180 DRY-FARMING CONGRESS, WICHITA, 1914 



in Leavenworth County in this State, which has been in existence for two 

 years has waged an educational campaign relative to the life history and 

 the methods of prevention of the Hessian fly. After the first year's cam- 

 paign only about 10 percent of the farmers observed the best known 

 methods of wheat culture for preventing ravages of this insect. After the 

 second year's campaign 70 percent of the wheat acreage in that county 

 was handled according to the suggestions given in the campaign. 



The difference in the general information concerning the insect and its 

 habits of life between the county already mentioned and adjoining counties 

 where no farm bureaus and no county agents have been at work is suffi- 

 ciently clear to an observer to be a striking evidence of what such educa- 

 tional campaigns can accomplish. In counties in southeast Kansas, cam- 

 paigns for the promotion of alfalfa growing have been prosecuted and 

 correct methods of draining, liming, inoculating, and preparing the seedbed 

 have been conducted. In these counties where two years ago few, if any, 

 alfalfa fields were to be found, small fields of alfalfa successfully grown 

 may be seen here and there as demonstrations of what can be done and 

 as forerunners of a large alfalfa acreage to come. The educational cam- 

 paign on alfalfa in these counties has been successful, and the best methods 

 of alfalfa growing known to date will soon be common knowledge. 



The results have been so quietly accomplished that few will recognize 

 that the alfalfa is there as a result of the propaganda of the farm bureau 

 and the agricultural agents. A third striking instance of demonstration 

 work is the grasshopper prevention campaign in western Kansas in 1913. 



The district agricultural agent of southwest Kansas convinced the 

 county commissioners of one county that the ravages of this pest could be 

 stopped with the use of poisoned bran mash prepared and distributed ac- 

 cording to the directions of Professor Dean of the Kansas State Agricultural 

 College. The commissioners decided to use some of the county funds to 

 buy this poison and to invite the farmers on a certain day to come for it 

 to the nearest town and to distribute it over their farms. On the ap- 

 pointed day, hundreds of farmers were present with their teams, hauled the 

 poisoned bran mixture home and used it on their fields. Grasshoppers by 

 the millions perished and their devastating sojourn in that county came to 

 a close. As a result of this demonstration, eleven other western Kansas 

 counties did likewise and an unequaled lesson in cooperative insect control 

 was learned by thousands of farmers. 



The results of the aggressive silo campaigns conducted by every agent 

 need but be looked into to be appreciated. During the year 1913 on the 

 basis of actual figures secured from the agricultural agents, 216 above 

 ground silos were constructed as a direct result of their activities, and a 

 little more than 300 pit silos were similarly constructed in western Kansas. 

 Since then the pit silo idea has spread with wonderful rapidity over the 

 prairie from New Mexico to the Dakotas, and thousands of pit silos have 

 been constructed. It is now no longer necessary to argue for the construe- 



