376 TwENTY-FiEST Biennial Eepoet 



ture and the members of the State Board of Agriculture 

 to be the best in point of attendance and interest ever 

 held. 



During Farmers' Week at the Experiment Station 

 the fruit exhibit collected by the agent won bronze medal, 

 and two blue and two red ribbons were won in corn. 



At 1915 State Fair eighteen first and thirteen sec- 

 ond ribbons were won in exhibits collected by and in 

 charge of county agent. 



Six new silos were built due to demonstration work. 

 Three carloads of acid phosphate and about thirty car- 

 loads of limestone were bought. Boys' and girls' club 

 work was carried on, and fifteen pieces of improved ma- 

 chinery were bought. 



P. D. Beown^ 



County Agent. 



HOPKINS COUNTY. 



It seems when I first went to Hopkins county to take 

 up the work of county agent that the time for this work 

 was premature, for the business men and not the farmers 

 were the ones interested. I realized that if I made the 

 work a success, as I was determined to do, I must inter- 

 est the farmers as well as the commercial interests. 



Taking up the work in the autumn, when the schools 

 were in session, I very often visited them and left dates 

 to meet the farmers there some evening, and discuss farm 

 topics with them. Some of these meetings were well at- 

 tended, and some were otherwise.. Advice had come to 

 me that each county agent was expected to have about 

 thirty demonstrators in growing corn. Being enthusi- 

 astic, this seemed too few men, so I enrolled one hundred 

 demonstrators, and here I made a mistake, for it was im- 

 possible for me to visit them as often as I should. 



The first spring we bought one car of fertilizer, co- 

 operatively. This' was a small amount, but it served the 

 purpose, showing the farmers they were paying extrav- 

 agant prices for fertilizers. The following fall we bought 

 two hundred and fifty tons, co-operatively, of 16% acid 

 phosphate, thus saving the farmers not less than $2,500. 

 Prices ranged in the county from $22.50 per ton for 16% 

 acid phosphate to $27.50 per ton for 14% acid phosphate. 



