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colleges in every State of the Union placed their facilities at the disposal of the Department, supported its efforts and plans with the utmost zeal, and omitted no opportunity, on their own initiative, to adopt and prosecute helpful measures and to urge the best agricultural practice suited to their localities. They not only responded promptly to every request made on them to cooperate in the execution of plans but also liberally made available to the Department the services of many of their most efficient officers. Equally generous was the support of the great agricultural journals of the Union. They gladly sent their representatives to attend conferences called by the Federal Department and through their columns rendered vast service in the dissemination of information.

Very much assistance also was received from the National Agricultural Advisory Committee, created jointly by the Secretary of Agriculture and the Food Administrator for the purpose of securing the views of farmers and farm organizations and of seeing that nothing was omitted to safeguard all legitimate interests. This body, as a whole and also through its subcommittees, studied the larger and more critical agricultural problems confronting the Government, gave many valuable criticisms and highly useful suggestions, and assisted in the several communities in making known the plans and purposes of the Department. The committee included, in addition to representative farmers, the heads of a number of the leading farm organizations. It was composed of former Gov. Henry C. Stuart, of Virginia, a farmer and cattleman and member of the pricefixing committee of the War Industries Board, giving special attention to the consideration of price activities bearing on farm products; Oliver Wilson, of Illinois, farmer and master of the National Grange; C. S. Barrett, of Georgia, president of the Farmers' Educational and Cooperative Union; D. O. Mahoney, of Wisconsin, farmer specializing in cigar leaf tobacco and president of the American Society of Equity; Milo D. Campbell, of Michigan, president of the National Milk Producers' Federation; Eugene D. Funk, of Illinois, ex-president of the National Grain Association and president of the National Corn Association; N. H. Gentry, of Missouri, interested in swine production and improvement and vice president of the American Berkshire Association; Frank J. Hagenbarth, of Idaho, cattle and sheep grower and president of the National Wool Growers'

Association; Elbert S. Brigham, of Vermont, dairyman and commissioner of agriculture; W. L. Brown, of Kansas, wheat grower and member of the State board of agriculture; David R. Coker, of South Carolina, chairman of the State council of defense, successful cotton farmer, and producer of improved types of cotton; W. R. Dodson, of Louisiana, farmer and dean of the Louisiana College of Agriculture; Wesley G. Gordon, of Tennessee, demonstrator of better farming and influential in promoting the introduction of crimson clover and other legumes in his State; John Grattan, of Colorado, agricultural editor, member of the Grange and Farmers' Union, and cattle feeder; J. N. Hagan, of North Dakota, general farmer planting spring wheat on a large scale and commissioner of agriculture and labor; W. W. Harrah, of Oregon, wheat grower, director of the Farmers' Union Grain Agency of Pendleton, and member of the Farmers' Educational and Cooperative Union; C. W. Hunt, of Iowa, general farmer and large corn planter and live-stock producer; H. W. Jeffers, of New Jersey, dairyman, president of the Walker-Gordon Laboratory Co., and member of the State board of agriculture; Isaac Lincoln, of South Dakota, banker and successful grower on a large scale of special varieties of seed grains; David M. Massie, of Ohio, general farmer and successful business man, interested particularly in farm management; William F. Pratt, of New York, general farmer, agricultural representative on the board of trustees of Cornell University, and member of the State Farm and Markets Council; George C. Roeding, of California, fruit grower, nurseryman, and irrigation farmer, and president of the State agricultural society; Marion Sansom, of Texas, cattleman, live-stock merchant, and director of the Federal reserve bank at Dallas; and C. J. Tyson, of Pennsylvania, general farmer and fruit grower and former president of the Pennsylvania State Horticultural Association.

COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICE.

The emergency through which the Nation has passed only served to emphasize the supreme importance of the Cooperative Agricultural Extension Service. It has become increasingly clear that no more important piece of educational extension machinery has ever been created. It has been amply demonstrated that the most effective means of getting information to the farmers and their families and of securing the application of the best scientific and practical proc

esses is through the direct touch of well-trained men and women. With additional funds made available through the regular agricultural extension act, and especially through the emergency food- • production measure, the Department, in cooperation with the State colleges, quickly took steps to expand the extension forces with a view to place in each rural county one or more agents. When this Nation entered the war in April, 1917, there was a total of 2,149 men and women employed in county, home demonstration, and boys' and girls' club work, distributed as follows: County agent work, 1,461; home demonstration work, 545; boys' and girls' club work, 143. In November of this year the number had increased to 5,218, of which 1,513 belong to the regular staff and 3,705 to the emergency force. There were 2,732 in the county agent service, 1,724 in the home demonstration work, and 762 in the boys' and girls' club activities. This does not include the large number of specialists assigned by the Department and the colleges to aid the extension workers in the field and to supplement their efforts.

