KEEPING BOYS ON THE FARM
Keeping Boys on the Farm How the Wisconsin University is Interesting Young People in Practical Agriculture KEEP the boy on the farm? Yes, by all means. But how? How offset the lure of the city?...
...How satisfy the ambitious, aspiring boy with a career in the open fields...
...Professors at the Wisconsin College of Agriculture think so...
...These scholarships were sufficiently large to cover all the expenses of the prize-winning boy or girl in coming to Madison and spending a week at the College of Agriculture...
...At the county fairs there were 2,914 entries of ear corn, and 1,320 entries of corn stalks...
...Ira C. Copley defeated a reactionary in the Eleventh District...
...Hope for Illinois THEN the politicians of both parties began to sit up and take notice...
...and, second, to awaken an interest in the young people of the state in practical agriculture...
...Here were mere children conducting miniature experiment stations at home, using thoir muscles and their brains in producing seed that their parents, the following year, may put into the big fields...
...Forty-one delegates (Democrats) out of fifty-two constituting the convention, are pledged to these principles, and the people elected them upon these pledges by overwhelming majorities.—A...
...And the girl, too...
...Altogether the situation in Illinois is dull of hope for ultimate popular govern-ment...
...Twenty-one boys who had won scholarships in these contests came to Madison the following February to take the "boys' course...
...In 1908, 20 contests were held...
...By going to the polls on November 8 and voting for men who will represent us...
...Roosevelt says, we must abolish Privilege...
...Get the boys and girls ten to eighteen years of age interested in practical agriculture," reasoned Professor Ransom A. Moore, "and the rest will be easy...
...C. Baker in Equity...
...The Richland Center and Spring Green fairs were the first to respond...
...Select seed was furnished to 8480 boys and girls...
...Is there an answer...
...This year (1909) 42 contests were held...
...But how arouse their interest...
...We feel that it will be instrumental in keeping many boys upon the farm who would otherwise drift to the cities...
...Barley growing had been added to the contest, so there were 1,048 entries of barley...
...or, if there are no candidates that represent us, then we must defeat those representativs, regardless of party, who have shown by their records that they represent not us, but—Privilege.—Frederic C. Howe in Everybody's...
...Not content with waiting until the boy is of University age, the College of Agriculture is reaching out to get hold of him when he is most pliable...
...That the Initiative and Referendum and Recall will be written into the constitution of Arizona is a foregone conclusion...
...Governor Deneen is in a position to become the progressive leader of Illinois and if he does so his state will give him such support that within a few years he will be as big a figure in the Nation as he now is in the State...
...Getting the Boys Interested THIS was his idea: Hold grain growing contests among young people on the farms...
...He saw a small army of young people—boys and girls from ten to eighteen years of age—using little patches of their fathers' farms on which to grow high grade seed corn...
...Professor Moore was encouraged...
...Professor Moore is a whole ways and means committee in one, when ideas are needed...
...It required 186 bushels of seed—corn and barley—to carry on the 1909 contests...
...It consisted of one week's instruction in seed testing and corn judging, inspection of the buildings and animals, and class "Get the boys and girls ten to eighteen years of age interested in practical agriculture, and the rest will be easy...
...but sufficient seed was given out by the agronomy department to conduct 50 contests and to supply 20,000 young people...
...As the twig is bent, so is the tree inclined," they are told...
...And he had an idea he could get the boys and girls interested...
...Get the county superintendent to assist in securing applicants from the rural schools for the contest...
...room talks by experts...
...we must repeal all the privileges that are created by law...
...A less resourceful person than Professor Moore might have found this a baffling problem...
...In that year about 450 boys took part in the contests...
...As side lights on the progressive movement in Illinois it is worthy of note that Congressman Henry S. Boutell was repudiated at the primaries by his Republican constituents...
...Send the Winners to College IN 1909 Professor Moore expanded his idea...
...It Wasn't play farming...
...The county fair prizes offered a stimulus...
...Looks that way, doesn't it...
...It was held in February when the farmers and farmers' wives come to Madison to attend the ten-days' course...
...It was he who developed seed corn especially adapted to Wisconsin, and then took his seed to the farmer and got him to plant it...
...There was a two-fold purpose in this...
...Let the agronomy department of the College of Agriculture furnish select seeds and rules of the contest to the contestants—without cost ts them...
...Data for 1910 is not available yet...
...Instead of giving money for first prizes', the county fair management was induced to substitute scholarships...
...Result: two ears where formerly one grew...
...With only about a month within which to secure 117,000 signatures of each of these petitions, they were filed within the time limited by law with 20,000 signatures more than were needed—a circumstance at once significant of the effectiveness of the Committee of Seven and of the intelligence and responsive-of the electorate of Illinois...
...the spirit of rivalry aroused enthusiasm...
...The College sf Agriculture furnished 52 bushels of seed to carry on the contests that year...
...Experiments in horticulture have shown them that a tree may be inclined in any direction if it is taken in hand early enough...
...But he didn't...
...Under the leadership of Governor Deneen it adopted the best platform either party has written in Illinois in a generation, a progressive platform that will win the support of the independent, progressive •citizens of Illinois, regardless of party...
...So the scholarship feature was added...
...Professor Moore puts it this way—"First, to disseminate more widely the select seed grains...
...Why not bring the winners to the College and give them a glimpse of the big things that are being done in agriculture...
...Professor Moore arranged a special course for the occasion...
...That is a long process, and necessarily a slow one, but we can begin it now...
...The Star...
...but practical, scientific agriculture...
...How instill the love of farm life...
...and better corn at that...
...Why not incline the boy toward farming by the same process...
...The American regarded the card for some moments, then took out his fountain pen, wrote 'Admit bearer' above the engraved line and went off to the theater...
...Have the county fairs set aside funds with which to pay cash prizes to the winners, and have the awards made by competent fudges...
...Really in control of his party organization in Illinois for the first time, he was sponsor for, if he did not actually write, the Republican state platform, a fact that augurs well that he may assume a real popular leadership which his record, his ability and capacity admirably qualify him for...
...At the county fairs there were 1,261 entries of ear corn, and 949 entries of corn stalks...
...The Bepublicans and Democrats in their State platforms declared for the three propositions of the Peoria Conference...
...And that is what is being done, in Wisconsin...
...Congressman W. W. Wilson was renominated on a progressive, anti-Cannon platform...
...Now we see that, as Mr...
...One contest in each county...
...We used to think that the remedy was to put somebody into jail to levy a twenty-nine million dollar fine, or to change some charter or amend some law...
...His plan was working...
...SATISFACTION "THE most amusing story of an American in France that I ever heard," said a recently appointed attache to the French embassy, "is this: "A well known French actor became involved in a discussion with an American, grew heated, drew his card from his pocket, threw it on the table with a tragic air and stalked out...
...Approximately 12, 000 young people were given seed...
...That was in 1907...
...Says Professor Moore: "The Young People's Contests have created a widespread interest for the betterment of farm seeds and have made a deep impression upon a large number of boys and girls of Wisconsin at that period of life when it is most essential to learn some of the beauties connected with farm life...
...The Republican party did more...
...and John C. McKenzie won the Republican nomination as a progressive in the Thirteenth District...
Vol. 2 • October 1910 • No. 43
