THE COUNTY AGENT

AND THE

FARM BUREAU

M.C.BURRITT

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THE FARMER'S BOOKSHELF

Edited by

KENYON L. BUTTERFIELD

THE COUNTY AGENT

AND THE

FARM BUREAU

BY

M. C. BURRITT

yiCE-DIRECTOR OF EXTENSION, NEW YORK STATE
COLLEGE OF AORICULTURE

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

NEW YORK
HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY

,, . ... COFYBIOHT, 1922, BT

Mtia Lib*

HABCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY, INC.

■ 7^^:^ *"::

PRINTED IN THK U. •. A. BY

THE QUINN A BODEN COMPANY

RAHWAY, N J

To

My Colleagues and Associates

who in conference and otherwise have
helped to crystallize the ideals and points
of view herein expressed, and especially

To

H. E. Babcock

whose energy and good judgment have
been a constant source of inspiration and
of confidence during our eight years of
public service together,

This Book is Dedicated.

'It '.:- xJO

EDITOR'S PREFACE

The present system of American agricultural education
in its various forms is the result, broadly speaking, of the
application of science to practice. For a long period, the
field of this scientific agriculture was almost wholly that
of production. Special students of agriculture were en-
deavoring to discover the laws of plant and animal growth
and the interrelations of soil, climate, and plant. More
recently, efforts are being made to work out in the same
fashion the laws of economic and social development. Thus,
the field of scientific agriculture has broadened to include
all the interests of farmers and their communities.

A remarkable development of this broadened field of
agriculture has been the recent extension of agricultural
education. Teachers in the agricultural colleges at first
gave their efforts largely to the teaching of resident stu-
dents. Then gradually the *' professors" began to go out
to talk to the farmers. After a while came the Farmers'
Institutes, where working farmers and agricultural special-
ists joined forces in a program of instruction and discus-
sion. The Act of Congress, known as the Smith-Lever Act,
passed in 1914 opened on a national basis a wonderful
chapter in agricultural extension service, and the County
Agent became the clearing house of information and sug-
gestion between the working farmer and the educational
institutions:.

This extension service, combined with the broadened
definition of agriculture, and further influenced by the
work of the County Farm Bureaus, has made this County

vU

viii EDITOR'S PREFACE

Agent one of the most influential of present-day leaders in
rural affairs. The task demands a man of rather rare
capacity, combining farm experience, practical sense and
quick adaptability, with accurate scientific knowledge
and the appreciation of the larger issues of agriculture and
country life. Mr. Burritt, in this book, shows what is in-
volved in this man's work and how he can be of greatest
use to the farm people. It is a valuable discussion of the
varied work and widespread influence of an entirely new
type of agricultural leader.

Kenyon L. Butterpield.

PREFACE

THe second decade of the twentieth century has been an
eventful one for farmers. World economic conditions and
especially the great war brought to its culmination the trend
of affairs already well under way, which restored the farm-
ers' purchasing power and consequent prosperity. But
this was attained only to be lost in the greatest slump in the
purchasing power of agricultural products ever known in
the United States. The reversal of the ratio of rural
to urban population in the last half century has focused
attention on the problems of marketing and distribution.
The problem and a better understanding of its nature and
solution together have stimulated a great period of organi-
zation among farmers. Prosperity brought with it new
and effective means of education. Both in this agricultural
organization and in the new means of education the county
agent and the farm bureau have had a large part, which
should be better understood and appreciated.

This volume is not intended to be a history of the county
agent or of the farm bureau, although most of the essen-
tial facts and events of their first ten years of existence
are here recorded. It is yet too early in its life to write
^a history of this movement. We are too close to its origin
land early efforts. Whether this history will finally be but
' a brief sketch of the meteoric rise and fall of a promising
agricultural effort, or whether it will be an account of the
yiworking out of a great sane, constructive, forward-looking
iidea, is yet to be revealed. The outcome of the play of

ix

ac PREFACE

present forces we must await with sucli patience as we can.
Great movements are not worked out in a decade.

While we cannot see the events of the future, we can
study the past and the present, and gather from them an
interpretation and suggestion for our guidance in the fu-
ture. In spite of the fact that we are all living in the
midst of these events, many of us have hut a hazy and
indefinite knowledge of them. Others have knowledge of
details but do not fully understand their relationship or
significance. Still others are confused by conflicting events
and ideals. If this book is of service in better understand-
ing the aims and ideals of the movement, it will have served
its chief purpose.

It is hoped that county agents, executive and community
committeemen engaged in the work will find it helpful as a
record and interpretation of the facts, a technical aid in
their work, and perhaps somewhat of a guide. Students
of the movement, whether sympathetic or critical of it, will,
the author hopes, find it a useful reference and a help in
understanding its origin and early ideals. Farmers gen-
erally should find Part I, especially the chapters dealing
with the farm bureau organization, county, state and na-
tional, useful in trying to understand and to judge of its
future. Observers and critics will find herein expressed
a point of view and ideals which it is hoped may have had
some small part in shaping up the movement. Indeed,
the opportunity to record these ideals and points of view is
one of the chief incentives to the writing of this volume.

Without any desire to be personal — ^but in simple justice
to the reader who may consider whether he is likely to be
justified in perusing these pages further — ^the writer feels
that he should state his experience and qualifications. This
book is written out of knowledge gained through per-
sonal contact with the movement since its inception; and

PREFACE » xi

this experience and contact has been both from the giving
and receiving end. As a field agent of the United States
Department of Agriculture, and later as the editor of an
agricultural paper, he studied the problems of the territory
where the first county agent in the North was installed
and, indeed, had some part in the setting up of this first
county organization. Four years as a supervisor of county
agents and four more as an extension director has kept him
in a constant and live touch with hundreds of county agents
and their work. He was also present and had some small
part in the organization of both his State and the National
Farm Bureau Federations. And lastly, but not least in
importance, he has been a member of one of the first county
farm bureau associations (Monroe County, N. Y.) from
its beginning and has profited much in his farming through
the help of the local county agent, and been able to appre-
ciate the limitations and shortcomings of both county
agent and farm bureau.

The thanks of the author are due to H. E. Babcock, Jay
Coryell, L. R. Simons, and to Professors D. J. Crosby,
Dwight Sanderson, and M. Robinson for reading and
making suggestions on parts of the manuscript. He also
acknowledges the cuts kindly loaned by the U. S. Depart-
ment of Agriculture and the New York State College of
Agriculture. He is especially indebted to M. C. Wilson
of the Department for selecting many of the cuts and
obtaining permission to use them.

m. c. bueritt.
Ithaca, N. Y.
April 1, 1922.

CONTENTS

PART I

The County Agent's Services or the County
Agent at Work

CHAPTES FAOB

I. The County Program op Work ... 3

II. Teaching and Information Giving . . 33

III. Organization and Leadership ... 66

IV. The Relation of the County Agent and the

Farm Bureau to Commercial Enterprises 93

V. Personal and Social Contacts . . .111

VI. The County Agent's Job and Opportunity 129

PART II

The Background and the Means of Service

VII. The Agricultural Situation and the Oppor-
tunity . 143

VIII. The Beginnings of County Agent Work . 153
IX. The Evolution of the Movement . . 181
X. The Present Organization and Status of

County Agent Work . . . . . 192
XI. The Farm Bureau and Its Relation to the

County Agent 210

XII. The State and Nationaxi Farm Bureau

Movement . 232

XIII. The Future of the Farm; Bureau Movement 252

. Index - i. . u . 267

>^^ xiii \^^

■^:-

y^ ivi 'ill.

ILLUSTRATIONS

FACINQ PAGE

Community programs are best worked out by small commu-
nity committees of men and women representing various
important interests in the conmiunity. They usually meet
around a table at the home of the chairman or another
member of the committee. This particular meeting was
held in Newcastle County, Delaware. Members are exam-
ining a fireless cooker presumably with the view of under-
taking to increase the use of this home convenience in the
community 10

A good demonstration points out a truth and offers proof
wherever this is possible, as well as illustration of how
the truth may be applied. This demonstration of how
gophers were destroyed with poison in Lewis and Clarke
County, Montana, does both. The group of neighbors
who have suffered losses from this pest suggests that
the demonstration is timely and meets a real need . 42

The chief function of the farm and home bureau committeemen
and committeewomen is to exercise leadership in their
home communities in developing a practical and an effec-
tive local program of work and generally in getting de-
sirable things done. This farm bureau president and his
county agent are making plans together to secure the
more complete functioning of their community committees 70

A careful study of all the facts should precede any attempt
to organize for cooperative marketing or for any other
purpose. The local community committee is admirably
adapted, with the help of the coimty agent, to make such
a study and to make a sound recommendation ... 88

Farmers in Essex County, New York, bringing in their small
individual lots of wool to the warehouse for grading and
pooling. Standardization of products and packages, better
quality, uniformity, a steady flow to market, all of which
tend to result from well conducted cooperative enterprises,
are as important to the consumer as to the producer . . 108

XV

xvi ILLUSTRATIONS

FACINQ PAGB

The county agent's office should have a business-like appear-
ance. To modern business office equipment should be added
exhibits, pictures, maps, charts and other illustrations of
the work. An efficient clerk, stenographer or secretary
adds much to the general efficiency of the county agent's
office 108

Community picnics and field days should be the occasion for
stimulating and encouraging the play spirit, and for em-
phasizing the essential unity of the people of the com-
munity as a group thinking and acting together in the
common concerns of life 126

John H. Barron, the first county agent in the Northern and
Western States, and James Quinn, the first county farm
bureau president, on Mr. Quinn's farm at Binghamton,
Broome County, N. Y. The application of lime for the
improvement of hill pastures was one of the earliest and
most useful demonstrations in this territory . . . 162

A county club leader pointing out to the club members the
good points of a dairy calf owned by one of their number.
The completion of the project, whether it be rearing a
dairy calf to maturity or growing a crop, together with
the securing and accounting for the results, is a first
essential to good boys' and girls' club work . . . .162

Membership getting has not always been the most agreeable of
the community committeeman's jobs, but the process has
been a valuable educational one both with him and with
the members. Membership should be based primarily on
the local program of work and only secondarily on the
state and national federation programs 220

PAET I

TEE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES, OR THE
COUNTY AGENT AT WORK

CHAPTER I
THE PROGRAM OF WORK

*

Perhaps the first question of large importance which con-
fronts a county agent in beginning his work in a county,
be it old or new, is ''What shall I do?" Likewise the
farmer often wonders just what the functions of the county
agent are.

If the county has had an agent before and if his Work
has been properly organized and conducted, there will be
a definite program of work, and the answer to the question
will be easy. The county agent's principal task will then be
to carry out the program which has been outlined for him
and the attainment of which, in reasonable measure, con-
stitutes his main job. But if he is the first agent in the
county and there is no definitely worked out program or
plan of work, then his first job, after acquainting himself
with the local situation and leadership, should be to assist
the local people to develop a program.

As this is the problem of all newly organized counties
and as many older organized counties are still without good
constructive programs of work, it may be well to begin our
study of this question at the very beginning.

WHY A PROGRAM OP WORK?

To be successful every public movement must have ob-
jectives or goals which it seeks to reach. The soundness
and the general desirability of the objectives sought will
in the end determine the support tvhich it can command

3 .

4 ;'., ;. .. ;.; 'T5JE aOTJNTX AOTNTS SERVICES

and hence its ability to achieve its goal. But it is not
enough merely to have a general objective. Many good
movements with abstractly general objectives have failed
simply because they were too general, and were never put
into concrete form with the necessary machinery and the
means behind them to accomplish their ends.

Such a concrete proposal of specific objectives and of
how it is expected to accomplish them is called a program
of work. If applied to a single community it is considered
as a community program. When these objectives are ap-
plied collectively to all the communities of the county
with an organization behind it to carry out the proposals
it is known as a county program of work.

The general objective of the county agent movement was
and continues to be agricultural education of persons en-
gaged in farming and home making, more especially those
outside the school system. As we shall see, it was the
hope and the expectation of those who conceived the idea
and the method, that it would increase the efficiency and
the profitableness of the processes of farm production and
marketing, as well as increase the intelligence and elevate
the standards of living of the persons living on the farms.
Such an objective of course soon commanded the support
of educators and of agricultural leaders generally as well
as of the public. But it did not find sufficient expression
in action to give it force and application in the localities
and counties until it was interpreted into concrete proposals
and applied to the agricultural problems of specific com-
munities and counties. And nothing in the whole move-
ment has been so useful in giving definiteness of purpose
to it, and in securing for it the necessary support of farm-
ers and of appropriating bodies, as has the county program
of work. It has been the rallying point of farmer and
public alike.

THE PROGRAM OF WORK 5

ELEMENTS IN A GOOD PROGRAM

Any program of improvement that is not based on the
needs of the persons it is aimed to benefit invites failure
from the start. More than that the ultimate success of the
program is very likely to be determined by how vitally the
proposals affect these needs, as well as by how the exact
aims actually do meet them when applied to the problem.
This phase of a good program then becomes a question of
how to determine accurately what the real needs of the
communities and of the county are.

As an example of a county program not meeting a need,
there comes to mind a non-fruit growing but chiefly dairy
county, where during the first two or three years of county
agent work, the renovation of old apple orchards wa^ em-
phasized. This interested a few farmers but not the rank
and file. In this county the number of farmers whose
orchards were affected was thirty in 1914, and twenty-six
in 1915. In 1918 the number had fallen to five, and since
then practically no work affecting orchards has been done
in the county. On the other hand, a part of the dairy
program, namely the number of cows tested for milk pro-
duction has increased from six hundred and thirty in 1915
to fourteen hundred and ninety-three in 1920. The one
item in the program failed because it did not vitally affect
the welfare of any considerable number of individuals.
The other persisted because it did touch on a widespread
problem in a helpful way.

