Corn Groivers' Association. 209 



pany by itself, and we thought best to elect a captain for each 

 company so that he would be responsible for the presence of the 

 boys at the lectures and for their conduct while in camp; and I 

 want to tell you men right now that in all my experience I have 

 never seen a better behaved, more orderly lot of boys than we 

 had. 



We had a bugler from the militia who called the boys together 

 for meals. The boys marched to their meals assembled in com- 

 panies. Each township, as far as possible, was given a tent to 

 itself. The tents were big and roomy, holding about twenty-five 

 boys each. The biggest representation from a township was from 

 Summit, from which thirty-five boys came; and I will say that 

 the young man who took the short course here last winter was in- 

 strumental, with the help of two or three of his friends, in bring- 

 ing in that large number from Summit township. There were 

 268 boys registered, and not a boy within the corporate limits of 

 Butler was allowed to register — they were all farm boys. A school 

 teacher in the northeastern township took his whole school (four- 

 teen boys) and loaded them up in a wagon and brought them to 

 the encampment for the whole three days. That shows what an 

 influence the teachers throughout the country districts can have 

 for the good of agriculture. 



When the mess call was sounded, we issued each boy, after 

 he had registered, a tin cup, a knife, fork, and spoon, and told 

 him to look out for them, which he did. The companies were 

 arranged in military style at a long table, and each boy was given 

 his food on a wooden plate (those plates don't cost very much 

 and are extremely handy in camp life) and then went to his tent 

 and ate his meal. If he wanted more food, he went to the table 

 again, and if he had all he wanted he took his plate to the cook's 

 tent and it was burned, which was quite an idea in a sanitary way. 

 Then the boys had time to play games. One method we had of 

 punishing them if they did not behave in strict military style 

 was to throw them up in a blanket. 



When the bugle sounded, they all came to the big assembly 

 tent, which seated about 800, and were instructed in different lines 

 of farming. The encampment lasted three days and the boys re- 

 ceived a great deal of instruction. 



Mr. Jordan was there and talked to the boys on soils and corn 

 and farm life in general; Mr. King was there and gave the boys 

 instructions in judging horses and cattle and hogs and sheep. As 



A-14 



