Show FARM RADIOS ARE MAKING A barid fouw 11 I 1 derive many benefits to agriculture from use I 1 of the radio there are nearly radio sets on farms in the united states the department of 0 agriculture estimates in a report on the growth of farm radio during the past five years in some states the department says say there are arc radio sets on 25 to 40 per cent of 0 all farms estimates made by the department in 1923 showed sets in uso use on farms at that time sets in 1924 and sets early in 1925 increased power and improved broadcasting together with better receiving sets the department believes will do much to aid in establishing the pe permanency rma nency of the use of 0 radio tor for the benefit of agriculture one station alone in a period of three months broadcasting of market and weather reports received more than letters of 0 commendation froni from farmers country banks shippers of livestock and small merchants in the towns in 12 agricultural states surrounding the station interference among stations may gradually be eliminated the department believes as many of the less active stations are being discontinued and technical improvements are being made in both broadcasting and receiving equipment of 1458 radio stations of all sizes licensed to broadcast 1 since broadcasting began only 1 were active on january 1 this year the department has made cooperative etive arrangements with more than stations broadcasting official market news gathered by department representatives in leading shipping and consuming areas since the first of the year the department has made arrangements with about 60 stations to broadcast on a regular schedule tour four additional services dealing with general agricultural information literally hundreds of stations have requested the privilege of handling the government reports but many of the requests have had to be refused the department says because the stations are remote from the departments market news branch offices when the experimental radio market news service was announced on december 21 1920 the report states those in the department ol of agriculture who were directing the new activity hardly anticipated the wonderful possibilities of 0 radio broadcasting as we now know it A laboratory transmitter at the united states bureau of 0 standards on a meter wave length a few enthusiastic amateurs within a hundred miles of 0 washington and a 5 p in schedule of about words by radio telegraph composing what was called the radio market gram constituted the elements ot of the experiment the idea was that the amateurs would copy the market gram and turn it over to the newspapers in their own towns or give copies to the banks or stores to be posted on bulletin boards in every way it was a kind ot of laboratory experiment peri ment the practical results 0 of this first experiment could hardly be called conclusive but they gave encouragement to those in charge of 0 it to push on in the quest of 0 more and more evidence on april 7 1921 an announcement no was made that arrangements had been completed with the air mall mail radio service of the post office department to transmit by wireless market reports several times a day from post office stations at washington D C bellefonte Belle tonte fonte penn st louis mo and omaha nebraska assuming an effective radius ot of audibility ot of miles about each station licensed amateurs in the areas covered were enlisted to copy the re reports and to furnish them to shippers associations county agents state bureaus of markets farm bureaus and other agricultural agencies banks newspapers and local telephone exchanges A number of licensed operators offered to copy the reports by january 1 1922 the market reports were being relayed and broadcast by radio telegraph from seven post office stations in a chain across the country during 1921 reports were furnished to three of the then very few radio telephone broadcasting oad casting stations since then the service has grown by leaps and bounds until now there is practically no agricultural community in the country that is without official market reports on agricultural commodities well established schedules of weather crop and market reports are broadcast from more than stations in all parts of the country farmers Ii of necessity the department says have bought mainly high priced sets capable ot of getting distant stations the average cost of 0 radio sets on more than 1000 farms widely scattered over the country in 1923 was estimated by the department at better and more easily operated equipment can be bought now tor for halt half this amount the department says an authentic list of 0 broadcasting stations the country over that broadcast market and crop reports has been prepared by the department for free distribution requests for the 11 list t if should be mailed to the bureau of agricultural economics united states department of Agriculture Wash D C |