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63D CONGRESS, ane OF REPRESENTATIVES. {| Reporr 2d Session. } No. 110.

COOPERATIVE AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION WORK.

DeceMBER 8, 1913.—Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed.

Nae Cong ess. 1 RU<e, Mr. Lever, from the Committee on Agriculture, submitted the following

Rie Or T.

[To accompany H. R. 7951.]

The Committee on Agriculture, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 7951) to provide for cooperative agricultural extension work between the agricultural colleges in the several States receiving the benefits of an act of Congress approved July 2, 1862, and of acts supplementary thereto, and the United States Department of Agri- Fo having considered the same, report it back to the House with amendments and with the unanimous recommendation that the bill as amended do pass.

This bill provides for the inauguration of cooperative agricultural extension work through ‘field demonstrations, publications, and otherwise,” to be carried on in accordance with plans mutually agreed upon by the Secretary of Agriculture and the land-grant colleges receiving the benefits’of the first Morrill Act. -

In practical effect it undertakes to provide such machinery as will bring to the attention of the farmer, the farmer’s wife and children, in the most striking manner such demonstrated truths and practices of successful agriculture which, lived up to, make rural living desir- able and profitable as an occupation. It provides the connecting link between the sources of information in matters relating to agri- cultural life and the people sought to be reached with such informa- tion, and furnishes an added agency to our system of agricultural teaching. It carries out to the farm the approved methods and practices of the agricultural colleges, experiment stations, the Depart- ment of Agriculture, and the best farmers, and demonstrates their value under the immediate environment of the farm itself, thus providing the means by which the organized agricultural institutions of the country may be made to serve all the people, as should be the ease, rather than a limited and privileged few. ‘tials the plan pro- vided in this bill the information which has been accumulating for

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2 COOPERATIVE AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION WORK,

more than half a century and reservoiring in our colleges and other institutions organized in the interest of agriculture is to be made available to the mass of the people in such fashion as will bring the best results in the matter of improved rural conditions and rural

living.

. : . . . . e There is no more important work for the agricultural institutions

of the country than that of strengthening field service, demonstra- tion, and instruction, to the end that the promotion and development side of agriculture shall balance its investigational and research activities. To provide adequate facilities for the utilization by the farmer of the efficient work of the scientists in the Department of Agriculture and in the various colleges and experiment stations of the several States is one of the very important problems with which agricultural thought must deal. Earnest scientists every day are discovering useful truths, methods, and processes which if known by the farmer and applied by him would mean financial independence and social progress; but the farmer does not know what the scientist is doing and has no way of learning of his discoveries. Sufficient information has been gathered and is awaiting distribution to revo- lutionize rural conditions in this country in the next ten years, but it is dead information until it becomes vitalized by the service to ‘which the farmer puts it. The iogic of the situation forces the necessity for providing adequate machinery by which the storehouse of information may be opened to those who stand upon the outside. Congress itself has committed the country to a policy of encouraging, promoting, and developing agriculture which makes the legislation proposed in this bill an imperative duty that the fruits of its former action may be realized in actual results.

A glance at this legislation is conclusive of the committee’s propo- sition.

The passage of the first Morrill Act for the endowment and main- tenance of at least one agricultural college in each State committed the Federal Government emphatically and irrevocably to a policy of appropriating money to aid in acquiring and diffusing among the people of the United States useful information on subjects connected with agriculture.

This first serious national effort to teach agriculture in a practical way was followed by legislation providing for the establishment of agricultural experiment stations in the several States, the creation of the Federal Department of Agriculture, and other enactments for collecting agricultural truths to be made available to the farmer through such colleges and other agencies as were found suitable for the purpose.

Approximately $70,000,000 have been expended by the Federal Government in the maintenance of the State experiment stations and agricultural colleges in the last 50 years, and the annual appropriation for the Department of Agriculture reaches a sum of more than $20,000,000. These expenditures have resulted in the accumulation of a vast amount of agricultural information, which, made available to the farmer and applied by him, would work a marvelous reforma- tion in the economic and social condition of every rural community of the country. The past policy of the Government has confined itself largely to the gathering of information for the farmer. No one questions the wisdom of such a course, but it must be conceded that

D, OF D, DEG 18 ‘918

v ‘ COOPERATIVE AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION WORK. 3

R ott it has been wise to gather information for the use of the farmer, it ~~. would now be unwise to deny him that use. If we have not been . ® profligate in getting facts together for the service of the farmer, it

- = can not be argued that it would be profligate to make these facts @ available to him in such manner as will serve him best. Every

+ student and economist agrees that the efficient work of the colleges, g stations, and Agricultural Department must be taken out to the

farmer, and the most important and pressing problem at this time is

(= that of finding the most effective machinery for doing this. The

proposition of Tinkin up the man on the farm with the demonstrated practices of successful agriculture must be met.

