Farm Bureau

“ Discuss the importance of leadership in school activities. What are the qualities that make a good leader?
Who are some of the leaders in your community, both men and women?
THE FARM BUREAU At the close of 1916 there were nearly three hundred "farm bureaus" in the northern and western states with a membership of nearly 100,000. A farm bureau is an organization to secure cooperation throughout an entire county for the promotion of agricultural interests. The members elect an executive committee to manage the affairs of the bureau. ”

“ There is great need for county chambers of commerce or commercial clubs with skilled commercial executives as secretaries who can give the same expert service to the business life of the small rural communities that the cities now have. The business life of the community might profit as much from such a service as the farms have from the expert assistance afforded through the Farm Bureaus. ”

“ The commercial, manufacturing, and navigating interests are all to a great extent dependent on the agricultural. It is therefore the most important interest of the nation, and has a just claim to the fostering care and protection of the Government so far as they can be extended consistently with the provisions of the Constitution. As this can not be done by the ordinary modes of legislation, I respectfully recommend the establishment of an agricultural bureau, to be charged with the duty of giving to this leading branch of American industry the encouragement which it so well deserves. ”

“ An agricultural bureau, charged with the duty of collecting and disseminating correct information as to the best modes of cultivation and of the most effectual means of preserving and restoring the fertility of the soil and of procuring and distributing seeds and plants and other vegetable productions, with instructions in regard to the soil, climate, and treatment best adapted to their growth, could not fail to be, in the language of Washington in his last annual message to Congress, a "very cheap instrument of immense national benefit." ”

“ The numerous members of Congress who desired to leave things as they were, the still more numerous officials of the interested departments, the swarming petty politicians dealing direct with small patronage—all these powerful interests were unable satisfactorily to answer one common-sense question; why is the management of our Forest Reserves left to a Land Office already busy, already doubted, when we have organized and equipped a Bureau of Forestry consisting of trained, enthusiastic and honest men? ”

“ Something of that tireless vigilance and alert intelligence which has made the Agricultural Bureau of the United States famous, a spirit which brings into agriculture the procedure and the exact calculation of a great business house, is necessary to meet the not insuperable difficulties which now deter the timid, and to give farming a chance of development commensurate with its political importance. ”

“ In the United States the care of agriculture is, I believe, left to the separate States, but the Federal Bureau of Agriculture it is which issues warnings of the need of conserving the natural resources of the country. ”

“ In so far I believe that just as the Agricultural Department, which now exists, and which certainly does not absorb nor centralize the direction of the agricultural interests of the country, has become of eminent advantage to the farmers of the United States, and eminently popular with them, and educational bureau, intelligently conducted, might perform the same office. ”

“ The Department of Agriculture and Commerce shall perform its functions under the executive authority of the Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce who shall have executive supervision and administration control over the Bureau of Agricultural Administration, Bureau of Plant and Animal Industry, Bureau of Lands, Bureau of Forestry and Fishery, Bureau of Science, Bureau of Commerce and Industries, Bureau of Mines and Weather Bureau. ”

“ These various functions should be united in the Bureau of Forestry, to which they properly belong. The present diffusion of responsibility is bad from every standpoint. It prevents that effective cooperation between the Government and the men who utilize the resources of the reserves, without which the interests of both must suffer. The scientific bureaus generally should be put under the Department of Agriculture. The President should have by law the power of transferring lands for use as forest reserves to the Department of Agriculture. ”

“ The Bureau of Agriculture has accomplished much in disseminating useful knowledge to the agriculturist, and also in introducing new and useful productions adapted to our soil and climate, and is worthy of the continued encouragement of the Government. ”

“ The most extensive action for strengthening the agricultural industry ever taken by any government was inaugurated through the farm marketing act of June 15 last. Under its provisions the Federal Farm Board has been established, comprised of men long and widely experienced in agriculture and sponsored by the farm organizations of the country. ”

“ The functions of the Secretary of Agriculture as a member of the Federal Farm Board, and the offices of the appointed members of the Federal Farm Board, except the office of the member designated as chairman thereof, are abolished. (2) The name of the Federal Farm Board is changed to the Farm Credit Administration. (3) The name of the office of Chairman of the Federal Farm Board is changed to Governor of the Farm Credit Administration, and he is vested with all the powers and duties of the Federal Farm Board. ”

“ Often the department is organized in numerous branches with specialists at the head of each. Thus, there are dairy commissioners, horticultural boards, livestock sanitary boards, foresters, entomologists (specialists in insect life in its relation to agriculture) , and others, to look after every aspect of farming. In a constantly decreasing number of states the powers of the agricultural officers are slight and their work ineffectual; but in others the organization is thorough and the work efficiently done and of the greatest value to the state. ”

“ It is certainly more necessary and more promising among the colored people than among the whites. Already we can see the benefits of the department in the improving material condition of the people in the country about, in better and larger crops, cultivated more skilfully with better implements, etc.
The Agricultural Department is one of the most useful, and it is, also, one of the most remunerative parts of our work. At present we are obliged to go three-fourths of a mile by the road to reach the farm; $1,000 would buy a piece of land connecting the farm directly with the college buildings. ”

