as representatives of the Department of Agriculture are made responsible for securing these reports in each county. Returns from all threshing done in the county are telegraphed to Washington on the last day of the month.

AGRICULTURAL CENSUS.

From the beginning of the war there had been a strong feeling on the part of the Council of Defense, the Agricultural College and Farm Bureau officers that the agricultural program had been severely handicapped by lack of definite information as to actual agricultural resources and conditions in the state. Various abortive attempts were made during the first year of the war to bring about such a survey.

In February, 1918, County Agent A. W. Manchester of Litchfield County with the support of his county agricultural committee and the President of his farm bureau proposed a plan for an agricultural survey to be taken in Litchfield County by the farmers themselves under the authority of the Council of Defense. The plan was adopted and thru the support of the Council of Defense carried thru to a successful conclusion. The county agent was made county supervisor of the census, and various officers of the farm bureau were appointed assistant supervisors. The War bureaus in each town were put in charge of the local census taking and the best farmers in each community secured as census takers. With the exception of one town the census was secured as per schedule, most of the work being done in two days. Over three hundred farmer census takers were at work at one time in this county. The census was such a success that Hartford, New Haven, Tolland and Fairfield County Farm Bureaus immediately requested the support of the Council of Defense in taking agricultural surveys in their counties. One thousand census takers in these counties secured the desired information in a few days.

In the five counties in which the agricultural census was taken, records were secured on slightly more than 13,000 farms.

The work involved in taking this census would, however, have been of little value without adequate means of making its results available. Fortunately such means were at hand. George S. Godard, State Librarian, placed himself, his corps of skilled workers and his equipment at the disposal of the Council of Defense and farm bureaus for sorting, checking, coding and tabulating the results of the survey. As a result every part of this mass of material is immediately available to any agricultural agency in the state. The State Librarian will remain custodian of the original records.

USES OF THE CENSUS-The Agricultural census has already been of much value. It has been used in the following ways:

1. In locating all plantings of small grains and in locating available reaping and threshing machinery. As a result of the definite information secured means have been found of relieving reaping and threshing machinery shortage thruout these five counties.

2. In supplying farmers with labor. The returns of the census have served as a basis for the general farm policy and many farmers supplied with labor as a result of their replies to questions asked.

3. In assisting farmers to buy or sell needed products. The list of live stock and seed wanted and for sale have been published or distributed in various ways.

4. In providing complete lists of all farmers and of all farm resources in the counties. Thru these lists farmers have been reached on many matters of importance to themselves.

5. In forming a background of fact for making out the agricultural problems of the various towns and counties. The agricultural program in many sections has been based on the census. Its results are at all times proving of value to the various towns and counties of the state.

CENSUS NEXT YEAR-There seems to be a strong feeling among the farmers in all the counties in favor of repeating this survey next year. The governor has written a special letter urging it and the Council of Defense is prepared to stand solidly behind the farm bureaus in carrying it out.

FARM MACHINERY WORK.

The two greatest changes in conditions which our dairy and general farmers have had to meet as a result of the war have been

1. A constant decrease in labor supply.

2. A constantly increasing cost in the price of grain and mill feeds upon which our dairy industry has so largely depended.

These two changes have made the problem of farm machinery an important one, the first directly, and the second indirectly.

The increased price of grain and mill feeds, forcing our farmers to grow better roughages and more grains on their own farms, and the changes in Farm Management resulting from shortage of labor, have both served to increase small grain acreage at a time when from almost total neglect of small grains sowings our farms are sadly lacking in reaping and threshing machinery. Interest has centered very largely in obtaining reapers, binders and tractors. The efforts of the county agents have therefore been centered on these machines.

Immediately following the agricultural survey, the county agents, in most cases acting under instructions of their agricultural or executive committees, took up the problem of harvesting and threshing machinery. The description of the work done in Watertown, Columbia and other towns will serve to show how this problem was met.

Using the agricultural survey as a basis, the names of all owners of threshing and harvesting machinery, both reapers and binders, were secured. A personal visit was then paid to each owner of a threshing machine and also to the owners of harvesting machines in those towns where but a few machines were present. The idea in visiting the threshing machine owners was to ascertain exactly the condition of

each machine, its capacity, whether the owner was supplied with power to run it, and most important of all, how much work he could and would do outside of his own, and in a general way what territory he could serve. The available facts with regard to grain acreage and available machinery were brought before local groups for action. almost every community where it was needed, some satisfactory arrangement to provide for reaping and threshing was made.

In

Work similar to this was carried on thruout the five counties in which the agricultural census was taken. In Hartford County the problem was taken up with the war bureaus. In Tolland and New Haven Counties no very serious farm machinery problems were found to exist. In Windham County, altho an agricultural survey had not been taken, much was done by the county agent to meet this problem. A very interesting cooperative association was formed in Plainfield for the purpose of buying and owning farm machinery and exchanging labor.