Definiteness. Definiteness is a merit much to be desired
in any plan of work. A simple test to apply to a program
to determine whether or not it has this necessary charac-
teristic is to inquire if it answers three questions: "What
is to be done ? How much is it proposed to do this year ?
How is it expected to accomplish the results desired ? Such

6 THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES

a county program should also be simple in its elements
and not try to deal with the whole range of problems in
general terms.

What is done by the agricultural agent will usually fall
under the heads of the improvement of (1) soils, (2)
crops, (3) animals, (4) economic farm management and
marketing, and (5) social conditions. What is done by
the home demonstration agent may usually be classified
under the headings (1) food, (2) clothing, (3) shelter or
household management, (4) family health, and (5) social
conditions. Both agents will probably do work with boys
and girls and with certain other special problems.

But what is to be done must be more definite than this.
It must show what particular kinds or types of soils, crops
and animals, and what special marketing, health, food and
clothing problems need improvement in the particular com-
munity or county. How much it is proposed to do, and
how it is expected to do it, are essential to a sufficient defi-
niteness in a county program of work, to insure under-
standing and command intelligent support. Goals for the
year should be stated as the farmer thinks of results, in
terms of bushels, pounds, acres, animals and so forth, im-
proved.

Balance With Emphasis. Another element which a good
program must have is balance, although it should have this
with proper emphasis on a few of the most important
things. It will be an unusual condition where all the
farmers or communities are interested in one thing. A
few things will always be of outstanding or immediate
importance, particularly those which fall into the groups
of marketing, health and social relations. Even in these
fields some persons have a greater interest than do others.

The type of farming and the special economic and social
problems of a community or county will determine the

THE PROGRAM OF WORK 7

parts of the program which are to be specifically empha-
sized. There will always be those farmers who want to
build up their soils, others to whom crop or animal im-
provement seems to be the big thing, while just now eco-
nomic problems loom large to the majority of farmers.
The program should be so well balanced as to meet the
more important needs of the rural population as a whole,
rather than those of the membership alone, without going
to the extreme of trying to gratify every whim or minor
interest of everybody. Too broad or detailed a program
is likely to result in scattered effort, or *'a little bit of
everything and not much of anything."

Having secured such a desirable balance of work as
will not only meet necessarily varied needs but will also
promote efficiency because it permits a good distribution
of time and effort throughout the year, effort should then
be concentrated on one or two things at a time, as the nature
of the problem demands and the time of the year permits.
Too many things must not divide either the agent's or the
farmer's attention at the same time, if the best results are
to be secured.

PERMANENCY IN PROGRAMS

The very nature of the problems dealt with precludes
both immediate or complete solution of most of them.
Soils are built up and improved only through long periods
of consistent and wise effort. Principles are taught and
put into practice through repeated use and proof. Health
is acquired through the long continued application of cor-
rect eating, good clothing, and right living principles and
is maintained by the same procedure.

Any program to be most worth while must be forward
^looking and permanent. It must anticipate years of related

8 THE COUNTY AGENTS SERVICES

and well organized effort. As has already been pointed
out, how vitally the program touches the real needs of the
county, will in large measure determine its permanency.
Of course particular items in the program will need to be
emphasized more at one time than at another, as, for ex-
ample, the raising of more home-grown feed in a dairy
section when feed is very high than when it is very low,
or, the protection of plants or animals against disease when
conditions are especially favorable for it. Emergencies are
always likely to arise which will and which should modify
the program at least temporarily. In general, it would
seem that not less than seventy -five per cent of the agent's
time should be devoted to the permanent program, leaving
about twenty-five per cent for emergencies and for mis-
cellaneous effort, more or less of which is probably inevit-
able. But when the percentage of effort on this miscel-
laneous work rises above twenty-five per cent, then the
situation should have the attention of the local committee
and of the supervising agencies.

BUILDING A PROGRAM

Since it is clear that a program cannot have large value
except as it vitally affects the needs of the community and
the county, it follows that some means should be devised
through which to determine accurately what these needs
really are. Can there be any better means than the com-
ing together of representative committees and councils of
farmers from the communities to consider their needs and
to determine upon the best ways to meet them ? The peo-
ple who have lived long in a community have learned its
handicaps and its limitations as well as its advantages.
Especially if they have discussed their local problems in
their grange and club meetings, they will realize what

THE PROGRAM OF WORK 9

should be done to improve the farming and living condi-
tions in their home communities.

At first it may take a good deal of discussion to bring
out the essential things, especially if the persons coming
together have not been in the habit of studying and trying
to analyze their problems together. There will be differ-
ence of opinion according to viewpoint and experience.
Some will have a larger vision of the possibilities of their
communities' development than others. A few problems
will stand out because they are of immediate and pressing
importance. Others will be so commonplace as to be almost
overlooked at first. But out of the discussion and consid-
eration, especially after a year or two of experience, will
usually be evolved a well-balanced program which will
represent real needs.

Project Committees, The practical machinery to be
used in the making of county and community programs
usually consists of community committees, usually divided
into project committees according to interests. Since farm
bureau and county agent work are necessarily organized
on the county unit basis for financial and administrative
reasons, it is usually necessary to organize the program on
a county basis also.

So county project committees representing the various
interests common to the county, such as market milk, fruit
and poultry for the men, and nutrition or clothing on the
part of the women, or organization, schools and health as
matters of common interests should be selected. When
these project committees, meeting in advance at convenient
times, have determined upon their recommendations, they
report either directly to the annual meeting or to the exec-
utive committee, or in some states to the county advisory
council made up of the community committees or repre-
sentatives of all of the communities in the county. The final

10 THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES

action of the association either directly or through this
council determines the program to be recommended for
the county for a given period. But this program cannot
be finally operative until approved by the county executive
committee which must reconcile it with its financial re-
sources and with the time and the ability of its agents to
carry it out with the help of local organization. This may
mean cutting it down, omitting what seem to be the lea^t
important or the least urgent of the recommendations.^

The College Specialist, There is another aspect of pro-
gram building that requires consideration. In spite of
the fact that farmers necessarily live with their problems —
and perhaps partly because they do — they are not always
able correctly to diagnose them and to prescribe the reme-
dies. Perhaps it is because they live too close to them,
because they are not familiar with experience elsewhere
which would permit comparison and be suggestive. This
inevitable situation constitutes the need for and at the
same time is the opportunity of the trained specialists of
the colleges of agriculture for service.

Technically prepared by a study both of the principles
which underlie the problems of farmers and of the problems
themselves, each in his own particular field, fortified with
an intimate knowledge of the findings of science as to ways
to meet them, and well acquainted with the experience of
other farmers in meeting them because of his wide oppor-
tunity for observation in other counties, the specialist
may be of great service to a community or county group
in analyzing its problems and in determining upon the
remedies.

In practice if such specialists can meet with county
project committees, each in his special field, in planning

1 The machinery of program making is also iiscussed in Chapter
X, page 205, and Chapter XI, page 220.

Community programs are best worked out by small community
committees of men and women representing various important
interests in the community. They usually meet around a table
at the home of the chairman or another member of the committee.
This particular meeting was held in Newcastle County, Delaware.
Members are examining a fireless cooker presumably with the
view of undertaking to increase the use of this home convenience
in the community.

THE PROGRAM OF WORK 11

programs, the specialist gains a truer and more intimate
and hence more practical knowledge of the needs of the
communities, counties, and of the state, and the committee
gains the broader knowledge and viewpoint, the technical
information and the more or less expert advice of the
specialist. A better program almost invariably results
from such cooperation. Moreover, the basis for the neces-
sary cooperation in carrying out the program is at once
established.

Thus, there may be put into actual practice the partner-
ship between science and experience, and the college and
farm bureau machinery function together ideally. The
county agents should be the guiding hand to bring this
about, and they will be the necessary middlemen who will
establish helpful contacts between specialists and farmers.

SOME TYPICAL PROGRAMS

These general considerations in program making will
undoubtedly be clearer if they are applied to different pro-
grams constructed to fit different and widely variable con-
ditions. Examples of good and poor characteristics may
also be pointed out. These have been selected from a wide
territory extending from Maine to California and from
Alabama to New York. The fundamental conception of
stating the problem in relation to the apparent need is
surprisingly uniform. The difference in form is more
noticeable though less important. Programs in different
counties in the same state are quite uniform, indicating
much suggestion and help from the state colleges and the
supervising offices.

Program No, 1. This program from Kentucky has the
merit of stating the problems and the limitations which
they impose on the farming of the community so that we

12 THE COUNTY AGENT^S SERVICES

may better judge whether the proposals to meet them are
sound and wise. It is desirable also to have such a state-
ment of limitations constantly in mind. The remedies
proposed are both general and permanent and specific and
definite for 1921. The setting of a definite goal for the
year's work itself helps to realize the objectives and thus
makes for greater achievement. The program is appar-
ently fairly comprehensive and should touch the commu-
nity 's farming widely, since it embraces some fundamental
work with three important crops, three kinds of livestock,
and touches in a vital way the future welfare of the boys
and girls both in the schools and out of them. The pro-
gram is deficient in that it makes no provision for the
interests of women, a vitally important part of any com-
munity life, nar adequately for the broad general problems
of the community. Local leadership for each phase of the
program is fixed and this should result in larger achieve-
ment. This community program is correlated with the
programs for other communities through county project
committees for each important interest made up of com-
munity representatives especially concerned with the prob-
lem, into a county program, which then becomes combina-
tion of community programs.

Program No, 2, Lack of definiteness, most of its items
being too briefly stated to bring out their real intent, is the
first characteristic of this Alabama program which strikes
one. This and the fact that many of its actual accom-
plishments bear little or no relation to the original plan,
suggest that it probably did not have sufficient considera-
tion in the beginning. Perhaps it was made by the county
agent alone without the help of committees of farmers or
specialists of the colleges who had really studied the prob-
lems. Evidently, too, the original plan did not fully meet
the agricultural needs of the county, or it would not have

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14 THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES

been changed so much in practice. Neither is it well or-
ganized as to form. Related items are not grouped to-
gether as they should be. Too many things are attempted.
Permanency is apparently not given sufficient considera-
tion. The program does appear to be fairly well balanced,
although nothing is outstanding. It is a good plan to state
the accomplishments of the year in juxtaposition with the
plan or program of work at the beginning of the year.

Program No. 2

AN ALABAMA COUNTY PROGRAM OF WORK WITH
ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Program Adopted for Year 1921

Land terracing, 10 demonstrations.

Pastures, 10 demonstrations.

Crop and fertilized demonstrations, 10.

Pure-bred Sire Campaign, county wide.

Boys' Club work, county wide.

Marketing sweet potatoes.

Marketing syrup.

Marketing corn.

The home orchard, 10 demonstrations.

Cooperative buying and home-mixing fertilizers.

Construction sweet potato curing house, 1 demonstration.

Program Accomplished in 1921

(!) Soil Improvement: Terracing demonstrations, 8.

Winter cover crop demonstrations, planted
30.

(2) Crop Improvement: Corn demonstrations, 5, incomplete.

Cotton demonstrations, 10, incomplete.
Peanut demonstrations, 5, incomplete.
Sweet potato demonstrations, 24, incom-
plete.
Watermelon demonstrations, 30, incomplete.
Permanent pasjture demonstrations, 5.
Home orchard demonstrations, 6.

(3) Live Stock Im-

provement: Hog breeding demonstrations, 8.

Hog feeding demonstrations, 20
1 Hog cholera control demonstrations, 45.

THE PROGRAM OF WORK 15

(4) Organization Ac-
tivities: Boys* agricultural activities, 3 demonstra'

tions.
Cooperative marketing hogs, peanuts, 6weet

potatoes and watermelons.
CoSperative buying fertilizers, farm seed,

etc.
Perfected organization of the C!ounty Farm

Bureau.
Reorganized cooperative marketing at all

principal marketing centers in county.
Organized Melon Growers' Association and

Strawberry Growers' Association in

county.

Program No. S. Here we have a program that is com-
prehensive, touches nearly all the important farming in-
terests of the county and which should meet their needs.
But it fails to emphasize any of its many items as more
important than others, and so has no high points of inter-
est. Nor is it definite in all its statements. Goals are not
specified and leadership is not indicated. The program
has, however, the elements of permanency m it. Good
arrangement, as far as it goes, is made of the items so that
the program is well organized. The membership work of
the farm bureau is mixed up with the joint program with
the college, which the county agent is expected to carry
out, and these functions are not differentiated. Women's
interests, except as they are in common with the men's, are
provided for in a separate program.

Pbogram No. 3

PROGRAM OF A NEW YORK FARM AND HOME BUREAU
ASSOCIATION FOR 1922

Organization

1. Conduct campaign for 1,000 members.

2. Secure active leaders and committeemen in every town and

community.

3. Provide a joint Farm and Home Bureau meeting in every

community.

4. Develop a permanent county board for Junior Extension

work.

le THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES

5. Cooperate with special farming interests for better programs

and stronger organizations.

6. Join and support the American and State Federation of

Farm Bureaus.

JAvestock

1. Continue cooperation with Dairymen's League.

2. Further develop Accredited Herd Plan of eradicating tuber-

culosis.

3. Cooperate with special Breeders' Clubs on Fair Exhibits,

wool pool, and broader programs.

