Campbell] THE LITTLE RED SCHOOLHOUSE 315 



takes too much time" you say. Of course it does; and it may 

 take you from work you like better, but it will be the best invest- 

 ment of time and money you can make. And if you have a child, 

 take that child along and let it enter into the work, which will 

 prove a big developer. 



Corn clubs were being started all over the country, so four years 

 ago one was organized in this little red school house. Three 

 bovs entered, but as only one father would give the one-fourth 

 acre required, only one boy had won the ten ears of corn, and of 

 course had all of the premium. Ethically there should be no 

 prize, but ethics sometimes must come second and the dollars 

 and cents must speak first. What happened next spring? The 

 inevitable. Five boys made their fathers see there was "money" 

 in seed testing and proper planting and care; and thirteen girls 

 enrolled in a garden club. The premium money was raised to 

 twenty dollars, and a compound microscope purchased, that 

 we might study the soil, root-hairs, water impurities and the 

 almost invisible destroying insects. The two clubs met once a 

 month with the Farm Agent, during the summer and all that 

 was injurious and beneficial to corn and vegetables was discussed. 



That summer we had a canning demonstration by one of the 

 State College girls, to which came not only the Garden Club girls 

 bur the women of the community. 



In the Fall there was held at the County Court House an 

 exhibit of farm produce and domestic science from the country, 

 entered by girls and boys from eight to eighteen. Our two clubs 

 entered and also boys who did not belong to the corn club. 

 They carried off fourteen prizes amounting to forty dollars and 

 seventy-five cents. One boy received ninety-nine points on 

 potatoes, losing the hundredth as an exhibit point only. Includ- 

 ing their own round up of twenty dollars, the community boys 

 and girls had made sixty dollars and seventy-five cents. The 

 father of the boy who won ninety-nine points on potatoes and 

 who could not be persuaded to give up ground required, the 

 following spring, not only gave up one-fourth acre for corn to 

 one boy, but one-eighth acre for potatoes to the second and 

 allowed the third to join the poultry club. The fathers were 

 beginning to see "it paid." That summer twenty-three boys 

 and girls were working in corn, potato, poultry and canning clubs 

 and the premiums grew. This money was still furnished bv one 