FIELD TESTS AND DEMONSTRATIONS.

Field tests and demonstrations to prove the value of certain field methods and practices were consuming a considerable portion of the time of county agents before the outbreak of the war.

PRUNING AND SPRAYING DEMONSTRATIONS-Eighty demonstrations of pruning and spraying orchards with an attendance of 1233 farmers were held in 1916; and thirty-two demonstrations with an attendance of 353 farmers in 1917. Very few demonstrations were held this year. The falling off has been due to two causes: (1) the inroads of war work on the time of agents; and (2) a growing realization that the failure of farmers to prune and spray has been a result of deeper causes than a lack of knowledge in pruning and spraying. It is becoming increasingly apparent that before apples can be made a successful money crop, the farmer must find a way to take care of his spraying without interfering with more important work, that the grading and marketing problems must be solved, and that it is of little value to the farmer to solve any of these problems unless he is able to work out the solution to them all. The success of the Washington Fruit Growers' Association, in which the cooperative association itself does the packing and marketing for the farmers, and in which the spraying is done by high-power sprayers owned cooperatively, is worthy of consideration in many other communities as a possible solution to this problem. Assistance by county agents to communities in organizing associations of this general type, in training sprayers and packers and in helping managers on their marketing problems will undoubtedly in the future lead the way to spraying and pruning demonstrations such as have been given in the past.

TRACTOR DEMONSTRATIONS-The difficulty of securing sufficient labor has created an intense interest among farmers in the

tractor as a means of increasing production per unit of labor. To give the farmers an opportunity to observe various tractors in operation to compare their behavior and adaptability to conditions and various kinds of work the county agents have conducted a number of tractor demonstrations during the summer of 1918.

The following table shows the number of such demonstrations and the attendance by counties:

DEMONSTRATION FARMS-Seven demonstration farms have been systematically followed up by the Assistant County Agent in New London County for nearly two years. Dairy records and farm accounts have been maintained. On the farms, field tests and demonstrations have been carried out. The Assistant County Agent has spent one night monthly on each of these farms. Altho the work was done for demonstration purposes, part of the expense was borne by the co-operating farmers. Some of the demonstration material made available as a result of this work has been brought to the attention of farmers thru the press and thru exhibits at the fairs. Similar work is being done in Windham County.

WORK WITH FARM CROPS-Tests and demonstrations have been conducted for the purpose of introducing productive varieties of corn, oats and soybeans. They have also been carried on to demonstrate the best methods of growing clover, alfalfa and soybeans, and their value as a source of protein in the ration. In 1917, a series of corn variety tests and a considerable number of corn and soybean silage demonstrations were carried out in co-operation with the Connecticut and Storrs Experiment Stations. In 1918, nineteen variety tests were conducted. Field measurements on these tests were made by the County Agents and various determinations requiring special laboratory facilities were made by the Experiment Stations. The results of these demonstrations have been brought to the attention of the public thru the press, thru circular letters, at meetings and at the various fair exhibits. The results of the field tests and demonstrations can be obtained from the report of the Extension Agronomist. The following table shows the number of demonstrations carried on in each county during 1917.

BOYS' AND GIRLS' WORK-Some of the County Agents and all of the Assistant County Agents have carried on projects in Junior work. In 1917 this took the form of Boys' and Girls' Club work, and in 1918, of organization and supervision of Junior Food Army activities. In Middlesex, Tolland and Windham counties the Assistant County Agents acted as County Leaders of this work up to July, 1918. The results of their activities are fully described in the report of the State Leader of Boys' and Girls' Clubs.

DAIRYING Since practically all farmers in Connecticut outside of specialized market garden, tobacco, seed and fruit areas, carry on diversified farming in which dairy constitutes the main source of income, it was upon dairy problems that the efforts of County Agents were largely centered before the war. The County Agents have devoted their efforts to better home grown roughage, better feeding, dairy records, farm accounts, and the introduction of pure-bred stock of real merit.

COW-TEST ASSOCIATIONS-In 1916, there were nine cow-test associations with which the county agents were closely connected. These associations comprised about 180 herds. Three were in Litchfield, two in Hartford, and one each in New Haven, New London, Fairfield and Windham counties. Inadequate follow-up work and supervision and the inability to secure testers after the outbreak of the war have brought about the dissolution of all these associations. The cow-test association rendered valuable service not only to its members, but to farmers generally because of the data which it offered for demonstrating the value of dairy records and better methods of feeding.

DAIRY RECORDS-The keeping and use of dairy records as a guide to feeding and to the selection of stock have been advocated by County Agents at all times. The milk of 386 cows was tested for farmers by County Agents during 1917 and rations were figured for 89 herds.