Iron County Register

INTERESTING FOR BOYS

A Corn-Growing Contest Among the Boys of Illinois For the St. Louis World's Fair.

ANY ILLINOIS BOY ELIGIBLE TO ENTER.

Circulars are Being Sent Broadcast Announcing the Conditions of the Contest, the Total Value of the Prizes Amounting to Three Thousand Dollars.

St. Louis, March 29.—All over the great state of Illinois the farm-grown boys are preparing to produce the finest boy-grown corn that ever peeped from earth or waved its broad sword leaves lazily in the prairie sunshine. Will B. Otwell, superintendent of the agricultural department of the Illinois exhibit for the World's fair of 1904, at St. Louis, is responsible for this splendid burst of rural enterprise. The prize corn is for exhibit at the World's fair, and Mr. Otwell has sent out 120,000 circulars announcing the conditions of the contest. Each boy in Illinois, whether he gets a circular or not, is entitled to 500 grains of the best white corn for five cents, and with those 500 grains he can enter the contest for prizes amounting in all to $3,000 in value. The corn is a quality that yielded last year as high as 95 bushels to the acre. The scheme is wholly Mr. Otwell's. He has held two similar contests on a smaller scale in Macoupin county, Illinois, with great success. The first contest was held two years ago with 500 boys competing. The second year 1,500 boys grew corn, and a very fine crop was displayed. In speaking of the present contest Mr. Otwell says: "In the World's fair contest that has now been fairly started, the success will be even better in proportion, from the fact that the interest has, to a great extent, spread over the state, the premiums offered are far greater, and the fair is a greater attraction than a county institute. It is our plan to arrange all the corn grown by these boys at the fair, and we hope to have the finest display ever seen in this country."

Some of the best-known men in the state are included in the prize-givers. Hon. A. L. Kerrick, of Bloomington, heads the list with the great sweepstake prize, a fine pure-bred Aberdeen yearling calf, valued at $700. The other prizes range in value from $5 up, and are so attractive that every boy in the state will be delighted with them.

The plan is for the boys to deliver their corn to the county farmers' institutes in the county in which they live, and the president of the institute will ship the corn to Carlinville after the county institute is over, where it will be carefully packed and preserved until the fair opens in St. Louis. Each boy's name will be attached to the corn after the prizes have been awarded, and the display will be one of the most interesting at the fair.