Various agencies have been tried as a connecting link, with various degrees of success. The printed page is insufficient. The bulletin and agriculture press have not been found effective in reaching and impressing the farmer in the remote districts, who most needs the information. The late Dr. Seaman A. Knapp, founder of the demon- stration work in this country, said:

There is much knowledge applicable and helpful to husbandry that is annually worked out and made available by the scientists in the United States Department of Agriculture and in the State experiment stations and by individual farmers upon their farms, which is sufficient to readjust agriculture and place it upon a basis of greater profit, to reconstruct the rural home, and to give to country life an attraction, a dignity, and a potential influence it has never received. This body of knowledge can not be conveyed and delivered by a written message to the people in such a way that they will accept and adopt it. This can only be done by personal appeal and ocular demonstration.

His judgment was correct, and to meet the deficiency of the bulletin and agriculture press in impressing the fa:mer there arose the system of undertaking to do this by means of the lecture institute work, as the bulletin and lecture has its place in the extension field, but the best thought of the country has concluded that the characteristic attitude of the farmer is such as to make the development of some other system of reaching him with the best practice of agriculture a pressing necessity.

The farmer is naturally conservative, and to an extent skeptical of new methods. His habits of thought and methods of procedure are well settled upon him, and he is slow to change either unless convinced beyond any doubt of the wisdom of doing so.

To him experimentation with new methods seems to be, and is, in the nature of a gamble, and the farmer can not afford to gamble. He may read the bulletin and hear the lecture, but unless he is shown that the method proposed for handling his business, shown under his own conditions, is better, he will not accept it as against his own, which has provided a living at least for himself and family. It is not sufficient to tell the farmer that his method is not the best. He must be shown the best methods. The appeal must be made through his eye. He will quickly accept new principles and prac- tices if their value is demonstrated to him under the environment in which he lives, and the system of itinerant teaching, which Sir Horace Plunkett says ‘‘has stood the test better than any other,’’ is

redicated upon the idea of this willingness upon the part of the

armer to adopt those methods which have been proven to him) personally to be most effective in his business. ‘

The fundamental idea of the system of demonstration, or aaa _teaching, presupposes the personal contact of the teacher with the

4 COOPERATIVE AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION WORK,

person being taught, the participation of the pypil in the actual demonstration of the lesson being taught, and the success of the method proposed. In this country it is to an extent a new method of teaching, but in the Old World the same system has been so re- eminently successful as to become a fixed and recognized method of carrying the truths of agriculture and home economies to the door of the farmer. It is a system which frees the pupil from the slavish- ness of the textbooks, which makes the field, the garden, the orchard, and even the parlor and kitchen classrooms. It teaches to “learn to do by doing.’ As President Wilson said: ‘‘It constitutes the kind of work which it seems to me is the only kind which generates real education; that is to say, the demonstrative process and the personal touch of the man who does the demonstrating.” This method of teaching is in operation in practically every civilized country of Europe—the British Empire, Austria, Denmark, France, Holland, Germany, Russia, and Bihan -and it is significant, as pointed out by authorities in agriculture, that the farmers in Europe are producing two and one-half to three times as much per acre as American farmers and this in the face of the fact that European lands have been under cultivation for many centuries and were perhaps originally not so fertile as ours.

This method of demonstration or itinerant teaching is not en- tirely new to this country. For nearly a decade it has been in suc- Mee operation in the South, where it was inaugurated under the late Dr. Seaman A. Knapp to meet an emergency caused by the outbreak of the cotton boll weevil, which threatened the existence of that industry. From the evidence submitted before your com- mittee from time to time it is believed that this system 1s working a quiet but certain revolution in the agricultural thought and meth- ods of that section. The bank accounts of the Southern farmers who have adopted the best practices of agriculture as taught by the itinerant a or demonstrators operating under this system have furnished convincing proof that such a system, sufficiently flexible to adjust itself to the special problems of each State, the State being the judge, should be put upon a permanent basis, im- proved and extended to the entire country. The committee sub- mits the following data, furnished by the Department of Agriculture, as showing the results of the farmers’ cooperative demonstration methods as compared to the results obtained under the usual methods of the average farmer.

