The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1917-10-19
COUNTY SEEKS BENEFIT OF
FEDERAL APPROPRIATION

OVON4 OGGkA0 0GlNGG VS
FEDERAL APPROPRIATION
For some years past there has
been considerable talk over the
county from time to time of
making an effort to secure the
services of a county agent for
Grant county. Other counties Of
the state have had such agents
of recent years and all reports
indicate have been we'll pleased
with the results obtained. Up
to the present time, due to the
building of court house and
other expenditures, the securing
of county agent has been put
off but when the Food Control
bill passed congress recently
residents of the county interest
ed in securing county agent to
assist in the betterment of the
county in general and particular
ly in assisting the farmers with
their problems, recognized an
opportunity to secure such an
agent practically without cost to
the county and took proper steps
to have a hearing in the matter.
Before going farther we might
say that the Food Control bill
carried an appropriation of $3,-
100000 for agricultural exten-
sion work to be used in counties
of the United States for the
period of the war. If the war
should end soon the work will
continue to the end of the fiscal
year, July l, 1918. Under this
plan the government will supply
counties that comply with its re-
quirements an emergency food
agent, which in effect is the
same as a county agent, will pay
his salary and expenses, except
that all counties are expected to
furnish an office room and equip
and maintain it, and in order to
make certain of this requires the
sum of $500 from such counties
as take it up. 5000 of this SUM
must be raised in the form Of
200 memberships in county
emergenck buerau at $1.O0 each.
In other words by taking
200 memberships among our peo-
pie and the county approprlating
an additional $500 we can secure
the services of an agent and
benefits equal to those other
counties have been paying out
thousands of dollars for yearly
and say that they are more than
being repaid.
in response to requests Mr..
Ralph H. Patty, assistant county
agent leader for this state, ar
rived in the city Tuesday and set
to work on this matter An
executive committee Of five men
was selected composed Of Sena-
tor G. S. Amsden, John Nord,
Geo. X. Clark, Representative
John Birch and County Commits
sioner Frank Fransen. These
men and number of farmers
and business men Of the county
met with Mr.. Patty Wednesday
and went over the matter and a
committeeman for each town
ship Of the county was named to
assist in the organization and in
direction of the work of the
agent. This list of names will be
published in our next issue.
The work Of these agents is
largely organization and assist
ing the farmers in every way
possible, such as introduction of
better seeds and careful selec-
tion of seeds, improved cultural
methods and better marketing,
live stock improvement, organic
alton Of breeding circuits and
COW testing associations, control
Of animal diseases, better feeds
and methods of feeding, farmers
clubs, home Improvements, etc.
Surely all of these are worth
while.
Members of the executive
committee are assisting Mr.. Pat
ty in securing the necessary
memberships and once these are
secured the organization will be
completed and an agent suppli-
ed. It is not expected that any
trouble will be experienced in
securing the memberships. This
is a matter almost wholly in the
/ interest Of the farmers and our