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 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 in cludes 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.

T

HE long blue touring car slid forward slowly, not with the assured. swiftness characteristic of the motion of a high-powered automobile, but rather with a leisurely ease reminiscent of a horse drawn carriage behind a pair of strong fine horses. The man at the wheel, Mr. Herbert Nichols, had been a driver of horses in years past, had had his livery stable, had bought and sold horses, and felt for them the peculiar affection which no motor car can command. And now, when he had at last yielded to the trend of the times and the blue touring car had replaced his teams, he still continued to drive the automobile as he was wont to drive his horses. Down the long grade to the road the car moved, held back, so it seemed, not by inner mechanism of brakes, but by the muscles of powerful animals guided by the steady rein of the driver. Up a long hill he went slowly and at the top the driver's habit of years past asserted itself and he stopped the car as though he were reining in tired horses who had deserved a rest after the hard pull. Holding the wheel as though his hand held loose reins, he let his right arm lie along the back of

the seat, and turned to his passengers.

"Over there" he said with a nod, "was where Uncle Sammy Jewett used to pasture his stags."

We followed the direction indicated and saw not a pasture, but a tangled mass of underbrush and half grown trees. Our driver watched our puzzlement with Yankee relish, then smiled and said,

"It was all open field in those days, open field way back to the foot of the mountain. Sharon was quite a community then, some four hundred people at least. Last census there were only about twenty. Nearly all the old families are gone-just one or two left. The young people saw better opportunities elsewhere and the old folks are buried up on Jarmany hill."

"Jarmany Hill is really Germany Hill, I suppose," one of the passengers on the back seat ventured.

"No, Jarmany is the correct name. I remember my Aunt Luce telling me how it came to be. A family came to live up there in the early days who used to make earthenware jars which they sold among the farmers. The man was familiarly known as the 'jar man' and

in course of time the place where his house stood became 'jar-many hill.""

The car was moving again now, but slowly so that the driver did not need to interrupt his conversation. To us the road was only a beautiful, wood road in unsettled country; but gradually we came to see, through the eyes of our guide, comfortable old farmhouses in among the trees, good pasture lands and cultivated fields, and among them people moving, engaged in work and play and laughter and tears.

in the air that day.

There was magic

"Over there where you see the lilac bush was the house where the meanest man in town lived," said Mr. Nichols, "and down there in the hollow lived a little red cheeked girl. I used to think she was awfully pretty, and I can remember just how she looked coming along the road-there was a road thenwith her pigtails down her back. That's the little red schoolhouse, and over there is Jo McCoy's. His house is still standing, but no one lives there. I remember a kitchen junket up there one winter. I wasn't invited, but I went just the same. The little red-cheeked girl advised me to. There wasn't any reason for his not asking me really. Everyone else was invited. So I just went along. Those kitchen junkets-they don't have anything like them nowadays, but they were the big events of the winter to us back sixty years ago.

"We had a big party here, too," he went on, pointing across the road. "We called it the Cousin Party."

We looked and saw nothing but a clump of trees until Mr. Nichols, getting out of the car, showed in the tall grass traces of the foundation stones, and pointed out the outlines of the buildings which once stood there.

"We lived here one while," he said. "There was a store and a dance hall and a cottage house. It was one of the busiest corners of the town at one time. And one day in March we had a cousin party. There were a lot of our relations around about, and fifty or sixty

couples in all were there that night. Aunt Esther came, I remember: walked down from her little cottage in the hills and back again after the party through the slush and sleet, several miles of lonesome road. And there was Uncle Fiske of Dublin. I'll always remember him and the way he dodged chipping in his quarter to pay the musicians, said he didn't dance, although his wife did, and therefore didn't think he ought to be asked to pay. We danced the Devil's Dream at five o'clock in the morning. It was a great party".

"You see that old house over there." our driver broke silence again. "Old Swain lived there. He used to be a pretty good neighbor, too, except for being a little mite strenuous on election day and training day and one or two other special occasions. He was captain of the Sharon Blues, and I guess he figured that his services to his country entitled him to some sort of celebration once in a while. He was a great story teller, too, and when a farmer tells me about having trouble with witch grass I always think of one of old Swain's favorite yarns. One day, he said, as he was ploughing his shoestring broke and not having another handy he supplied the deficiency with a piece of witchgrass. That was in the spring and he did not give the matter another thought until one morning in late October when he was lacing up his shoes on the front steps and the witchgrass broke. He took out the pieces and threw them away, and the next spring he found they had taken root. It's pretty hard to kill the stuff, he'd say."

Thus, as we drove along, our guide peopled the still woods with the spirits of the old settlers, introducing them and making us see them in all their humanness and homely happiness. At last, with unmistakable eagerness, he turned the car into an overgrown lanè and stopped. He did not ask us to get out but his manner showed that that was expected of us and we followed him up a little slope.