AGRICULTURAL CLUBS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 220, 17 August 1939, Page 4

AGRICULTURAL CLUBS

MANAWATU-OROUA DIVISION. With a view to holding the interest of those children who entered in either the root crop or calf competitions conducted by the ManawatuOroua division of the Boys’ and Girls’ Agricultural Clubs, the committee at the annual meeting of the club this year decided, for tho lirst time in the history of the club, to make a charge of 6d per competitor, the idea being that the child who was interested enough to paj' 6d to enter tho competition would carry on right through the season with {he competition and so reduce the percentage of those who made a start and later left either the calf or the root plot to its own devices. Considerable interest attached itself to the innovation and that the views of the movers were in the right direction is borne out by a progress report made on the entries for the. current season by Mr E. H. Lange, director of agriculture to the Wanganui Education Board, the root plot returns already showing an increase on last year’s figures of 24, although at the present time the calf entries have not yet reached the 1938 total.

The entries received from the individual schools in the various groups of the competitions are as under: — Group 1. —Longburn, Bainesse, Kairanga, Rangiotu, Linton, Fitzherbert East and Tiritea Schools: Calves, 74; plots, 33. Group 2. —Rongotea, Kopane, Glen Oroua, Taikorea, Orona Downs Schools: Calves, 59; plots, 42. Group 3. —Apiti, Kjmbolton, Beaconsfield, Cheltenham, Kiwitea, Valley Road Schools: Calves, 24; plots, 30. Group 4. —Bunnythorpe, Wliakarongo, Ashhurst, Hiwinui, Poliangina, ltaumai and Awahou North Schools: Calves, 59; plots, 34. Group 6.—Taonui, Colyton, Te Arakura, Milson School: Calves, 32; plots, 24. Group 6. —Ohakea, Clydesdale, Carnarvon, Waitohi, Mt. Biggs Schools: Calves, 27; plots, 30. Group 7. —Halcombe, Tokorangi, Stanway Schools: Calves, 21; plots, 8. Other schools. —Rangiwahia, Waituna, Orangipongo, Waipuru, Pakihikura, Tapuae, Lytton Street (Feilding), Terrace End (Palmerston North): Calves, 57; plots, 66. Totals.—Calves, 347 (403); root plots, 267 (243). The figures shqwn in parentheses are the entries received in last year’s competitions. The current year’s returns I are incomplete, some schools in various groups not yet having sent in their entries. I