STATES EELATIOISrS SERVICE. 371 



piircliase fertilizer cooperatiTely. The value of the fertilizer so pur- 

 chased by these organizations was $3,630,105, and tlie estimated sav- 

 ing due to cooperative purchasing was $532,100. 



Gardens. — A part of the general Avork in the Southern States in 

 1918 Avas the campaign for home gardens. Other forces were in the 

 field, but the county agents organized tins movement in practically 

 every county in 1918, and the success of the movement was due mostly 

 to tiiem. Special agents in charge of the garden work were ap- 

 pointed for the States of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, jNIaryland, 

 North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. 

 In all of the other Southern States the specialists inhorticiilture and 

 the county and district agents conducted the campaign. Under Avar 

 conditions this campaign Avas definitely aimed at city and toAA-n 

 gardens as aa'cII as rurab gardens. Complete data are not available, 

 but it is estimated that a total of more than 3,000,000 gardens in tho 

 South Avere the result of this campaign. 



CoorERATiAE :aiarketixg and pukciiasixg. — The statement often 

 made that the colleges, the county agents, and the United States De- 

 partment of Agriculture put all of their emphasis on production and 

 are not assisting the farmers Avith the difficult problems of market- 

 ing may be answered by saying that the county agents have cvery- 

 Avhere worked with bodies of farmers organized for the rjurpose of 

 purchasing farm supplies and marketing farm products. Where 

 the marketing problem has been critical, the county agents haA'e not 

 hesitated to quickly assist farmers and farmers' associations to 

 organize on the proper basis for making purchases or marketing- 

 products. The South is just building its neAv agriculture, and in this 

 building problem many difliculties regarding the marketing of the 

 new ]:)roducts liaAe arisen and all of the extension forces liaA'c realized 

 that it AA'as necessary to help farmers to soh^e these problems. This 

 the marketing specialists an.d county agents are doing. The Bureau 

 of Markets of the department has a specialist in marketing, either in 

 direct or very close cooperation with the extension forces of the 

 colleges, in the following States: Virginia, Xorth Carolina, South 

 Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana. Arkansas, Tennessee, and 

 Kentucky. 



There "have been many reasons for greatly extending marketing- 

 efforts, as for example, the increased production of hogs and cattle 

 in the South, the necessity for organizing new systems to take in 

 farm products locally produced and distribute them to local markets, 

 ilio increased production of food and feed which had to be dis- 

 tributed through local organizations, the drought conditions in 

 western Texas and Oklahoma, and the Government sale of nitrate of 

 soda. 



The main items of business of this kind, in Avhich the county agents 

 assisted, Avere as folloAvs: 



Fertilizer, lime, and tlic like, purchased amounted to 64,382 tons 

 valued at $1,900,122, exclusiA'e of nitrate of soda ; carloads of cattle 

 marketed 751, A-alued at $1,034,295: carloads of swine marketed 

 1,530, A'alued at $2,748,948; corn, wheat, and other grain marketed 

 1,395,900 bushels, valued at $1,590,448; miscellaneous agricultural 

 products marketed valued at $2,631,985. The grand total value of 



