Farmers' Week in AgriciiUiiral College. 



223 



THE SUCCESS OF A YOUNG CORN GROWER IN THE BOYS' 



ACRE YIELD CONTEST. 



The acre yield contest in the Boys' Corn Growing Contest last year 

 is certainly a step in the right direction. With the present knowledge 

 of good corn, it is impossible to say wiiich of two good ears is the best 

 producer and which if given the same kind of care, and planted in the 

 same kind of soil, will produce the most bushels of sound marketable 

 corn per acre. Yet, that is the most important point about corn, and if 

 we could recognize that quality of production in an ear we would have 

 the biggest problem relating to corn improvement solved. 



Recognizing this fact, the Weekly Star Farmer of St. Louis, under- 

 took to conduct an acre yield contest among the boys enrolled in the 

 Boys' Corn Growing Contest and offered $100 in four prizes to the boys 

 who grew the most corn on an acre of ground. A ten-ear sample was 

 taken from the acre and sent to the State show, together with affidavits 

 concerning the yield of the acre. This corn was judged and twenty- 

 five points placed on the sample and seventy-five on the yield. 



Chester Matheny of Miami won 

 the first prize with a yield of 91 bush- 

 els and 15 pounds. Mr. Matheny, by 

 the way, is a boy twenty years old 

 who has been enrolled in the Boys' 

 Corn Growing Contest ever since it 

 was organized. He attends the Corn 

 Show every year and the short course 

 for boys during Farmer's Week and 

 is one of the best young corn growers 

 of the State. He is always among 

 the winners whenever he enters a 

 sample of corn. In addition to this 

 prize this year he won the Boys' Corn 

 Chester Matheny. Judging Contest and took away from 



the State Corn Show more than $85 in prizes. His success has been 

 due to hard work, close observation and the application of the things 

 he has learned by being in the Boys' Corn Growing Contest. Mr. 

 Matheny tells how he grew this acre of corn as follows: 



"The first thing I did was to put stable manure on the ground 

 (which was clover sod) during the winter. In the spring I broke up 



