Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-03-06
What Every County Needs.

IF there was ever a time when Tiff county
could afford to dispense with the services of
farm demonstration agent that time is not
now. With the boil weevil here and the crit
ical stage of the fight at hand to try to dis
pense with expert advice would be agricul-
tural suicide. For this service, the national
Government provides six hundred dollars and
the State six hundred; for the county to
Ceive the benefit of this fund, it has to raise
only an additional six hundred dollars Can
we afford to miss it?"-The Triton Gazette.
No county that wishes to progress, or that
hopes to hold its in the midst of the boil
weevi invasion afford to be without the
counsel and aid of an efficient farm demonstrators
The greater part of the Of such service the
Triton Gazette points out, is borne by a national
and-a State appropriation under the terms of the
Smith-Lever act. If the county treasury is unable
to furnish the requisite local fund thoughtful cit
liens should contribute it, both as a matter of en-
lightened self-interest and for the community's
broad well-being.
The great purpose OF the legislation which has
made it possible for every rural county in the
United States to the aid of expert agricul-
tural advisers is to carry the benefits of scientific
research and discovery directly to the people on
the farms. This is one of the most far-reaching
educational movements ever projected and its con-
structive influence and results are becoming broad
ly manifest The results in Georgia are strikins1v
atested by reports recently compiled by President
Soule of the State College of Agriculture under the
supervision of which the county demonstration
work in Georgia is conducted.
Last year, for example, there were 37,436 acres
of corn under demonstration in this State as COM
pared with 1854 the year preceding The average
yield per from the demonstration areas was
3O.5 bushels, while for the State as a whole the
average was only sixteen bushels. In wheat the
average yield per increased from sixteen BUSH
els in 1915 to twenty-one seven-tenths bushels
in 1916, while the number of demonstrators and
co-operators increased during the period from
nine hundred and eighty-nine to one thousand
four hundred and two. Especially interesting is
the fact that velvet beans, the planting of which
now plays such an important part in the States
agricultural welfare, increased from a demonstra-
tion acreage of 7341 in 1915 to 55122 in 1914
Similar increases both in areas cultivated and re-
suits obtained recorded in virtually all the food
and forage crops.
Equally gratifying results were ACCOMPLISHED in
animal husbandry through the farm demonstration
system. thousand and ffty-two pure-bred dairy
cattle and thousand, four hundred and twenty
seven pure-bred beef cattle we're brought into the
State during 1916 compared with two hundred
and forty-two of the former and four hundred and
eighty-nine of the latter in 1915 In the last two
years more than thousand dipping watts have been
built in the territory served by farm demonstration
agents, and remarkable progress has been made in
overcoming both animal and plant diseases. Be-
sides this service the purely practical side of
farming the demonstration system has been nval-
liable to the domestic and social interests of
life No country afford to be without this con-
serving and constructive agency.
If an embargo were placed on hot air, how
warm everybody would be.
The Reed amendment didn't prevent the
weather bureau from sending out food warnings.