Rural School Leaflet 1403 



district superintendent was to blame for this, not the grange. I think these 

 mistakes have been corrected in the contest held this year in the town of 

 Greig. 



In the township of Alartinsburg we held a contest assisted only by a 

 few ladies, one very public-spirited woman giving the prizes. The two 

 exhibits for which prizes were offered were bread and potatoes. We had 

 some excellent potatoes, which represented faithful work on the part of 

 the contestants. Some very good ones were brought in by a little girl 

 nine years old, who had done all the work herself except the plowing, and 

 who seemed to have learned more on the subject than some of her older 

 competitors. The general exhibit from this town was unusually good, 

 and the attendance large. We were not so successful in holding all our 

 children who had enrolled as I had hoped, but I attributed this to two 

 reasons. The township is so large, and the schools are so scattered that 

 it was absolutely impossil^le for m.e to reach all of them personally before 

 the pupils enrolled. Also, in a large section of the township there is a 

 very shifting population, some families continually moving in and out. 



In reviewing the contest work of the past two years, I can see several 

 ways in which it must be improved if it is to be of the fundamental value 

 desired. We must have more definite superv^ision of the work during the 

 summer when the schools are closed. For this reason one of the granges 

 this year has appointed some one in ever}^ section of the town to watch 

 the work of the boys and girls, to consult with them, and to receive reports 

 from the contestants m that locality at least once during the summer. 



I am inclined to thinlc that the girls sometimes have been too haphazard 

 in bread making, that they have often waited iintil the last few weeks, and 

 then have made hasty experiments instead of doing intelHgent work all 

 summer. The conditions for the baking contests this year require that 

 the article in question shall have been made a certain number of times 

 before a contestant shall submit an exhibit for a prize. 



This year plans for contest work were completed in February so that 

 definite detailed instruction might be given in the schools beforehand 

 rather than in a great rush as the contestants are enrolling. This also 

 gave the contestants an opportunity to look for the kind of seed they 

 want. In the town of Greig the grange has furnished all the seed corn 

 and potatoes, so that the contestants will have an equal opportunity in 

 this respect. 



Whatever has been done in this supervisory district in contest work has 

 been of extremely elementary character. Many of the pupils have done 

 excellent work, but it is ob\aous that we are still far from accomplishing 

 what we wish to do. However, the standards have been raised a little 

 each year. I think now that the sense of honor many of the boys and 



