The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1917-11-29
LET'S KEEP UP WITH THE PRO
CESSlON.

RODlnSOn, the eT1lcIenC anu pro-
gressive principal of the Bran
don Consolidated School, will be
found a very timely article writ
ten by Superintendent of Edu-
cation H. H. Bullock, on the
need of a county demonstration
agent for Rankin county.
The News heartily endorses
this article, and hopes that
it will receive the consldera-
ton that it deserves.
If there ever was time in our
history when more efficient and
more profitable farming was nee
essary now is that time.
With our government engaged
in the greatest war the world has
ever known, and a possible food
famine facing us, it behooves us
as an agricultural people, to in
crease our producing capacity
along all lines. Possibly eight
or ten million of our young men
will have to go the front, and a
great shortage of labor will con-
sequently exist on the farms.
This condition alone makes it
necessary for US to have a COM
petent expert agriculturist to &C
quaint our farmers with the best
methods of producing and mar
keting their products.
The editor of The News has
repeatedly urged the necessity of
a county agent among our farm
ers, and once in a while we find
a man who contends that he
does not need the counsel of any
other man in making and mar
keting his crop. This may pos
sibly be so, but there are hun
dreds of others who would well
come such advice and greatly
profit by it. Farmers who are
SO far advanced in the latest
methods of producing and selling
. their products to the best ad-
vantage without the assistance
oftan expert, are to be congratu-
lated upon their efficiency, and
should not object to their less
fortunate friends receiving aid.
Take Yazoo county, for in
stance. Last season over $40,-
900 worth of live stock was CO.
operatively shipped and. sold by
the farmers. Next year they
estimate that their income from
this source viii be over a hun
dred thousand dollars. A num-
Der Of other counties are doing
equally as we'll, and it is all due
to the work Of a competent,
hustling county agent. Ask any
farmer in any of these counties
his sopinion of the services of
such man and he will tell you
that they couldn't get along
without him.
Mississippi has completely
eradicated the Texas fever tick,
and on Saturday will be freed
from Federal quarantine. This
day marks the beginning of a
new era for this state. We
want our county to keep up in
the front ranks. In order to do
so we need a competent man to
look after cooperative ship
ments; a farmer who has only a
few cattle or hogs to sell should
have the advantage of shipping
direct to the best markets in car
lots made up and managed by
the county agent. He should
not be placed at the mercy of
cattle, buyers, whose profits
would more than pay the agents
salary. And what is true of cat
tie shipments is also true of pro-
duce. If a farmer has only five
or ten bushels of potatoes, peas,
peanuts, or a few gallons of mo-
lasses to sell he is entitled to
just what the consumer pays,
and should not be compelled to
pay tribute to the middleman, Or
depend upon the small local
market.
In many counties the agent
attends to the vaccination of hogs
against cholera, and performs