Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1917-11-21
WHY COUNTY SHOULD
HAVE FARM BUREAU
Over Forty Counties in Iowa Already
Have One, Balance i'm Process of
Organization.
WINNESHIEK MAKING
GOOD PROGRESS
Many Farmers Throughout the Coun.
ty Have Already Signed Up to
Become Members.

dy have a farm bureau. In the most
Of the balance farm bureaus are III
the process of organization. The
government in giving encouragement
to the work by providing to pay all
of the salaries of a County Agent
Cup to eighteen hundred year, for
any county that will organize farm
bureau and employ county agent.
In Winneshiek county all of the
money needed for the expense of car
rying on the work is being raised by
private subscription and not by taxa
ton as has been given out.
Some Wrong, Ideas of What Il County
Agent Is.
Some people seem to think that
County Agent is supposed to be a
walking encyclopedia of agricultural
information, who goes about the
county telling the farmers how to run
their business; but nothing could be
farther from the truth. No one could
possibly have monopoly of farm
knowledge. Sometimes We hear farm
ers saw before they understand the
proposition, that they don't care to
have some paper collared farmer
from the Agricultural College coming
around telling them how to farm
compose the farm bureau are not hir-
compose the affirm bureau are not hir-
ing paper collared farmers" for
agents. II this state they must be
men who have been brought mp on
the farm, had their training at an
Agricultural College, and who have
successfully bucked up against revl
live farm problems after getting
through school. In not a single cou1-
ty in this state, has a county discon-
tinued the hiring of the County
Agent after trying out the PROPOSE
ton. -
What the Farm Bureau isiFor.
The Farm Bureau is an orgaliza-
ton of farmers in the county formed
for the purpose of cooperating with
the U. S. Department of Agriculture
and the State Agricultural Extension
Department, to solve farm problems
This means taking advantage OF the
best help the u. S. Department or
Agriculture and the State Agricultur-
al College can give and getting heir
direct action on specific farm prob
lens in the county.
Where the Agent Comes In.
The County Agent is employed to
carry out the wishes of the Farm Bu-
reau, in other words is its agent.
He is the medium through which the
Department of Agriculture and the
State Agricultural Department carry
out such organized plans for farm
Improvement as the County Farm
Bureau sees fit to inaugurate.
What a Farm Bureau Has Acr
complished In Floyd County. 4
(a) Hog Cholera Control
Organized for the effective control
of hog cholera.
Keeps reliable serum on hand
which it sells to the farmers at cost.
Controlled sixteen outbreaks of chol-
era in 1915. The Agent supervised
| the vaccination of over sixteen hun
dred hogs. There was loss OF less
than one per cent of hogs that were
exposed but well when Vaccinated,
sixty per cent Of hogs that were sick
when vaccinated were saved, none
were vaccinated with temperatures OF
over 100, there was no spread OF the
disease to adjoining farms IN any of
i the above outbreaks with one excep-
ton.
CD Experimental work conducted
to determine accurately the relative
value of fifty or more varieties OF
corn grown in the county.
This work has already shown that
some Of these varieties that ripen
early yield from fifteen to twenty
bushels more to, the acre than others.
1t is proposed lin this way to single
lout the best one or two varieties and
grow them to the exclusion OF in
ferior ones. =
Black Hawk county found that
they had one variety adapted to their
conditions that out-yielded all other
about ten bushels to the acre This
has become the adopted corn OF the
county. Floyd county is working
toward the same end.
(c) Alfalfa Growing.
| Demonstrated by demonstration
fields around the county that alfaifa
can be grown successfully on almost
any we'll drained ground. Found that
at least one and sometimes all OF
four things were necessary to its
llation. sweet soil, cultivation. In this
connection the agent looked up q
market for limestone and found that
lit can be laid down in Floyd county
for less than one dollar per ton.
About twenty carloads have already
been shipped in. The Bureau purchas-
led Truog soil tester with which the
lagent has made about four nun
Idred tests of soil for acidity. This
machine not only determines wheth-
er the soil is acid or not but the rela-
Tive amount of acidity, so that ne is
lenabled to tell whether given SOIL
needs two tons of ground limestoN'
per acre or five tons.
(d) Farmers Exchange. :,
Last year the agent looked up al
falfa hay for farmers who waLsed II
and ordered twenty cars altogether'
This was the cheapest COW feed they
bought last winter. Floyd county has
a surplus of clover hay this year. the
agent communicated with farmers NJ
the south half of the state who want
"a how Thav have hought over seven