/ /f 1 The Farm Bureau in Ventura County.

The Farm Bureau in Ventura Gounty oommenced operations August 10,

1914, and during its first two years has taken up and solved a largenumber of problems which are of. importance to the farmers of the county.

Heelings have been held in the various Farm Bureau Gentex-s, and it was

in these meetings that the Farm Bureau j^rojects have been initiated.

Those problems which could be readily solved in" the Genters, and referred

only to conditions in the Center, have been handled entirely by farmersat the Center meetings. Oome of the problems, such as the Oquirrel Cam¬

paign, the Storm Districts, the Lima Bean Growers Association, the controlof hog cholera, etc v/ere of interest to many of the Centers, and were

handled by the Directors of the Farm Bureau, who meet in the officeof the Farm Adviser the last Friday of each month.

The Squirrel G mpaign was the first big project taken up by the

Dire.ctors of the Fnrm Bureau and so far has progressed famously,- -arrff^/incomparison with the expense,incurred by neighboring counties for the

Gontrcl of the ground squirrel, has resulted in a greet seying to thetax pa^rers in the county, beside the destruction of one of the most in¬jurious animals that we have. iicoora .ing .xo xne, reporxAccording ,to the, report of the Farm

IfBureau fquirrel campaign Committee, c8-J- tons of squirrel poison has bee:

sold at cost, with an approximate saving of 56000.00 over the cost of

poison formerly sold here, and sold to some extent now. In com'^arisonwith the cost of squirrel control^in other counties, the folievi ng in¬formation is of interest: Santa Barbara spent a total of $5351.84 for

inspection and poison; San Luis Obispo county spent 5ll,651.B5 for

bounties; ilodoc county spent §2000 for insT)ection in.1914, and in twoseasons spent |l5,000 for bounties, while Ventura county spent last year Cr^$6 75-. OQ for insuection.

Vhen the Farm ixdviser arrive in the county the d^of..u.^st, Pilotive

disease kno\^n as hog oholera v/as prevalent tT^niniit, tiio o'liinty. ThruA

the Farm'Bureau organization a oampaign for the control of this disease

was started, and with the assistance of Dr. B.J.Jady, ftate Leader in

hog cholera control, and the cooperation of local veterinarians, demon-strations on the use of serum and virus for the eonixol-of hog cholera

have been held^thruont the—ooimty. Information relating to the necessary

sanitary conditions for prevention of this disease has "been distri"butedrepeatedly to all swine "breeders in the county, ^he Farm Adviser keer^son hand 5000 centim'eters of anti-hog cholera serum, which is immecliately

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availa"ble for sudden out"breaks. The campaign, as conducted thru the .

Farm B-^reau, has "been very successful, and for the past four years therehas been no hog cholera in the county.

The hills around Ventura county are steep and so bare that the

water which falls on them immediately runs down the canyons and does muchi • \ '

damage to the valleys below. 'R'or years the farmers of the Mound, Mon-talvo, Baticoy and other districts have Inditidually attempted to protect

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their lands from storm waters. These attempts have merely resulted in

turning the flood water from one ranch on to the next, or into the publicroad, as/()CGision demanded. This practise has resulted in numerous ex-

pensiye and unsatisfactory lawsuits, which did not.solve the storm waterproblem. Hepeated requests of the residents of the Saticoy districtthat the Board of Supervisors provide for the control of the storm water

which crosses Wells Hoad and floods the town, were, because of the dif¬

ficulty and expense involved, invariably laid on the table and forgotten.The Saticoy Farm Bureau Center took up this problem in May,1915,

formed a storm district to take care of the water damaging property along

Wells road, and tfen- some minor problems.

