Arizona republican., 1915-05-08
MAN
 MAKING GOOD
The Work of P. D. South worth as Farm Advisor for Luna County, New Mexico. Attracts Atten- tiOn

r. D. SouthWorth. for some time with the state land commission of this state as soil expert is earning reputation for himself as farm advisor for Luna county, New Mex. ico MT Southworth left Phoenix last winter and under the Smith Lever act he became farm advisor
 "r demonstration agent for Luna county. Mir. Southworth went some what outside of what may be re- garded as his duties He did no. spend all of his time introducing the
 farmers to new agricultural prob ler?s; he did not show them how
 they could raise twice as much as
 they had been raising before but ne taught them something of more in,-
 mediate importance-how to realize
 rn what they had raised And what
 he taught them is of immense inter-
 est to the. farmers of this valley
 Of his work The Country Gentlemen
 of April 10 says under the head of
 The County Agent as Salesman"
 You go down into Luna county
 New Mexico. and find out what needs
 tC be done to help the farming in-
 terests there. Then do those things
 That sums up the instructions Of the Federal Department of Agricul- ture to a newly appointed demonstra- tion agent, who at tha time this ac- count was written had been on the job in that section just 50 days His instructions were typical of those sent to new agents in new fields. Un- less the department men have made l a careful survey of farming condi- 1 tions in a section where an agent is | to be located, they are absolutely at sea as regards the work that de- mands the agents first attention. So | the department puts it up to the l agent.
 50 this new agent-a young fel- | lows, by the way-went to Luna | county and looked round. He found | himself in a rather thinly settled 1 section of Southwestern New Mex ico, where there were extensive land | holdings and big ranches but few l farmers He found this section full of agricultural problems, but the most pressing one was the question of markets for crops already har- vested.
 There were thousands of tons of ilfalfa and prairie hay stacked an6 buyers There were thous- | of tons of beans in bale and bin. lnsold What these farmers needed was market. After that they would listen to suggestions about more efficient irrigation. cultivation. md the like.
 "So the demOnstration agent obey d his instructions and set about finding cash for which these products night be traded By personally vis- ting some promising markets in the middle west he got an offer of $1.20 | hundred for 1000, 100000 pounds of hat milo But the farmers held out or better price.
 When the agent heard that Flu 'ope needed forage and beans he ooked up purchasing agents and iold 5000 tons of prairie hay at i720 a ton. f. O. b. the local station Then he landed a. sale of 150.OOO pounds of beans at four cents pound. which went to foreign con- tuners. and 15O,OOO pounds more at 2 30 hundredweight. He found . market for 100 tons of alfalfa at welve dollars ton.
 Now figure it up: In the first , ixty days of his work in that sec ion the agent brought into 1t 32, 25O in exchange for crops. That's 5375O a day. Such work as this is ound to win confidence in the gov rnmenus system of giving direct aid. : 'he live county agent is the de- most effective advertise nent"
 Ii is still more to the purpose that fir. Southworth has received as well S merited the approval of his su- V eriors His official report to D. w. agriculturist in charge ot he western states. called out most | letter in concluding | ,hich MT Working said:
 "As I understand your situation s nd what you have done, it seems { 9 me that you could not have done
 more useful piece of work. You |