Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1913-02-06
AMEs PROFESSOR INFORMS AUDI
ENcE OF BENEFITS OF
FARM BUREAU.
TELLS OF EXPERT
Speaker Pointed Out the Many GOOD
Results of Having Competent
Adviser for Service In the
County.

cultural expert for services In this
county, where told to an interested
audience of farmers and Ottumwa clti
zens this afternoon at the mass meet
ing in the Y. M. G. A. by Prof. &. j.
Coverdale of Ames. The meeting was
held under the auspices OF the wa
pello County Farmers institute and
the Ottumwa Commercial association
David Jay was chairman of the meet
ing.
THE county agricultural organlza
ton Is of recent growth" began the
professor. Some few years ago DR.
Knapp of the department OF agrlcui
ture took up the work of farm demon
stration in the south. After working
out his theory on a southern planta
ton and seeing the enormous increase
along all agricultural lines the WORK
was spread into practically every
county in the south. About three years
ago the work was carried into our
northern states, and at present ABOUT
twenty.six counties have agricultural
advisers in the field. Each OF these
agricultural advisers is working in CO.
operation with the United States oe'
partment of agriculture, the state aerl
cultural college, and the farmers.
Here Prof. Coverdale touched brief
ly on the plan Of organization.
What a County Adviser Can Do.
"A county adviser, when located In
a county" continued the speaker
works entirely for the welfare OF that
county. He may take up several sub
iects, such as rural schools. county
agricultural meetings, county experl.
mental work and aid to the lndlVloua!
farmer. In taking up the subject OF
rural schools, he may assist the county
superintendent in presenting aerl-
cultural topics to the pupils, as some
of our advisers in this state have done
the past season. I can do no better
than to cite the work of two OF our
AGRICULTURAL advisers during the month
Of September A thorough canvass or
the counties was made and each rural
school was visited on this trip. Inc
selection of seed corn was given to the
pupils by the county advisers. He not
only taught them how to select the
seed, but gave them an actual demon
stration. He also showed them how
to tie 1t up and where to put It. AS
the result of three weeks work IN each
one of the counties greater amount
of seed corn was saved than had ever
been saved before. Other years both
counties bought or imported a great
deal of seed corn. The coming spring
both counties will have seed corn to
export. The farmers Of those counties
are go we'll pleased with the work tnat
the experts have done for them that
they figure their salary has been paid
for the entire years OF which they are
under contract.
1.-THE campaign for better seed corn
need not stop with what the agricul-
turalists have done In the fall, but
NAV be carried along in the work In
March by giving actual demonstra-
tons as to testing seed. Also during
the months of April and May the boys
and girls will be urged to put out test
plots of corn, small grains and veg
etables. These are but a few of the
things that the adviser can do with
the boys<and girls Of their counties.
County Meetings.
"Our fairs as you know IN the past
have been more or less kind Of an
attraction instead Of an agricultural
exposition. It is one of the duties OF
the county agriculturalist to aid and
assist in the upbuilding Of the county
fair, There are plenty of farmers in
each county who are growing better
grain and better live stock than most
of those shown at the county fairs
He can best do this work in his travels
over the county by assisting the in
dividual farmer in making up his ex-
hibit. He can also organize colt
shows. corn shows, oranges, farmers
clubs, etc.
Each county board of supervisors
in the state Of Iowa, upon a petition
presented by the farmers Of the coun-
ty, is authorized to appropriate $500
annually to carry on experimental
work at the county farm or such other
farm as they may see fit. This money
Is to be expended for the purpose of
with crops best adapted
to the country. From the results of
eighty-eight experiments in thirty
three counties in ten years it has
been found that there is one farmer
in every ten who is producing sixteen
bushels more corn to the acre than his
nine neighbours Then upon this con-
clusion it would be the duty of this
county agricultural adviser to hunt
out that tenth man and get seed
enough from him for the nine neigh
bors. There are other methods of in
creasing the yield Of corn than the
one just mentioned, and one Of these
is the individuality of each ear OF
corn. t has been found by actual de-
monstrations by the experiment sta
tons and the best farmers and corn
growers of this state that each ear has
an individual producing power. This
producing power can best be found out
by using the ear-to-row test; that is,
plant each ear Of corn in a row by IT.
self: number these rows so that q
record may be kept of them the came
as with pure bred live stock, and give
this plot the same cultivation as you
give the field crop. During the grow
ing season you will see many things
that will lead you to the knowledge
that there is an individuality in that
ear.
For instance take two ears OF corr
that look Identical. One will have ar
exceedingly tall growth while. the Other
will be slender or weak. Then agar