No. 7. , DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 447 



and had a number of farmers come there and talk to us on growing 

 corn and potatoes and wheat and so on. Out of the boys who had 

 started in in the early spring, about thirty sent in their corn to the 

 corn show. It was really wonderful. You know that the year 

 1906-7 was a bad year for corn. There was very little corn that 

 really matured. We had some ninety day corn that matured. Of 

 course, many of the boys Avere prevented from sending in their corn 

 because of its immaturity. Some of the gentlemen are here tonight, 

 so I refer to it with some hesitation, but when some of the farmers 

 saw the corn that the boys brought there, they went out with their 

 heads hanging down. 



Last year I had a hundred and twenty boys growing corn. I 

 selected from what they had grown, the best seed ears. Out of that 

 hundred and twenty, about fifty boys exhibited this year. We held 

 our show in Carlisle on the iOth of December, and you would have 

 been surprised to see how pleased those boys were, and how much 

 interest they took in that corn. Prizes were awarded to 'about 

 thirty of them, I believe, ranging in value from 25c to |5.00. 



I don't want to take up too much of your valuable time, but this 

 is what we accomplished. I don't know that there is anything like 

 this Boys' Corn Club in the State of Pennsylvania, but the idea was 

 not original with me. I conceived the idea when I was at the St. 

 Louis Fair a few years ago, and saw what the boys in Illinois did. 

 I was not in touch with the boys in Pennsylvania, but conceived the 

 idea of getting in touch with the boys in Cumberland county, and 

 I feel that if I have done nothing else, I have awakened the interest 

 of these young boys in Cumberland county, that will spread out 

 and awaken interest not only in corn growing, but in Agriculture. 

 You know it has been said here that we must depend upon the young 

 men, they are the coming farmers, and no opportunity must be ne- 

 glected to awaken their interest. I was glad to hear the President 

 of State College, Dr. Sparks, say this afternoon, that they were go- 

 ing to establish a Summer School in Domestic Science and the Ele- 

 ments of Agriculture, that the teachers might go up there and take 

 the course, and then go back and teach these things in their respec- 

 tive schools. I suppose the only way to accomi>lish what we wish, 

 is to give them the education. You know the tendency of the past 

 generation has been toward the city, because the tendency of educa- 

 tion has been that way. We hope to remedy that now, and get the 

 boys and girls of the State back to the old farm. 



1 hope that every county in the State will follow the example of 

 the boys of Cumberland county, so that we can get the boys to grow 

 corn and send it down here to the Corn Show at Harrisburg. We 

 may not have more or better corn, but I think we will have done 

 something toward awakening the interest of the rising generation 

 in agriculture. When the boys are interested, they are going to 

 take a course at State College, or other Schools of Agriculture, and 

 that is what we are striving to do — to renew interest in this great 

 work. I tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that the time is coming 

 when the vast beds of ore and coal will be exhausted, and men will 

 turn back to the soil for its vast wealth of fertility, and the result 

 will exceed anything that has been developed bj' any coal mine or ore 

 bed in the State of Pennsylvania, and it is up to you and to me to 



