Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 80, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 April 1914 — HOW TO SCORE TESTS [ARTICLE]

HOW TO SCORE TESTS

Muscatine Introduces a Point System in Awarding Prizes to Schools Which Help in County • Seed Survey. _.._U ■ I 1 [National Crop Improvement Service.] ‘ K. A. Kirkpatrick, county agent for Muscatine county, lowa, working in connection with the Muscatine NewsTribune, is planning a complete survey of the seed condition of the county. Tests will be made in all of the schools of the seeds to be planted this spring, and the prizes will be awarded according to the number of points won by each school. Additional points may be won by the school by testing a whole bushel of corn by each pupil, one hundred points to the bushel. If the pupil tests each ear to be sowed on the farm, in addition to his one hundred points for the bushel, he will earn another onei hundred etxra points for a complete test. Npt less than five bushels are to be tested for the extra one hundred points. In testing small grain five one hundred kernel tests taken from different places in the bin or the entire lot are to be used in the test, not less than five bushels in the lot, will add one hundred points to the individual score. The teacher, or some pupil designated by the teacher, shall keep record in each school and make the reports on the proper blanks to the County Crop Improvement Association office in the court house at Muscatine. The Government furnishes franked envelopes for sending in these reports. The testing work may be dene at the homes of the pupils, but they must count the tests, figure the percentage of germination, and report the tests the same as though done at school. The county superintendent will commend the professional spirit of any teacher who takes up this work in her school and shows that she earnestly tries to get results. The prizes will be awarded at the graduating exercises in June. The prizes have not yet been announced, but it is suggested that the women’s clubs of the county not only select them, but provide for them in some way as part of their club work. Good pictures'of historical or classical subjects are always appropriate for school prizes, suitably inscribed with the name of the class which wins them.

If you have any organization in your community, use that organization for the good of the community. Link it up with your community life and devote its work to the solution of your community problems, whatever they may be. Grasp the idea that the individual interests are always secondary to the community interests. Community interests can only be served by avoiding those things upon which individuals may rightfully differ. By all means, have some sort of rural organization in your community, but base its elstence on service. Service, in turn, means effort on the part of every individual fanner. —The Farmer.