suggests that it is not sufficient to obtain funds from governmental and taxation sources alone, but that as many persons in the county should participate in the work as possible, who should contribute at least half of the local fund so raised for county development. In order to maintain the interest and get the best results it is necessary that the business men, land owners and bankers, as well as the farmers of each county, should be personally and financially interested in the plan.

So rapidly has this County Farm Bureau idea spread, that the work is now in various stages of development in nearly three hundred counties, most of them in the barley growing States.

THE BARLEY CAMPAIGN.

We began our active campaign in Wisconsin in January. We secured the co-operation of the College, and Prof. Moore, probably the most efficient of all the barley breeders in America, was placed in charge. We employed Mr. H. E. Krueger, whom you all know as the champion barley grower at the last barley show, and in order that the effect of the meetings might be permanent, we succeeded in establishing in almost every county a branch of the Wisconsin Experiment Association under the personal direction of Prof. Moore.

The Demonstration Car was supplied by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway and was equipped with all the necessary cleaning and grading machinery and seed samples, and we printed the Wisconsin list of seed growers and distributed it at every point. We continued the work by sending Mr. Krueger to as many points as time would allow before sending, by appointment in advance through the bankers, commercial clubs and grain men, to make demonstrations, meeting as many farmers as possible personally and giving a lecture on successful barley growing each day. This work has been so successful that Prof. Moore is already planning for a long tour next season. He writes us as follows:

"We have finished our trip throughout the States with the pure-bred seed grain car and I wish, at this time, to extend my sincere thanks for the hearty co-operation you have extended in this great work. I know we cannot express in figures the good that the running of the seed grain car will do for the territory which was covered. It will undoubtedly be enormous and the fact that we left an organized agricultural association in every county visited to carry on the good work for years to come means a great deal for

the territory through which we passed. As this was an experiment, at first I was somewhat reticent to give my views upon the subject as freely as I would have liked; however it is no longer an experiment, and the enormous calls which have come to the office for up-to-date help impresses me very favorably in regard to the great good which has been accomplished.

'Without your influence and help in this matter, we would not have been able to carry on this work, which I know will mean so much to our State."

IOWA.

Extensive plans were made through Prof. Holden, who at that time was Superintendent of Extension, to do a similar work through Iowa, but unfortunately he resigned at the critical moment.

The plans were immediately taken up with Dean Curtiss, who expressed himself as in entire sympathy, so that the Barley campaign was taken up in the counties of that State. The College is establishing seed centres in connection with Prof. Burnett, so that pedigreed seed may be given in quantities to a capable farmer who will contract for the coming seed with his neighbors to grow this seed under the direction of the College. We have had a barley session of a half day at each of the short courses in Iowa in twentyfour counties. Since that time work in Iowa has been exceedingly active. The Greater Des Moines Committee, in conjunction with the Iowa Bankers Association and League of Commercial Clubs, have formed a State organization known as the Iowa Agricultural Association, and have placed Prof. P. G. Holden at its head. They have taken up our county plan with great enthusiasm and have nearly half the counties in the State in the process of organization, a number of them having secured their county manager. One of the main features of their plan is the breeding up of better types of grain, and we have made arrangements with them to co-operate at every point. The College is giving a great deal of attention to the breeding of barley and we soon hope to have a type of Iowa barley second to none.

NEBRASKA.

While the work in Nebraska has been based on corn, Mr. Blanchard, President of the Gate City Malting Company, was placed on the committee to look after the interests of barley. Blanchard has employed a special representative to cover certain

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territory and he was instrumental in distributing a good supply of good quality of recleaned Iowa barley, which he placed in the hands of an agent at each point and furnished at cost to the farmers.

NORTH DAKOTA.

Magnificent work has been done in North Dakota. The business men and farmers have organized the North Dakota Better Farming Association, which, in co-operation with the various counties has already placed 25 men in the field. We are working in entire harmony with this Association as well as with the Institute and College, and barley will be given due consideration at every point.

SOUTH DAKOTA.

South Dakota is not in very good shape, although they have a better farming association under way, and one county man installed. In connection with the government an effort is being made to unite the forces in that State, which we hope will be consummated in time for the next crop.

MINNESOTA.

