Farm Bureau Work in New York State for 1914 2 141 



Fonning cow-testing associations have been one of our most important 

 projects. Since Delaware County is a strictly dairy county, it is quite 

 necessary that, after raising plenty of good forage, the farmers keep only 

 cows that will return them a profit greater than the cost of maintenance. 

 There are so many boarder cows and such a large waste of grain that it 

 is important that some means be taken to eliminate this trouble; this 

 can be accomplished only by using the Babcock test. At present there 

 are five cow-testing associations in operation, and four more nearly com- 

 pleted. When all are in operation, two hundred and twenty-five dairies 

 with a total of six thousand cows will be under test. The saving is at 

 least one dollar per cow. In order to substantiate this statement, I give 

 an illustration. One farmer in the cow-testing association said: '" The 

 third time the tester came to test my dairy, I could see that I had saved 

 six bags of feed. The feed cost me $10.35, more than enough to pay the 

 expense of testing and almost enough to pay the expense for six months." 

 Again a landlord said to his tenant: " If you will board the tester, I will 

 pay the expense of the testing." With farmers spreading the value of 

 this work and putting it into terms of bags of feed, it is easy to organize 

 cow-testing . associations. In connection with the cow -testing work, I 

 have been encouraging the members of these associations to use pure- 

 bred sires, and in some instances have interested the members in pur- 

 chasing a pure-bred sire for use in the associations. 



Chiefly through the efforts of the farm bureau, the price of lime has been 

 decreased, and a commodity rate on lime was obtained. Because of this, 

 thousands of tons of lime will be used. 



Tests of com and potatoes were carried on to ascertain the value of 

 sulfate of ammonia. No special benefit was obtained. 



Tile di^ainage is a new phase of agriculture to many farmers, and tlTrough 

 the efforts of the farm bureau two thousand feet of it have been laid, 

 increasing the value of the land. The levels and the grades for this were 

 made by the fami bureau with the assistance of the department of agri- 

 culture in the Walton High School. 



Several orchards are being cared for under the direction of the farm 

 bureau, and thousands of fruit trees were sprayed. This work is compara- 

 tively new in Delaware County. 



The marketing of farm products is very important, and through the farm 

 bureau an effort has been made to use a building in a community center 

 as a storage house for apples, potatoes, eggs, and other farm produce. 

 The bank in this community will give the farmers from fifty to seventy- 

 five per cent of the market value on the produce when placed in the ware- 

 house. When the prices advance, the produce is sold; the farmer pays 

 his loan at the bank, and, after paying a small warehouse fee, is dollars 

 ahead. This will tend to bring about uniformity in grading and distri- 

 bution of products. It will also allow the farmer to have nearly all the 

 money from his crop to use and at the same time will leave him in a posi- 

 tion to take advantage of the market. 



In one community an effort is being made to secure a milk plant to take 

 care of the milk that is produced and to encourage its production. In 

 this community the men have always obtained a living from lumbering 

 and from working in. the stone quarry; but because of poor markets they 



