OTAGO EXPANSION LEAGUE

Otago Witness, Issue 3353, 19 June 1918, Page 47

OTAGO EXPANSION LEAGUE

BOYS' AGRICULTURAL COMPETITION. THE SCHEME OUTLINED. Mr Green, who is agricultural instructor under . tho Otago Education Board, and a member of the Educational Committee of tho Otago Expansion League, has outlined a scheme for the encouragement of agricultural work among boys in Otago, and this is to be considered at the next meeting of the committee. It states that, at the outset, ho negatives any claim to originality, regarding the proposals for assisting in attaining the committee's aim. Tho idea had been suggested by the success following on tho employment among the youth in other places of that great incentive to maximum effort —competition. In the United States, for example, boys' agricultural clubs were established in a small way, and had since attained a scope and shown results which had more than exceeded even the most sanguine hopes of tho promoters. Farm crop competitions had also been established in New South Wales and Queensland, and it seemed to him that competitions on similar lines, modified to suit local conditions, would, if properly organise.! under the _ auspices of the league, attain equally satisfactory results here. With tho' agricultural progress of recent years, many , of the old practices had been superseded by new methods based on tho results of scientific investigation, and it was generally recognised that tho best promise. of the most profitable employment of improved methods come 3 from those who would bo ■ the farmers of to-morrow. If New Zealand was to keep paco with other countries a* a competitor in tho world's markets sho could not afford to neglect any opportunity for disseminating, in as wide a circlo as possible, any knowledge regarding her basio industry and inculcating in the rising - generation a love of country life. Ho proposed that, as an initial experiment, the school pupils' competition already established under the auspices of the Education Board and the Otago A. and P. Society be extended under the auspices of tho Expansion League to embrace the cultivation, of certain staple products on the homo farm. To ensuro the working of tho scheme, it would be necessary to have local organisations, and in this connection ho suggested that a necessary preliminary would bo to enlist tho co-operation of country school teachers, school committees, and representatives of tho league in centres wnero, the competitions were established. The question of prizes he would leave for discussion by the committee.

RULES GOVERNING COMPETITION. Tho competition to be limited to school boys, and to be confined to the growing cl certain staple products. First 3'ear potatoes. All work involved, except where heavy implements and horse-power be necessary, must be done by tho competitor. The area cultivated should bo i-acre, and may be a portion of tho home farm or area otherwise arranged for. Only one variety of the crop to be grown on each plot. No plants to be within Ift of the boundary of the plot. All seed to be provided by * the competitor. The competition to be judged on the following basis :—(a) Greatest yield of marketable crop, 50 per cent.; (b) best-kept record descriptive of cultivation operations, observations on rainfall, and any special conditions that have affected tho crop, such as the prevention of blight, dealing with pests, etc., 30 per cent.; (c) greatest profit per acre, 20 per cent. The judging of the competition to be in the hands "of a committee of disinterested persons nominated by tho Executive of the Expansion League. At a recent meeting of the league, Mr Stuart. Wilson moved that tho Education Committee, with the addition of Messrs Healy, Todd, and Moritzson, bo a committee to carry out the competition, with power to add to their number. This was seconded by Mr M'Donald, and carried. . Tho prizes proposed are: —First, gold watch, valued at £10; second, war bond, valued £5; third, value £3; fourth, vahio £2. '. In addition to these proposed prizes, Mr Stuart Wilson has, with the object of encouraging competition between the various districts where there are competitors, offered to donate a silver cup, to be competed for annually, and to be retained for one year by the district securing the greatest aggregation of points. This cup Is to ho known as the Wilson Challenge Cup.