84 THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES 



certify the product, tagging and guaranteeing, so that the 

 grower may be certain of the quality of his seed. 



Other types of production service organizations which 

 county agents have found useful might be cited, such as 

 the operation of local lime crushing plants, power ditch- 

 ing machines, and the like, or land clearing, gopher eradi- 

 cation and others. 



LOCAL MARKETING ASSOCIATIONS 



The greatest immediate demand for the application of 

 the county agent's organization and leadership abilities 

 has proved to be that of cooperative buying and selling, 

 particularly marketing. There has been great dissatisfac- 

 tion on the part of the farmers with the present situation. 

 In too many cases neither farmers nor county agents knew 

 the exact remedy for the marketing difficulties experi- 

 enced. Farmers, however, are feeling the urgent need for 

 and demanding a solution of these problems; they are 

 ready to try almost anything in order to get experience 

 and to learn how they may work out these problems. 



Grain marketing through cooperative elevators and the 

 cooperative shipping of livestock were among the first 

 attempts by farmers to work out this marketing problem. 

 The packing, standardization and merchandising of 

 citrous fruits in California is, perhaps, the most striking 

 success of cooperative organization in marketing. With 

 this, however, the county agents have had very little to do. 



In the East the cooperative marketing of milk was one 

 of the first problems on which farmers were ready for 

 action. The comparative uniformity of this product, the 

 fact that dairying is a common type of farming and busi- 

 ness in many localities, made the problem of organization a 

 little easier. The first requirement was information on 

 conditions and proposals. This meant meetings of farm- 



