Co7m Growers' Association. 207 



wagon loads of pie-plant, with 14,000 stalks in each load, making 

 $260 ; we gathered 250 bushels of green beans (the ordinary snap- 

 bean), at 50 cents a bushel. And I want to say that if I could 

 have had three good heavy showers of rain, which I did not get, 

 I would have raised 600 bushels of those beans, because I gathered 

 this 250 bushels and only got the beans matured from the first 

 blooming. We gathered 162 bushels of sweet potatoes, at 75 cents; 

 178 bushels of early Irish potatoes (which I set at 80 cents a 

 bushel, and I bought some the very same time, which cost me 

 $1.10 a bushel; so you will see that I have tried to keep these 

 figures within the range of wholesale prices). Therefore, I find 

 that aside from the rental of the two pastures, I raised on these 

 twelve acres of land fresh vegetables to the amount of $2,966.75; 

 and there are millions of acres of land in Missouri that will do 

 better even than that. 



Now, of course, I am from Saline county ; my home and farm 

 are there. I am temporarily in Jefferson City, and everybody thinks 

 that Cole county is one of the poorest counties in the State for 

 agriculture. There is a great deal of poor land in Cole county, 

 but this particular spot of land on which I raise these vegetables, is 

 as fine as any piece of land that you can find in any part of this 

 State. It is a rich, yellow, sandy loam, and when properly culti- 

 vated and properly seeded, it is, I think, the best piece of vege- 

 table land that I ever saw in my life. 



ONE METHOD OF HELPING THE FARM BOY. 



(F. H. Crowell, Butler, Missouri.) 



When we held this Farmers' Convention two years ago we 

 had with us a gentleman by the name of Grout, from Illinois, who 

 gave us a description of his Farm Boys' Encampment. I was very 

 much impressed with his remarks, and after he left the platform 

 I took occasion to interview him as to his method of holding en- 

 campments. It did not seem wise to me at that time to put that 

 plan into operation — I did not think we were ready for it. But I 

 went to work to try to get some boys from Bates county to come up 

 here to Columbia and get in touch with the Agricultural College. 

 We hold a county fair in our county, and I got some of the bankers 

 interested in my plan and got them to offer premiums enabling the 

 boy or young man who showed the best corn at our county fair to 



