EXTENSION DIVISION. 215 



FARM LABOR. 



Several of the counties report greater difficulties in securing farm 

 labor than ever before. The number of applications made by farmers 

 for laborers for the calendar year 1918 was 5,197 and the number located 

 through the Farm Bureaus was 3,476. The number of men applying for 

 work was 2,921; women 255. In several instances the agents also acted as 

 county directors of the Boys' Working Reserve and the reports show that 

 the work of the boys, many of whom were placed on farms, was satisfac- 

 tory. The labor survey has been used rather extensively as a guide to the 

 labor needs of the farmers of the counties. The farm labor project is 

 highly valued by the farmers and the methods of handling it will doubtless 

 be developed and made more efficient. 



FARM MANAGEMENT. 



The^^farm management project is a part of nearly every farm bureau 

 program and should occupy a prominent place in such programs as it 

 tends to give a balanced relationship to the enterprises of a farm and 

 concentrates attention upon the farm as a unified business. The increasing 

 interest in the cost of production studies is shown in the number of farmers 

 using farm account books, the reports showing that 11,804 books were 

 placed; 322 farm management demonstrations are also reported. 



MARKETING. 



As stated in the section on Farm Bureau Program and Organization 

 the making of a program by the people of the county and of each com- 

 munity is a fundamental part of the farm bureau plan. In the making 

 of this program by the farmers, almost invariably the first project 

 mentioned is the need for better methods of marketing. The interest 

 in finding successful methods of collective buying of farm supplies and 

 of collective selling of farm products is very strong and in practically 

 every farm bureau program this project occupies a leading place and is 

 receiving much of the attention of the farm bureau members, committee- 

 men and county agents. In the commercial potato districts, the mar- 

 keting project this year was a major one for all the Farm Bureaus and the 

 agents. They have cooperated with the Field Agent in Marketing and 

 with the officers of the Michigan Potato Growers' Exchange in the forma- 

 tion of 70 local associatijOns. The experience of these organizations in 

 selling potatoes has led to a much greater interest in all of the other 

 phases of the Farm Bureau potato project. The growers are realizing 

 as never before, the need of standardization of varieties, of selection and 

 treatment of seed, of inspection for control of disease and elimination of 

 foreign varieties and of all of the other factors in the potato project that 

 lead to successful and economical production and marketing. 



Just as the participation in the marketing of potatoes has led to greater 

 interest in every other step in a successful potato business, so has the 

 organized participation in the marketing of other products led to a reahza- 

 tion that success in selling depends upon several factors. In other words, 

 the farm bureau program is bringing about a reaUzation of the fact that 

 growing the product and marketing it are not two separate processes, but 

 that they are but two phases of one process and that the greatest success 

 of either calls for close inter-dependence of both. 