4. Conduct pure-bred sire campaign.

5. Organize a dairy improvement association.

Crop and Soil Improvement

1. Conduct six oat variety demonstrations.

2. Conduct four potato improvement demonstrations.

3. Establish six pasture improvement demonstrations.

4. Continue drainage and lime work.

5. Seeds — develop local sources of good seed.

Poultry Improvement

1. Hold (20 culling demonstrations.

2. Secure 10 new cooperators in poultry certification.

3. Cooperate with the Finger Lakes Poultry and Rabbit

Fanciers' Association in developing a broader organization.

Marketing

1. Cooperate with special interests on milk, wool, garden truck

and other products.

2. Provide a better market reporting system.

Joint Projects, Men and Women

1. School — (a) Disseminate findings of committee of 21 (Rural

Education ) .

(b) Continue school ground improvement.

(c) Develop junior project work.

2. Fair-exhibits, milk bars, and promotion of special interests.

3. Recreation, picnics, community sings.

4. Publish Farm and Home Bureau News and develop better

plans for publicity.

Program No, 4. This home bureau or women's work
program is a very comprehensive well rounded one which
not only states objectives but methods of accomplishment.
Some of its items lack definiteness as to the particular goals
for the year. Emphasis, in the sense of the relative time to

THE PROGRAM OF WORK 17

be devoted to the various items, is lacking. It has good
possibilities for permanency of achievement and must be
rated as a program which should meet the needs of the
rural women of the county with a considerable degree of
satisfaction.

Program No. 4

A NEW YORK COUNTY HOME BUREAU PROGRAM
FOR 1921

/. Organization

A. Every commimity 100% Home Bureau as to knowledge of

work.

B. Every community 100% as to membership.

C. Every community 100% as to organization and ideals of

carrying out Home Bureau program.

//. Health and Nutrition

A. Lecture course in cooperation with State Department of

Health. Lectures will be given in all of the larger com-
munities of the county once a month for six months. The
lectures will be given in any community guaranteeing an
attendance of 40 or more.

B. School lunches. A school lunch in every school where it is

practical (at least one hot dish).

C. Community loan chests. A chest where sick room supplies

are gathered together to be loaned out in times of great
need.

D. Weighing and measuring of school children once a month

to see if their weights are keeping up to age and height.

E. At least one health class in the county where under weight

children are given instruction in the rules of health.

///. Clothing

Instruction course (given to local leaders at district meetings
and they in turn will give instruction to women in communi-
ties. Each community will appoint a local leader to attend
district conference in clothing) .

Topics to be taken up include:

a. dress form.

b. one-piece pattern.

c. alteration and adaptation of shirtwaist pattern.

d. waists — cutting, fitting and finishing.

e. skirt — pattern, alteration and adaptation.

f . shirt — cutting, fitting and finishing.

g. how to judge material.
h. children's clothing.

i. millinery.

18 THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES

IV. Civics

A. Study course, using a prepared outline, supplemented by a

traveling library from a state correspondence course, and
a text-book.

B. Debates, mock school meetings, etc.

C. Civic Improvement work.

Clean-up weeks.

Rest rooms.

Parks, playgrounds, libraries, etc.

y. Labor Saving

A. Buying of labor-saving equipment cooperatively.

B. Development of labor saving and thrift in home.

Have at least one person in each community try out some
labor saver or tlirift idea, keeping accurate account for a
period of time. Results to be reported in farm and home
at winter meetings.

C. Installing of labor-saving equipment in every home.

VI. Recreation

A. Community choruses, dramatic clubs, etc. (Help may be

secured from the State College in organizing these.)

B. Recreational meetings conducted by local leader or agent —

community sings, picnics, social evenings.

C. Development of better school grounds.

Program No. 5. If details and all-inclusiveness of farm-
ers' interests make a good program, this one from Iowa
should satisfy most of the needs of the farmers of the
comity, except perhaps those of the home makers. Its
chief fault would seem to be its generality of statement
with its lack of specific provision of definite goals for the
year, and that it is so large that it would be difficult if not
impossible of achievement. This criticism is partially met,
however, by the definite application of its parts to the
various townships and communities of the county. As this
illustrates the common method of applying a county-wide
program to the community units this plan is shown for the
following two townships :

VILLAGE TOWNSHIP

1. Complete establishment of a successful alfalfa field.

2. Assist in wool marketing.

THE PROGRAM OF WORK 19

3. Conduct marketing in season.

4. Complete plans for club members and judging team,

5. Secure members in the bureau.

6. Assist in dairy marketing.

CHEQUEST TOWNSHIP

1. Do poultry culling.

2. Secure means of limestone supply.

3. Comi3lete "Dicky Dam at Cassidys."

4. Complete club work and exhibition.

5. Carry out fertilizer demonstrations started.

6. Assist in dairy marketing.

7. Increase membership.

Even the community programs are still indefinite, how-
ever. They do not show how much is to be done or who
is to do it. Part of the program belongs to the agent and
part of it to the organization alone. In general the pro-
gram is well balanced and has the earmarks of having
been planned with a view to permanency. Its details were
not thought clear through.

Pbogram No. 5
OUTLINE PROGRAM OF WORK OF AN IOWA COUNTY, 1921

(a) Farm Bureau Development.

1. Organization of woman's division.

2. Increasing of membership.

(b) Soil Improvement.

1. Soil terracing.

2. Soil liming.

3. Testing and using of phosphates.

(c) Crop Production.

1. Seeding alfalfa demonstrations.

2. Introducing better varieties of grains.

3. Orcharding and small fruit growing.

(a) Summer spraying.

(b) Starting more small fruit and truck.

20 THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES

(d) Livestock Production.

1. Improving grade of farm flocks.

2. Planning and holding exhibitions.

3. Dairy testing and records.

4. Poultry records.

(e) Farm Economics.

1. Assistance in keeping a set of farm accounts (farm
accounting schools ) .

(f) Marketing (buying and selling).

1. Organization of one strong marketing association.

2. Personal assistance in marketing seed.

3. Market reports for farmers.

(g) Farm Home Betterment.

1. Through a well -organized woman's division.

2. Landscape and home beautification.

3. A cheap and eflfective paint for old buildings.

(h) Boys' and Girls' Clubs.

L Pure-bred gilt club. 4. Baby beef club.

2. Spraying club. 5. Girls' sewing clubs.

3. Judging club. 6. Girls' canning clubs.

(!) Other Project Activities.
1. Beekeeping.

(a) A demonstration apiary in every township.

Programs Nos. 6 and 7. These suggest a plan of pro-
gram making somewhat different from preceding ones. In
Maine, as in a number of other States, complete standard
plans of work are drawn up by the State college extension
specialists or departments, designed to help in solving prac-
tically all the types of problems which might exist in the
State. These are carefully written up with the methods
of procedure as well els the objects in view and are fur-
nished to county agents in printed or mimeographed form.
Following the preparation of standard plans of work, con-
ferences of State and county agents are held to make clear
each project, its object and method of procedure. After
this conference the county agents meet each local com-
mittee to make a community analysis following a similar
plan as recommended by the Washington office. With

THE PROGRAM OF WORK 21

this analysis of local problems as a guide, the State proj-
ects capable of helping to solve these problems are selected
by the local committee and become a part of the community
program. A sample of one of these college-made programs
which are used as guides to county agents and local com-
mittees and which often become the local programs them-
selves follows:

Type of College Projects from which Counties and Communities
Make Selection in Maine.

SHEEP PROJECT
Campaign to Encourage the Use of Pure-bred Sires.

Purpose :

To increase the quality of stock kept.

Method of Procedure:

Wherever possible groups of sheep owners will be induced
to cooperatively purchase a pure-bred ram.

a. The Sheep Specialist will assist in organizing the
group and instructing them in the proper use of the
animal purchased.
Assistance will be given in securing good sires and high-
grade stock.

Results :

The results of this line of work will be measured by —

1. The number of groups organized.

2. The number of pure-bred animals purchased.

Community and county programs are then made up of
these college projects as indicated in programs 6 and 7.
They have the merit of completeness and exactness of
statement and usually mean that much consideration has

22

THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES

been given to finding the best means of doing a particular
job. They are really projects or plans for meeting local
needs which are not expressed but rather implied in the
programs given as examples of this type. Such complete
suggestions so fully worked out are likely to discourage
local initiative and therefore fail of an important purpose
unless they are very carefully presented. One of the chief
values of local program making, rightly conducted, is that
it stimulates thought upon important local problems and
encourages local planning to solve them.

PbOGBAMS NoS. 6 AND 7

PLANS OF WORK FOR 1922 IN TWO MAINE COUNTIES

Fra/nTclin

Kennebec

Accounts Project.

1. Dairy accounts.

2. Farm accounts.

Accounts Project.

1. Farm accounts.

2. Sweet corn accounts.

B. Club Project.

1. Boys' and girls'.

C. Crop Project.

1. Lime dems.

2. Imp. potato seed plots.

3. Manure supplement

dems.

B. Club Project.

1. Boys' and girls'.

C. Crop Project.

1. Certified oat campaign.

2. Lime dems.

3. Manure supplement

dems.

4. Potato seed plots.

5. Seed selection dems.

Dairy Project.

1. Better sires— B.S.

2. Com. milk test circles.

3. Silage crop test (sun-

flower).

D. Dairy Project.

1. Accredited herd work.

2. Com. milk test circles.

3. Silage corn campaign.

E. Orchard Project.

1. Fertilization dems.

2. Spray and dust rings.

F. Poultry Project.

1. Culling campaign.

E. Orchard Project.

1. Pruning campaign.

2. Grafting dems.

F. Poultry Project.

1. Chick raising dems.

2. Culling campaign.

THE PROGRAM OF WORK 23

Programs No. 8 (a) (5) (c). These programs represent
another angle of program making, which has already been
referred to and which it is often important to give con-
sideration. While it is desirable in general that there
should be one program in the county and in the community
representing the joint planning of the local people and the
county agent with the college forces behind him, yet it
usually happens that there are some things which need to
be done in almost every county which are not a proper
function of the county agent and the public agencies and
which the local people should do for themselves. Much of
the actual organization work, all of the membership cam-
paign effort and all of the actual business transactions of
the farm bureau belong in this class and should be the
business of the local people. Hence, the desirability of a
separate program for the organization.

In California, for example, there may be three different
programs — in theory at least — in the same county: (a)
one of the farm bureau or community center; (b) another
of the county agent; and a third (c) of the county farm
bureau organization. This latter may or may not be a
combination of the farm bureau center programs, although
usually it will be. Practically the same elements of need
are expressed in all these programs. Each agency, how-
ever, has a little different function in and facilities for
their solution. Three such programs, each of which have
some of the merits or faults already pointed out in con-
nections with, others, follow :

Progbam No. 8 (a)

A COMMUNITY PROGRAM OF WORK— 1921— IN CALIFORNIA,
FEBRUARY 28, 1921

Cottonwood Center

Grain Elevator — goal to build one 30,000-bushel grain elevator
at Gustine.

24 THE COUNTY AGENT^S SERVICES

Tree Planting — goal to plant at least 500 trees along roadsides
and fences during the coming year.

New Varieties of Grain — goal to have at least two demonstra-
tion plots on Mariout Barley.

Community Hall — goal one community hall.

Buying Stove — goal to raise funds to purchase necessary stove
for meeting place.

Cold Storage Plant — goal to build one community cold storage
plant in that section.

Change of Mail Route — goal to do away with Ingomar Post
Office and get mail route out of Gustine.

Rodent Control — goal to clean up squirrels in that community.

Cow Testing — ^goal to have 500 cows under test in that com-
munity.

Fire Protection — goal to maintain 4 rural fire companies.

Irrigation — goal to organize the West Joaquin Irrigation dis-
trict in conjunction with Dos Palos Farm Center of 208,000
acres.

Farm Home Department.

Program No. 8 (b)

A CALIFORNIA COUNTY AGENT PROGRAM OF WORK,
DECEMBER 20 TO MARCH 31, 1921

Contra Costa County

1. Squirrel control.

2. Deciduous pruning.

3. Fruit evaporators.

4. Grain improvement.

5. Cooperative cream marketing.

6. Rural fire control.

7. Pest control.

Program No. 8 (c)

A COUNTY FARM BUREAU PROGRAM OF WORK IN
CALIFORNIA

County Program of Work.

Legislative Passage "Foreign Egg Law" — "Sup-

port Agricultural Extension" and
other legislation affecting agricul-
ture.

Agriculture in schools Introduce agricultural course in all

County high schools in agricul-
tural sections.

Public utilities Collect fund from entire county for

State committee.

Squirrel control Complete control.

THE PROGRAM OF WORK 25

USING A PROGRAM OP WORK

''Plan your work and work your plan'' is a motto worthy
of more emulation than it receives. A well-made program
of work for a county is almost half the battle for necessary
improvement and without it the county agent is traveling
an uncharted sea and likely to drift either aimlessly no-
where or upon the rocks of failure. But the other half of
the battle is to work the plan — to use and apply the pro-
gram.

The steps in carrying out an agricultural community
program are four: (1) The community committee meet-
ing, (2) the general community meeting, (3) action in-
tended to secure the desired result, and (4) recording and
applying the result. These steps involve planning, pub-
licity, action and application.

The community committee meeting is necessary to discuss
and to perfect the plan for carrying out the program
locally, and to put a local group behind it. It should be
useful in enlisting interest and cooperation. If the main
lines of the program have been properly worked out orig-
inally with the people of the locality, this should be easy.
What is most important at such a meeting is to fix the
responsibility of each member of the committee for each
thing to be done, e.g., arrange for meeting place, advertise
the meeting, secure local cooperators, furnish necessary
materials, check up the results, etc., and to fix upon the
definite means by which the program is to be carried out,
whether by meetings, demonstrations, special organization
or what. Times and places for each step should also be
arranged.

