Tart II.] RELATION OF THE RAILROAD. 109 



then succeeded in getting an allotment of funds from, and the co-opera- 

 tion of, the Federal Department of Agriculture. This work must have 

 been well done, because it has stood the test of six or seven years, and it 

 has been followed bj^ the location of county agents in a very large number 

 of counties. Of the 2,850 rural counties in this country, 1,900 now have 

 count}^ agents, and about 1,200 of these have women demonstration 

 agents, an outgro^vth, by the way, of the farm bureau plan. I always 

 thought that the interest of your road in this matter came from a genuine 

 appreciation of the fact that the railroad business and the farmer's busi- 

 ness, to a large extent, depend upon each other. In the present emergency 

 the importance of these great industries in their intimate relations are 

 being emphasized as never before. 



Incidentally, if I may be permitted to play upon the phrase 

 "The Relation of the Railroad to the Farmer," you may be 

 interested to know that the author of this letter, Raymond A. 

 Pearson, the assistant secretary of agriculture, is a brother of E. 

 J. Pearson, the president of New England's principal railroad. 



The county farm bureau under competent management is, 

 in our opinion, unquestionably the best medium not only for 

 disseminating scientific information, but for bringing about 

 among the farmers co-operative action along many lines where 

 until recently they have been suffering seriously from too great 

 a degree of individualism. This feature manifests itself in a 

 variety of ways. On the one hand, we find farmers, through 

 the farm bureaus, purchasing their supplies, agricultural imple- 

 ments, fertilizers and w^hat not at very much more favorable 

 terms than would otherwise be possible, and with a much 

 better prospect of prompt delivery by reason of the quantity 

 of the shipments. On the other hand, they are in many cases 

 making possible the sale and shipment of farm products under 

 much more favorable terms than heretofore, the farm bureau 

 agent being located generall}^ in one of the principal cities of 

 the county, and in contact with the general consuming public, 

 either directly or through the agency of some railroad, thus 

 finding markets of superior attractiveness and securing im- 

 proved treatment at the hands of the distributors in those 

 markets. The possibilities along the latter line are very great, 

 and w^e look to see counties acting as units of distribution 

 with very promising results, both to the farmer and to the 

 consumer. 



