Farm Bureau Work in New York State for 1914 2133 



Ten fami bureau and thirty-four school meetings were addressed by 

 the manager, the total attendance at these meetings being 3400. 



The organization of the Chemung County Farm Bureau Association 

 was completed with a inembership of one hundred. 



The fann bureau assisted in the Achievement Club work carried on 

 in this county. The manager judged potatoes and bread and instructed 

 the children in the growing of potatoes at exhibits held last fall in the 

 schoolhouses. One thousand two hundred children took part in this 

 work, which included contests in poultry raising, potato growing, and 

 bread making. All members who sent in reports during the year and 

 exhibited their work were awarded bronze medals. The best exhibit 

 in each school was awarded a silver medal, and the best exhibit in each 

 supervisory district received a gold medal. The three best in the county 

 received a gold star medal. Monthly reports were required covering 

 the condition of the poultry and the potatoes and the progress in bread 

 inaking. 



Ten agricultural articles were published in the local papers, and 

 thirteen circular letters were written. Nineteen thousand five hundred 

 copies of these letters were distributed, and 1500 copies of Government 

 bulletins on agriculture were given out. Three hundred survey record 

 letters were returned to fanners. This is the means used by the bureau 

 to give the farmers whose farms have been surveyed an idea of the con- 

 dition of their business and how it compares with the best, the average, 

 and the poorest faniis in the county. The object of this work is to show 

 the weak and the strong points of the individual farmer's business and 

 to give him suggestions whereby he may strengthen the weak points. 

 Two hundred other letters were written to farmers during the year. 



A total of ninety schools were assisted in developing agricultural in- 

 struction, and 3000 pupils were reached by this instruction. Twenty-five 

 books on the growing of potatoes were distributed during the year. 



Under the direction of the Geneva Experiment Station, two acres of 

 alfalfa were sown in order to determine the practicability of growing 

 alfalfa on the hill soils of this county. These fields were limed with 

 two tons of ground limestone per acre, and twenty pounds of seed were 

 sown per acre. The sowing was done the last of July without a nurse 

 crop, and excellent stands were obtained in both fields. 



One cow-testing association was organized in which 409 cows are being 

 tested for milk production. This work meets with much interest from 

 the farmers, and especially from those selling milk that is tested for fat 

 content or from those making butter. It is expected to reorganize this 

 association. Several balanced rations were figured and adopted". 



Through the farm bureau association about eighty tons of chemical 

 fertilizers were mixed at home and used at a considerable less expense 

 to the fanners in comparison to the price of commercial fertilizers. About 

 $1400 worth of fertilizers and lime was handled through the association 

 during the year. This work has now been turned over to the Chemung 

 County Farmers' Exchange, a separate organization to promote coopera- 

 tive buying and selling. 



Three hundred farm records were taken during the year. The records 

 taken in the county are being summarized and will be published later in 



