580 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



scholarship might not be awarded upon the basis of a corn grow- 

 ing contest for girls only. I have talked with the secretary of the 

 Corn Growers' Association, and he assures me that if this plan is 

 undertaken the details of the contest can, be carried out through his 

 office with little additional effort. In general, it may be handled 

 along the same lines that apply to the boys' corn growing contest 

 in this State. He assures me further that girls entering these 

 contests will have an opportunity to compete for special as well as 

 regular premiums offered at the annual corn show. The induce- 

 ment therefore becomes two-fold, and if the project is properly ad- 

 vertised, and advertised well in advance of the corn, planting sea- 

 son, there should be a good enrollment for the contest. It is hard- 

 ly proper to expect that the girls will do all the work necessary in 

 growing the crop, but they can be required to make the germination 

 tests, to direct the cultivation and handling of the crop, to select 

 the corn for seed and show, and to keep all the records throughout 

 the season. 



A plan of this kind should be of great help: First, in calling 

 the attention of the younger generation of women to the Missouri 

 Women Farmers' Club ; second, in securing a closer co-operation be- 

 tween your organization and the College of Agriculture; third, in 

 interesting a large body of young women in the college and its 

 work. 



If the effect of your proposed scholarship offer was simply to 

 bring one girl to the College of Agriculture, it would not be worth 

 the thought and effort you are giving it today. It is the indirect 

 effect of such an offer upon a hundred other girls which is im- 

 portant. The life of your organization, the success of the move- 

 ment which you have started, depends upon the number of young 

 people you can interest. If you are able to enlist the interest only 

 of women who, by force of circumstances, often with little pre- 

 meditation, become farmers, your organization will never grow 

 much beyond its present size and influence. But if you can interest 

 a large number of the growing generation to the extent of leading 

 them to become farmers who otherwise would have chosen other 

 vocations, then you will have opened the way to an unlimited range 

 of possibilities. The proposed scholarship is but one of many 

 small but important details that must help you to finally attain a 

 proper relation to the agricultural world, which is the end and 

 object, as I understand it, of the Missouri Women Farmers' Club. 



