no one has yet been able to forecast price, the County Agent will be wise not to attempt it.

The County Agent is also under pressure to do actual marketing work for his clients-to sell their goods for them or to buy their supplies. This is a prostitution of his functions, for he is there to teach self-help, not to do the farmers' work for him. The end of such a course is disaster.

The agent will give all possible market information within his power, and direct the farmer to the various trade papers, to the federal and State market reports, and other sources of

FIG. 68.-Marketing wool. Coöperative wool associations are formed by the County Agent. (U. S. D. A.)

information, and then he will let the farmer decide for himself how and when he shall use this information. In most cases of this kind, the daily market reports issued free by the United States Bureau of Markets will meet the farmer's need of up-to-date market news service.

The Middleman Question.-One neglected phase of "coöperation" may well receive the attention of the County Agent. In many cases farmers organize and bunch their buying or selling power, and hire one of their own number as manager. It would be equally coöperative, in many such cases, if these bunched buying or selling orders were turned over to some established dealer whose services and charges were deemed fair and satisfactory.

So much fiction has been written about the farmers' 35-cent

dollar that rather extravagant hopes have been created in the breasts of farmers for reducing the "toll of the middleman." For the middleman, like the farmer, is working under competitive conditions, where easy and big gains are rare indeed, and where losses and failures are frequent. Hence, as stated above, the County Agent ought to proceed with caution in making farmers "their own middlemen.”

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

1. Why is the County Agent movement the most significant movement in American Agriculture in this generation?

2. Define County Agent: Show the need of.

3. Trace the origin and growth of this movement.

4. What are the functions of a County Agent?

5. Give examples of farmers' interests being protected by County Agent. 6. Define Farm Bureau.

7. Show the advantage of the Farm Bureau plan over the original demonstration work plan.

8. How are County Agents chosen? How supported?

9. According to Mr. Burritt what are the functions of a Farm Bureau, in the order of their importance?

10. Explain the Home Bureau movement.

11. Discuss the Boys' and Girls' Club work.

12. What are some of the difficulties ahead of the County Agents?

QUESTIONS SUGGESTED BY THE TEXT

1. What should be the annual membership dues in a Farm Bureau? State reasons for and against $1 dues; same for $10 dues.

2. What is the ideal method of financing the County Agent movement? 3. In what manner can a County Agent secure a greater degree of coöperation between the agricultural and the other interests of his county?

REFERENCES

1. BURRITT, M. C.: "A Community Farm Expert at Work and What He Has Done The Organization, Methods of Work and the Results Obtained by the Farm Bureau at Binghamton, Broome County, New York, in Eighteen Months of Work-All Interests Working Together Great Value to the Community-Lessons to be Learned from this Successful Example." Tribune Farmer, New York, October 17, 1912.

2. BURRITT, M. C.: "The Farm Bureau Movement in New York State." Circular 93, State Department of Agriculture, Albany, 1914.

3. CROCHERON, B. H.: "The County Farm Adviser." Circular 133, University of California, College of Agriculture, Berkeley, July, 1915.

4. "Farm Bureaus and County Agricultural Agents." Bulletin Massachusetts Agricultural College, Amherst, October, 1914.

5. SIMONS, L. R.: "Organization of a County for Extension Work-The Farm Bureau Plan." Circular 13, States Relation Service, Department of Agriculture, Washington, January, 1919.

6. Bulletin 60, Department of Agriculture, Albany, June, 1914. BURRITT, M. C.: "The County Farm Bureau Movement in New York State." pp. 1594-1604. ROBERTSON, F. E.: "A Brief Outline of the Jefferson County Farm Bureau Work," pp. 1604-1611.

APPENDIX

Amounts of Federal Funds Available to the Several States Under the Smith

Lever Act.

* Figures after 1920 subject to returns of Fourteenth Census on rural population.

i

CHAPTER XXII

THE GRAIN TRADE

International Nature of the Question. The grain trade of the United States is not a national matter; it is an international matter. This is true for two reasons. The grain crop of foreign countries affects the prices received by the American farmer. Likewise, the crop of the United States affects the price received for grain by the foreign grower. For instance, the year 1915 was known as the bumper wheat crop year in the United States, the yield jumping to the unheard of figure of over one billion bushels. It was a season of prosperity for the American wheat grower. But the international aspect of this question is apparent when we turn to our competing neighbor in the South-Argentina. Our Daily Consular and Trade Reports of September 6, 1916, tell the following brief and significant story:

"Investigation of Grain Markets in Argentina."-"The Argentine Government recently appointed a commission to make an investigation of grain markets, with a view to protecting the interests of domestic growers and shippers. The report of this commission, as quoted in a recent number of the Revista Financiera y Comercial, showed that the present low price of wheat in Argentina is due chiefly to the extraordinarily large world production of wheat in the 1915-16 crop year. North America alone is able to supply nearly all the wheat needed in Europe, and the difference in freight does not permit Argentina to compete advantageously in this trade. The present wheat supply of Argentina is estimated at 1,500,000 tons, which is gradually being marketed."

A brief study of Note, for instance, the where it is harvested,

This quotation illustrates the situation. statistics makes the question yet clearer. world wheat crop when it is harvested, the quantity of it, the shortage in some sections and the surplus in others, and the consequent exportation and importation movements. Since both acreage and yield fluctuate widely from year to year, a table of facts of the above kind must represent only general average conditions. However, such a table is interesting and is worth while. Consequently such a table is herewith presented, for the convenience of the reader.

Wheat, as the following table shows, is being harvested some place every month of the year.

Among all agricultural crops of the United States, corn is first in value, as is suggested by the popular expression "Corn is King."

22

337

World's Wheat Harvest; Where and When Harvested; Quantity (In Bushels)

It is usual to rank cotton as second in value, considered from the standpoint of the farm value of the crop; on this basis hay is third and wheat is fourth; oats are fifth.

The brief table presented below shows the farm values for ten years of the five leading farm crops.

Corn from the marketing standpoint lacks the importance of wheat, since it does not figure largely in our exports, and since it is so largely consumed on the farm. Wheat of necessity must largely leave the farmers' hands. And although many writers and speakers have been announcing yearly, since 1870, that we are approaching a wheat famine, that we have at last arrived at