14 



In several other respects, the farm bureaus have, particu- 

 larly during the past year, proven of a high degree of useful- 

 ness. An interesting illustration of this is had in the meeting 

 called by the Lackawanna Railroad at Binghamton, New York, 

 on the 7th of April, 1917, at which the farm bureau managers 

 of 15 counties were present, accompanied each by four of his 

 Farm Bureau Association directors. These 65 representative 

 authorities on farm needs and opportunities were gathered 

 together with some 40 of the leading business men and bankers 

 of Binghamton, Cortland, Norwich and Elmira and one or 

 two other cities, and an entire day was spent in the discussion 

 of ways and means to increase the production of the counties 

 represented to meet the demand for foodstuffs growing out of 

 the entrance of this country into war. 



The effects of that meeting have been continuous throughout 

 the subsequent period, and have resulted in a number of im- 

 portant, and, in some cases, original movements. Through the 

 impetus flowing from this meeting, and by the instrumentality 

 of the railroad company, over 30 carloads of seed potatoes, 

 which apparently could not otherwise have been obtained, were 

 brought into the section involved. The use of tractors for 

 plowing has been successfully experimented with, and will un- 

 doubtedly be largely increased in the coming season. Perhaps 

 the most notable of all has been the response to the request 

 of the farmers for labor. In this matter the farm bureau 

 agents have acted as a medium for the temporary transfer of 

 employees of manufacturers in Binghamton, Cortland, Norwich 

 and Elmira to the farms of Broome, Cortland, Chenango and 

 Chemung counties. This has been made possible by the un- 

 precedented action of the large employers of labor in those 

 cities in releasing a considerable number of their men for 

 periods of from one to four weeks in the planting and harvest- 

 ing seasons for general farm labor, to which also the railroad 

 company has contributed a number of its section men for such 

 rough work as plowing. In all cases the city employers have 

 paid their employees the difference between the ruling price of 

 farm labor and the wages which they were receiving in the 

 city. Several hundred men have worked on the farms under 

 this arrangement, and all reports are that it has been of real 



