The difference in price between malting barley and feed barley has shown a spread, ofttimes as much as twenty-five to forty cents a bushel. It is, therefore, profitable to establish seed centers where fine barley may be had in carloads, the best of which may be sold as seed at a price frequently double that of ordinary barley, and second, to establish and maintain a grade of barley which can be had in carloads which shall have a reputation for quality and attract the very highest prices from the manufacturers of barley products. Even the inferior barleys from such a county will bring a price superior to the average run of feed barley.

In short, it will pay to go into barley raising on a proper basis and either through the efforts of a farmer, miller, grain dealer, brewer or seedsman, a seed center may be established and this result may be obtained.

The committee has furnished blotting paper testers to all of your schools and in this work we ask your individual co-operation. No man should put in his barley this year without making a test, for two reasons: First, to see that it is strong and vigorous, and, second, that it will all germinate at the same time, which is a serious objection to all barley mixtures. A simple blotting paper test will prove this conclusively.

There are too many varieties and mongrel mixtures. A barley comparison meeting should be held in your county sometime during the winter to which all will bring a sample of the barley they intend to sow, so that all may unite on the best kind possible for the soil and climate. Some counties have already increased their crops in both quality and quantity in this simple manner.

WHAT WE STAND FOR

The doctrines of the Crop Improvement Committee of seed selection which five years ago were pooh-poohed and ignored, have now been adopted systematically in every State. The four fundamentals following, are being taught in many schools in territory where grain is a factor:

First-Establishment of one variety of each kind of seed best adapted to soil and climate.

PROVIDING BEER FOR LABORERS IN MUNICH. EACH LABORER GETS ONE LITRE OF BEER DAILY.

Second *-The fanning and grading to obtain a uniform seed free from trash, immature grain and weed seeds.

Third-Treatment of grain diseases by the use of formalde

hyde, etc.

Fourth-Testing for vitality of all seeds with the assistance of the school children of the community.

SCHOOL CHILDREN BEST PARTNERS

Seventy-five thousand school children germinated small grains for their farmer partners, in testers furnished through the Crop Improvement Committee, and as most of them send us a two-cent stamp for samples, it is reasonable to say that more than 100,000 children introduced this testing in thousands of schools. It is entirely conservative to say that at least that many children used the rag-doll corn testers, printed and distributed by the Crop Improvement Committee, and the team work instigated by the United States Government under Benson, the grain schools conducted by such men as Moore, Wilson, Bliss, Buchanan, Pugsley, Christy, Smith, Johnson, Doane, Shoesmith and hundreds of others whom it is unfair not to mention has carried this doctrine of seed selection into every school district in every county, in every state.

* At the request of the brewmasters, maltmasters, grain men and others, several meetings have been held and an endeavor made to agree upon tentative grades which would be acceptable to all concerned. It is understood that the Government is to establish standard barley grades within the next year or two and it is therefore desirable that the barley interests should unite upon what standards would be satisfactory to the trade as well as to the farmers. A questionnaire has been sent out to several hundred interested parties and many of them have responded, and the matter is now open to a final conference.

†The committee, in connection with the Government and two chemical laboratories, is now conducting a series of experiments to prove that formil gas will kill the smut spores in barley without affecting its germination. Also a series of experiments regarding the treatment of barley smut spores, by vaporizing the grain by formaldehyde steam. Both of these experiments have proceeded satisfactorily and far enough to warrant us in stating that both processes are effective and the problem now is to ascertain the proper proportions and economical method of administration.

HONOR TO WHOM HONOR

It is not modest for the Crop Improvement Committee to claim credit for the work of these men, yet through its publication, The County Agent, the news of this work has been disseminated into. every neighborhood-urban as well as rural and the doctrine of community development where the pupils themselves belong and pay dues and where a competent man is employed as Secretary and paid to stay on the job, has become firmly fixed in the tenets of our country.

While the headquarters of this committee are in Chicago, too much praise cannot be given to the loyal support of the committee men at each of the grain centers and a special vote of thanks must be given to that army of volunteer workers, one or more of whom are located in every grain county of the United States. The value of this local leadership cannot be over-estimated. They are from all callings in life-farmers, grain dealers, millers, bankers, secretaries of commercial clubs, dentists, doctors, all sorts and conditions of men who are united on this one thought—and make it their religion-personal service.

Four years ago there was not a single Farm Bureau in America. There were some "Government Farm Advisors" working in the South without any local associations. In Broome County, New York, there was a man supported by a partnership arrangement including the Binghamton Chamber of Commerce, the Lackawanna Railroad and the United States Office of Farm Management, without any local membership. There was a man at Duluth working among the vegetable growers helped by the Duluth Chamber of Commerce and there was a man doing missionary work through the Pennsylvania hills and several doing investigational work for the Government here and there.

Farm Bureaus are now established, according to the plan adapted to local conditions proposed by the Crop Improvement Committee, in more than 1000 northern and western counties and these Farm Bureaus have contributed three or four million dollars of their own money and are paying part of the expense in partnership with the County Board, the State and the Government which are furnishing as much more money.

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