Farm Bi-reau Work in New York State for 1914 2147 



in every case examined to contain diseased tubers and on the whole to 

 be of very inferior quahty. Some of this was found to be so diseased 

 and rotten that the company was required to replace all lots brought to 

 the attention of the farm bureau. The manager of the bureau could 

 have directed the purchasers to neighbors ha\'ing superior seed of the 

 same variety for sale at one and one-half cents per pound, or one-fifteenth 

 of the price paid the seed house. 



With the above conditions in mind, effort was made in meetings held 

 throughout the county to induce the growers to select tubers from their 

 best yielding hills for a seed plot. A few growlers did this in 19 13, but many 

 more, as a result of the winter meetings, selected one hundred. or more of 

 their best tubers from the bin and planted them by the four-hill unit 

 system. During the summer, fifteen potato field meetings were held, 

 in several instances in demonstration fields, where emphasis was placed 

 on the indi\ddual hills for seed. In some cases, while the tops were green, 

 the manager marked undesirable hills in a section of the field, and the 

 grower saved the hills not marked if desirable when dug. This is an easy 

 and rapid method of eliminating top diseases, mixed varieties, and poor 

 plants on a larger scale of seed selection. The results of these meetings, 

 of circular letters, and of other means of impro\4ng the crop have been 

 very gratifying; hundreds of farmers have hill selected stock for planting 

 at least part of their crop next \-ear. 



It was believed that the quickest and the most effective means of creating 

 interest and of obtaining figures would be by means of a boys' and girls' 

 potato contest. With the cooperation of the district superintendents 

 of schools, a quarter-acre contest was organized, with 105 contestants. 

 Our first annual Com, Potato, and Nature-Study Show is now past history, 

 but the interest created by that show and contest will make future his- 

 tory here, and it has already borne fruit by making a big contest and show 

 possible for 191 5. The high quality of the exhibit has set a new standard 

 before the growers who saw the exhibit and attended the two-da^^s pro- 

 gram. The facts and figures brought out by a study of the reports 

 proved that the contestants who treated their seed, sprayed with bor- 

 deaux mixture, and had good seed were the ones who stood highest in 

 score. 



While our best growers use about 1000 pounds of commercal fertilizer 

 per acre, the average amount used is about half this. With this low fer- 

 tilization and without spraying, ovir yield per acre leads the State; ac- 

 cording to the last United States Census the average ^deld for Franldin 

 County was 197 bushels per acre, or 74 bushels more than the average 

 for the State. This yield is believed to be due largely to the soil and 

 the climatic conditions of Franklin County. The potato project \vill re- 

 main the major one for 1916 ; the work under way will be enlarged and con- 

 tinued. 



During the summer of 19 14, the farm bureau organized and cooperated 

 in conducting the following contests: collecting tent caterpillar egg rings, 

 a one-acre com contest, a nature study contest, and a quarter-acre potato 

 contest. A girl won the individual prize by gathering 23,000 egg rings, 

 and the winning school gathered 190,000 egg rings. The com contest 

 was won with a yield of 64 bushels of fire-dried shelled com. A girl fotir- 