CORN. Percentage of excess of production under demonstration methods

over the average production for the entire State during the year 1912:

Per cent. Texas. ...-. 26.32. b ed eRe a ee ie ee eee. ee 47 Oklahoma. . 2.) 2. ccc. Lec walc tpn ey dette Geek bie calela a allan oben 98 APIA BAD «5 02s wins 5 v nisin disse cuehie Rurpaee pacae pid ee tiae Ue netes ent ek ee 62 MIGRIOGID DL... .~2.0-00:9000 ds sins 29m mea diale amen Sin ie aie eee nn anak 126 AIAbDAMG........neccccccacces was pounce pe demeacadee ten e. ee soe ee 156 GOOMPIB, 202.05 coe cence ccd ne ce es ub bee be kell wade tects eet aa 157 poutn Catolingo sis cls34 i soe ee ‘Dried co. Ae » ae ee ee 132 Orth Caroling s. ....sssesa5s- as asa cwen chewkene ae wen cae oee Ls ee 134

WOME Pick ins and paece caeee Jane < wiegaesccedamabiitiels abe cassie 75

COOPERATIVE AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION WORK. 5

COTTON.

. Percentage of excess of production under demonstration methods over the average production for the entire State during the year 1912:

Per cent, EM ek ed, a eee es lee RISES ae ar, 39 NEM 1 ee ck US ee Te ce ie Sate 77 PMMPEAMSHS! S226 2 2:e cin eed esse Sof ‘v2 yee a eta ee oy, Levent Dupe ie: SRE pe ers ae eR 79 RCIA sets Sahn ns ed ae Aa ah ree ee te ieee ae ek se ee 147 NRE SE SIRT I ese fy a Sh pe NR gE eel 174 South Carolina..... eee ree eo eeee RRS RENO aed oe SR Ot Bi 100

The theory of this billis to extend this system of itinerant teaching, the State always to measure the relative importance of the different lines of activity to be pursued and to determine upon the most important, to the entire country by providing for at least one trained demonstrator or itinerant teacher for each agricultural county, who in the very nature of things must give leadership and direction along all lines of rural activity—social, economic, and financial. This teacher or agent will become the instrumentality through which the colleges, stations, and Department of Agriculture will speak to those for whom they were organized to serve with respect to all lines of work engaged in by them. If he is sensible, tactful, and resourceful, he will become readily the leader of thought within the sphere of his activities. One of the most pressing problems in con- nection with rural life and progress is that of the development of leadership from among the rural people. This bill supplies this long-felt deficiency, well understood by those who have given to the problem serious thought.

The committee, from the facts before it, concludes without hesita- tion that production can be many times increased through the machinery provided in this bill, but the committee does not believe that Congress can afford to appropriate money for the sole purpose of teaching the farmer the best methods of increasing production. To teach the farmer the best methods’ of increasing production is exceedingly important, but not more vitally so than is the impor- tance of teaching him the best and most economical methods of dis- tribution. It is not enough to teach him how to grow bigger crops. He must be taught how to get the true value for these bigger crops, else Congress will be put in the attitude of regarding the work of the farmer as a kind of philanthropy. The itinerant teacher or demon- strator will be expected to give as much thought to the economic side of agriculture—the marketing, standardizing, and grading of farm products—as he gives to the matter of larger acreage yields. He is to assume leadership in every movement, whatever it may be, the aim of which is better farming, better living, more happiness, more education, and better citizenship.

The system of demonstration teaching so far developed in this country has confined its activities to the work of teaching the adult farm, and in a limited way only through the ‘‘boys’ corn clubs” and “ girls’ tomato clubs’’—the boys and girls of the farm. Until recently, however, no effort has been made to connect this work through the colleges with the rural schools. This work of teaching agriculture and home management to the farm boy and girl has been begun recently in one State, and your committee believes that this bill

6 COOPERATIVE AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION WORK.

furnishes the machinery by which the farm boy and girl can be reached with real agricultural and home economic training through the country schools. The German Wanderleher system of teachin the boy and girl of the farm has been preeminently successful, an there is no reason that the same system should not find equal en- couragement and success among our people. If rural life is to be readjusted and agriculture dignified as a profession as it should be and is, the country boy and girl must be made to know in the most positive way that successful agriculture requires as much brain as does any other occupation in life. The whole trend of our system of education is caleulated to minimize agriculture as a profession. Its logical tendency is to create a feeling of dissatisfaction with farm life and an ambition to get away from it. Such a situation is unfortu- nate; it ismost dangerous. ‘The farm boy and pe can be taught that agriculture is the oldest and most dignified of the professions, and with equal attention and ability can be made as successful in dollars and cents, to say nothing of real happiness, as any of the other professions. Your committee believes that one of the main features of this bill is that it is so flexible as to provide for the inauguration of a system of itinerant teaching for boys and girls.

