use of certified seed will mean a great deal to the potato growers of New Hampshire. In fact if all of the farmers who grow potatoes would use certified seed and if their increased yield equalled, on the average, what the Farm Bureau demonstrations have shown, it would mean an increased revenue to the farmers of the State of over one million dollars.

This shows conclusively that the County Farm Bureaus are rendering a real service and if the farmers only took advantage of the opportunities afforded thru the Farm Bureaus, it would be to the advantage not only of the farmer, but the state as a whole.

The County Farm Bureaus are playing an important part in the fruit industry through their demonstrations in spraying, pruning, grafting, fertilizing, grading and packing. In the town of Franklin in Merrimack County, is an excellent example of what the Farm Bureau is doing along orchard improvement lines. Dr. E. T. Drake of Franklin owns an orchard that, up to about three years ago had never exceeded one hundred (100) barrels annually, and many years fell way below this figure. The orchard had been more or less neglected, not receiving the proper care. Then came the Farm Bureau, and under the direction of Roy W. Peaslee, Merrimack County Agent, the Drake Orchard has received. proper attention for the past three years, being fertilized, pruned, and sprayed, and last season Dr. Drake was rewarded with over six hundred (600) barrels of excellent fruit; an increase of over six hundred (600) per cent in yield, and fruit of better quality and color than ever before. That the Farm Bureau is

functioning in orchard improvement work, no one can question when we hear of examples like the above.

Livestock improvement is an important project, for the Farm Bureau is solving many a dairyman's trouble and is doing. its bit along all livestock lines.

Hay is one of New Hampshire's staple crops and the Farm Bureau is encouraging the use of top dressing in the form of sulphate of ammonia, or nitrate of soda. Top dressing demonstrations show that the yield may be doubled by the use of one of the above mentioned chemicals. Ralph Jones, a farmer of East Concord, reports that by following the directions of the Farm Bureau he doubled the yield of hay on the field used for the demonstration. W. E. Powers of Danbury, reports that by the use of top dressing he more than doubled the yield on his demonstration plot.

Poultry being one of New Hampshire's most profitable lines of agriculture, was featured by many of the Farm Bureaus in poultry sections. Poultry culling demonstrations were carried on by every County Farm Bureau in the State. One hundred and twenty-four demonstrations were held in 1922 with an attendance of nearly twenty-five hundred persons.

The extension projects for women carried on by the Farm Bureaus are

valuable to the women of the State. Opportunities are provided for women in the rural communities that otherwise would never come to the farm women of this State. That these opportunities are being taken advantage of can readily be seen, for the great majority of farm women now have their own dress forms, more commonly known as "bettys." These are monuments to the value of Home Demonstration work, and will be found in hundreds of rural homes. Many a man has been saved several dollars by his wife attending a millinery meeting of the County Farm Bureau and learning how to make her Spring or Fall hat, one that when finished, would do credit to any city milliner. One hundred and twenty-four (124) millinery demonstrations were held in 1922, which indicates their popularity.

The food and health project of the Farm Bureau is important for it has much to do with the health of our rural families. In this project the value of balanced meals, the correction of malnutrition, and many other things including the dental clinics for children feature the project.

The home improvement project includes everything for more convenient and attractive homes, and many a farm home has been re-arranged to the convenience of the house-wife at a small cost or made more attractive through following the suggestions of the Home Demonstration Agent.

Boys' and Girls' club work is a story all by itself, and it is needless to say one of the brightest hopes of a future for the Granite State. The Farm Bureau has recognized the fact that the boys and girls of to-day are the farmers and farm wives of the future, and thru this work are attempting to awaken a love for the farm that cannot be dulled by the seemingly alluring attractions of the city.

Space and time do not permit the full story of the County Farm Bureau and its work, but thousands of New Hamp

shire farmers can testify of the Farm Bureau's assistance to them on the farm and as many more farm women stand ready to bear evidence as to its value in the farm home, so this article merely shows a few of the many ways in which the county Farm Bureau is functioning.

The County Farm Bureaus are headed by the best farmers in the various counties; men who are respected, who are progressive, and well thought of; men who sacrifice their own time and effort to help promote a good cause and with these men as leaders, the County Farm Bureaus have the right kind of leadership.

The County Farm Bureau is striving to make the farmer more efficient in his practices or in other words, striving for more economical production of the products of the farm.