Following the work of the Saticoy Center, a-hd Mound Farm B_^_^reauCenter took up its problem, and after many interesting storm district

meetings, whie^h -reuiHte"d~Tir'advi"regard:irig~-mathpds 'oT^cunirroliing the

giro im-, tho plans and spe oifioations of the district have been ad¬

opted "by the Board cf Supervisors, and the appraisers are now at v^ork.The third stom district was formed in tke, Sespe Avenue for the pur¬

pose bf controlling the dobris which comes do^^. from the hills duringstorms, and fills in around the citrus trees, causing much damage. Llr.Frank Olmsted, the engineer for that district, has filed his report withthe Supervisors, which slightly amended was adopted and bids will be letbefore long.

The expense of the work in these storm districts will be borne by0 ifthe property owners andt the districts, and the Board of Supervisors, ac¬

cording to benefits derived. Those damaged by the work undertakenwill be reimbursed accordingly. It is difficult to estimate thevalue of the control of storm waters in Ventura county, but the HighwayGommission has maintained that without the salving.,.of these problomc itwas useless to put in certain Highways. This factor alone will beworth much to the people of the county.

In the Ooeanview district the Oxnard Center, thru the action of fourstorm ditch committees has been able to construct two communtj^^ ditchesand obtain an agreement for the construction of the third ditch, whichwill drain a large area.of the farming and school lands in that district.Much hard personal feeling which has existed in that district during thepast years has thus been removed.

The Library facilities oiff the people on the farm, not being entirelysatisfactory, a movement for the establishment of the county free librarywas commenced at a Farm Bureau "Directors* meeting. In co-operation withthe Gharabej: of Oommerce, the womens Olubs and oth r organizations, meetingswere held all over the county. The committees appointed at these farmbureau Center and other meetings, were sue -essful when they pr-^sented thepetition before the Board of Supervisors, and the County Free Library isnow in operation and is a great satisfaction to people in the rural com¬

munities.

One of the biggest projects which the Farm Bureau has taken up is '

the formation of the California Lima Bean G-rowers Associ tion,. The

Farm Bureau in this county does not do active business, but since some

organization of the bean growers seemed desirable, the Directors decided

to use the Farm B^ireau organization to bring the lima bean growers toge¬

ther, that they might form an Association based on i)ure cooperative prin¬

ciples. The project was thus referred through the Directors to the Farm

Bureau Center^ meetings, to which all lima bean growers were invited.

Committees appointed at these meetings cooperated as a central committee

and 7; i-th the assistance of Mr. George E^.Farrand, who is an expert on co¬

operative associations, drew up the plan of the California Lima Bean

Growers Association. This plan was approved by the growers w^the Farm

Bureau Center^ during llovember 1915, who instructed the Central Committeeto recommend the formation of an Association based on the plans presaiited

and to draw up articles of incorporation at their nex!. meeting.

This work has been most ably handled by the Directors elected by the

Association, and with F.A.Shipley as manager, has been doing a big busi¬

ness. The Association now holds more than 75^ of the lima beans of

California and 87j^ of the lima beans of the county. It is now on a firm

basis and making payments of f'2.50 per hundred for beans delivered to the

Association in September; on the 15th of November it will pay the same

ratio for all beans delivered during October, and subsequent payments

will follow in like manner. In viev^f of the fact that that the Associa-

tinn has had much to contend with due to climatic conditions, etc this is

indeed a wonderful shov/ing, nnd should certainly be gratifying to all

growers interested.

One of the fumtions of the Farm Adviser, thru the Farm Bureau, is

that of demonstrations. The applicatio.n of cover crops, the effect cf

different methods of pruning, the use of amoniimi sulphate to rectify cer¬

tain soil conditions, tree record work on citrus, walnut and apricots

and the selection of lima bean seed are among the demonstrations which

have so far "been established thruout the oounty. J In order to increasethe efficiency of the office the Farm Bureau publishes monthly a paperoffour pages. This contains an account of agricultural practices as

adapted to local conditions, an account of the work on hand, and a listof articles for sale or wanted by farmers in the county. This paperis sent to all the members of the Farm Bureauj^-

Tho the Farm bureau has been established but a little over two yearswe feel that it is, thru the discussion of agricultural practices, thruthe e stablishing of demonstration plots and by solving community problemscome to mean something to the ]people of Yentura County.

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