The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1916-06-17
BY MELVIN RYDER.

d ~ boy tell over a thousand farmers now
S2 they ought to go about raising corn
lAT and wheat in order to get three and
four times as large yields per acre at much less
cost per bushel and much greater profits per acre.
The secret of the success of the boys and girls
club work and the dozen different projects which
the farmers Of the future are carrying on so
successfully is to be found in Governor Willis
hve-worded remark. The boys who are showing
the men how to farm are the heroes of the agri-
cultural world Of today. They are the evangelists
who are carrying the gospel of better farming into
every section of the state and showing their ia.
theirs and mothers how to farm better and how to
live better on the farms.
The United States department of agriculture is
in charge Of this work. Their experts have built
up a national organization with each state and
county as a unit, and their paid agents are In
charge of the details of organization and tabula.
ton OF all the work that has been done and is to
be done. The season of 1916 is now under way,
and even the most optimistic in charge hesitate
to predict how far the boys and girls will go
before the seasons results are known in solving
the problems before the farmers of today and
leading these same farmers into the bigger and
happier farming life that is possible through the
use of better methods and the gaining of better
crops of higher quality and market value.
NOT many years ago a Southern lad, Jerry
Moore startled the entire country by growing
more corn on one acre than many farmers are
now growing on ten acres. Newspapers and maya.
NS NOhhNAJ vi us
excellent work, and predicted that farmers would
find that they might also grow larger and better
quality crops If they would follow his methods.
They did not realize until after the next season
Just what this boys achievement was worth to
the country, not until they learned that the entire
South was following Jerry Moore and growing
more corn that sold for millions of dollars.
Each year the work of the boys and girls has
grown, and the end is farther than ever away.
The boys have been specializing in growing crops
nnd live ut1Olr ~ -;I1 L. 81
ming farm products and studying home eco
Monies and better home-life. In numbers the boys
and girls are several times greater than the stand
ing army of the United States. In enthusiasm they
are far ahead of any other organized body in the
world. In Importance and in recorded results the
world has never seen the equal of the same boys
and girls. And the season of 1916 has Just opened
the season that is certain to double or triple in
results the last and greatest season of 1915.
To best understand what the boys and girls
found when they started their work, it is neces-
sary to look back through the centuries and see
how the science of farming began. The occupa-
ton Of farming is one OF the oldest in the history
of the world. When men knew little else, they
knew how to plant seed and reap a harvest that
was sufficient for their daily needs. During many
centuries, the farmer was a plodder, who worked
that he and his family might exist. Probably he
found little Joy and happiness in his work. The
production of life in a seed was g mystery to him,
and he accepted the mystery without trying to
solve 1t. 1t was enough that the plant grew and
produced fruit, and the early farmer never asked
himself how he could treat his soil and the seed
so that it would produce twofold instead of one.
There was plenty of land, and so when one field
did not produce we'll, he moved to another field or
region, and did not bother about the first area.
There came a time, however, when his soil be-
came barren in great areas. The seed no longer
grew as it had and the plants were weak and
the fruit of little value. Then it was that science
stepped in and the really scientific farming had a
start. Science showed that soil that had been
cropped until it was partly worn out could be re-
stored to its productive ability by the return of
the elements that had been removed. Science
showed the farmer that the soil was a live thing
and that the life in the soil must be maintained.
It examined the roots Of the plants and studied
the way that the plant transforms the raw ma.
terials in the soil into the finished product of the
fruit of the plant. 1t found that some plants had
nodules on their roots that were filed with BAG
terra which had the power to take up nitrogen
from the air. and it found many other truths that
have since been the basis for much of the work
done by agricultural teachers.
During the last ten years the advance of the
science of farming has been very rapid, but the
practical application by the farmers of the prin
ciples and practices that have been proved valu
able has not kept pace with the discoveries. 1t il
the boys and girls who are catching up, and there
in is the explanation of the results that they hav,
been getting. Their parents might have done thu
same things, but they did not. The boys who ar,
growing corn started where their fathers left OF
and put into practice the teaching that the father
considered impractical theories. In most case
the parents kept their hands of, so far as tn,
boys acres were concerned. Many of them wer
? suspicious of the entire work. and were conren
to let their boys enter because they thought tina
r would be the best way for the young 'uns" to b