911 fifty-two boys in Geor-
gia received diplomas for growing
more than 100 bushels of corn on
their acre farms. And, listen. the
average yield of the State that year
on the farms of the fathers was only
16 bushels.
In 1913 Alabama came to the
front and Walker Lee Dunson. of
Alexandria,, became the champion
corn grower of America with a rec
ord of 1927 bushels off his acre. In
IVA Carl Graves, of $3.50, Mississi- !
ppi. produced 2O2 bushels on his
acre. To show how widespread has
become this matter of boy farming
in the South it may be stated that
last year 334 boys in the fifteen
Southern States grew more than 100 |
bushels of corn each on his acre
farm. In Georgia last year there
were 5000 boy corn growers who
averaged en- masse fifty-eight /
bushels. of corn to the acre. Former. !
ly the average yield was only is
bushels
Trese big crops by the farmers has
had wide and very potent influence
on the fathers of the South. In South
carolina, for instance, within three
years after Jerry Moore had grown
his monster crop of 22S bushels on
one acre, the corn crop of that State
from seventeen million bush
els to fifty million.
Another splendid thin which
Grew out of all this and which is
helping along the cause of boy farm
FRS Is Corn Clubs. All over the
country they are forming corn and
canning clubs, the one for the BOYS
and the other for the girls. In both
The youth of the country should he
encouraged as much as possible The
Roy and the girl have proved their
proficiency. therefore give them all
Inc assistance ossible.-Gainesyii
sun.
which compelled him to sacrifice his
career and his great distinction he.