Your committee commends to the especial attention of this House that feature of the bill which provides authority for the itinerant teaching of home economics or home management. This is the first time in the history of the country that the Federal Government has shown any tangible purpose or desire to help the farm woman in a direct way, to solve her manifold problems, and lessen her heavy burdens. The drudgery and toil of the farm wife have not been ap-

reciated by those upon whom the duty of legislation devolves, nor oe proper weight been given to her influence upon rural life. Our efforts heretofore have been given in aid of the farm man, his horses, cattle, and hogs, but his wife and girls have been neglected almost to a point of criminality. This bill provides the authority and the funds for inaugurating a system of teaching the farm wife and farm girl the elementary principles of home making and home manage- ment, and your committee believes there is no more important work in the country than is this.

That there is abundant reason for the encouragement of rural activities along lines of greater production and more profit can hardly be disputed. It is only necessary to call attention to the fact that for the past 30 years there has been a constant drift of rural population toward towns and cities. In 1880, 70.5 per cent of the population of the country was classed as rural, whils in 1910 only 53.7 per cent is classed as rural, and when consideration is given to the fact that population in villages, cities, and towns of 2,500 or less is classed as rural, it is safe to assume that only about 36 per cent of our population actually live upon the farms. The deserted farm homes, the increasing tendency toward a system of farming by absenteeism, the growth of tenancy, all furnish danger signals to those who have eyes to see. The deserted farm home will cease to exist only when farm life is made as attractive and profitable as is city life, and this result can be attained only through a systematic effort to redirect rural methods and ideals.

Another danger signal is furnished in the fact that soil fertility is undeniably decreasing, especially in the older States, and production

COOPERATIVE AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION WORK. 7

fails to keep pace with the demands of the nonagricultural classes. Reliable figures show that in acreage of agriculture per 1,000 inhabi- tants there has been a decrease in seven and an increase in only three during the last 10 years, as follows:

Per cent. Cotes ERIE tee PEEING Ns tar cia Le Shere eee blcrine ao oe ale eeies decrease.. 14, 4 UCN aati SEY REIS ois 2S nyu io le yale! aber cee em nepetieS Do okays sie cieic.O we Sei oo do 30.5 Taran Ra Ue SPR Sc St ayy eee AM tale SS St Set hak SO ae ou Aoesean: was RTE NG HOLS ck eR WOE ia se We Be one. ae Gale increase.. 42.3 ee a iw as cw Dialga Sects Suey A phar eee oS nels 'wisbele Ges ain «/nmihla «se decrease.. 11.7 aN eV ean £ . ASHE cyte cosy Sees Rt Mies ciyaic ons wltere sere ee kro Sua these toi dow O:1 PES ey HO CRs avr tists Se PEI SN SAE eae eros inl ok oR elciele Sees Sta Tad hres increase... 3.1 Rib VIir lean Tee tee Ene ters eelsUSs aoe 5-5 Yin She oe a\a'e.cs ewe 0~ Sw ERS decrease.. 3.2 SNOUT Clg. . EO Ae 8 ey oe ce et ee dows 259 (UTINPIEE 220 S40 Sha cco S SOB eee DOC EC ASO. oe ees ees increase... 9.1

What is true of our cereal and forage crops is true also of meat production. During the last census period one was an increase of 20 per cent in population with a decrease of 21 per cent in beef- producing cattle, 74 per cent decrease in the number of hogs, and 144 per cent decrease in the number of sheep. Reliable authority shows that in 1907 the number of beef cattle in the country amounted to 51,566,000, while in 1913, six years later, the number had decreased to 36,030,000, or a decline of 30 per cent. In 1906 the United States exported cattle to the number of 525,000 head, and in 1912 exported <a 105,000 head, or a decline in our exportation of cattle in six years of 75 per cent. In 1906 the United States imported 16,000 head of cattle and in 1912 imported 318,000 head of cattle, or an increase ’in our importation of cattle of 2,000 per cent in six years. It is said that we consume 91 per cent of our wheat and 98 per cent of our corn. These figures are conclusive of the fact that we must learn to produce more or accustom ourselves to eat less. Your committee believes that the agricultural potentiality of this country has not begun to be developed and that we are in fact only in the pioneer stage of agriculture; but whatever may be the judgment of the committee in this respect, it is certain that a proper rcgard for the future and a full appreciation of tendencies Gaus imperative the inauguration of some kind of system to check these tendencies and safeguard the future, and it is thought that the demonstrated effect- iveness of extension teaching wherever it has been tried furnishes the remedy.