It would be almost easier to tell what these men and women did not do than to indicate the variety and extent of their operations. They have actively labored not only to further the plans for increased economical production along all lines and carried to the rural population the latest and best information bearing on agriculture, but also to secure the conservation of foods and feeds on the farm; and, in addition, many of them have aided in the task of promoting the better utilization of food products in the cities. They constitute the only Federal machinery in intimate touch with the millions of people in the farming districts. They have, therefore, been able to render great service to other branches of the Government, such as the Treasury in its Liberty Loan campaigns, the Red Cross, the Young Men's Christian Association, and other organizations in their war activities, and the Food Administration in its special tasks.

WORK OF THE DEPARTMENT.

It would require a volume even to outline all the things which the Department of Agriculture has done. It stimulated production, increasingly controlled plant and animal diseases, reducing losses from the cattle tick, hog cholera, tuberculosis, predatory animals, and crop pests, and, in conjunction with the Department of Labor, rendered assistance to the farmers in securing labor. It safeguarded

seed stocks and secured and distributed good seeds to farmers for cash at cost; acted jointly with the Treasury Department in making ⚫ loans from the President's special fund to distressed farmers in drouth-stricken sections; aided in transporting stock from the drouth areas; greatly assisted in the marketing of farm products, and, under enormous difficulties, helped the farmers to secure a larger supply of fertilizers. At the direction of the President, it is administering under license the control of the stockyards and of the ammonia, fertilizer, and farm-equipment industries.

The Department maintained intimate touch with the War and Navy Departments, the War Industries, War Trade, and Shipping Boards, and the Fuel and Food Administrations. Through the Bureau of Animal Industry, it not only continued to safeguard the meat supply for the civilian population, but it also inspected the meats used at the various cantonments, training camps, forts, posts, and naval stations, and aided in the organization of the veterinary corps. Through the Forest Service it rendered valuable assistance to practically all branches of the Government having to do with the purchase or use of forest products and to many industries which supply war material to the Government, made a thorough study of the lumber situation, aided in many directions the Bureau of Aircraft Production and the Navy Department in the execution of their aeroplane programs, conducted cooperative tests on a large scale at the Forest Products Laboratory, and collaborated in the organization of the forestry regiments. Its Bureau of Markets handled the distribution of nitrate of soda to farmers for cash at cost, cooperated with the War Industries Board in broadening the channels of distribution and stimulating the use of stocks of low-grade cotton, and worked with the Food Administration in the handling of grains and in other of its activities. Its Bureau of Chemistry assisted other departments in preparing specifications for articles needed by them, aided the War Department in the organization of its chemical research work and in making tests of fabrics and supplies, worked out formulas for waterproofing leather, and maintained intimate touch with the related services of the Food Administration. The Department collaborated with the War Department in its handling of the draft, with special reference to its problem of leaving on the farms the

indispensable skilled agricultural laborers. In like manner, through the States Relations Service and the Bureaus of Soils, Roads, Biology, and Entomology, the Department's services have been freely extended to other branches of the Government. It would be, impossible in reasonable space to indicate its participation in all directions, and reference must therefore be made to reports of the several bureaus.

MEAT SUPPLY.

Farm animals and their products received a large share of the Department's attention. Efforts were directed toward increasing the output of meat, milk, butter, and other fats, cheese, poultry, eggs, wool, and hides, first, by encouraging the live-stock raiser to make a direct increase in his herds and flocks and their products and, second, by assisting him to prevent loss from disease.

The campaigns for increased production yielded especially fruitful results in respect to pigs and poultry. Indications are that the increase of 15 per cent in pork production this year over 1917, asked for by the Food Administration, will be realized, at least in weight if not in number of hogs. Poultry and eggs also show a material increase, and enormous quantities of the latter were preserved by householders in the season of plenty for use in time of scarcity.

Steps were taken also to encourage the growing of cattle and sheep, but results are naturally slower with these animals than with pigs and poultry. Stockmen in all parts of the country were urged to carry sufficient numbers of cattle in order to make the fullest possible use of pastures and feeds which otherwise would have been wasted; cattle feeders were advised how to save certain grain for human consumption by substituting other feeds for their stock, and efforts were continued to bring about an increase in the number of cattle in the areas freed from ticks.

Through the joint action of the Bureaus of Animal Industry and Markets and the States Relations Service valuable assistance was rendered in the movement of cattle from the drouth-stricken areas of Texas. The county agents in that State, cooperating with the extension workers in Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Florida, and with the agents of the other bureaus mentioned, indicated to farmers in regions of heavy

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