The second step is essentially publicity, or acquainting
all the people of the locality with the details of the plan
for carrying out the program which they have previously

26 THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES

determined upon. This means first a general meeting or
preferably a series of meetings to discuss these plans and
to fully inform every farmer of what it is necessary for
him to do to make the plan effective so far as he is con-
cerned. This shotild be preceded and followed by articles
in the local paper announcing the meeting and its purposes
and describing what was agreed to there or the results.
This will help to make known the details of the program
plans to those not present at the meeting and review it for
those who were.

It is essential that every one concerned fully understand
the plans if they are to benefit from them. A specialist
may be present at one or all of these meetings to discuss
technical points and to teach methods, as for example, a
dairy specialist to discuss and help along a clean milk
campaign ; perhaps by showing the nature, cause and effect
of bacteria in milk and how they may be reduced to a
minimum.

The third and most important step in using a program
is getting action on the plan. The first and second steps
may be well taken, but unless they are matured in the
third and fourth most of their value may be wasted.
Action may take many forms. If the proposal is made as
a recommendation in a lecture or demonstration, such as
soil improvement by the use of lime, or increasing winter
egg yield by the better balancing of rations and use of
lights, action must consist in the reaction produced in the
convinced listeners and the result will be in the form of
individuals doing the thing advocated on their own farms.
If the plan proposed calls for the organization of the group
as, for example, in a local fruit packing house for the
grading, packing and branding of fruit, then the immediate
result will be measured by the number and quality of the

THE PROGRAM OF WORK 27

persons agreeing to join and support the proposed asso-
ciation.

Some reactions or results can be measured definitely and
some can hardly be measured at all. But the fourth step
of recording and using the result to multiply the value of
the program is important in carrying out the plan fully.
Results may be measured both quantitatively and quali-
tatively, in terms of activity (numbers present and influ-
enced, etc.), or in terms of reactions or actual accomplish-
ment in terms of practices changed. Measurements of ac-
tivity are much easier to secure but of less value than rec-
ords of things actually done as a result of the program. It
is less useful to know how many persons attend a pruning
demonstration than to know how many persons changed
their practices with good results because of it. But meas-
urements of activity are necessary. Records of yields se-
cured by better methods as compared with old or present
methods and yields may be used to great advantage in
multiplying results.

A system of record-keeping designed so as to measure
accurately both activity and accomplishment as a result
of this activity, so far as this is possible, is an indispensa-
ble part of every county agent's equipment. He needs
such measurements for his own guidance and for the justi-
fication of his work. Local executive committees and mem-
bership, state and federal supervising officers, need them
to study and compare results and to keep the public, the
legislatures and the Congress informed.

There is no one best record system. Any plan that
gives the necessary data with a minimum of effort should
be satisfactory. A daily entry in some form is a necessary
basis for monthly and annual summaries. State super-
visors' offices usually have well worked out systems which
they require of their respective agents.

28 THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES

There is a wide difference in the application and use
of the programs of work in different communities. In
some communities the program functions quite fully; in
others it fails altogether. This is usually due to local lead-
ership or the lack of it more than to any other one factor.
How the program is made, its adaptation to a given com-
munity and the work of the county agent also have much
to do with it. A study of the actual functioning of a
county program of work in the home community of the
writer shows fairly good application and results, though it
leaves much yet to be accomplished. Few community pro-
grams function even to fifty per cent of their possibilities.
This community is engaged in general farming with fruit
as a strong specialty. It is quite progressive and prosper-
ous. The following comprised the activities of the commu-
nity committee and the county agent in 1921 :

Farm Bureau Organization

103 members (406 farms).
17 committeemen, 12 active.
1 community committee meeting.

Many individual conferences.
3 general community meetings, attendances 145.

Fruit

1 general fruit meeting, attendance 12.

1 pruning demonstration, attendance 8.

1 pear psylla control demonstration, attendance 45.

3 packing house meetings, attendance 49.

1 cooperative packing house association, organized with 15

members marketing 25,000 bushels of fruit.

21 members furnished special spray service.

Ill farm visits made.

Soils and Crops

1 com variety demonstration.
1 potato spraying demonstration.

THE PROGRAM OF WORK 29

9 visits to these demonstrations.
6 farm drainage systems laid out.
15 farm visits made.

In addition to this work, a home bureau program of
similar extent was carried out by the women.

Contrast the above activity, inadequate though it is,
with that in another community in the same county :

Farm Bureau Organization

1 member (150 farms).
3 committeemen, one active.
3 visits to committeenuen.

Fruit

1 pruning demonstration, attendance 2.

Soils and Crops

16 visits made.

Drainage work on two farms for which 8 visits were
made.

These two instances give a fairly true picture of the
functioning of community programs of work. Some are
better. Many are worse. Most lie between the two
ranges.

To bring together all the steps in constructing, organ-
izing and using a program of work, we may summarize
them as follows :

1. Discussion of problems at general community meeting at
which suggestions are received and referred to community com-
mittee.

2. Nomination of community committeemen by school districts
or other units, and election by the meeting.

3. Meeting of elected community committee and selection of

30 THE COUNTY AGENT^S SERVICES

chairman. Complete discussion by committee of problems re-
ferred to it by community meeting and other matters, adoption of
a definite program and the selection of a responsible leader for
each proposed line of action.

4. Meeting of community committeemen of each project group
from all parts of the county in a county-wide project meeting,
usually with a specialist from the college to formulate suggestions
for a county program based on community needs.

5. Meeting of county advisory council composed of all com-
munity committeemen to hear suggestions of project committees
and to formulate a complete county-wide program to be recom-
mended to farm bureau executive committee.

6. Executive committee passes on program with reference to
its general desirability, adequacy and the ability to carry it out,
and officially adopts the program in whole or in part.

7. The county agent holds conferences with local community
committees or individual project leaders to make detailed plans
for carrying out the program in each community.

8. The county agent holds conferences with college specialists
to get technical help and advice and to plan for needed assistance
in carrying out program.

9. Finally the holding of meetings and demonstrations, or the
actual organization of local forces to apply the program and to
accomplish the desired results.

It is not necessary that all these steps be followed in
detail in every case. Some of them may be combined or
approximated. But it should be remembered that the self-
help process which the whole plan typifies is itself impor-
tant in reaching the desired end.

STATE AND NATIONAL PROGRAMS

State programs of work are usually very much better
formulated and more carefully planned as to details than
are local programs. They are worked out by specialists

THE PROGRAM OF WORK 31

who make this their business and who are constantly alert
to improvements. Moreover, the Land Grant Colleges are
required under the Smith-Lever Act to plan their work
carefully in advance and in detail by college and federal
officers. Unfortunately, these programs can be of no value
except as they are applied locally. In other words, they
largely depend for their application upon incorporation
into local programs. The same is true of federal programs
of work. Both state and federal programs must clear to
the individual through the efforts of the local people and
their application is limited thereby.

The state and national farm bureau programs are usually
distinct in character from the Department, college and
local programs, and the county agent has nothing to do
with them unless it be to help give local publicity. In
many states the county farm bureaus have programs dif-
ferent from the programs of work which the county agent
carries on with their cooperation. State and national
programs are to an extent a summary or compilation of
these local programs. However, as a rule the programs of
the state and national federations are separately worked
out, financed and executed and without the assistance of
the county agent. There is much room for better co-
ordination and correlation of parts of these programs with
those of the county agent and specialists by means of state
committees to meet such needs as standardization and
quality production.

GENERAL VALUES

Program making in the counties has a general value
which in itself almost justifies the effort to formulate a
program. Nothing else has contributed so much to the
clarification of purposes and ideals and to the definition

32 THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES

of objectives of county agent work. Purposes which are
vague and general become real and specific when well
stated in a good program of work. The intangible objective
is put into concrete form and reduced to a workable and
practical means of accomplishment. General purposes
that seem difficult of achievement appear easier when
analyzed into their parts and specific annual goals set.
In short, the whole problem is analyzed, simplified and
defined.

So also the process of program making has great value
in stimulating s^'-stematic and thoughtful consideration of
problems, which in itself is usually productive of good
results. Working together to analyze problems and to
formulate programs for their solution develops men and
women as well as methods. It stimulates and trains lead-
ership. It opens up new avenues of thought and useful-
ness. So that the general values which result from building
a local program of work may be almost as useful and
worthwhile as the details of the program itself.

CHAPTER II

TEACHING AND INFORMATION GIVING

The county agent of to-day is expected to do many things
that were not originally included in the program that was
laid out for him by Congress and the United States De-
partment of Agriculture.

In Chapter IX it is pointed out how many and how
varied were the conceptions of what he should do, and yet
how different the emphasis has become from most of these.
The county agent is now compelled by force of the cir-
cumstances in which he works to devote a large share of
his energies to agricultural leadership and to the organi-
zation of farmers, because these are demanded of him
alike by farmers and by the public institutions which
stand as sponsor for him. But the early conception of his
function as that of a teacher of better farming practice and
better marketing methods still remains a fundamental one,
and teaching is and should continue to be his major function.

That teaching, especially by the demonstration method,
was considered the principal function of the county agent
from the earliest period of the work in the South by Dr.
Seaman A. Knapp, its founder, is clear from the most
casual reading of his speeches about the work.^ In these
the words *' teaching'' and *' demonstration" are very fre-
quently used. Doctor Knapp was first of all a believer
in teaching by demonstration. He has summed up his
own point of view in a few words :

1 "The Demonstration Work" by O. B. Martin, The Stratford Co.,
Boston.

33

34 THE COUNTY AGENT^S SERVICES

''There is only one effective way to reach and influence
the farming classes, and that is by object lessons."

' ' Can agricultural conditions be changed simply by talk-
ing ? No ! By demonstration ? Yes ! ' '

In the Smith-Lever Extension Act of 1914, on which
the county agent movement is based, the intent of the
legislation is defined in the very general terms of "the
giving of instruction and practical demonstrations" and
"imparting information through demonstrations, publica-
tions and otherwise." But this is sufficient to make clear
that the chief methods by which it was expected to pro-
mote a better agriculture were teaching and the giving of
useful information. The Honorable A. F. Lever, Chair-
man of the House Committee on Agriculture, in reporting
the bill to the House made this still clearer. He said:

"The theory of this bill is to extend this system of itinerant
teaching, the state always to measure the relative importance of
the different ideas of activities to be pursued and to determine
upon the most important, to the entire country by 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 the line of rural activities, social, economic and
financial. This teacher or agent will become the agent or instru-
mentality, through which the colleges, stations and the Depart-
ment of Agriculture will speak to those for whom they were
organized to serve with the respect due all lines of work engaged
in by them."

On another occasion Mr. Lever said:

"The fundamental idea of the system of demonstration or itin-
erant teaching, presupposes the personal contact of the teacher

TEACHING AND INFORMATION GIVING 35

with the person taught, the participation of the pupil in the
actual demonstration of the lesson being taught, and the success
of the method proposed. It is a system which frees the pupil
from the slavishness of text-books, which makes the field, the
garden, the orchard and even the parlor and kitchen classrooms.
It teaches us 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 that generates real education; that is to say, the demonstra-
tion process and the personal touch with the man who does the
demonstrating.' "

Farmers and county agents who have come to have famil-
iarity with the great work being carried on under this Act,
will appreciate both the wisdom of Mr. Lever's conception
and the accuracy of his vision into the future. They will
be reminded of how they together selected seed corn and
pruned apple trees and of how the women taught them-
selves the principles of dress-making in the parlor and of
canning in the kitchen.

WHAT DO FARMERS EXPECT ?

To teach and to give information to persons "in the
localities where they reside" was evidently what Congress
had in mind as the work of the county agent. Since the
states were expected to largely determine their own pro-
grams of work chiefly through the colleges of agriculture
it will be seen that the point of view of these institutions
is of great importance.

But the colleges, primarily teaching institutions them-
selves, clearly look upon extension work as teaching and
information giving. Evidence of this is found in the fact
that this work is generally denominated among them as
'* extension teaching." Moreover, as has already been
pointed out in Chapter I on programs, just as under the

36 THE COUNTY AGENT^S SERVICES

Smith-Lever Act the federal government leaves it to the
states to determine the character of the program to be
carried on, so the colleges for the most part are leaving the
definite and detailed programs in the comities to the local
people in each county to formulate according to their
needs, subject of course to college approval before they
may expect college participation in carrying out these
programs.

It is clear that the actual teaching program of each
county is in the hands of the farmers themselves to deter-
mine. What then do farmers expect of the county agent?

This question is a difficult one to answer, because too
little definite evidence is available. From known expressed
opinions of farmers, but chiefly from the county programs
of work made by farmers themselves, it would appear that
they expect leadership in educational affairs and in the
organization of the farming industry for greater efficiency
in production and distribution of farm products, together
with the provision of a county headquarters to function
as a clearing house for reliable agricultural facts and in-
formation. Farmers do not of course express their needs
in just this language, but this is the essential significance
of the county programs. The answers to nearly all the
questions raised by farmers in these programs is such use-
ful and practical education and information so applied as
to result in sound and wise action. When correct teach-
ing, especially that effectively driven home by a good
demonstration which makes the answer clear, is not put
into practice by those who see and hear it, then the re-
sponsibility is clearly not that of the county agent or of
the agencies which support him.

There is always a group of farmers, as of other classes
of people, who think that they do not need more educa-
tion. They say truly that they already know more than

TEACHING AND INFORMATION GIVING 37

they can practice. This feeling may itself indicate a need
of stimulation and enconragement to practice. These are
the persons also who say, *'We have had enough of edu-
cation now. It has made us poor through over-production.
What we need is not education but a better market and
price for what we already produce.'' Such statements
are their own best answer and need no other. What they
probably mean is that there has been too little educational
effort put upon the problems of marketing and distribution
in proportion to that expended in the effort to improve
the methods of production by demonstrational teaching.
What is evidently needed to meet such needs is more rather
than less education but redirected to meet these vital
problems. The educational method can and should be ap-
plied to the economic problems of distribution as well as
to the problems of production.