The fundamental purposes of this bill have received the most emphatic indorsement of agricultural thinkers of the country, the rural press, influential business organizations, and agricultural and labor organizations. President W. O. Thompson, of the University of Ohio, and chairman of the executive committee of the Association of Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations, in his statement before the committee most heartily approves the purposes and principles of the bill, as did Director E. H. Jenkins, of the Connecti- cut Experiment Station and president of the Association of Ex- periment Stations. The bill was most heartily commended by Mr. Arthur E. Holder, legislative committeeman of the American Federation of Labor. In furnishing his views to the committee as

8 COOPERATIVE AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION WORK.

to the desirability of the passage of this bill, Secretary of Agriculture Houston says:

I have carefully read the bill and it seems to me to be admirably drawn to ac- complish the purposes in view. The Department of Agriculture and the different State colleges at enough agricultural information to revolutionize the agricultural ~ industry in this country if it could be effectively transmitted to the farmer. As a matter of fact, vast numbers of farmers either do not receive the information or do not receive it in such a way as to be adequately impressed with it and to be induced to apply it. It seems very unfortunate when we are spending so much money to obtain information that we can not secure a wider application of it.

I am especially impressed with the cooperative features of the bill. I believe that the provisions bearing on this point will secure a better understanding and a fuller coordination of effort on the part of the Federal Department of Agriculture and the State agencies. The two are working to the same end and should work in the closest harmony.

The bul contemplates that the different agencies shall, in cooperation, carefully devise and execute projects. This in itself will be an immense advance. I think it clear that if the Federal Government is to make appropriations for such a purpose as this bill contemplates, it should be in position to see that the money is applied for the purposes intended and is applied efficiently. The fact that the bill provides that the te shall be carried on in such manner as may be mutually agreed upon by the Secretary of Agriculture and the State college or colleges, will guarantee the applica- tion of the money in accordance with the intention of Congress and will secure efficiency. I do not now see how it would be possible to make a wiser arrangement.

In addition to this your committee calls attention to the fact that during the last session of the last Congress the House, without a dis- senting voice, passed a bill identical in the primary ends sought to be accomplished, showing a d>cided feeling in favor of the purposes of this proposed legislation.

It is proper to call the attention of the House to a fundamental difference in the bill referred to above and the bill now reported favorably from the committee. The work to be done is the same in each, but the method of doing it differs somewhat. The bill passed by the last Congress provided for the establishment of agricultural extension departments in connection with the land-grant colleges of the States. This bill provides for the inauguration of cooperative agricultural extension work between the land-grant colleges and the United States Department of Agriculture, the work to be carried on in such manner as may be mutually agreed upon by the land-grant colleges and the Secretary of Agriculture. It will be observed that the central idea of the machinery of this bill is that of close coopera- tion between the States and the Federal Government in undertaking a great work. This bill presents a vital and to some extent a new principle in the matter of Federal and State relations which the com- mittee believes is justified by the situation.

The Federal Government is being called upon constantly for funds to conduct work within the States and it is safe to assume, judgin the future by the past, that the demand for appropriations for sue work within the States will increase rather than diminish. The Federal Government can and should be helpful to the States in com- plying with legitimate demands for funds, but your committee relieves that there should be kept in mind always certain guiding cages The committee would emphatically oppose any action »y the Federal Government leading to a centralization of power and domination of work, although the committee as emphatically believes that if the Federal Government appropriates money for work within the States it must assume a certain amount of responsi-

COOPERATIVE AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION WORK. 9

bility for the expenditure of this money to the Congress and the people of the United States. It is the duty of the Federal Govern- ment to appropriate funds in order to stimulate public sentiment and to encourage the desire to meet these funds with moneys appro- priated directly by the States; and to aid and assist in the coordina- tion of all such work in order to avoid waste and unify effort all along the line. The principles involved are those of cooperation, the Federal Government aiding by advice and assistance in coordinating effort and the States performing the more important details of the local work. This bill places the responsibility for the actual con- duct of the work proposed in the agricultural college and provides specifically for the adjustment of work to local conditions through a cooperative relationship established between the college of agricul- ture and the Secretary of Agriculture. There is thus avoided any possiblity of developing a centralized and dominating agency, as is also avoided any possibility of forcing upon the States types or kinds of work not readily adapted to the needs of the people. It is hardly necessary to urge the self-evident truth that the Federal Gov- ernment, with the broad powers that Congress has given and is giving it in the matter of investigational work in agriculture should have some machinery by which this valuable work may be put into the hands of the individual farmers on their own farms. But the committee is firmly convinced that if the Federal Government should undertake this work of the institutions within the States, conflict, chaos, duplication, and waste must inevitably result. There is no question, however, that by wise administration, through the ma- chinery of this bill, proper relations can be established, maintained, and these dangers avoided.

