CONTESTS AND CLUB WORK 303 



watermelon, squash, pumpkin, cucumber and gourd; (8) sweet 

 corn; (9) perennial vegetables — asparagus and rhubarb ; (10) 

 sweet herbs, including sage, thyme and others. 



In any list these groups may be. greatly subdivided, and 

 special awards made for each kind in any group. 



Collections of vegetables, including all grown in any 

 school or home garden, may be given a place in the list, but 

 such collections do not alone make up a good exhibit at a fair. 

 Giving them a special place in the list will lend encouragement 

 to the small children in the school and home garden work. 

 Very large numbers of kinds of varieties are sometimes 

 gathered together, because of special premiums given for large 

 collections. These may be divided into two groups, annual 

 vegetables and perennial vegetables, the latter including rhu- 

 barb, asparagus, sweet herbs and others. 



Farm Products. — In the lists for some local fairs pre- 

 miums have been offered for the largest collection of farm 

 products of all kinds, including those from the garden, field, 

 piggery, poultry yard and others. At one fair a single exhibi- 

 tor showed 167 varieties of farm products. These included 

 many things prepared in different ways for table use (Fig. 

 155). 



Alfalfa and other legumes, such as clovers, may be listed 

 and prizes offered for the tallest bundles, of each kind, each 

 bunch to be six inches through at the band. The best individ- 

 ual plants showing large roots and many stems are sometimes 

 listed. Offers may be made for the best collections of legume 

 roots with nodules. This latter adds much interest to the 

 exhibit. 



Cotton is a plant which is subject to great improvement, 

 and should never be omitted from fairs in sections where it is 

 grown. In the fall, single plants may be shown to teach the 

 best forms of plants. Those with great numbers of bolls on 

 thrifty plants on nodes or joints should be shown. The cotton 

 yields of individual plants may be a feature. The proportion 