Minnesota has practically reorganized its whole plan of extension work on the county basis. At a meeting at Glenwood we succeeded in organizing the twenty counties represented, most of which will establish county men as rapidly as they may be selected. A State leader has been appointed, representing both the government and the State, and the barley question will be given due prominence. Our campaign there last spring resulted in the distribution of a quantity of selected seed and the work of the Committee is shown in the increase both of quality and quantity.

MICHIGAN.

The county plan is spreading over Michigan like wildfire. We have two very strong allies, the Western Michigan Development Bureau, representing twenty counties, and the Northwestern Michigan Development Bureau, representing seventeen counties, which, in connection with the work done by individual counties in the southern half of the State, practically covers the entire State. They are very wide-awake to the situation and we have just sent Mr. Krueger through twenty-seven counties in Michigan in the interest of rye, in conjunction with Prof. Potts of the Agronomy

Department of the College. Their personal contact plan, being so successful, is worthy of notice. We wrote to every grain man, miller, maltster, to every railway official, including station agents, and to every man who had ever attended the Michigan Agricultural College whose address we could obtain, to circulate petitions in the neighborhood, to ask Messrs. Krueger and Potts to hold a meeting in the various counties. The result was overwhelming, and Prof. V. M. Shoesmith, the agronomist who had charge of the routing, was unable to fill one-half of the requests for dates.

The local committee met the two speakers at the railway station, drove them to as many farms as possible and arranged by telephone so that from five to fifty of the neighboring farmers should be present at each stop. Application blanks were signed for the organization of a Michigan Experiment Association on the Wisconsin plan and in the evening a general meeting was held.

NEW YORK.

The work in New York State is in satisfactory condition. We have succeeded in creating considerable interest. The Commissioner of Agriculture, Calvin E. Hudson, has agreed to take up the county plan as a reorganization of the institute work. We are already in co-operation with the government and the college and have some four or five counties organized with paid managers in charge, all of whom will take up the subject of grain breeding as soon as it may be reached.

IN OTHER STATES.

The work in the other States is in satisfactory condition. * California has started a campaign of its own and Mr. E. Clemens Horst, of San Francisco, has been added to the Committee for California. They have a State fund of $16,000 raised, which is to be used in breeding barley, hops and rice in connection with the State and government. The work in the Pacific Northwest is well organized and county farm bureaus are in process of completion in many counties.

NEWSPAPER WORK.

It is impossible to go into the details of the work of this Committee adequately, but we cannot close without a word about our newspaper work. We have induced many of the leading papers of the United States to issue crop improvement editions, giving a

digest of the latest agricultural information and showing the general public the profit in building up the agriculture of the county. Over seven hundred papers have printed the barley pages which have been furnished by this Committee in type free of charge, $1,000 contributed by the United States Malsters' Association being all devoted to that feature. In addition to the barley pages we have issued special pages on corn, wheat, oats, rye and hay and general pages are being issued monthly on timely agricultural topics which we are offering free in type to any or all of the newspapers in the United States, ready to print. We wish to commend this feature especially to the attention of this Association and to ask for as much support as you can conscientiously give. We have secured an editorial committee on this branch of the work, which consists of the Hon. W. M. Hays, Ass't Sec'y of Agriculture, Chairman, and such men as Moore, Pugsley, Holden, Graham, and generally the superintendent of extension or agronomist in each State in which we are working. We are relying upon voluntary subscriptions from the different vocations. to maintain this very important feature, the fund for this purpose being now enough to supply about 125 newspapers each month.

We are gaining the co-operation of the millers, the railways and a number of other lines of business, and we hope to be able to increase this patronage until we are able to supply one thousand newspapers with a new page of crop improvement matter each month. We are in receipt repeatedly of requests for articles describing our work. Dailies, weeklies, monthlies and agricultural and trades papers freely offer us their space and request that we keep them in close touch with the progress of the work.

THE EXPENSE OF THIS COMMITTEE.

Joining as we have with the various boards of trade belonging to the Council of Grain Exchanges, this campaign has been carried on with great efficiency at a very light expense. The United States Brewers' Association has agreed to furnish one-fourth of any sum subscribed for the support of the committee, and one thousand dollars has been paid into the treasury toward that amount for the present fiscal year.

RECOMMENDATIONS.

It is recommended that we be authorized to employ a scientific assistant to work nine months of the year on barley and three month