EDITORIAL 



This is the season of state and county fairs, institutes, conv 

 carnivals, and similar educational festivals of the harvest time. 



During the last decade the boys of the entire 

 A Possible Evil: country have been enlisted in the movement 

 Prize Contests f or better crops, and in many states this has 



taken the form of prize contests in corn grow- 

 ing. Often the awards reach extravagant sums. We have 

 learned of several instances where, in a town or city of very 

 modest size, a total of $700 or more has been offered for the 

 various exhibits of corn and other crops grown by individuals 

 of the locality and for exhibits of cooking and sewing by mothers 

 and daughters. While much good has come from the forces" 

 stimulted into activity through these means, an excessively large 

 sum offered, for example, for the ''best ten ears of corn grown 

 by a boy under fifteen years of age", frequently drawn out the 

 bad as well as the good in the boy. Ten, twenty-five or fifty 

 dollars in cash, offered under circumstances which allow dis- 

 honesty, is sufficient to tempt the honor of almost any youth. Tt 

 is a simple matter to pick ten ears from his father's best field of 

 corn. It is still simpler to have father do both the growing and 

 the picking. Uncle's assistance may be called in ; likewise, uncle's 

 corn. There is often no check on such strivings toward glory and 

 coin. While more modest prizes under careful supervision may 

 do much good, we venture the assertion that the council of the 

 American Nature-Study Society could devise a far better means 

 of spending a portion of the funds when they run into the 

 hundreds of dollars. 



As we approach the close of the year, we request our mem- 

 bers to indicate as promptly as possible their intention of renewing 



their membership, and it will facilitate matters 

 Renewal of f re cord if members will attend to it before the 



Membership first of January. To new members joining (or 



new subscriptions received) before January I, 

 the December (1910) issue will be sent free. 



