26 



BULLETIN 281, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



county or other fair. This exhibit must necessarily be held early and extreme care 

 must be used not to damage the specimens, (d) An exhibit where the pupils select 

 the best they can find on the home farm and exhibit for the sake of illustrating the best. 

 This is of value in communities where there is no regular agricultural fair, (e) Con- 

 tests involving skill and judgment, such as corn judging, corn racking, etc. See Circ. 

 104 of the Bureau of Plant Industry, United States Department of Agriculture, 

 Special Contests for Corn-club Work. (Fig. 5.) 



In each exhibit or contest it is essential to have competent and impartial judges. 

 The use of prizes should be judicious. Prizes of an agricultural nature are better than 

 money, and in most cases ribbons or badges will serve as well. The cooking, canning, 

 and sewing exhibits of the girls should be held at the same time, unless there is good 

 reason for holding a separate exhibit. Have a poultry show in the early winter. 



The exhibit and contest may be used to raise funds for some school improvement, 

 and an auction sale of exhibits may be favored. In any case these events should make 



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Fig. 5. — Pupils may make exhibit stands for a rural school. 



the school a real community center. The initiative and artistic taste of the pupils 

 may be used in such a way as to minimize the work for the teacher. 



The local or county superintendent of schools and the county extension representa- 

 tive of the college of agriculture usually stand ready to assist a teacher in all such mat- 

 ters. This cooperation will also give sanction to the affair and modify the attitude of 

 some parents. 



II. SEED SELECTING. 



Corn taken as a sample will illustrate method for other plants. Plains thai are 

 nearly ideal in form, size, and vigor which yield abundantly arc liable to produce 

 seeds which will reproduce these qualities. Selection of seeds from such plants in the 

 field will, if persisted in for several years, improve the quality of the variety. Those 



qualities most desired may be increased l>v this means, while careless seed selection 

 may have the opposite result. Crops are often doubled merely by careful selecting, 

 curing, and testing of seeds. 