These vital questions were early recognized by the Secretary of Agriculture, who called a conference for the purpose of discussing the question of relationships with the executive committee of the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations. As a result of this and other conferences, the executive committee formulated and presented certain prineiples as follows:

The executive committee of the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations desires to express to the honorable Secretary of Agri- culture its great gratification at the attitude of his department in its effort to bring about a closer and more efficient relationship between the work of the department and that of the colleges and experiment stations.

(1) The executive committee heartily indorses the suggestion of the Secretary that as a means of inaugurating and perpetuating an intelligent and sympathetic cooperation of these agencies, there be established a permanent committee on the general relations of the department and the colleges, said committee to be made up of representatives from both the department and the association.

RESEARCH,

(1) The executive committee cordially agrees with the point of view of the Sec- retary that the primary function of the Federal department is to undertake the study of problems that are more particularly regional, interstate, and international in character, and that upon the stations should rest the responsibility of investigating the problems that arise within their respective States.

This general policy is not to debar a union of effort by the department and a given station in the study of a problem whenever it becomes evident that such cooperation is necessary or will tend to a more successful outcome.

(2) Whenever the department finds it desirable to study a problem within a given State, harmonious relations and an intelligent understanding would undoubtedly be promoted by a consultation between the department and the state’s station prior

10 COOPERATIVE AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION WORK.

to its inauguration. In case a station is unable to cooperate in the work or does not desire to do so, it should lend sympathetic and advisory support. f

(3) Unqualified approval is given to the proposal of the Secretary that in order to assist in the carrying out of the policy of cooperation there be organized a joint committee on correlation of research, to be made up of representatives from department and the college and station association, one function of said committee to be the preparation for early publication by the department of a list of scientific projects to be undertaken by both the department and the stations. This committee should also be empowered to assist in any feasible way in correlating the work of the national and State research agencies in such manner as shall promote efficiency in securing results. vic :

(4) Equally emphatic approval is given to the plan of holding group conferences between the scientific specialists of the department and the stations. It would seem desirable and perhaps necessary that, owing to financial conditions. within the asso- ciation and stations, the necessary expenses of such conferences should be met from a fund administered by the department.

(5) It seems to be mutually agreed that in order to make available to students of science the research work of the department and stations, and to promote its stand- ing in the scientific world, there should be published by the department a journal of agricultural research, such journal to contain only those contributions from the department and stations as are viséed by the committee selected for that purpose.

EXTENSION,

The executive committee approves the policy of unifying the administration of the _ extension service and is desirous of assisting in securing Federal legislation to that end on the basis of the following principles and conditions:

(a) That the extension service shall ba administered wholly under the immediate direction of the college of agriculture. State leaders of extension service shall be appointed by said colleges and shall be recognized as college officials.

(b) That extension-service projects maintained by Federal funds shall be entered upon only after mutual approval by the department and the colleges.

(c) That the funds to be applied to the maintenance of the exterision service shall be secured through congressional appropriations made to the Federal department, to be distributed to the several States as provided by law, on the basis of the funda- mental provisions embodied in the Lever bill (H. R. 1692).

(d) It is understood that the appropriations made for extension service by the several States shall be under their control.

(e) It is further understood that the (Federal) moneys appropriated to extension service shall all be expended under the plans and agreements mutually approved by the department and colleges, and that no outside cooperative arrangement for main- taining extension service shall he made with any corporation or commercial body, excepting as a corporation or commercial body may wish to donate funds to be admin- istered in extension service exclusively by the colleges of agriculture in consultation with the department.

The committee calls attention to the fact that in the especial matter of extension service the vital principles set forth by the ec mmittee are all found in this bill. The Secretary of Agriculture has approved the recommendations made by the executive committee and has stated in hearings before your committee and elsewhere that the extension work provided for in this bill should be conducted wholly unde: the direction of the college of agriculture, the State leaders to be reec g- nized as college officials, and that the extension service projects main- tained by Federal funds should be jointly agreed to by the depart- ment and the colleges. Except in this respect this bill dees not differ from the one passed in the last Congress.

For the information of the House your committee begs to submit the following brief analysis cf the bill by sections:

Section 1 authorizes the inauguration of agricultural extension work in each State in connection with its land-grant college er col- leges in cooperation with the United States Department of Agriculture and gives to the legislature of each State the authority to designate

COOPERATIVE AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION WORK. 11

which of the college or colleges receiving the benefits of the act of Congress approved July 2, 1862, and known as the first Morrill Act, shall administer the funds appropriated by this bill.

