2152 Farm Bureau Circular No. 6 



of work and the policy of the farm bureau are subject to the direction 

 of the executive committee of this association. The membership of this 

 association already includes representative farmers from all parts of 

 the county. Naturally, the strength and the usefulness of the association 

 will depend on the number and the active interest of the members. Any 

 farmer in the county who believes in the farm bureau as an institution 

 that will carry out the wishes of the agricultural class and will promote 

 such activities and enterprises as the farmers themselves want, is 

 encouraged to join the association and to take an active part in helping 

 himself or, what. is more important, in helping his neighbors. 



The bureau has been of assistance to the farmers during the past year 

 through its labor exchange, through which it has received 136 requests 

 from farmers desiring farm laborers. To meet this demand we have 

 received at the office of the bureau applications for work on farms from 

 164 laborers, a majority of whom live in this county. We feel that this 

 work has been appreciated. 



In cooperation with the State College of Agriculture a circular has 

 been published setting forth the agricultural advantages of Jefferson 

 County. Five thousand copies have been distributed. 



During the past summer, the manager, in cooperation with the State 

 College of Agriculture, made a careful study of the factors that affect 

 cost and profits in milk production in this county. The investigation 

 was based on the individual records of the cost of producing milk from 

 834 cows from all parts of the county. Space does not permit the pres- 

 entation here of the findings of this investigation. It is sufficient to 

 say, however, that after figuring all expenses involved in the production 

 of milk, we find that for Jefferson County a cow that produced less than 

 4000 pounds of milk in one year is not profitable, and the degree of profit 

 or loss is proportional directly as the cow produces more than 4000 pounds 

 or less than 4000 pounds of milk when the average market price for the 

 year is $1.52 per hundred pounds. 



The bureau has continued its local studies and field demonstrations 

 relating to the fertility problems confronting the farmers in the hay- 

 growing sections of the county. Information relative to the use of chemical 

 fertilizers for growing market ha}^ with profit was gathered from actual 

 results secured on different farms where farm manure is not available, 

 and was published in our local bulletin No. 3. entitled " Growing Hay 

 for Market." In brief, our field demonstrations covering two years 

 on 16 different farms show that for an average investment of $5.90 in 

 chemical fertilizers an increased yield of 1800 pounds of dry hay was 

 secured, to say nothing of the beneficial residual effect of the fertilizers 

 on succeeding crops. 



The bureau is also continuing to advocate the more general use of 

 leguminous crops in the average crop rotation, because legiiminous crops 

 materially increase the fertility of the soil and also tend to reduce materially 

 the expense in connection with purchased foodstuffs. On this phase 

 of our work, the bureau has issued local circular No. 5, the title of which 

 is " Winter Vetch as a Supplementary Farm Crop in Jefferson County." 

 The bureau has been instrumental in causing hundreds of acres of this 

 crop to be seeded during the past season. 



