26 ANNUAL REPOETS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



was given to creamery operators, home-economics workers, and farm 

 women. Six experts have devoted their entire time to encouraging the 

 production of cottage cheese on the farm and this number will be in- 

 creased. In the mountainous sections of the South special efforts 

 have been made to increase cheese production. The establishment of 

 cheese factories was encouraged in localities where climatic and other 

 conditions render their operation feasible. Work was begun in these 

 regions in September, 1914, when the first cheese factory was estab- 

 lished in North Carolina. Since that time the number of factories 

 has increased rapidly until at present there are 34, of which 26 

 were established during the last fiscal year. All have been suc- 

 cessful. They furnish outlets for milk in localities far distant 

 from railroads and centers of population, and in this way are 

 of great benefit to isolated regions. While the work in this field 

 is relatively new in the West, the results have been no less striking. 

 Nine men were employed during the summer to promote the utiliza- 

 tion of by-products of creameries and milk plants. The work was 

 conducted in eight States and plans are under way for its further 

 development. 



WHEAT AND OTHER CEREALS. 



When a state of war was declared it was clear that spring wheat 

 offered the only opportunity, in part at least, to make good the pros- 

 pective shortage of winter wheat indicated by heavy winterkilling. 

 County-agent leaders, therefore, in cooperation with the Department, 

 immediately put into effect plans for increasing the production of 

 spring wheat, as well as of oats, barley, corn, potatoes, buckwheat, 

 soy beans, grain sorghums, and other food crops, with the result 

 that the total acreages planted were much larger than they would 

 otherwise have been. For example, the seeding of spring wheat, 

 which promised to be only one-half to two-thirds the normal, was in- 

 creased to normal ; seed corn was more carefully selected and tested ; 

 and oats were more extensively treated for smut with a consequent in- 

 crease in yields. Many farmers who previously had not grown po- 

 tatoes at all planted sufficient for their own use, and many who had 

 never grown potatoes as a market crop planted a large acreage. 



The special campaigns in the South for the increased production 

 of foodstuff's through the extension forces were very successful and 

 gave a remarkable demonstration of the value of such educational 



