The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-04-18
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL.
INFORMATION BUREAU
FREDERIC }. HASkIN, Director.
WASHINGTON, D. C
CAPTAINS OF AGRICULTURE.


people of San Miguel county, New
Mexico. nearly all of whom are of
Spanish descent and speak Spanish,
contributed their share to the war
time food supply of the nation by pro-
ducing last year one bushel more of
beans per acre than ever before. In
cidentally, this netted them nearly
fifty thousand dollars extra profit,
and they have put in still larger
crop of beans this year
The county agent of the Department
of Agriculture, who is himself a ma
tive named Gonzales, deserves much
credit for this remarkable increase in
bean production. He pointed out to
the people that the pinto beans,
which they and their forefathers had
been raising for generations, varied
greatly in size and quality, and showed
them the advantages of sorting out the
best beans to use as seed. Bean sort
ing quickly became a popular occupa-
ton. In this way, not only was the
bean crop of San Miguel greatly in
creased, but its fame went abroad, and
farmers all over the state sent to that
county for seed beans.
This wartime work OF Il county
agent in San Miguel county, New Mex
leo is chosen because it is typical
county agents are doing the same
the northern and western states alone.
the number of county agents in the
field has been increased since we en-
tered the war, from about 500 to
1000. There is now an agent in al
most every agricultural county in the
United States. 1t is not too much to
say that without these men the in
crease in food production which has
enabled America to feed herself and
her allies would not have been pos
sible. Not that the farmers have lack
ed enterprise, but that some means of
directing and co-ordinating their eff
forts has been necessity. and the
county agents have furnished that
means. They constitute one of the
most important and one of the least
known organization for the prosecu-
ton of the war.
Few Americans who are not farm
ers know Just what county agent is.
He is a man appointed and directed
by the federal department of agricul-
ture. paid partly by the federal and
partly by the state government, and
working comparatively with the state
| agricultural college to teach the
farmers better methods of raising and
rketing their crops. So much for
him officially Personally, he is usual
| ly farmer, or an eX-farmer. who has
had some scientific training in an ag-
ricuhural college. He spends his days
| riding around the country in ''fliv-
| Yer" comforting with farmers and
holding demonstrations - especially
the latter. Every farmer has to be
shown a thing before he will believe
it, thereby proving that farmers are
| like other people. For example, the
| farmers in Illinois could never be con-
WINGED that they always lost about 10
per cent of their oat crop because ii
was infested with rust. The rust was
| inconspicuous; they didn't notice It,
| altho bulletins from Washington as
| sured them ii was there. Then came
| the. county agent. His method was to
| induce one farmer, avs Bill Smith, &c
treat a part of his seed oats with for
maldehyde to- kill the rust, and plant
| this seed in a separate strip of field
| When the oats matured all OF the
other farmers were invited TO come
and see the difference between the
| treated and the untreated grain When
it was threshed they were shown the
| difference in the yield. Now practi-
cally all of the oats planted in Illinois
are treated with formaldehyde, and
the rust menace is largely thing OF
the past
The county agent is walking en-
todiment of applied science He is
| the refutation of the argument thai
the department of agriculture deals
esting just at present chiefly because
of what he is doing to meet the war
time emergency
When we entered the war there
were less than half as many county
agents as there are now But these
Immediately made a survey of the
agricultural situation, and this has
been largely relied upon both by the
| food administration and by the de-
partment of agriculture. They learned
what labor was needed on the farms
what seed, what fertilizer, and wha'
were the possibilities of increased
tproduction. Furthermore, they sup
piled the lGbor, the seed and the fer
tilizer whenever possible. Thru coun-
ty agents, 5000 laborers were placed
for more wheat, the chief difficult,
was to find the seed. The county
agents in the northwest searched the
country for seed wheat, and the need:
of owe. seven thousand farmers were
met by them with the result tina
that section by nearly four million
bushels In supplying farmers will
seed corn the county agents did {
still larger and more difficult work
There was a serious shortage OF see6
, in the great corn states of the middle
wes-. such as Indiana and Illinois, No
enough seed existed in those states t.
plant the fields. Furthermore, south
ern seed could not be used, for it IL
of d different variety and takes too
. | Ions to mature. Accordingly, count-
agents travelled halfway across thi
continent seeking seed produced il
the same latitude. One agent secured
eleven carloads of seed corn in Penn
sylvania AID New Jersey and shipped
; it to his county in Indiana. By sucl
| expcdients as this the seed corr
shortage was relieved. More thai
nineteen thousand farmers were sup
Piled with seed corn thru the effort
: of the county ag1.ts. and in four hun
Ord count les the yield of corn wa
nearly eight million bushels create
, than it would otherwise have been.
....le county agent works thru a
organization of the local farmers
known as the farm bureau. This
a body of live wires" who are will
ing to devote some of their time t
s | i.,arro1,ir,ez aericlllture in their county