2148 Farm Bureau Circular No. 6 



teen years old won the quarter-aere potato contest with a total score of 

 97 .3 and with a weighed yield of 13 1 .4 bushels of clean, marketable potatoes. 

 The nature study contest was under ten divisions, and was won by different 

 rural schools. 



A com variety test was conducted in northern New York by the county 

 agents of Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Clinton, and Franklin Counties, cooper- 

 ating with the State vSchool of Agriculture at Canton, and the Northern 

 New York Com Growers' Association. This test is being made with 

 five varieties of flint and five varieties of dent corn, in order to determine 

 what type 'of com will give the most food nutrients per acre for silage 

 purposes. The seed was furnished by the com growers' association, and 

 the dry matter and chemical tests are being made by the agricultural 

 school at Canton. This test is to be continued, and the results found 

 should be of great value to the dairy farmers of the four counties. The 

 acre contest will be again conducted in order to improve the seed com and 

 in order to determine whether it is advisable to produce our supply of dry 

 corn instead of purchasing it from the West. 



Lime and fertilizer tests and demonstrations will be continued, especially 

 the top-dressing of meadows. The work so far has shown that nitrate 

 of soda alone applied at the rate of from 100 to 125 pounds per acre has 

 been the most profitable fertilizer on hay for the season during which it 

 was applied. The cost of growing the hay in excess of the checks, ranges 

 from $4.50 to $5 per ton. 



During the year the manager has addressed 79 meetings, having an 

 attendance of about 5816 persons, has written about 450 personal letters 

 in reply to inquiries, has issued 10 circular letters, has enrolled many 

 persons in the Cornell Reading Courses, has assisted in 7 farmers' institute 

 meetings and in 2 extension schools, has spoken at 6 rural teachers' 

 conferences, has distributed hundreds of agricultural bulletins to persons 

 interested, has operated a traveling agricultural library of 140 selected 

 books, and has made about 450 farm calls, reaching 231 different persons. 

 Trial tests are being made introducing winter vetch with oats and hay as 

 a forage crop and soy beans in silage corn. Where requests were made, 

 aid has been given in inoculating and preparing soil for alfalfa. Hardy 

 varieties of these legtmies have been secured, and time will determine the 

 value and the place they may have in our agriculture. Besides the things 

 mentioned, the manager's time has been well occupied with the necessary 

 routine demands for reports, collecting information, answ^ering telephone 

 and office calls, and the like. Educational exhibits were made at the county 

 fair and the com and potato show, and a collection of plant diseases, weeds, 

 seeds, chemicals, fertilizer materials, insects, ^nd the like, were displayed 

 at the farm bureau office when not used to demonstrate points at the 

 meetings. 



The granges, the school superintendents, the county supervisors, and 

 the public have cooperated in any project put forth by the farm bureau, 

 and the manager is indebted to all these agencies for whatever results 

 he has been able to accomplish. 



0. F. Ross, 

 Farm Bureau Manager oj Franklin County. 



