Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 August 1917 — MEETINGS OF FARMERS' CLUBS [ARTICLE]

MEETINGS OF FARMERS' CLUBS

The Parr Farmers’ club will hold its regular meeting at the Parr school next Thursday evening. August 2. The program eorfimittee announces that the usual high grade program will be rendered and invites all to attend. A meeting for the puropose of organizing a community club will be held at the school building at Demotte next Friday evening at 3 o’clock. This meeting will be in charge of a committee consisting of Dr. Y. R. Oosten. Thomas Abbring and others are in charge of the arrangements. Dr. H. J. Kannal, County Agent Stewart Learning and probably Prof. R. A. Craig of Purdue university will appear on the program. Keener is one of the few townships without a community organization at the present tim? j and many of the prominent citizens have felt that it is time to get busy. Everyone is invited to attend. The North Union Farmers’ club will hold -its regular meeting at Virgie next Saturday evening. Methods of wheat culture will be the principal topic of discussion, and every one is asked to come prepared upon this subject. The Jasper County Better Farming association has completed the

checking up of the results of the oat- smut demonstrations started by its members last spring.. This work has been in charge of County Agent Learning and F- J- I'ipal of the plant pathology department of the Un rd uo experiment sta<i’'n. Thirty-two farms in different parts 'of the county were used as demonstrations. Most of the farmers treated thei r seed oats with formaldehyde last spring, leaving untreated check plots on their farms- for comparison. A few treated all their seed and other£tifl not treat any. The results show that the thirtytwo farmers seeded 1-466 acres of oats. The average per cent of smut on the treated plots was .22 per cent while the average per cert on the check plots was 5.5 per cer.‘. Many of the farms showed less than .001 per cent of smut in the treated plots and wherever the percentage ran as high as .1 per cent it was invariably found that bulk formaldehyde had been purchased by the farmer. The demonstrators increased their yields of oats .an average of ninety-three bushels per farm by the use of the formaldehyde treatment. The average cost for material was less than $1 per farm and the labor expended was slight, The figures indicate that the us*- of. the trealnient on' all seed bats in the county would have increased the production this year by about 1 iimi bushels, vallied at over $11",000. \ Many:- demonstrators also increased vigor of treated plants due to . the fact that of heH disease- hsi'de from the smut were arrested.

In Speaking of the matter Mr. Pipal said: “The losses from smut in northern Indiana are below the average this year. While there was a loss of 5.5 per cent, the average annual loss is about 14. I have just come from Monroe county where the loss ran as high as 34 per cent in many fields." The association made nd attempt to carry out a campaign to induce all farmers to treat their seed oats last spring. These demonstrations were carried on with the idea of securing data which could be used in a county-wide project of oats smut control to be taken up next winter. - County Agent Learning ..reports that enough material has been obtained from the trials this year to prove convincing to anyone who will study it and expects that in a few years the practice of treating all small grain seed will become general.