To some people the main prizes of a hundred dollars may seem small, but just remember that this was a bonus over and above the regular profit a man was sure to make on his six months’ work. Furthermore, a hundred dollars in the country means a good deal more than it does in the city. Furthermore again, one hundred dollars in a lump sum is worth two hundred dollars in installments. And finally, one hundred dollars as a prize looks about as big as a thousand dollars. I’ve known men to spend a hundred dollars in a lottery and consider their money well invested when they finally drew a prize of five dollars. In every newspaper contest you’ll find men doing a hundred dollars’ worth of work to get a chance at a ten dollar prize. * * * * * The second meeting was almost as well attended as the first and the committee’s report was received with enthusiasm. But the thing which pleased me most was the fact that it was the young men who came early and crowded up into the front of the hall. Holt noticed this and pointed out a goodly number of youngsters who never before had taken any interest in farming at all. It is doubtful if they did now except as a means for reaching the prizes. However, that point didn’t worry me. I knew that in order to win the money they must first of all make their land pay, and once they got into their heads the fact the soil would pay, half our object was attained. But this suggested a new idea. In fact, every step we took suggested further development. Our scheme grew by itself like a weed, which to my mind is the logical way for an enterprise of this sort to grow. After we had adjourned until the following Wednesday I called the attention of the board of directors to the fact that so many young men who had always affected to scorn farming showed an interest in our proposition. “Now,” I said, “it seems to me a pity to let them go at their work in haphazard fashion. The most any of them know, probably, is to plow and harrow the soil, put in their seed, and then wait for results.” “Well,” said Moulton, “if they keep down the weeds it will keep them out of mischief, anyhow.” “And they’ll get discouraged in a season, if not sooner,” I said. “No, we want to help them do more than that--we want them to get results. It won’t mean anything to them or to you if they don’t.” “Right,” agreed Holt. “Swanson, you’re the farmer of the board. It’s up to you to instruct them.” Swanson had a fifty-acre farm on which he raised hay with better results than some, simply because his land was better. “They prob’ly think they know more’n I do now,” he answered. There wasn’t much doubt about that, for no one ever has much faith in local authority. Still I saw the old man was rather proud that the suggestion had been made and I didn’t wish to hurt his feelings.