“ You now also have the Agricultural Bureau, in the service of which reports embodying many of the facts and observations required are already made, or might be without any additional expense. Many of the data which these two offices seek to obtain stand somewhat in the relation of cause and effect to each other — as, for instance, a dry season and bad crops. Your fields have the same area and soil this year that they had last. Why is not their yield the same? ”

“ Bureau of Agricultural Administration.—Its main functions shall be to afford opportunity to tenant farmers and small farmers from congested areas to own farms by facilitating the acquisition, settlement and cultivation of lands, whether acquired from the Government or from private persons; to encourage migration to sparsely populated regions; to organize and establish agricultural cooperative associations and to provide or secure credit facilities therefor ”

“ When the first Commissioner of Agriculture, Isaac Newton, prepared his initial annual report to President Lincoln, he wrote: "I hardly deem it necessary to attempt to convince our intelligent countrymen of the vast importance of such a department, inasmuch as whatever improves the condition and character of the farmer feeds the life springs of national character, wealth, and power." We can all be grateful that the United States Department of Agriculture continues its vital mission today. ”

“ I have yet to learn that an application to a Congressman for seed has been disregarded, if the seeds were to be had, whether that application came from a political friend or a political foe. And I do wish that farmers generally would make more frequent application to the members from their respective districts than they do. It will be money in their pockets if they will keep posted in what the department has to distribute which is valuable, or new and promising, and solicit samples either from Congressmen or direct from the Commissioner of Agriculture. ”

“ Its scope was then somewhat limited, but its work was gradually enlarged by the appointment of a botanist in 1868, a microscopist in 1871, the creation of a forestry department in 1877, a bureau of animal industry in 1884 and the establishment of agricultural experiment stations throughout the country in 1887. In 1889 the department became an executive department, the principal official being designated Secretary of Agriculture, with a seat in the president’s cabinet. His salary is $8000 a year. ”

“ Along the line of better crops we have done more for the farmer, and have done it more effectively, than any other Nation. Hut we have done little, and far less than many other Nations, for better business and better living on the farm. Hereafter we shall need in State and Nation not only the work of Departments of Agriculture such as we have now, but we shall need to have added to their functions such duties as will make them departments of rural business and rural life as well. Our Departments of Agriculture should cover the whole field of the farmer's life. ”

“ Quietly but surely the Agricultural Bureau is working a great national good, and if liberally supported the more widely its influence will be extended and the less dependent we shall be upon the products of foreign countries. ”

“ In some of the states there are departments of agriculture, equal in dignity and power with the other main divisions of the government. In others agricultural interests are placed in the hands of subordinate boards, bureaus, or commissions. In some cases the officials in charge of the organization, such as the commissioner of agriculture, are elected directly by the people, while in others they are appointed by the governor of the state or by the legislature. ”

“ Therefore, while relying on local craftsmen for special skilled services occasionally needed, he insists that a number of rustic articles should be manufactured on the farm. ‘One ought not to buy anything that can be produced on the estate [747] and made up by the staff (domesticis = familia) , such as wicker work and things made of rough wood.’ Moreover, the organization of the staff in departments is an elaborate slave-hierarchy. Under the general direction of the vilicus, each separate function of tillage or grazing, or keeping and fattening fancy-stock has its proper foreman. ”

“ The government established a department of agriculture to which were given control of the taking of a decennial census, the encouragement of immigration, the collection of agricultural and other statistics, the establishment of model farms and agricultural schools, the holding of annual exhibitions and fairs, and other matters calculated to encourage the cultivation of the soil in both sections of the province. ”

“ The organizational framework has been complicated by the proliferation of new measures and regulations since 1967. Farm operations are carried out in common, under the direction of an administrative and management body theoretically accountable to the general assembly, composed of all the members of a collective farm. Groups of workers are organized into so-called brigades for the performance of specialized tasks. The farm management includes a chairman, a director, a management council, brigade leaders, and trained technicians specialized in various aspects of farm operation. ”

“ Agriculture again received a new impulse, about the middle of the eighteenth century; and, in 1793, a Board of Agriculture was established by an act of Parliament, at the suggestion of Sir John Sinclair, who was elected its first president. Through the influence of this board, a great number of agricultural societies have been formed in the kingdom, and much valuable information on rural economy has been communicated to the public, through the medium of a voluminous periodical under its superintendence. ”

“ The blank contains questions in regard to the location of the farm, its size, distance from communication lines, and inhabited places of various sizes and market facilities, its soil, its fences, buildings, water supply, ownership, price, and other points intended to show the condition and value of the farm for sale. The office distributes these blanks among the county agents, from whom the farm sellers secure the blanks. The county agents forward the completed forms to the main state office, which periodically publishes the collected information for farm buyers. ”

“ The purchaser of a farm situated in a region with which he is unacquainted, has only to inquire, and the department will tell him the crops likely to prove remunerative in the special locality, advise him regarding cultivation, and warn him of obstacles to be surmounted, and the best means of overcoming them. ”

“ The execution of the law and regulations is left to the State Forest Department with an organization of forest guards (some 3,000 in 1883) , appointed by the prefect of the province with the advice of the forestry commission, but acting under the State forest administration. Their pay was to come to [344] the extent of two-thirds from the communes, the other third from the provincial treasurer.
In the forests placed under the law, clearing and agricultural use is forbidden. Fellings and cultures must be made under direction of the Committee. ”