But it is not necessary to say more on this point, for
it must be evident to all that what farmers primarily want
from the county agent is authoritative teaching and sound
information. The quality of this teaching and informa-
tion is very important. But methods are of equal im-
portance because the method which is used often determines
the acceptability and the application of the teaching and
therefore its real influence. The question then becomes
one of methods of teaching and information giving in this
field of agricultural extension. Many methods are used.

HOW SHALL THE COUNTY AGENT TEACH?

What are the most effective means of extension teach-
ing? Undoubtedly there is no one most effective method
for all conditions. Nor can any single method be used
under all circumstances. Neither are all equally effective
with the same people or the same kinds of things to be

38 THE COUNTY AGENT^S SERVICES

taught. Some subjects lend themselves better to one
means of teaching than to others.

Three general methods or means of teaching are open
to county agents to use: (1) The demonstration method
or teaching to do by showing or by doing, (2) the lecture
method, by means of the spoken word, and (3) the reading
method, through publications, letters or some other form
of the written word. Taken singly these are probably
mentioned in the order of their importance and effective-
ness. But each supplements the other and all should be
and « usually are used together. The most successful
teacher makes one aid the other in bringing home the
message.

TEACHING BY SHOWING AND BY DOING

This is peculiarly an age when people are demanding
the proof of what is advocated. Farmers in particular
want to see evidence that the thing taught will be suc-
cessful and produce desirable results in practice. More
and more is proof asked for. This desire is in part an
outgrowth of the necessity of applying and localizing
teaching. Especially does the county agent more than
most teachers have to live with the results of his teachings.
They determine his own future and that of his work. This
desire for proof is also in line with the modern increase in
the use of the eye as a supplement to the ear. Reading
habits have to a considerable degree given way to ^ ' movie '\
habits. The tendency is a part of the general idea that
** seeing is believing.''

Although the demonstration method of teaching may be
the most convincing it has its limitations. It is often the
most expensive and therefore not always the most prac-
ticable. Nor is it always applicable to the problem in
hand.

TEACHING AND INFORMATION GIVING 39

The demonstration method requires material and equip-
ment. Sometimes this means land, seed, fertilizers, tools
and time, as in the case of most crop demonstrations. In
other cases living animals are needed, and they cannot
always be brought in to the audience in the local meeting
place, or the audience taken to the animals. In still other
instances, as in the demonstration of the use of mechanical
equipment for labor saving or for increased convenience
or efficiency, e.g., power ditching machinery, water supply
equipment, home conveniences, etc., it is often imprac-
ticable to provide or use the necessary material and equip-
ment. Such demonstration material is expensive, heavy,
and hard to handle and cannot be made available except
under favorable circumstances. Moreover, the demon-
stration itself must be practicable and applicable under
the local condition or it loses much of its force. Above
all it must not cost too much or involve the use of things
not readily obtainable.

The demonstration farm has usually failed chiefly for
this reason. The farmer rightly points out that its results
are not applicable because usually obtained under the ab-
normal conditions of abundant resources without the ne-
cessity of counting the cost. The backing either of a
wealthy individual or corporation or of the state takes
away the force of the evidence, and usually fails to enlist
local cooperation. In other words, such farms usually fail
to demonstrate. The farm demonstration, on the other
hand, is a trial of the thing advocated under the normal
conditions on the farm of any reasonably good farmer
who has to make his living therefrom. Providing that it
is attempting to prove a sound premise, it is more likely
to be credited. The actual final result may be no better
but it naturally has more weight.

m THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES

DEMONSTRATION VERSUS EXPERIMENT

ii

The word demonstration is often confused with the word

experiment. '^ There is a clear distinction here which
is important. An experiment is *'an effort to learn the
truth'* and the term implies at least that the truth is not
fully known. A demonstration is a ** pointing out with
proof" and assumes that the truth is known. When a
suhject is yet in the experimental stage it is not ready for
demonstration. Unfortunately, this is too much the case
with many of our marketing problems at the present time.
More research work must be done and more truth learned
about marketing before solutions to some phases of the
problem at least can be demonstrated.

There is a type of work which lies in the borderland
between the experimental and the demonstrable. It is the
application of a well-known principle or general fact to
a specific locality or problem and involves a certain amount
of trial to learn whether the principle is applicable or
adaptable to the local condition. Such a trial, which may
be both an experiment and a demonstration, or neither one,
is sometimes called a test. Such a test might be the appli-
cation of lime or acid phosphate to the soil in a region
where the land was known to be usually deficient in these
ingredients and their absence generally a limiting factor.
The question of whether or not it will pay to make the
application, and if so in what amounts, may also be in-
volved. These are not academic distinctions as they may
seem to some, but real differences whose clear recognition
will aid sound thinking and wise practice.

Loose use of the term demonstration to mean almost any
talk or lecture where illustrative material is used should
be discouraged. Emphasis should be placed upon the fact

TEACHING AND INFORMATION GIVING 41

that a true demonstration calls for proof and not merely
illustration.

The material which is demonstrable and therefore ready
for the county agents' use may be drawn from several
sources: (1) What the federal Department of Agricul-
ture may have learned through its research work, (2)
what the state experiment stations know to be the truth,
(3) what the best farmers have proved by their own suc-
cessful experience to be good practice in their own locali-
ties, and (4) facts which county agents and specialists
may themselves gather by survey or other means in their
travels and visitations among farmers throughout their
counties or states. The experience of farmers often gath-
ered by definite surveys may be quite as important as the
results of scientific research. The chief difficulty in the
use of the experience of farmers usually lies in its lack
of definiteness or exactness of statement and in the ab-
sence of the proof of its truth.

W^HAT CONSTITUTES A GOOD DEMONSTRATION"

A good demonstration from the point of view of exten-
sion workers in agriculture is characterized by several im-
portant qualifications. It should (1) be well chosen as to
need and importance, (2) be applicable to the needs of the
community, (3) be convincing, and (4) reach as many
people as possible. An example of such a demonstration
is the growing of a good field of alfalfa in a dairy region
where little is grown and where much concentrated feed
is bought. It should be located on a main highway and
be plainly marked so as to show how it was obtained and
at what cost. It would probably be desirable also to hold
a ''demonstration meeting '^ of the farmers of the neigh-
borhood on the field at or just before cutting time, when

42 THE COUNTY AGENTS SERVICES

measured areas could be cut, weighed and compared with
other treatments or other forage.

Many other factors will enter into such a demonstration
also. The field chosen for the demonstration should be
fairly representative of the conditions on the majority of
the farms in the community. The farm operator must be
in good standing and he should be influential in his own
neighborhood. Other factors, such as seed, rainfall, nat-
ural fertility, etc., should be known, taken into considera-
tion and explained. Further, in order to get the most
possible out of the demonstration meeting, careful prepara-
tion should have been made for it by notices in the local
papers, and by carefully choosing and advertising the
time. Credit should be given the cooperator who did the
work, and usually he should himself explain how the
good crop was grown. Still other factors are important.

It will be found very effective in demonstrating so as
to convince, to have the persons present actually take part
in the demonstration, doing the thing being taught when-
ever possible and on the spot. Such lines of work as
poultry selection or flock culling, where those present can
handle the birds and feel and see the points brought out
by the demonstrator, pruning fruit trees where each may
try his hand and give his reasons for what he does, are
peculiarly effective. In home demonstrations, such as
cooking, canning and sewing, this method is particularly
applicable, because one can actually learn to do by doing
and may clearly see the relation of the principle to the
practice.

MARKETING DEMONSTRATIONS

The demonstration method may be applied to problems
of marketing when the solution is known, as well as to
questions of production. But it is much more difficult to

A good demonstration points out a trutli and otFers proof
wherever this is possibk^ as well as il lustration of how the truth
may be applied. This demonstration of how gophers were de-
stroyed with poison in Lewis and Clarke County, Montana, does
both. The group of neighbors who have suffered losses from this
pest suggests that the demonstration is timely and meets a real
need.

TEACHING AND INFORMATION GIVING 43

apply. More is usually at stake. All the conditions or
factors influencing the problem cannot be isolated or con-
trolled. The time required to complete the demonstration
may extend over long periods and the demonstration must
be cooperative, involving many instead of a single indi-
vidual. Failure is therefore a more serious matter than
with a single crop demonstration.

But the greatest handicap of all to marketing demon-
strations is that there is so little of well-established fact in
marketing that is ready to demonstrate. Much of our
marketing experience is still in the experimental stage.
Indeed, this is wholly a limiting factor.

To show how successfully to organize a packing or ship-
ping association at a point where it is needed, to bring
about proper grading and packing, to help to set up sound
systems of accounting, is to conduct valuable demonstra-
tions, always providing that one has the facts and that the
basic principles underlying a good demonstration outlined
above, are observed. The real difficulty in this field lies
in getting the facts and experience which are wholly re-
liable to demonstrate. This need is very real and very
great. (See Chapter III.)

THE EXHIBIT

The exhibit is often a very useful form of demonstration,
though usually a less convincing one because it is static.
Its value depends almost entirely on its purpose and then
upon how effectively this is brought out. If it is set up
so as to bring out definite points or to teach definite les-
sons, and if the material is attractively arranged with as
much of live interest in it as possible, it may teach very
effectively. Exhibits may usually be evaluated on these
four points: (1) representativeness or effectiveness with

44 THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES

which the thing to be taught is shown, (2) quality of the
material exhibited, (3) attractiveness of the arrangement,
and (4) educational values, such a^ labels, signs and in-
formation which help to bring out and emphasize the
points which it is desired to teach.

The exhibit is most frequently used by county agents
at community and county fairs. Here it affords an ex-
cellent opportunity to bring together the results of the
season's demonstration work in the community or the
county, such as potato selection, growth of legumes by the
use of lime, canning and sewing, or young animals raised
by the boys and girls.' It may also be used to advantage
to call attention to the strong and the weak points in the
local farming, such as high quality fruit for which there
may be a good local market, or the serious effects of uncon-
trolled insect pests and diseases. The more local material
is used and the more people participating in the making
of the exhibit, the greater the spread of its influence on
the people of the community is likely to be.

The competitive exhibit especially for the locality, but
also to a less degree for the county and the larger units,
affords a good means of demonstrating the value of quality
and encouraging high standards, if properly conducted.
Every farmer who grows good crops or animals in which
he takes pride, should, and many do, want to show these
at the local fair. But the exhibit must be really com-
petitive, the standards suitable for the article and the lo-
cality and the judging intelligent, if the largest value is
to be had from it. If in connection with the judging of
such exhibits, the reasons for the placings can be pointed
out to exhibitors and visitors, this form of demonstration
will be found still more useful.

The revision of the premium lists of local fairs may be
a most useful form of demonstration by county agents.

TEACHING AND INFORMATION GIVING 45

These lists are often very bad, encouraging a too wide
range of ill-adapted products and animals, without suffi-
cient emphasis on the best and inviting the professional
exhibitor. Here is often a splendid opportunity to im-
prove the husbandry of the county by encouraging the
fair management to offer large prizes for those varieties
of crops and those types of animals best suited to the
locality and in line with the county program of work, and
by eliminating the poorly adapted kinds.

SPECIAL TYPES OF DEMONSTRATION

The modern emphasis upon demonstrations has devel-
oped many new forms, some very efficient and others merely
novel kinds of propaganda. The barn meeting where
animals are judged and handled, the gas engine school
where the engines are overhauled and repaired, are good
examples of efficient types of demonstrations, as both farm-
ers and county agents will testify. Another special type
which though expensive has proved very useful is the
motor truck equipped with the necessary demonstration
material, e.g., for a water supply installation. Such a
truck permits the carrying of heavy equipment speedily
from place to place, makes it possbile to reach places away
from the railroad and in the open country. It is of course
limited to the time of the year when roads are good and
preferably when outdoor meetings can be held.

Another useful and modified form of field demonstra-
tion is the automobile farm tour. In this form of meeting
the persons attending drive from farm to farm, observing
the results of farm demonstrations or especially successful
practices which are pointed out and explained by the
county agent or some of his cooperators. These are popu-
lar and if well-organized and conducted they constitute

46 THE COUNTY AGENTS SERYICES

good teaching methods. When definite points are not
brought out or useful lessons taught, or when the principal
object seems to be to cover a lot of territory and to see
the country generally, this type of meeting may not be
worth while.

The demonstration train, so-called, was once quite pop-
ular but of late has fallen into disuse if not into disrepute.
As usually conducted it is essentially a propaganda method.
It has the obvious advantages of novelty and being easily
advertised so as to draw comparatively large crowds, and
of permitting the easy transportation of good demonstra-
tion equipment and material. But the attendance is usu-
ally of mixed groups only casually interested and usually
drawn chiefly from the villages where the train, of neces-
sity, has to be stopped. Only a few at a time can be
a<3eommodated in the coaches and these few are often
restless and are not likely to stay through the talk or the
demonstration. In short, those attending are usually
looking for the unusual or the sensational, and even if
disappointed are not the persons whom it is most desir-
able to reach. The modification of the train idea by the
use of one or two cars moved from station to station on
regular trains and side-tracked for a half day or more
at a time, is an improvement on the train, but still hardly
as useful for good teaching as many other forms of dem-
onstration.

