ear 1899 the total
corn area in Alabama was 2,743,060 acres. On these acres the farmers
secured an average of 12.7 bushels per acre. Ten years later, in 1909,
the total acreage had decreased to 2,572,092, and the per acre yield had
decreased to 11.9 bushels per acre. Here was a decrease of 170,968 acres
in corn; of 4,367,310 bushels in the corn crop; and of .8 of a bushel in
the average yield per acre. The boys' corn club movement was started in
Alabama in 1909. That year two hundred and sixty-five boys were
enrolled. The average per acre yield of corn in the State was 11.9
bushels. The next year the enrollment of boys reached twenty-one
hundred; the total yield increased more than sixty per cent.; and the
average number of bushels per acre rose to eighteen. The figures for
1911 and 1912 show an increase, though less extensive, in the total
acreage and the total yield of corn for each year.

Southern land will grow corn. Properly treated, it will better a yield
of twelve bushels per acre, five, ten, and even fifteen-fold. The
leaders of Southern agricultural education knew this. They knew,
furthermore, that the betterment could never be brought about until the
farmers were convinced that it was possible. How could they be shown?
The Farmers' Bulletin had a place; the experiment farm had a place; but
if it were only possible to make every farm an experiment farm!

The way lay through the boys. They could be induced to organize
miniature experiments in scores of farms in every county, and then the
farmers would see!

Backed by a carefully worked out organization, the authorities set out
with the deliberate purpose of educating the farmer through his son. If
his corn yield was low, he would learn how to get a larger yield. If he
raised no corn, he would learn of the spot-cash value of corn. Boys
were organized into clubs; directions were given; prizes were offered,
and the boys went to work with a will. For the most part they took one
acre.

When compared to the yield on surrounding acres, the corn crops secured
by the boys are little short of phenomenal. In Pike County, Alabama,
where the number of boys engaging in corn club contests increased from
one in 1910 to two hundred and seventy in 1912, the average number of
bushels per acre grown by the boys rose from 50.5 to 85.3. In the entire
State there were one hundred and thirty-seven boys who made over a
hundred bushels per acre each in 1911. The average per acre for