Imperial Valley press., 1914-03-04
Agriculture AS
Seen at Capital
UNITED Press Day Service)

Washington, March 4.-The county
fair. where the red Hereford bull
fiaunts a blue ribbon and the prize
pumpkin and the trotting race are ri
walls for attention, has been seized
upon by the department of agriculture
as one of the most direct methods of
reaching the farmer. DR.. w. ]. Spill
man. in charge of the office on farm
management is organizing large
force of demonstrators" to attend the
i fairs next fall and give free demon
stratons in everything from making
glass of crab apple jelly to building
q barn.
County agents now in the field have
done much to aid thousands of farm
ers in the way of organization and in
dividual effort, but their chief difficult
! tv so far has been not merely med
ding and that scientists can do every
day things better because they get at
it scientifically.
This difficulty has largely been over
come by tactfulness, such as that eXer-
cised by Texas agent a few days ago
when he called on farmer who said
| he was too busy to waste time with Il
"book farmer" as he had to go to town
| to get man to fix a gasoline engine
that refused to run.
The agent at once dropped the mat
ter of farm management and made
diagnosis.
He cleaned the spark plug, adjusted
the carbureter. ground the valves a
little and soon had the engine running
like new. The delighted farmer there
upon not only found time to talk but
to introduce the agent to dozen OF
his neighbors. The woman on the
farm is also receiving a large share OF
the attention of the farm management
office and number of women agents
are giving their time to this work.
Transportation and cooperation are
held by DR.. Spillman to be the two
KEYS to the rural situation today and
with this in view he never misses an
opportunity to urge the use OF the
parcel post and organization of pro
ducers' and consumers league. Fur
thermore, he believes that great evils
come from overplanting one year and
lnderplanting the next, and that a bet
Ter understanding with the consumer
will remedy this.
"In the year 1901 the potato crop
was very small and the price was cor
respondingly high" said he illustrat-
ing this point. ''This led to overplant-
ing the next year and the crop was
so large that the price was the lowest
in IA years. This caused underplant-
'ng in 1908 and again brought on an
lbnormally large crop the year follow
ing. and so it still goes on. The farmer
IS confronted with the difficulty that
lie does not know who wants his pro-
luce. If he sends it to the city GUS
toner he is afraid he will not get his
paw for it. On the other hand the con-
sumer in the city is afraid to order
directly from the farmer for fear he
will not get what he orders
"The remedy for this is the organi..
zation of a producers and consumers
league. Farmers who join such a
league should be made to give small
bond that what they supply shall be as
represented and the city consumer
muct give similar assurance that he
will pay for what he gets. If 100 or
more families. bought the principal
portion of their supplies in this man
ner the expense of maintaining CEN
tral office would be reasonable and the
advantages would be manifold
With 10000 square miles cleared of
the "Texas fever tick" so fatal to
cattle not immunized, DR.. A. D. Melvin,
chief of the animal industry, believes
that the fight can be continued until
every disease carrying tick of this spe-
cies in the United States succumbs. To
this end he expects congress to appro-
pirate S350,000 in addition to $4,000
for the purpose of encouraging the
raising of blooded cattle in the cleaned
up area. 1t is also the aim of the de-
rartment of agriculture to have the
present laws amended so that it will
be necessary to clear cattle of the ticks
by dipping them in an arsenical prep
aration before shipping them to the
Northern markets. Originally the
states below the heavy frost line but
it is gradually losing ground before
he advance of science.
GAS we eliminate a territory of
ticks we have to be doubly careful TO
guard that territory" said Dr. Melvin
in support of his plan for killing the
TICKS before shipping cattle. I'm case
Of accidents to cattle enroute, by the
breaking down of trains or something
of that sort, the ticks might get scat
tered out and reinfest a cleared area.
Then there is always the danger of
ticks being blown out of the cars, etc"
The $4,000 sought by DR.. Melvin is
to be used in increasing the amount
Of livestock and improving it's breed
in areas where animal husbandry and
dairying have have not been extensive
lv carried on because of the presence
Of ticks. Special attention will be
given to those districts in Mississippi
and Louisiana and similar sections
wher the boil weevil has made cotton
raising precariOus industry.
The finest diamond in the valley