Richmond daily register. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1917-1978, 1922-07-26
" hen / Visited
The County Agent

falling off before ripening. A neighbor
advised NE to ask the county agent to look
at the orchard. had to call three differ
ent times before found him in the Office
| The first time he was off down to the
southern part of the county helping a
i bunch of farmers near Tibbivile organize
a cooperative livestock shipping associa-
| ton. None Of the farmers down there
are big shippers; the local buyers haven t
+ enough competition to make them efficient
SO the farmers are planning to ship CO.
opelatively to the city The county
agent took down set of contracts, rules
and regulations, and methods of organiza-
ton that have proven successful for the
cooperative shipping associations that
have been operating the past two years
: ever cast near Podunk. While down there
he Helped sell some feeder pigs that had
been listed with him by farmers up at this
end OF tie county.
i The second time | called for the county
agent he was taking a man who had come
up from the college OF agriculture around
over tie county testing dairy herds for
tuberculosis. They found seven in a
herd, Of twenty from which Efgginstown
had gotten most of its milk supply, They
found infected cattle in the most unsus-
pected places. While most OF the herds
were healthy they found eighteen COWS
whose tainted milk had been cndangering
the lives Of hundreds of children and
grownups.
While out on this trip the farm advisor
gave much information regarding the
breeding records of Holstein cattle to
farmers vino wished to replace their
diseased COWS. He also worked up an
interest among the farmers in co-opera-
lively bringing in an expert from the
Agricultural College to test the dairy
herds CT the county for butter fat produc-
tion.. The farm advisor also suggested
rations that were properly balanced and
would keep the herds in state of health
and resistance.
The third time-I tried to get him the
girl who keeps Office said that he would be
back about four o'clock, that he had been
asked by the Farm Bureau Community
Club of the Hilldale neighborhood to go
out and help them analyze their soil con-
tent. That is, he tested the soil in the
various farms TO see whether it was sour,
too much alkali, worn out, too rich or
what. That was new to me-having
your dirt agnosed and doctored. Rut
YOU know for yourself that sometimes
crop that grows rank on your neighbours
farm viii only bring half yield on your
own. Where the farm advisor cannot tell
the needs and treatment of the soil HIM
self he is in direct touch with the United
States Department of Agriculture Expert
ment Station and can send samples in to
be analysed by experts.
If it is alfalfa, clover, or other legumes
that are needed the farm advisor stands
ready to give information on seed and
planting. Several of the state Farm
Bureau Federations have rock phosphate
and limestone distributing departments
which operate quarries, make money -
saving contracts with mining companies
and ship straight to the farmer. The
farmer orders through the farm advisor
who sends the order to state headquarters
where it is taken care of by the depart
ment where the fertilizer IS purchased CO.
operstively. This way the quarry COM
panies can give discounts on large con-
tracts 1t is the same principle in eff
eiency that the wool pool portrqys When
the farm advisor gives his services in
collecting and shipping the wool from one
point he eliminates the toll that the local
buyer takes for his trouble and thesfarmer
gets the added profit which is available
because of efficient handling. In both
the case of cooperative buying of lime
stone and the cooperative selling of wool,
the goods GO the shortest route from
the producer to the consumer.
While / waited for the farm advisor to
return three other farmers dropped in to
sec him.
One of them had come in to get one of
the farm account books that the Farm
Bureau is distributing. He brought his
income tax blanks along for help in filing
his returns. He didn't have an account
book the past year. Ifrecords are proper
Iy kept in the account book there will be
no trouble in figuring up the results at
the end of the year.
The other fellow had come in to get a
hired man. The Farm Bureau has auto
natically come to be quite an employ
ment agency. Men hunting jobs just
naturally gravitate there and especially
do the better class OF hired men go to the
Farm Bureaus for tips on where to find
work The County Agent tells me that
he places one or two men every week of
the year and of course during the harvest
season a great deal of his time is taken up
listing farmers who want help and direct
ing the travelling harvesters to the farms.
The third man who was waiting around
with us had come in to file a claim. The
fences along the right-of-way of the rail-
road that runs through his farm have been
about half down. His cattle had pushed
through in the night and pure bred
milk COW was killed by train. We have
a claim department at the state Office
which receives claims from individuals
through the county farm advisors. A
claim agent is hired who does nothing but
negotiate with the claim agents OF the rail-
roads for farm bureau members. In
Illinois the Service Claim Department
collected a total of $i5,21S in claims for
its merabers during the past year.