TEACHING BY THE SPOKEN MESSAGE

Telling is not teaching; but the spoken word in lecture,
particularly if discussion can be provoked, is a powerful
force in giving useful information and in stimulating
thought on local problems. It, as well as the demonstra-
tion, has the advantage of the personal touch and under-
standing between the teacher and the taught. After all,

TEACHING AND INFORMATION GIVING 47

this personal acquaintance between the county agent and
the farmers of the county, gained through meetings and
discussions, is one of the strongest influences towards bet-
ter farm practices in the whole system. When the lecture
or address is formal and impersonal it is of less value than
when there is opportunity for discussion and the exchange
of views. Unless the speaker is able to produce sooner or
later definite reactions on the part of his audience through
questioning or action he has largely failed.

There is of course, as every one has observed, a wide
difference in the effectiveness with which different indi-
viduals deliver the spoken message. Every farmer knows
that he gets much more from some speakers than from
others. Why? It is practically impossible to lay down
any set rules for giving a successful public address. One
speaker succeeds by one method and another by an entirely
different and perhaps even an opposite method. But poor
public speaking is so common among county agents and
farm bureau leaders — and indeed everywhere — and the
usefulness of the speakers' message is so much reduced
thereby, that it may be helpful to make a few suggestions
— to try to answer the question of why one speaker makes
his points when another fails utterly to do so.

WHAT MAKES A GOOD SPEAKER?

Perhaps the cardinal sin of public speaking is lack of
preparation. Many county agents and farm bureau lead-
ers have no doubt tried to address audiences without hav-
ing a definite message to deliver. The attempt was to ''give
a talk'* and they just ''talked" without giving their audi-
ences either information or useful advice or suggestions.
Others know what they want to say but do not give thought
enough as to how to say it so as to convince. The first

48 THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES

thing to do in trying to teach by the spoken word is to
decide definitely what one wants to teach and then to pre-
pare it so as to deliver it effectively.

Then one should study and come to know his audience
and let it know him. Whether the audience is friendly,
indifferent or actually unsympathetic to the speaker. or his
subject should make a great deal of difference in his
method of presenting the subject. The nearer public
speaking approaches the conversational method the better,
if one authority is right who says that it is ''dialogue in
which the audience takes part." Certainly one should
talk with his audience and not at it or over its head.

Studied forms of expression are not as important as
straight honest thinking and real mastery of one's subject.
This is why some persons with no experience as speakers
but who have thought out a subject to a conscientious con-
clusion often make eloquent and convincing speeches. A
good speaker will however vary his method with his audi-
ence and his purpose ; if the need be to convince his hear-
ers of certain facts, then he will use the argumentative
method; if to ''sell an idea'* or to stimulate to action, then
he will try persuasion; or he may purpose to teach prin-
ciples, in which case the didactic method with illustrations
will be the one which he will use.

Not the least among the qualifications of a good public
speaker is the ability to state his message in a few words
and to stop when he gets through. A speaker may give a
good talk and make all his points, and then destroy its
effect by not having good terminal facilities.

EXTENSION SCHOOLS

The extension school or short course is perhaps the most
intensive and the most advanced teaching method used

TEACHING AND INFORMATION GIVING 49

by the county agent. It varies from two weeks to three
days in length. College specialists as a rule do most of the
teaching, two persons each giving two periods a day, some-
times with the help of the county agent.

The local community committeeman and the county
agent are responsible for the organization and the local
arrangements for the schools. Preferably, a definite en-
rolment sufficient to warrant the time and the expenses
of the instructors, usually from thirty to forty persons, is
required in advance. Regular attendance is expected and
recorded by roll call. The best work can be done in such
schools only when those registered attend regularly and
study the lessons consecutively as they are given. In
order to encourage regular attendance, it is usually con-
sidered to be good practice to charge a fee (usually from
seventy-five cents to one dollar each on a basis of thirty
to forty attendance). The locality should furnish the hall,
heated and lighted, and in some cases illustrative or dem-
onstration material.

Such a school offers an opportunity to study individual
and community farm problems systematically and with
more or less thoroughness. A variety of subjects may be
taken up, but it is usually better not to try to handle more
than two in the same school and these should be more or
less related. Two subjects give the instructors a chance
to alternate in lecturing and thus to rest. Soil improve-
ment and crop production as applied to the soils and crops
of a particular section go well together. Animal hus-
bandry and forage crop production make a good pair.
One general problem may be treated in two or more of its
phases, as for example, marketing, or, this may be com-
bined with farm management. A sample program combin-
ing problems of cooperative marketing and farm manage-
ment follows:

50

THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES

9.30-10.00 A.M.
10.00-11.00 A.M.

11.00-12.00 A.M.

1.00- 2.30 P.M.

2.30- 4.00 P.M.

9.30-10.45 A.M.

10.45-12.00 A.M.
1.00- 2.30 P.M.
2.30- 4.00 P.M.

9.30-10.45 A.M.

10.45-12.00 A.M.

1.00- 2.30 P.M.

2.30- 4.00 P.M.

Wednesday, January 4

Roll-call. Organization of school. — County Agent.
Why some farms pay better than
others. — 1st Instructor.

The marketing system and the
services it renders. — 2nd Instructor.

How some farmers have organized
a profitable farm business. — 1st Instructor.

How the several marketing serv-
ices are applied to the chief
farm products of the State. — ^2nd Instructor.

Thursday, January 5

Analysis of the cooperative cor-
poration and the cooperative
movement in the State. — 1st Instructor.

What accounts shall farmers
keep ? — 2nd Instructor.

Problems in coSperative pur-
chasing. — 1st Instructor.
How to take an inventory and
make out a credit statement. — ^2nd Instructor.

Friday, January 6

Use of crop and market reports. — 1st Instructor.
Problems in cooperative selling. — 2nd Instructor.
Prices of farm products and fu-
ture prices. — 1st Instructor.
The agricultural organizations of
the State; what they have ac-
complished and what they have
ahead of them. — 2nd Instructor.

The lecturer usually uses from thirty to forty minutes
to present his subject-matter material. The remainder of
each period is used for discussion and answering questions.

The short course or extension school should be used as
a very definite means of carrying forward a local program
of work and not miscellaneously. It should fit a situation
and meet a need and there should be much previous
preparation for it. Interest in the problems to be studied
should have been manifested or aroused by community

TEACHING AND INFORMATION GIVING 51

meetings or institutes and an evident desire to go deeper
into local problems indicated. Unless there is such an
intention and unless the spirit of cooperation in community
affairs — of working together to solve common problems —
is present, such a school will fail to produce the largest
possible results. Its purposes and methods should be fully
understood and appreciated by farmers beforehand, for
only as it is ''sold" to them by the county agent and his
local committeemen on its merits, and wanted by them for
its real value, can it serve the needs of the community.
It is expensive in the time of the farmers who attend as
well as of the instructors who teach. The most thorough
advertising by personal explanation, by letter and through
the local papers, is necessary for the best results. Such a
short course is peculiarly the type of thing which if worth
doing at all is worth doing very well.

The original and oldest form of agricultural extension
is the farmers' institute. Modern forms of extension, and
especially the county agent work, owe much to it. It was
in the farmers* institutes that the early and hard battles
for the recognition of the value of science as applied to
farming were fought and won. In these meetings farm
practice as represented by experience came to be correctly
evaluated, the place and contribution of science recog-
nized, and the two first utilized together. Here were first
taught and appreciated many of the first principles of
good farming; the need of maintaining soil fertility and
how to do it ; the composition and true value of feeds and
fertilizers; spraying to control insects and diseases; home
making as a profession; and scores of similar basic facts.
County agents have to considerable extent harvested the

52 THE COUNTY AGENT^S SERVICES

results of this pioneer work. They are applying and in-,
terpreting it into action.

This long and honorable history of the farmers' insti-
tutes should be utilized by county agents and committee-
men in the modern institute or the community meeting,
with such improvements as progress suggests. What the
institutes stand for is well known among farmers; plain
and useful facts presented by practical men and women;
free and democratic discussion of local agricultural and
home-making questions ; and the teaching of the best farm-
ing and housekeeping and the highest ideals of country
life. The county agent should seek to retain the democ-
racy, the informality and the devotion to farm and home
improvement of this old and tried institution in his own
meetings. At the same time modern conditions and prob-
lems demand a better prepared lecturer, one trained as
well as experienced, and a more complete definite and
applied treatment of the subject — more teaching and less
preaching.

The community meeting as most county agents know it,
is the modem edition of the farmers' institute, sometimes
called a farm and home institute. It should be an im-
provement over the old-time institute because it is part of
a systematic plan of education extending throughout the
year, with a closer tie to local problems and conditions
through the demonstrations conducted in the locality, and
the committeemen through whom it is organized locally.
Another improvement is often effected through the pres-
ence of the local committeeman or the county agent on the
program to discuss the farm bureau's work in that local-
ity, thus tying the meeting and the necessarily more gen-
eral talk of the outside speaker more closely to local
problems.

The community meeting should have for its main pur-

TEACHING AND INFORMATION GIVING 53

poses the discussion of local problems which are a part of
the local program of work, reporting on what has been
done on these problems in the community during the previ-
ous year, the stimulation of loeal initiative and leadership
and of vision and wise planning for the future. It should
be planned by the local committee and be a part of its plan
of activities. It will require careful preparation and good
advertising to secure the value from it that is in it.

LANTERN SLIDES AND MOVING PICTURES

The use of lantern slides and moving pictures as supple-
mentary means of teaching offers an opportunity to com-
bine the showing or illustration of the things taught, which
is an approximation of the demonstration, and of the
spoken word method. Both these means involve carrying
more or less expensive equipment unless the community is
equipped for their use which is often not the case. Moving
pictures of course involve more equipment and power fa-
cilities than do lantern slides.

Wherever conditions permit and the subject lends itself,
lantern slides offer an effective form of illustration too
little utilized by county agents. County agents should if
possible be equipped with a portable lantern and slides
showing their own work. For the discussion of technical
subjects they can secure slides on a great variety of subjects
from their state agricultural colleges, the United States
Department of Agrciulture and other sources.

The use of moving pictures in most teaching work is of
doubtful value. The film moves too rapidly to enable the
teacher to point out details and concrete facts. It rather
gives impressions. It may be useful for educational propa-
ganda. Film making is also expensive and highly technical.
When supplemented by and used in connection with Ian-

54 THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES

tern slides or a blackboard, and accompanied by lecture
and explanation it may be very useful. A crowd can be
more surely obtained and interest can be more easily main-
tained with the moving picture and this may be its chief
value in extension teaching.

FARM VISITS

After all the great advantage of the spoken word as a
means of extension, lies in the fact that it is personal, that
it means a direct contact between man and man. The
farm visit or the call of the county agent at a farm to
discuss problems or to answer questions has this advantage
with the added one of being on the ground where the prob-
lem exists. This phase of county agent work would be
ideally cared for, if it could all be done by personal dis-
cussion with the farmer on his own farm. But experience
shows that an agent is able to make only about five hun-
dred farm visits in a year in the average county. As there
are usually from three to five thousand farmers in a county
one visit a year to one in six or eight of them will hardly
suffice to meet the need. Moreover, such intensive personal
work is expensive in both time and travel. Nor can it
meet the need for group work, especially in the fields of or-
ganization and marketing.

OFFICE CALLS

The office call is in some respects even a better method
of teaching than the farm visit, although it has the dis-
advantage of not being on the ground where the problem
exists. It is a better measure of the farmer's real interest
and need for help, because it is an indication of apprecia-
tion of the need and requires initiative on his part to

TEACHING AND INFORMATION GIVING 55

come to the county agent's office, as well as a convincing
knowledge of where to go for what he wants. The farm
visit may or may not mean a real need and initiative on
the farmer's part. Again the office call is a cheaper means
of teaching, since it consumes less of the county agent's
time and travel. It often happens that several thousand
farmers call at a county agent's office in the course of a
year when it is so located in the county as to permit this,
and the average number of calls is about one thousand.
The county agent may also have at hand in his books, bul-
letins and records more ready means for the answering of
many questions.

TEACHING THROUGH THE WRITTEN WORD

The third possible method of teaching through the use of
the written or printed word, though capable of the widest
application because it employs the easiest method and the
cheapest means, is perhaps the least effective. It has been
said that we remember seven-eighths of what we do, three-
eighths of what we see and only one-eighth of what we hear
or read. Whether or not this is true, it is certain that
the printed word alone does not always produce the desired
reaction in men. It is, therefore, best used in connection
with and as a supplement to the other methods.

In considering the usefulness of this means of teaching,
it should be remembered that farmers are busy folks who
work long hours at hard physical labor, and that they are
not given to extensive reading unless it be at certain times
of the year. Yet like other folks they will read what is
interesting and what they consider is of vital concern to
them; but it must not be too long nor impracticable. In
addition to what any good citizen would naturally read,
farmers usually want to get by reading useful facts and

56 THE COUNTY AGENTS SERVICES

principles about their business, agricultural news both local
and general and special information of a timely character.
The usual means of supplying these needs are bulletins,
mostly supplied by the United States Department of Agri-
culture and the agricultural colleges and experiment sta-
tions, special local publications as farm bureau *'Newses,"
"Exchanges^' and bulletins, the local press, and correspond-
ence including circular letters.

BULLETINS

Bulletins are somewhat in disrepute nowadays on ac-
count of their reputation for being dry and uninteresting
documents, and they are therefore being replaced more or
less by the more interestingly and popularly written press
articles. But it must not be forgotten that the bulletin
has been one of the chief means of recording and distribut-
ing accurate and valuable records of agricultural truths
acquired through years of painstaking experimental work.
And it will probably continue to be so, even though it is
a difficult task to prepare bulletins which will meet the
wide variety of needs even in a single subject. There is
also danger of misundertanding what is written through
lack of personal contact and the absence of necessary ex-
planations. But after all it is not the form but the con-
tent of a publication that counts. If the bulletin contains
valuable facts or needed information it will be read, al-
though of course the more interestingly it is written the
more likely it is to be read. In the last analysis one who
wants definite or detailed information will want to have it
in written or printed form. As supplying such informa-
tion and for ready reference the bulletin is indispensable.

