Report of Missouri Farmers' Week. 323 



ing the live stock industry of Missouri. My own county of Calla- 

 way is acknowledged to be the banner mule county of the universe, 

 and the fame which it has gained in this particular is due in, part 

 at least to the work which was begun on a Fulton newspaper ten 

 years ago by one of the first farm and stock news reporters ever 

 employed on a country newspaper, and which has been kept up by 

 his successors on the same newspaper. Numerous other country 

 newspapers in Missouri have real farm and stock news depart- 

 ments — among them nearly all of the newspapers in. Boone county 

 — and the day is not far distant, I predict, when every live, pro- 

 gressive country newspaper in the State will be eager to get and 

 publish farm and stock news. 



Publicity is one of the greatest forces in the world, and prop- 

 erly utilized, it will help mightily in solving the country-life prob- 

 lem. Why, a few years ago the Bunceton Eagle started a move- 

 ment to name the farms of Cooper county, and now that county 

 probably has more named farms than any county in the United 

 States. The movement is spreading to adjoining counties, and in 

 a few years, no doubt, the majority of the farms in Missouri will 

 have names. I believe farm conditions in Callaway county have 

 improved since the newspaper of which I am editor established its 

 farm and stock news department. I believe one of the results of 

 the development of that department is greater pride on the part 

 of the farmers of the county in their farming methods. If this is 

 true, it is worth the work that has been done and the money that 

 has been spent on the Fulton Gazette, even though there have 

 been many discouragements to face and many obstacles to over- 

 come. 



Sixty and seventy years ago the country newspapers devoted 

 their pages almost exclusively to politics. Then there came a time 

 when those news matters which obtruded themselves on the 

 editor received slight notice, while in later years the country news- 

 papers have been devoted largely to the publication of local news. 

 Fifteen years ago local news consisted principally of reports of 

 the affairs of town people, country people and country affairs be- 

 ing neglected, due partly to a lack of satisfactory news-gathering 

 facilities, partly to the indifference of country people, and partly 

 to the lack of appreciation of country life and country people. 

 The telephone and rural mail delivery have brought town and 

 country closer together, and with the country newspapers endeav- 

 oring to get country news, the time ought not to be far distant 