The farmer in reality is similar to a manufacturer. The farm is his factory. He takes his raw products in the form of seed, plants them and manufactures them with the help of nature, into various crops. He takes a calf and with the help of nature manufactures it into a cow. He takes his crops and with the assistance of his cows manufactures them into milk, and his milk into cream, and his cream into butter. The manufacturer to operate his factory successfully must attain high efficiency which means economical production. Like Rip Van Winkle the farmer is awaking from his sleep of years and is finding his place among the trained professions of a more advanced day. With a step at first faltering but growing more firm and confident, he is coming down from the hills of narrowness and aimlessness to the plains of better organization and more scientific training. The farmer, in order to keep pace with the increased efficiency of other industries must strive at all times for the most efficient production of farm products, and in attaining this end, he can choose no better adviser and helper than the County Farm Bureau.

ing them into any horrible strife for the sake of ambition. Other "offenses" were the clause preventing secret diplomacy, the industrial and economic boycott, Article 10, which he asserted could be easily safeguarded for us, and the now famous World Court.

The speaker then trained his guns. upon what he termed "a noisy group of able and ambitious men in the United States Senate who are determined to place our country on the wrong side of the greatest moral issue since slavery. Take the megaphones from their lips," he said, "and see how small they are in number as compared with the great body of American citizens who favor the League." He attacked Johnson, Borah and Moses, referring to the fact of Johnson's entrance to the presidential race on a platform of complete isolation. Mentioning the remark of Borah to the effect that if Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, should come down to earth, pleading for the League of Nations, he would still oppose it. In asking his hearers to write to President Coolidge in behalf of the World Court, the Judge said, "It will do no good to write to Senator Moses for he is too wrong headed upon this whole question to have it avail any result."

At the very outset the Judge assured his hearers that as a representative of the League of Nations NonPartisan Association he should treat the subject in a non-partisan way, and throughout his speech he adhered strictly to that program. He did not refrain, however, from a most scathing attack upon the group of "irreconcilables" of both parties in the Senate, who, he asserted, are blocking the progress of the Nation, keeping our country from participating in "the greatest experiment which the world. has ever devised for peace. The democratic party," asserted the Judge,

"is tied up to the League as closely as any party can possibly be bound to to it. Their leaders are trying to avoid it but they will not avoid it."

The Judge maintained that the Republican party is nearly as closely identified with the League as are their opponents. He spoke of the fact that Theodore Roosevelt in his last written work which appeared in the Kansas City Star after his death, pleaded for a League of Nations, that ex-President Taft characterized the World Court, as the greatest step in progress of modern times, that President Harding was pleading for the World Court in his last message to the American people and that Calvin Coolidge has stated that President Harding's policies are his policies. "Thus," said the Judge, "four Republican presidents are on record in favor of the World Court if not the entire League."

The sum and substance of the entire argument lay in the assertion that the League of Nations is the world's great experiment to find an antidote for war, that failure in the League is not unlikely, but that failure out of the League is certain. The attention of the hearers was called to the fact that we are living in expectation of another conflict; that President Harding in his last message to Congress. called for an analysis of our national resources for defense in the "next war;" that Secretary Denby is insisting upon an efficient navy for safety in the "next war;" that Secretary Weeks deplores the weakness of our army because he foresees the next war. "Thus," maintained the Judge, "if we are drifting into an inevitable conflict of death and destruction in the future, if fifty-four nations of the world are engaged in a concerted attempt to avoid it, let us as American citizens leave no stone unturned to see that numbered among them shall be the United States of America."

TH

HE movement toward consolidation of schools has experienced rapid growth in many sections of the country in the last decade and a half. In New England we have seen some progress made toward consolidation. At the beginning of this article the writer wishes the reader to understand that complete consolidation can not be attained in many sections of the country due to the climate and physical features.

In New Hampshire probably 20% of the rural schools might be closed and the pupils transported to larger centers resulting both in an economic and educational advantage. Schools with less than 12 to 15 pupils are not large enough to give their members the civic and so

cial training now necessary and given in the larger centers.

The average one-room building in which pupils are housed has very little equipment; the rural teachers represent the most inexperienced, the least adequately trained, and the community support of the school is usually less enthusiastic than that of the village and graded school. The one-room school has great possibilities of development but thinking of the country as a whole much wise legislation must be accomplished before rural pupils are given equal educational advantages to those of urban children.

In cities of 8000 and over, 75% of the elementary teachers are normal school graduates and 10% have received one