The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1913-09-27
Expert Tells Farmers
Modern Crop Methods
A. D. Cobb Agricultural Agent, Helps Grain Growers to
Select Seed and Soil to Increase Yields in This County
Farmers Club at Middleboro Discusses Problems.

| on the Middleboro pike, and help or
ganize a farmers club. The organiza-
! ton perfected is known as the Colum-
| bian Farmers association. Its pur-
pose is the careful. scientific study of
. the problems of the farmers in that
neighborbood. The club holds week
/ ly meetings which are proving bene-
| fficial. Occasionally Cobb is asked to
speak to them On some question in
which they are especially interested,
Requests have been made by the farm
ers of other neighborhoods for the or
ganization of similar bodies.
| Seeks More Wheat.
! Increasing average wheat yield of
the county was the subject to which
! Cobb turned his attention in August.
! He found many fields that averaged
from twenty-five to thirty bushels an
acre. A few gave better yield. Oscar
Rich, near the county farm, had a
sixteen acre field which produced an
/ average of sixty-three bushels. Mr..
! Rich's success, Cobb believes, was
! due to fertile soil, careful selection of
the seed, and the preparation of the
! seed bed
| Believing that more attention to
these things and fertilization, adapted
crease the yield over the county, Cobb
planned a series of lectures and dem
! Onstrations Eight of these lectures
were arranged to reach all the farm
ers of the county. Letters were sent
| telling them of the meeting which
would be close to them, explaining
| it's purpose and asking them to at
tend one of these demonstrations.
Purdue Sends Man.
| Purdue university sent Maurice
| Douglas, practical farmer of Shelby
county to assist at the meetings.
Douglas dealt in detail with the
preparation of the soil, seed selection,
and the use of fertilizer. The talks
were supplemented by charts sent
from Purdue and by tramps over the
| farms. That the farmers were in
terested was shown by the thousands
Of questions which they asked Doug
las as they walked across the fields.
| AS the result of these meetings sew
, eral farmers have asked Cobb to help
them in laying out experimental plats,
with which to test the soil and the
! effects produced by the different
methods of cultivation and kinds of
! fertilizer. Samuel l. Harlan of Bee
sons Station was the first to make
the plat experiment, and was follow
ed by others in various parts of the
county.
Many Wayne county farmers are in
/ terested in growing alfalfa, so Cobb
/ has planned to devote two days early
: in October to a special study of the
plant as grown in the county. Trips
will be made to the best alfalfa patch
es, where Cobb and Prof G. l. Christie,
of Purdue university, will discuss the
methods of cultivation and answer all
questions.
A similar study will be made of the
! other crops.
| Schools to Help.
For six years agriculture has been
! taught from books in the schools of
Wayne county. Cooperating with Elk
pert Cobb, County Superintendent Will
liams hopes to make the subject more
practical and more beneficial. The
pupils will spend more time in the
field, where the corn grows, and in
! the yards where the chickens run
j Most of this work will be conducted by
the teachers, with an occasional illus
| trated lecture and demonstration by
Expert Cobb.
An employment bureau for the farm
ers of the county Is the latest convent.
ence which Cobb has introduced By
means Of card index system he hopes
to be able to put the farmers, needing
help, in touch with the men who want
to work. He will also conduct an ex-
change through which persons may
find the cattle or horses that they
wish to buy, and where persons hav.
ing stock for sale may list it.
These are the things which Cobb ex
poets to do with the support and CO
operation of the farmers.
Summing up his work in figures, he
says that he has travelled 1900 miles
in the county since July Is, has gone
over fifty farms. has delivered a mum
Der of lectures and received over 25C
1 callers