Both the agricultural colleges and the United States
Department of Agriculture annually print and distribute

TEACHING AND INFORMATION GIVING 57

thousands of bulletins. In the past these have been dis-
tributed largely on lists, but of late distribution is being
made to farmers and others only on request or through
county agents who usually keep a supply on hand. Prob-
ably bulletins are best used in answer to specific requests
or questions. They may also be used by county agents to
good advantage in connection with the discussion of specific
subjects of which they treat at community meetings. Some-
times they can be distributed to good advantage in connec-
tion with exhibits at fairs. Bulletins which have a bearing
on a subject of concern or interest to farmers are always
useful as references.

CORRESPONDENCE COURSES AND STUDY CLUBS

In a few of the states there have been organized what
are commonly known as correspondence courses, which make
systematic use of bulletins to teach given subjects. A num-
ber of these states prepare bulletins in simple and logical
form specifically for use in such courses. These are sup-
plemented by the use of other bulletins and sometimes by
the use of text-books as references. The student is regu-
larly enrolled, answers question papers after each lesson
and has his papers corrected and his questions answered by
a qualified instructor at the college. He cannot secure an-
other lesson until he has satisfactorily completed the previ-
ous one. In most of the states, as, for example, in Penn-
sylvania and Ohio, a certificate or diploma is issued, and
in a few states college credit is even given, upon the satis-
factory completion of the course.

"When such courses are used by communities in organized
study clubs as in New York state, they are especially val-
uable as a method of teaching, reaching many persons and
affecting the practices of whole communities. College or

58 THE COUNTY AGENT^S SERVICES

tmiversity correspondence courses are probably most val-
uable when used as a definite part of the local machinery to
help to work out definite parts of the local program of
work, either through study clubs or individuals.

FARM BUREAU PUBLICATIONS

We shall discuss more fully in Chapter XI the use of
farm bureau newses, exchanges and bulletins, as house
organs or media for keeping the members informed of what
the organization, county, state and national, is doing.
From the standpoint of a means of teaching such a regular
monthly publication may be useful in keeping the local
programs of work and progress and results on them before
the membership. Unless there is some such means of help-
ing individuals to keep the work visualized, to encourage
them to do their part, and to stimulate action and better
efforts, progress in carrying out the program is likely to
lag. Much can be accomplished in keeping up the spirit
and the virility of the organization and its work by inspira-
tional editorials setting forth ideals and goals.

Such publications also afford a valuable means for col-
lege specialists to put in concise and usable form the latest
results of experiment and investigation, together with cer-
tain details, which are not usually put into bulletins quickly
if at all. One of the greatest difficulties in connection with
the preparation of these monthly publications by the county
agent, however, is his usual failure to find the necessary
time, with his many other duties, to do it well. So he does
the easiest thing, namely, makes it up ''with the shears,'^
using too much of the ready prepared material of the spe-
cialist, with the result that his paper is usually prosy,
general and dry reading and lacking in local news interest.
To be most effective, facts should be presented in terms of

TEACHING AND INFORMATION GIVING 59

local conditions and experience and there must be plenty
of personal reference or ** local color/' In other words,
such a publication may not be a particularly useful means
of teaching unless enough attention is given by the agent to
the principles of good writing.

THE LOCAL PRESS

No publication medium of the organization can take the
place of the local press, daily and weekly, as a means of
disseminating information. The local papers are probably
read regularly by at least three-fourths of the local people.
They are the sources of news of all kinds. They are pub-
lished regularly and on time daily or weekly as the case
may be, and their news is fresh and timely. They are the
regularly established community publications and entitled
to be the local sources of news so long as they function
efficiently. Especially is the local country weekly news-
paper a necessary community institution which deserves
local support on this basis alone.

Agricultural information and news should be supplied by
the county agent to the local editor as a service to his
readers, rather than with the point of view that the local
paper is simply a medium to help the county agent do
his work, or a charitable institution. The publisher must
make a living. To do so he must sell his paper to as many
individuals as possible, and to sell his paper he must put in
it the news and information which his subscribers want.
This should include, if the county agent and the farm
bureau are really functioning in the community, news of its
plans, what it is doing from week to week and the results
of its activities. The editor needs this kind of material to
make a good paper and the county agent should furnish it
to him for this reason as well as because it also serves his

60 THE COUNTY AGENT^S SERVICES

own purpose to inform the local public of what he is doing.
If this phase of county agent work is to function fully —
and it is important that it should — the county agent must
give it the time necessary to prepare and send out regu-
larly in time to reach the editor before each issue of his
paper, the right kind of news in brief and readable form.
This should include not only notices and plans for com-
munity and county meetings and other events to come, but
summaries of what happened at the meetings, interesting re-
sults arising from changes in practices recommended by
the agent in the community, local farm experiences gath-
ered here and there, etc. This will be facilitated and the
agent assisted in doing it, by the designation of some local
committeemen or other farmers to report items of local
interest to the editor. The city daily papers which circu-
late among farmers usually have their local community rep-
resentatives, who, with a little coaching, can be depended
upon to secure the necessary information for their own
papers, especially if they are kept advised of meetings and
notified of events of special interest to their readers. They
and the local weekly editor should be invited to call at the
office regularly for news, and there should always be some-
thing there for them.

CORRESPONDENCE

Little need be said about this method of giving informa-
tion. It is one of the most useful of all the methods avail-
able with the written word because it may be made very
personal. Inquiries by letter should always be encouraged
by the county agent, and answered fully and promptly. No
good points can make up for delay in answering letters.
Many county agents will have to plead guilty to the charge
of being slow to reply to letters and in too many cases of

TEACHING AND INFORMATION GIVING 61

neglecting to reply at all. It is a relatively inexpensive,
quick and satisfactory method when properly used.

The circular letter, thdugh it is less satisfactory because
it must necessarily be more general and therefore less per-
sonal, is widely used because it is an easy way to reach
many people quickly. The free mailing or franking privi-
lege encourages the use — and the abuse as well — of the cir-
cular letter, so much so, in fact, as to make this means of
communication much less valuable than it might otherwise
be. Many farmers receive so much franked material from
Congressmen, as well as county agents, that in some cases
they do not even open it. Then, too, it is easy to spoil a
letter in the writing of it. A circular letter should be con-
cise and brief, and make its points stand out clearly and
definitely. Not often should it be more than one page in
length.

Gathering information from farmers by questionnaires —
a common practice — is useful and desirable only when (1)
the information is necessary or very important, (2) the
questions asked are few in number and eimple in form, so
that they can be answered easily and understandingly, and
(3) the results are promptly made known to the persons
who answer them as well as to those for whom they are
gathered.

THE PLACE OF THE SPECIALIST

Good teaching whether with minors in a classroom or
with adults in a field meeting has at least three essentials :
(1) A thorough knowledge or mastery of the subject, (2)
the right pedagogic organization of the teaching material
or methods, and (3) the necessary force and personality to
convey the message convincingly to the student. Accord-
ing to the educational psychologist, education is the pro-
duction of changes in human beings ; changes in knowledge,

62 THE COUNTY AGENT^S SERVICES

in skill and in attitude. The ability to educate presupposes
careful training and preparation of the teacher and in-
dividual attention to the job of teaching.

The county agent is essentially a teacher of better farm-
ing, as has already been pointed out. He is also an or-
ganizer of local effort for this purpose. But effective
teaching requires knowledge which must be kept up to date,
and which in this work must often be expert and technical.
Good organization of teaching requires knowledge of
method and experience elsewhere. There must be a con-
stant source of supply of the latest information as to fact
and method or else the teacher goes stale and the teaching
becomes ineffective. The average county agent has not the
time, even when the nature of his duties permits him to
have the inclination, nor can he be expected to search out
and study carefully all the facts and the methods in his
field that he needs to know, and experience shows that he
does not. There may be, of course, a few individual excep-
tions. The specialist is the necessary link between the
county agent and the investigator. Without the specialist,
the county agent would very likely soon cease to be a
good teacher.

The specialist also furnishes a constant and necessary
supply of written and printed material, kept up to date
and used in the press of the county, as well as in state-
wide and regional publications. The county agent has too
little time for study, for accumulating data, or for putting
what he has into teaching form. For this he properly must
depend on the specialist. Experience everywhere shows
that this is more and more the case. The specialist serves
more and more as a clearing house to assemble the results
and the experience of the various counties, to tabulate and
to correlate them, and to make the whole available to all
the counties.

TEACHING AND INFORMATION GIVING 63

The relation of the specialist to the county agent, then,
is that of furnishing vital and a necessary source of supply
for up-to-date teaching material and methods. He should
also hold himself ready to be called upon to give expert and
technical advice when needed, and actually to be available
to teach in meetings and schools in the county. Unfortu-
nately, there are too few specialists for this purpose.

RELATION OF COUNTY AGENT TEACHING TO TEACHING IN
THE SCHOOLS

Since teaching is thought by some to be exclusively the
function of the schools, the question arises as to what the
relation of the county agent's teaching function is or should
be to the schools.

These relations differ widely in the different states.
"Where the local high schools have not developed courses
in agriculture and home making at all or fully as yet, the
question of relationships is not usually felt to be important
and these subjects are mainly left to the county agents to
teach. Where these courses are well developed and the
departments of agriculture and home making education in
the schools are strong, the functions, obligations and re-
sponsibilities of the county agent and of the teaching of
agriculture and home making in the schools, as defined
by law, which will be found to overlap somewhat, are
usually (1) the junior project work of the schools and the
junior extension or boys' and girls' club work of the county
agents or club leaders, and (2) the short, unit courses in
agriculture and home economies in the public schools, and
the extension schools conducted by college specialists at the
request of the county agents.

In considering the problems which arise out of this situa-
tion when it exists it should be remembered that it is the

64 THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES

duty, the function and the responsibility of the public
schools to provide education for all children, and to provide
such adult education as is authorized by law. In the same
way it is the function and the duty of the agricultural col-
leges under the law, to provide supplemental extension edu-
cation for farmers and to enable them and the federal
Department of Agriculture, through the county agents and
specialists to bring their advances in knowledge to farmers
and their families who can make the applications.

The problem of relationships has become more acute as
the Smith-Hughes law begins to function in the localities.
Recently a joint committee representing the agricultural
colleges, and the vocational and rural education depart-
ments of the schools, has agreed upon a statement of fields
and relationships, which as it is the best answer that can
be given to the question as to what these relationships
should be, is herewith quoted in part :

"There are three types of situation to be considered: (a) Where
agricultural and home-economics education is fully developed by
the local schools, (b) where such education has not yet been under-
taken by the local schools, (c) where such education is in process
of development by the local schools.

"(a) Where the school provides a comprehensive program of
agricultural and home-economics education which meets the needs
of children and adults, through systematic instruction and super-
vised practice, the extension forces of the land-grant colleges
(including county agents) shall not duplicate such work of the
schools, but shall rather cooperate with the schools by providing,
on request, subject-matter, special lectures, conferences, and other
similar services. This shall not be interpreted to limit the free-
dom of the extension forces to prosecute their extension work
through local organizations of farmers.

"(b) Where the school does not provide such a program of
instruction in agriculture and home economics, the extension serv-
ice of the college should organize extension work. In such locali-

TEACHING AND INFORMATION GIVING 65

ties, the school should give its fullest support and cooperation to
the extension workers.

"(c) It is recognized that, in some places, schools will be in
the process of developing such educational programs. In these
cases, the following principles should apply: Extension workers
should confine their work with children to those whom the school
does not enroll in systematic vocational or prevocational project
work, including supervised home practice, unless requested or
authorized by school authorities to enroll them. The school
should organize its work with adults to provide systematic voca-
tional instruction as defined herein. The school should offer its
facilities to the junior extension worker wherever the school has
not, in operation, vocational or prevocational project work accom-
panied by supervised home practice.

''Before undertaking junior extension work in any county, the
extension division should submit in writing to the county super-
intendent of schools, the plans proposed for junior extension work
in that county, and should endeavor to arrange for a basis of
understanding and cooperation. Copies of plans, when agreed
upon, should be filed with the state department of education for
consideration, before being put into operation."

CHAPTEE in
ORGANIZATION AND LEADERSHIP

In any discussion of the county agent as a rural leader
and organizer, this fundamental premise should be recog-
nized at the outset : Practically every community has within
itself the inherent ability and leadership to discover and to
bring about the solution of its own problems. Every county
agent should approach problems of organization and leader-
ship from this standpoint. Unless he does, he is likely to
fail in what should be his largest objective, namely, the
development of strong, self-reliant men and women and of
good rural citizenship in the open country.

This is, of course, the first essential of a democracy. If
the local units or community groups are not able to work
out their own problems, then democracy fails at its roots.
All permanent improvement lies within. It is only leaven
that it is sometimes necessary to supply from without.

THE SELF-HELP PRINCIPLE

The way to most effectively help a man is to teach him
to help himself. This self-help principle underlies all good
organization and leadership. Self-help means doing things
for one's self and thereby acquiring ability to solve one's
own problems. Too much help from the outside or help of
the wrong kind may mean lessened ability to deal with
one's own problems. This is not only lack of progress; it
is going backward.