Section 2 defines the character of the work to be undertaken as consisting in the giving of instruction and practical demonstrations in agriculture and home economics to persons not resident in the several colleges through field demonstrations, publications, and other- wise. This work is to be carried on upon plans mutually agreed upon by the Secretary of Agriculture and the several land-grant colleges. Section 3 is the appropriating section of the bill and provides the

sum of $480,000 for each year, $10,000 to be paid annually to each State which by the action of its legislature assents to the provisions of this act. ‘This is a straight, unconditional appropriation to the several States. The additional sum of $300,000 is appropriated for the fiscal year following that in which the foregoing appropriation first becomes available, and for each year thereafter for nine years the sum exceeding by $300,000 the sum appropriated for each pre- ceding year, and For each year thereafter there is permanently pro- vided the additional sum of $3,000,000 for each year, making a total appropriation for the tenth year of the life of the act and thereafter annually of $3,480,000. The additional appropriations, this sum of $3,000,000 annually are to be allotted to the several States in the proportion which their rural population bears to the total population of the United States, as determined by the next preceding Federal census. The Census Bureau defines as ‘urban population that re- siding in cities and other incorporated places of 2,500 inhabitants or more, including the New England towns of that population.’ Pro- vision is also made that no payment out of the additional appro- pao shall be made in any year to any State until an equal sum

as been appropriated for that year by the legislature of such State or provided by State, county, or local authority for the maintenance of the work provided in the bill, the idea being that some authority other than the Federal authority must provide a sum equal to the additional appropriations made by the Federal Government. To illustrate, the allotment of a given State might be $50,000, which the State would receive if it should duplicate this amount, but it might happen that the State would desire to appropriate for such a purpose only $25,000, and under the provisions of the bill would therefore be entitled to only $25,000 of the Federal funds in addition to the $10,000 which is appropriated unconditionally. In requiring the States to duplicate the amount of the Federal appropriation the bill is undertaking to encourage them to greater activity along lines of demonstration work. .

For the convenience of the House the committee submits the following table, showing the total population of the United States, by States, and the total rural population, by States, and the amount of these additional sums to which each State will be entitled under the basis of allotment as provided in the bill when the act shall mature at the end of 10 years, to which must be added for each State the sum of $10,000 unconditionally appropriated.

12 COOPERATIVE AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION WORK. —

The table is as follows:

