Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 March 1915 — IS THE COUNTY AGENT NEEDED? [ARTICLE]

IS THE COUNTY AGENT NEEDED?

Is the county agent needed? Many argue that other forms of extension work—the farm press, the institute, the bulletin—meet the situation satisfactorily. The warmest friends of the farmers* institute recognize its serious deficiency in a total lack of follow-up work. There is such a great likelihood that those attending the institute will assent to the preachments of the speaker and then go back home and farm the same old way. Instead of one institute a year, as at present, with an agent there can be twelve; instead of only two or three in the county, there can be one in each township. Furthermore, the agent can help the farmers apply the lesson of the institute.

The bulletin is sent out from the experiment station or the department of agriculture when it is published. The agent will see that it is sent out when it is needed. The scientific cussions in the bulletin can frequently be summarized in a few terse paragraphs; and the agent, through the press and through the institute, will carry the message from the scientist to the farmer. The agent is needed, not to displace other work, but as an efficiency man to second all legitimate forms of extension work and to bring to the conc: ete problem of the farm all the teachings of agricultural science, tempering their application by the acid test of local farm experience.—Farm Management Monthly.

MADE SILO SURVEY OF COUNTY. To meet the demand for accurate information about the different types of silos, the farm improvement bureau of Montgomery county, Kan., recently made a complete survey of all the silos in that county. They have on file a list giving the name of every silo owner and the kind of silo he has in use, so that other farmers or outsiders desiring facts about the success or failure of any type can visit the farms and find out for themselves. It is hoped that by this method the farmers will be helped to find which type of construction is best adapted to their conditions, and they will be saved from the large amount of misinformation which is commonly spread about. E. J. Macy is the county agriculturalist. —Orange Judd Farmer.

SCHOOL RUNS EGG CLUB. An egg club has been organized by the Evergreen Park (Cook county, ’Ji.) public school which has worked with great success so far and promises to be permanent. Membership It this club is Open to all children in the school owning not less than five or more than twenty-five chickens. Each member is assigned a number, snd on certain days he brings to the school all of his eggs laid the previous day, each egg being marked with his number. The president, secretary, and treasurer of the club, together with the principal of the school, form a marketing committee and dispose of the -eggs. On the first and fifteenth of eaih month, the secretary gives each member a statement, showing the total receipts from sales of eggs and his pro-rata share; and later the treasurer settles with the members. The club now has fifty-four active members. Besides enabling the school children to earn a little money and dispose of their eggs gt top prices, Ibe dub work also trains them in busaess matters and gives them practical training In mathematical