2/4 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



ESSAYS 



By members of Boys' Potato Clubs, for twenty-five dollar 

 prize offered by J. A. Roberts and C. R. Leland. 



Prof. R. P. Mitchell: Just a word of introduction in 

 regard to the Boys' Potato Club work, as perhaps some of you 

 may not be familiar with it. The Boys' Club work is a new 

 institution in this state. It started a year ago in August, and 

 we are just completing the first year's records. The club is an 

 organization of boys between the ages of ten and eighteen years 

 for the growing of some specific crop. In this state the crops 

 are potatoes and poultry. Records are to be kept of every per- 

 formance in the producing of the product, whether potatoes or 

 poultry. They must keep an account of the cost of plowing, 

 cultivating, harrowing, fertilizing and spraying, — all the opera- 

 tions that come into the production. With poultry the cost of 

 feed must be kept, and everything that goes into the growing 

 of poultry. Any^ boy in the State of Maine between the ages of 

 ten and eighteen years is eligible to become a member of a Boys' 

 Agricultural Club. The Maine Seed Improvement Association 

 this year offered two sets of prizes. It offered three prizes for 

 the best exhibitsi of potatoes, aggregating twenty-five dollars 

 and Commissioner J. A. Roberts and Secretary C. R. Leland 

 ofifered twenty-five dollars for the three best essays on "How I 

 Intend to Grow My Crop Next Year." We have with us the 

 three boys who won the prizes, who will now read their essays. 



HOW I SHALL HANDLE MY CROP NEXT YEAR. 



By Albert R. Lincoln, Dennysville. 



(Prize Essay) 



Thisi year of 1914 I raised my first crop, one-eighth acre of 

 potatoes, under the supervision of William H. Burnsi, our local 

 leader, raising the largest crop in this club at the least expense, 



