l82 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



We have, as a people, spent much time and money in the 

 past, trying to teach the farmer, with indifferent success. Work 

 is now b^ing done with the children, in Boys' and Girls' Clubs, 

 and the success thus attained is little less than marvelous. Good 

 work along these lines is being done in this state and is grow- 

 ing rapidly. At Presque Isle, Elmer Lovely made a profit of 

 $509 on four acres, and Lee Shorey made a profit on one acre 

 of $199.73, at a cost of 18 cents per bushel. Allow me to pre- 

 sent a few examples of this work as carried on in different 

 places throughout the country where these clubs have been 

 formed. There are 1,200 boys in Ohio who raised the average 

 of corn per acre from 35 to 81 bushels — a gain of twenty mil- 

 lion dollars a year for their state. In 1910, Jerry Moore, of 

 South Carolina, raised 228 bushels of corn to the acre, and in 

 three years the corn crop of the state jumped from seventeen 

 million to fifty million bushels. Fifty-two boys in Georgia in 

 1911 grew over 100 bushels to the acre. Twenty-one boys in 

 Mississippi averaged 1 1 1 bushels per acre, against an average 

 of the entire state of 19 bushels. Merle Hyer, of Utah, raised 

 an equivalent of 797 bushels of corn to the acre in 19 13. The 

 year following, Howard Dolton, of Utah, was declared Na- 

 tional Champion with a yield of 720 bushels to the acre. 



The first champion girl tomato grower of the world was 

 Katie Gunter, of South Carolina, with a record of 512 cans of 

 tomatoes from one-tenth of an acre — a profit of over $60. In 



1912, Fay Parker, of Arkansas, made a profit of $161. In 



1913, Clyde Sullivan, of Georgia, made a profit of $132.39. In 



1914, Hesta Sartain, of Alabama, made a profit of $146.20. 

 From Texas comes the biggest winner of all, financially, for 

 Texas is generous with appreciation for the work of her chil- 

 dren. Louise Robinson, state champion for 1914, made a profit 

 of $193 in the actual proceeds from her tomato patch 

 and won prizes which brought her $496 in all, including 

 a scholarship in Baylor Female College. Thirteen-years old 

 Alice McCoy, of Louisiana, won over 184 competitors in a 

 pig club, her pig weighing 500 pounds at 1 1 months old. She 

 was offered $50 for the hog, and converted her father from 

 being a poor cotton farmer to a pig raiser, and she won more 

 money from her one pig than he did from his whole farm, 

 including two mules, farm implements and a year's work. The 



