The Colorado statesman., 1916-07-08
Nearly 10000 Persons Are Co.
operating With U. S. Depart
ment of Agriculture.
HELP GIVEN IN MANY WAYS
Great Majority of Those Enlisted In
Work Are Men Who Till Soil for
Living-Many Business Men
Also Contribute.

Nearly 10000 persons, largely sue
ceSsful farmers, are now aiding the |
United States department of agricul- |
ture by furnishing information dem |
onstrating the local usefulness of new |
methods, testing out theories, expert |
menting and reporting on conditions in
their districts-by helping, in short, in
almost every conceivable way to in
crease the knowledge of the depart |
ment and to place that knowledge at
the service of the people. This army
of volunteers receives no pay from the
government. Many of these co-opera-
tors are actuated solely by wish to be
of service to their neighbors. Others
take part in this work because of their
own keel interest in testing new meth
DDS, or in trying out for themselves
crops either new to their own sections
or imported from foreign countries
through the departments plant explor-
ers.
1t is estimated that at least one farm
out of every twenty is working in
some way with the department of agri-
culture and thus has become n center
of advanced agricultural information
for it's community.
With such large number of farmers
willing to work with the department
and the colleges and to test out their
recommendations, it is clear that a sig
nificant change has taken place from
the day when the average farmer was
decidedly skeptical about scientific ag-
riculture and slow or unwilling to give
= ffrF, ff1,, fr ,lnt; S.f
what many used to designate as book
farmers"
The scientific agriculturist today
does not attempt to evolve theories in
the seclusiOn of a government building.
1t is true he may develop ideas in his
laboratory, but before he is ready to
| advise farmers to adopt them he tries
them out in actual practice on govern
| ment farms, and then calls on large
number of successful practical farmers
to give these ideas an Independent
| practical test on some of their own
acres. In many other cases the scien-
tist goes to the farmer both for his
theory and practice. He studies and
analyses the practice of hundreds or
thousands of successful farmers in an
endeavor to find the scientific basis or
underlying principle of farming meth
DDS which have, through long years of
practical experience, been found to be
most successful for their farms and
| neighborhoods.
OF the 10000 co-operators the great
majority are men who farm for a liv-
| ing. In general way the co-operators
/ hl iNri1 nj al
who furnish the department with spe-
cific information acquired in the course
| of their regular occupations; those
| who demonstrate in actual practice the
agricultural methods recommended by
| the department, and those who volun-
| teer to perform with new crops and
new methods the experiments which
| furnish science with the necessary
| data for practical recommendations.
Prominent in the first class are the
| 15S,G0O crop correspondents who make
possible the government estimates of
crop production and values.
In its researches and Investigations
the department is also in great measure
dependent upon reports from co-opera-
tors. Fifteen thousand railroad station
agents, for example, have been in
structed by railroad officials to furnish
the Office of markets and rural organi-
cation with postcard reports of ship
ments of perishable crops which are
used in the market news service of the
office. Four hundred cold storage
plants report monthly on their hold
ings of apples; 500 millers grain deal
crs, chambers of commerce, etc, fur
nish the bureau of plant industry with
data in connection with the work of
grain standardization, and 200 cream
cries and cheese factories report to the
bureau of animal industry. These, of
course, are only few in@tances out of
many. They serve to show, however,
the ways in which the department
keeps in touch with practical business
conditions and is assisted by the same
men whom it is working to aid.
In the second class of co-operators
nre the thousands of farmers who, un-
der the supervision of department spe-
cialists, are working out on their own
farms the methods recommended by
scientific agriculture; the boys and
girls of the pig poultry, corn and can
ming clubs who are demonstrating the
neglected possibilities of profit in
these fields; the women who have
adopted for their own benefit and as |
means of instructing their neighbors |
improved methods in housekeeping |
the S0,046 members of the farm bu-
reaus and county associations which |
support county agents in the northern |
and western states; nearly 10000 lead
ers in club work for community well
fare and the state officials who aid in |
extension work, in the distribution of |
animal serums and vaccine and in