Per cent of Total Total rural poe in : “s ‘otal popu- on a State. stn? | popalation. | tke United | tian altotsea® tatesand each State. by States. — ; Wyre etet i Josssie decd ed cascada 91,972,266 | 49,348,883 53.7 | $3, 000, 000 =—————S=——— AIT, hea tecenstushousuensapeduenhveds aucea 2, 138, 093 1, 767,662 3.58 107,400 =<" ERE dN BE GO: ARIS SPE "204, 354 iu 29 | 8,700 BREMEN pa buppadudnacd svepmcanen begs essinnn 1, 574, 449 1, 371, 768 2.78 83, 400 GAIA. og 8 ke Ade dn vlan dins SPs. cow SS 2,377, 549 907, 810 1.84 55, 200. PY ETE URE Eel RES aay ane 799.024 394, 184 -80- 24,000 SEED A Un chvcan ccebancadusecethsatack een 1, 114, 756 114,917 .23 | 6, 900 PASURWOUS . . hina d Sales aienachannients ob 155 kde beep ate 202, 322 105, 237 21 | 6,300 Ln i all i AR Sy cape SF, spindesg ore Re aces 752,619 1.08 32, 400 Sst ouhed nh de inh a pstes Gain sieve o ub unis adel 2,609, 121 2,070, 471 4.19 125, 700 1, Se CLR, 2 Rr A a RRS ie eet aS 325, 594 .52 15,600 WURMONS. <i dacpndsdbapask vies Ohi aatctssekessss ee 5,638, 591 2, 161, 662 4.38 131, 400 EN oth obs wi ib bn die b See Taa bake Gnkdhigss 2,700, 1, 557,041 3.16 94,800 RO Cte tL one e kao hw dnnd caucelh toh anantt 2,224,771 1,544, 717 3.13 93, 900 i RR ERE) Ue tie Seb OS AAs Te RUE RE R FI 58: 1, 690, 949 1, 197, 159 2.43 72,990 TUSMONM deca: winning ts seace rhe eaneree 2, 289, 905 1, 734, 463 3.51 105, 390 EMRIMEOIID. or Conta ceenwkchieavae shine Shinui aee Ee 1, 656, 388 1, 159, 872 2.35 70, 500 ON ORE Pe ieee Sees ee ae caer ek oe 742, 371 360, 928 .73 21,900 PONT BE eaten gets Rac Bel Seat ini 8 oe 1,795, 346 637, 154 1.29 38, 700 DPIC, J Hiddk savas phiescdnpdudecced 3, 366, 416 1,049 .49 14, 700 BERN So ncatlday boii ahaa hoae eWeek ed rece 2,810, 173 1, 483, 129 3.01 90, 300 VU” a a ES RSE Seok et RS ae 2,075, 708 1, 225,414 2.48 74,400 ae a RE Re ee ae ee ee oS eee Sea 1, (97, 114 1, 589, 803 3.22 96, 600 11 TT aaa aie eo Si ie ed 2 a gE lah TR ae IES, 3, 293, 1, 894, 518 3.84 115, 200 2 ee i Aes REN, Rat oS Pee es Te) prety 376, 053 242, 633 .49 14, 700 Pe ES Oe eee ee ey 1, 192, 214 881, 362 1.79 53,700 ST SNS IMG DORR Lae a SAS ha as 8 | 81, 875 68, 508 .14 4, 200 New emnpsnire ie > ve cad e's sph a babat sss soab 439, 572 175, 473 35 10, 500 LEN SE SE ee Sy St eps Eye Ais ¢ P 1,928, 120 3.91 117.300 DROW AE Sn astm whist reine codnawee ds abee ek 629, 957 1.28 38, 400 INGW OEM ion ha cakspahacmas s<bab ae ie rpe ees 327,30 280, 730 57 17, 100 North Carolina 1, 887, 813 3. 83 114, 900 North Dakota 513,820 1.04 31, 200 GROSS Se Sint oo titecee 2, 101; 978 4.26 127, 800 Oklahoma............... j , 337, 000 2.71 81, 300 Oregano se 365, 705 .74 22, 200 Pennsylvania 3,034, 442 6.15 184, 500 Rhode [sland 17, 956 04 1,200 South Carolina 1, 290, 568 2.62 78, 600 South Dakota 507, 215 1.03 30,900 or ee eee a 1,743,744 3.53 105, 900 y= NES BSS LER trae LEP Fe a IY 2) 958, 438 5.99 179, 700 ST ad Gisele oa isch ak week «aia b ROO es Se 373, 351 200, 417 41 12, 300 POU annua pm oe dnp ees pa eoase aero saa af 355, 956 187,013 .38 11, 400 WM OM isn aon p Swng aban en ett to deals aeneen 2,061,612 1, 585, 083 | 3.21 96, 300 Washington Shera eka sob op ae angi n sR SEE kes ade | 1, 141, 990 536, 460 1.08 32, 400 WOME WOEDION, Son. co iktiipties «dah Sues eaee | 1,121, 119 992, 877 2.01 60, 300 DE RT SE ES TEE EI 2,333, 860 1,329, 540 2.69 80, 700 We MN ars cata b Anes phen seed RRA aa hee i 145,965 | 102,744 -21 6,300

Of course the next census may show a little change in the relative positions of the several States with respect to their rural populations and, hence, the above table would have to be modified to meet such a change.

Section 3 provides further that before the funds appropriated by this bill shall become payable to any college for any fiscal year, plans for the work to be carried on under it shall be submitted by such college and approved by the Secretary of Agriculture.

Section 4, authorizing the appointment by the Secretary of Agri- culture of a director of cooperative agricultural extension work, was stricken from the bill as being unnecessary. The remaining sections, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9, deal largely with the administrative features of the bill and follow closely the Hatch and Adams Acts.

ee

COOPERATIVE AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION WORK. 13

The committee recommends the following amendments:

On page 2, line 22, after the word “Agriculture,” strike out the comma and the words ‘‘or his representative’ and the comma.

On page 3, line 20, beginning with the words “Provided further,” that entire proviso down to and including the period on page 4, was stricken from the bill and the following substituted for it: “ Provided further, That before the funds herein provided shall become available to any college for any fiscal year plans for the work to be carried on under this act shall be submitted by the proper officials of each col- lege and approved by the Secretary of Agriculture.” This language was thought to convey the idea of the bill more clearly.

On page 4, line 13, the word ‘‘the’’ was inserted before the word “cooperative,” and on the same line, after the word “work,” the period was dropped and the words “‘provided for in this act’’ added.

On page 4, as already explained, section 4 was eliminated.

The sections of the bil following this are renumbered to conform to this committee action.

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