THE FARM BUREAU; WHAT IT IS AND WHAT IT DOES. 



A. B. Ross, 



Assistant Agriculturist, U. S. Department Agriculture, 

 County Agent, Bedford County, Pa. 



Ladies and Gentlemen: I find I am down for three distinct talks. 

 The programme says I am to speak about ''The Farm Bureau; What 

 It Is and What It Does." Mr. Calwell has asked me to tell something 

 about the co-operative method of buying we have put into operation 

 in my district. So, if you will send out for lunch for me, I hope to get 

 through by evening. 



The Farm Bureau is comparatively new. I think we can date its 

 start only three years back; it has really started practically within two 

 years. 



We are just commencing to find ourselves and to realize what the 

 thing means. 



The bulletin was not successful; it did not reach the men we were 

 trying to get at. It seemed that the possibilities of getting with the 

 farmer, on his own farm, and working there, were worth going into. 

 Anyhow, to make a long story short, we have found out that this method 

 of approaching the farmer is the method, I beheve, of the future. 



The work must be done with the farmer on his own farm; there must 

 be intimate touch between the agricultural expert and the farmer; there 

 must be the consciousness that the work being done belongs to the man 

 who is doing it, that the results of his toil are going to come to him, that 

 the experiment belongs to him, is his absolutely, in order to stimulate 

 better production, larger production and better methods on the farm. 

 I believe in the long run we are going to carry to the farmer enormously 

 valuable agricultural knpwledge. 



We have been working with the farm as the unit of our work. The 

 county agent goes to the individual farmer and works with him on his 

 farm and tries to reorganize his entire method of working and of account- 

 ing. He suggests better methods; he gets rid of antiquated implements, 

 so as to make operations more profitable. And he sees that the plowing, 

 harrowing and cultivation are done along modem lines. 



But we have been worldng with units, single farmers. We are com- 

 mencing, I am glad to say, all over this country, to realize the possibility 

 of assembling these units into larger units, of co-ordinating them for 

 co-operative work in our districts. And an even broader view is already 

 commencing to show itself in various sections of the country, as shown by 



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