Report of Missouri Farmers' Week. 489 



show this, and the feeder knows it, so feels the responsibility and 

 thus investigates to find the mistake, while if it were as it is in 

 many cases where all do all, none would feel the responsibility as 

 they should and the father would have to bear the blunt of the 

 whole. This plan where all assume some responsibility, and often 

 have a small investment, causes great interest. For instance, as 

 my father allows me one-half the seed corn, I experiment and 

 specialize on corn. Along about State Fair week, though, I have an 

 enormous amount of help, for all but the youngest go on Saturday or 

 get an excuse from school and start for a day's corn husking to get 

 the show corn. Each of us tries to get the best ear and then the best 

 ten. At the fair this fall we received $78 in premiums. Here is 

 not the only place they show interest, though, for all like to see 

 the corn grow, also the pigs and sheep, as well. 



Aside from the breeding of corn there is a wide range of work 

 that may be done in most all other crops. Oats, for example, should 

 be bred by plant selection and the plant-to-row test plat used. Soy 

 beans must be bred the same way before the maximum yields are 

 reached. Wheat breeding is carried on in the same manner with 

 excellent results. 



These things I have mentioned are of interest to me because 

 I am in them every day, and they become a part of me, and they 

 will be of interest to any boy who is closely connected with them. 

 To keep a boy on the farm he must first have interest in, things, and 

 of all things I have mentioned, the one that keeps me on the farm 

 is the interesting side of it. It has given me the required inspira- 

 tion and, my friends, right in the Agricultural College here is the 

 place to get the foundation for it all. 



PRESERVATION OF FENCE POSTS. 



(Ernest C. Pegg, Department of Forestry, University of Missouri.) 



The question of the preservative treatment of farm timbers, 

 and especially of fence posts, should be of interest to all farmers. 

 It is of particular interest to the progressive farmer. Common 

 sense and experience have taught him to select from his wood lot 

 the kinds of trees whose wood is durable in contact with the soil, 

 of moderate strength and capable of holding staples well. Such 

 woods as have been used are as follows: 



