New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1916-01-12
SAVES FARMERS MANY THOU il u
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County Agent Stewart Leaning OF
Nicollet County completed his first
annual report the fore part of the week
one copy of which he sent to the state
agricultural department and one to the
national department of agriculture says
the st. Peter Herald. In a perusal of
the report it becomes quite evident that
the agent has been quite an active in
dlvldual the past eleven months, Mr..
Leaning having been agent for Nicollet
county since February, 1915. He would
naturally have made still greater show
ing had he been employed for the full
twelve months, nevertheless it is mani
fest that he has been paying investment
to the county.
When Mr.. Leaning first assumed his
duties as county agent meeting of the
Nicollet County Farm Bureau was held
at which time five special projects were
decided upon that Mr.. Leaning should
pay special attention which would be
for the best welfare of the county. The
projects decided upon at this meeting
were the control of hog cholera, eradica-
ton of the smut on small grain, raising
of alfalfa, drainage, and the formation of
boys and girls clubs.
In 1914 the farmers of this county lost
in the neighborhood of 10000 hogs from
cholera. This year there has been loss
OF only about 800. How much of this
is due to the work done by the county
agent can only be estimated. From in
formation received from our neighboring
counties of Blue Earth, lie Sueur and
Sibley, where no agents are employed, it
is believed that the loss has been reduced
by at least 1900 hogs under what might
have been sustained by the Nicollet
county farmers had there been no county
agent employed here. At a valuation
OF $1,000 per head, the saving has been
about $4,000, while the cost of seurm
and materials used amounts to $375.
AS a result of having a county agent
on the job to teach them the proper
method 225 farmers of this county
treated their oats for smut. By doing
this the oat fields showed an increased
production over other years and the
smutted heads we're cut down to practi-
cally zero quantity.
About 125 farmers were induced to
plant alfalfa seed and practically all
have been successful in securing a
good stand. 1t is reasonable to place
an estimated increase of S. per acre on
the value of the alfalfa crop over the
non-leguminous hays. Calculating that
200 acres had been planted this year on
the agents suggestion the farmers of the
county were enriched by $1,000 as a
result OF having county agent.
Drainage has been one of the most
important projects handled by the
county agent this year. This is On
account of the extremely wet season.
Between 5000 and 10000 acres of land
have been drained as result of placing
drainage systems on the farms. Most of
this work was done in localities where
tiling had never been used before. 1t is
believed that the productive value of the
farms so drained has been increased at
least $40 an acre at cost of not more
than $40 per acre for the laying of the
drainage systems.
Three boys and girls clubs were
organized by the county agent during
the past year. They are the Boys Corn
Growers club, the Girls Canning club
and the Girls Bread Making club. These
clubs are organized for the purpose of
creating greater interest in life on the
farm for the boys and girls.
Looking over Mr.. Leaming's report
many interesting things are shown. He
spent 80 per cent of his time doing field
work and the total number of farm visits
paid were $40. He also laid out los
drainage systems, vaccinated 997 hogs
and when he was not otherwise busy he
talked to farm club meetings, giving a
total of rs addresses.