Clearwater Republican. [volume] (Orofino, Idaho) 1912-1922, 1918-03-01
FARMERS MUST ORGANIZE
It CLEARWATER COUNTY,

Uncle Sam is urging the organ
iZation of County Farm Bureaus.
AS war measure the Federal Gov
eminent is urging the farmers OF
Clearwater county to get together
and create a Farm Bureau. What is
it?
A Farm Bureau Is non-sectar-
ian. non-political organization OF
representative farmers interested
solely in agricultural development of
the community. Its purpose is to
solve, thru concerted organized eff
fort, those problems of the farmer
which he is powerless to cope with
alone-particularly such pressing
wartime problems as securing good
labor at reasonable cost, getting an
adequate seed supply. storing and
marketing crops, Graduating diseas-
es of livestock, and farm pests, etc.
The Government desires such an
organization, not only because it
will contribute to the development
of farming in the community, but
also because it furnishes the Govern
ment with means of communicating
with the farmers In every part of
the country and putting them di-
rectly in touch with the Nations
needs. At the same time it affords
the farmers an effective means of
laying their needs before the Gov
eminent.
The Farm Bureau does not sup
plant any existing organization, nor
compete with any of them, but rath-
er establishes a clearing house thru
which all can get to work The
Farmers Union of Kootenai county
recently passed a resolution THAT
the Farm Bureau is necessary link
in connecting the rural organiza-
tions already existant, and the
Farmers Unions of Idaho are here
by urged to give the Farm Bureau
their unqualified support"
Twenty-eight of Idaho's counties
already have farm bureaus, and sew
en- more are now being organized
These Farm Bureaus are combined
in the State Farm Bureau, which
| already represents over 5000 farm
ers in Idaho, and which held SEES
sion in Boise on February IA. The
results of this session promise val
liable results in the way of stand
ardiZed wage scale for the coming
season, as well as more adequate
supplies of seed and labor
Most county farm bureaus have u
county agent, supported partly by
the Government and partly by the
county who devotes all his atten-
tion to the work of the Bureau. He
is not a theoretical book farmer
who shows the farmers how to run
their business. No one is compe-
tent to do that. On the contrary
the County Agent is practical
farmer of demonstrated ability whose
business 1t is to assist in the organ
ization of the Farm Bureau, to
search for the best there is in the
farm practice of the county and give
1t the widest possible publicity, and
to demonstrate established agricul-
tural facts of value but not yet gen
orally practiced He seeks out and
obtains the counsel of the county's
best farmers in planning and exc
cutting his program for agricultural
betterment.
Examples of what the county
agent and farm bureaus have done
in this state are numerous. In Can
yon county, by sending a man to
Texas to dispose of their alfalfa, the
members of the Farm Bureau have
been able to sell their hay at $40
per ton on the cars, while in other
counties without such an organiza-
ton the farmers are glad to get SIT.
When the county agent came into
Franklin county the farmers had
lost $4,000 worth of hogs from
cholera and were paying a fakir $40
a pint for beet juice which he
claimed was cholera serum. The
agent vaccinated the hogs and there
has been no cholera since
Over in Spokane county a farmer
long ago discovered that he did not
need to summer fallow after grow
ing wheat, but that he could grow
peas at a profit and raise Just as
much wheat. The county agent dis
covered what this farmer was doing
arranged excursions from all over
the county to this mans farm so the
farmers could talk direct to the pea
grower and learn his methods, and
then arranged with seed companies
to supply seed without cost to the
farmers. And last year there were
in the county 10000 acres of peas
on land which otherwise would have
been idle, and which, in spite of the
very dry year, produced a crop
worth at least 100000.
1t is because of such results that
the Government wants every county
to have a Farm Bureau and a Coun-