Rural School Leaflet 



141 5 



It requires a great deal of time and effort on the part of a district super- 

 intendent to conduct school fairs; but I know of nothing that creates 

 more interest in the schools on the part of the public in general, or that 

 does so much to arouse the interest of the pupils in things that are real, 

 useful, and practical. 



Parade of floats. School fair, Oneonta Plains, New York 



District I, Town of Milford, Otsego County 



Milford, New York, April 14, 191 5 

 Dear Mr. Tuttle: 



I first became interested in the potato contest last spring soon after I 

 noticed in the papers that there was to be a contest. I decided to enter 

 and see what I could do raising potatoes. I thought I would stand as good 

 a chance of \\4nning the prize as any one because I had always lived on a 

 farm, had always taken an interest in farm work, and was familiar 

 with it. 



The place where I decided to plant my potatoes was near a small stream. 

 The ground was of rather a dark color. I planted Green Mountain 

 potatoes. I used twenty-five potatoes, cutting each potato into four 

 parts. I manured the ground, and after that I put phosphate in each 

 hill. After my potatoes came out of the ground I hoed them; and soon 

 after that I put ashes around among the stalks and hoed them again. 

 As soon as the potato bugs appeared, I put on paris green, and I did this 

 by mixing the paris green with plaster. This mixture consisted of one 

 pound of paris green to eighty pounds of plaster. After that I didn't 

 have any trouble with potato bugs. 



Two or three days before our school festival, which comes the latter 

 part of September, I dug my potatoes, I kept a record of the potatoes 