If results in any community are entirely dependent

66

ORGANIZATION AND LEADERSHIP 67

upon the county agent; if a community program cannot
be carried through unless the county agent must always
take the lead; if a community meeting cannot be success-
fully held unless the county agent is present ; then one may
well question whether or not progress is being made. The
county agent's ideal should be to work himself out of a
job, that is, to discover so much local ability and to develop
it so fully that in time no outside help will be needed and
that the community will be able to take care of its own
problems.

Many of the qualities of leadership, or which make for
leadership and organizing ability, may be dormant in in-
dividuals in the community. They may be both undiscov-
ered by the potential leader himself and by his neighbors
as well. This is true of many localities of which it is
sometimes said *'this community is dead; it has no local
leadership." What is really meant is that no leadership
is apparent ; that nothing is being done ; when, as a matter
of fact, potential leadership is probably there but not func-
tioning. Under such circumstances, the greatest contribu-
tion that can be made by outside agencies, like the county
agent, is to supply the leaven in such a way as to help
and encourage this leadership and organization. Once find
the man, convince him that he can do what ought to be
done, and help him to do it, and the problem is half solved.

Why are some communities progressive and others back-
ward? Why does one community get the reputation of
*' doing things'' and another that it is ''dead"? Usually
because of lack of leadership. The spirit of a community is
its life. This spirit is dependent upon the individuals which
make it up and more particularly upon its leadership.
Broadly speaking, a community's will to do measures what
it can do, within reasonable limits. An individual can do
what he wants to do, if he wants to do it bad enough to

68 THE COUNTY AGENT^S SERVICES

make the necessary sacrifices of other things. The same is
true of a community, which is only a collection of indi-
viduals which *'has come to act together in the common
concerns of life. "

THE LACK OF LEADERSHIP

There is a disturbing apparent lack of qualified farmer
leadership in too many rural communities. This was one
of the first things which most county agents discovered
when they entered their counties. One of the county
agent's greatest accomplishments is that he has found, en-
couraged and helped to develop many strong local leaders
and brought about the solution of many local problems by
communities themselves.

There are still too many rural communities without good
leadership. Many needful things go undone. Many things
that are accomplished are not done well enough. The find-
ing and helping of leadership to function is still a con-
siderable task and one to which the county agent may well
devote much of his time and energy.

One of the reasons for this apparent lack of leadership is
that in the great majority of cases the farmers' business is
in itself too small to develop men of affairs. The gross
income of the average farmer probably varies between
$1,000 and $5,000 ; the income of the most successful farm-
ers from $10,000 to $25,000, the $50,000 and $100,000 gross
farm incomes being very exceptional. The average gross in-
come, however, increased very rapidly up to the period
of agricultural price collapse in 1920. A well-recognized
tendency toward larger farming enterprises is a valuable
contributing factor to the training of farmer leadership.

Farmers work hard physically. Less than one farmer in
two usually has a hired man. He is closely confined to his

ORGANIZATION AND LEADERSHIP 69

business. His inclination is to stay at home rather than to
go abroad. His circumstances are against his acquiring
broad outlooks.

The enlarged fields of contact which are coming to farm-
ers through their organizations, whether they be general,
social, educational or economic, are strong factors tending
to correct the situation. The development of education is
also an important factor. Every year sees more high school
graduates in rural communities. The colleges and uni-
versities are contributing their quota of well-trained young
men and women. These and other factors are helping to
correct the lack of leadership.

Much future rural development awaits the discovery and
the training of leadership. It is the great need of the
hour in agriculture. Everything that can be done to pro-
mote such leadership should be done. Some of the leader-
ship will be made available through self-discovery, some of
it by its neighbors, but much of it can be stimulated and
encouraged by the county agent.

PRESENT LEADERSHIP

It should by no means be inferred that rural communi-
ties are without leadership at the present time. Every com-
munity has some kind of leadership for each phase of its
activities. It does not always have vigorous, well-trained
leadership in agricultural affairs. There are a number of
types of leadership which are worth considering.

One of the best types of local leaders is the successful
farmer whose leadership is one of example. He secures the
confidence of his neighbors through his actual accomplish-
ments in farming ; he is a source of good information and
advice; he is looked to to take the lead in his community
in doing things that affect local agriculture, which farmers

70 THE COUNTY AGENTS SERVICES

generally desire to have done. This is one of the strongest
and most helpful kinds of local leadership in farmers'
affairs.

The second and very common type of leadership is that
acquired by the local banker, the local merchant, dealer or
speculator who, because he controls more or less of the
wealth of the community or because he is a large buyer or
seller acquires an influence by this means which is often
out of proportion to his real qualifications in other respects.
This kind of leadership may be very helpful. If it is based
on the character and personality of the individual and what
he has accomplished for the community, it will be good.
If it is based upon selfish attainments used for personal
interests, as is too often the case, it will be harmful.

There are always special or occasional leaders who stand
out both because of their personalities or more often be-
cause of the position which they may hold in the com-
munity. These are usually non-agricultural, such as the
pastor, the social worker, and sometimes the politician.
The value of such leadership altogether depends upon the
motive and qualifications of the individual. Position does
not of itself carry with it leadership. Too often such
leaders are not sound and dependable in agricultural affairs
and, therefore, not always desirable.

The leadership which comes to an individual because he
is elected by his neighbors as an officer of a local grange or
a local farmers' club, theoretically, is excellent. Officers
in such organizations should be elected for their leadership
qualifications and because the leadership of a particular
individual is needed. In practice such leadership is not
always effective because it is so often elected for personal,
political or other reasons.

i The community committeemen of the farm and home
bureaus, especially the chairmen of the committees, should

The chief function of the farm and home bureau committeemen
and committeewomen is to exercise leadership in their home com-
munities in developing a practical and an effective local program
of work and generally in getting desirable things done. This farm
bureau president and his county agent are making plans together
to secure the more complete functioning of their community com-
mittees.

ORGANIZATION AND LEADERSHIP 71

exercise real leadership in their communities. As a rule
they are elected and continued in their responsibility on
the basis of qualification and performance. There is little
formality used in choosing them as a rule and, therefore,
little is necessary in order to replace them. The value of
such leadership depends almost wholly upon the energy,
virility, understanding and enthusiasm of the individual
committeemen.

THE QUALIFICATIONS OF LEADERSHIP

L. H. Bailey has said that any leader chosen *' should
be to the agricultural interests what the teacher is to edu-
cational interests and the pastor is to religious interests.'*
He gives four qualifications which he considers essential
in good rural leadership..

The first of these is knowledge of a situation and clear
conception of problems. Such knowledge is usually gained
by close observation and study of the situation as it exists.
Good technical training — particularly graduation from a
first-class agricultural college — should contribute much to
one's ability to make clear analyses of problems. Personal
contact with residents of the locality, careful surveys to get
at the real facts, the study of local literature, if there is
any, and particularly an understanding of the farm prac-
tice and management experience and point of view of the
people who live there, are essential. A clear conception of
problems usually comes only with a careful observation,
analytical study and time, together with contact with those
who have it. *' Knowledge is power."
;J Sympathy with a situation is no less important than
knowledge of it. Probably in almost ninety per cent of
the cases both are attained only by having been born and
reared, or at least by having lived long on a farm. Usually

72 THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES

one must grow up and live for some time in a rural situa-
tion and among rural people to gain sympathy with and
to completely understand their problems and points of
view. A local leader must fully understand and respect
even if he cannot fully accept the problems and points of
view of those he would serve. Without such sympathy and
understanding, leadership may be either unfruitful or even
dangerous.

The practical ability to put knowledge and sound theory
into practice, as evidenced by actually doing it, is im-
portant. This applies in the broader community as well
as in the individual activities. This success in the man-
agement of affairs, whether personal or public, takes time
and is difficult to acquire. It cannot be dispensed with.
Few young men are sufficiently experienced to undertake
either the responsibility of a county agent or of community
leadership until they have been, at least, from three to five
years out of college. They are, however, often called upon
sooner than this.

Even though one may have all the qualifications just
enumerated, if he lacks initiative, organizing ability, per-
sonality and other intangible personal factors, failure may
be his reward. Some of these qualifications are difficult to
define. Some are natural and inherited. Others are ac-
quired. Few men possess them all, but every one more or
less limits the success of leadership.

The rural characteristics which are strongest are indi-
vidualism and independence, especially in business affairs.
This leads to a feeling of individual sufficiency and often
makes leadership difficult. Religious leadership is inherited
and developed by the churches and their pastors. Educa-
tional leadership is provided by law and by the organiza-
tion of schools. It is inherent in the situation. Agricul-
tural leadership is now being developed as never before.

ORGANIZATION AND LEADERSHIP 73

The county agent may have a large part in this develop-
ment. It is his opportunity. There cannot be too much op
too good rural leadership. **The more the agricultural
forces are stimulated the greater the need for leadership,"
as Bailey has well pointed out.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF LEADERSHIP

Leadership may often be stimulated and developed by in-
spirational and idealistic talks to audiences made up of
the residents of the community. The possibilities of local
growth and accomplishment, the application of the golden
rule, the teaching of the doctrine that **it is more blessed
to give than to receive" and the appeal for service, all help
to establish ideals. The maintenance of high ideals by the
county agent himself both by act and by constant refer-
ence, and the bringing in of outside speakers gifted in pre-
senting ideals in an inspirational way, is usually one of the
largest factors in the growth of local leadership.

Having discovered the leadership, its development and
training are matters of importance. While abstract teach-
ing and discussion of duties and qualifications of local
leaders has its value, the most important factor in this
development is undoubtedly the giving to men of things
to do. Men learn to do by doing. They gradually assume
responsibility as opportunity offers and duty calls. By so
doing they gain confidence in themselves ; according as they
do well and wisely, they gain the confidence of the com-
munity. One act of leadership may commit the individual
and often others as well to public duties and to efforts in
community enterprises. This leadership grows with in-
telligent use.

No doubt one of the most important factors in the growth
of leadership is the responsibility which comes to individual

74 THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES

farmers by sitting on local boards of directors or executive
committees, whether these be of the local grange, the county
farm and home bureau, or of commercial cooperatives. In-
formation is gained, outlook is broadened, decisions have
to be made and responsibility assumed. All these develop
leadership qualities.

Many examples of this might be cited. None is more
striking than that of President James R. Howard of the
Ajnerican Farm Bureau Federation. College trained and a
successful farmer, he first sought the improvement of school
facilities in his school community and largely through his
efforts a consolidated school was established. When his
county organized a farm bureau, Mr. Howard was the logi-
cal choice for president, and his qualifications and work
were so outstanding that when his state federation was
formed he was again the logical candidate for its president.
So also Mr. Howard's qualifications, experience and con-
tributions to the movement in his home state of Iowa won
him the presidency of the American Farm Bureau Fed-
eration and his leadership is now national.

Situations sometimes call forth leadership unexpectedly,
When there is a real job to be done and it is clear that
some one must volunteer or be drafted, individuals rise to
the occasion. The experience trains the individual. Through
such events good leadership is sometimes discovered and
developed.

. THE RESULTS OF LEADERSHIP

It would be impracticable — if not impossible — to list
here all the results of farm and home bureau leadership.

The most outstanding accomplishment in this field has
been the discovery and the appointment of local com^
munity committeemen in the greater part of all of the rural
communities of the United States. Such committeemen

ORGANIZATION AND LEADERSHIP 75

in great numbers are now functioning. In one state alone
there are more than 1,700 rural communities, and these
communities are served by between eight and ten thou-
sand committeemen. Even if half of these function a
tremendous force of leadership has been set in motion.

In the nation there are probably 25,000 rural communi-
ties and yearly 100,000 local committeemen. Although
these may not function to the highest degree possible,
nevertheless, they have accomplished much, and by con-
tinued experience, understanding and appreciation of the
opportunity, more should function and in a larger way.
Each thing done means increased ability to do more
things. This kind of leadership is permanent and it will
grow and multiply.

The leadership which has been elected to responsibility
in commodity marketing organizations is another very use-
ful type. It calls for different qualities for business ability
and special knowledge, but it is indispensable.

When all that has been accomplished by the farm and
home bureaus in the way of leadership and organization
is added to what already existed in the community and
it is realized that all has been strengthened, stimulated
and educated, it is easy to see that the discovery, training
and growth of rural leadership has been one of the out-
standing accomplishments of county agents. If they had
done nothing more, this alone would have justified all that
they have cost.

LEADERSHIP VERSUS ORGANIZATION

The problems of organization and leadership are indis-
solubly bound up together. Their solution is equally im-
portant. The one depends upon the other.

The stronger and the more complete the organization,

76 THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES

the greater the need for a vigorous, broad-minded, well-
trained, large-viewed leadership. But there is less danger
from unwise and inadequate leadership in the strong func-
tioning organization because the organization itself is
likely to correct the danger.

Wise and efficient leadership is, perhaps, most im-
portant in the initiatory and formative stages of an enter-
prise. The absence or presence of such leadership directly
limits progress and achievements. On the average leader-
ship usually involves more risk and is less dependable than
organization. Leadership is individual. Organization is
made up of numbers of individuals and the deficiencies of
one individual are likely to be offset by the good qualities
of another.

THE NEED FOR ORGANIZATION

The nature of the farmer's job as a producer and his
circumstances and environment have tended to make him
an individualist. This was especially true in the pioneer
days of farming in America. Then the farmer was al-
most self-sufficient. He raised his own food except, per-
haps, his sugar and salt, made his own clothing, built his
own house, and satisfied most of the wants of his family
at home.

As is shown in Chapter YII, the increase in farm ef-
ficiency released workers from the farm and led to the
great growth of cities and to the specialization of indus-
tries. Gradually, the farmer became more dependent upon
the town. He, himself, tended toward specialization.

The centralization of industry into great corporations,
in some cases practical monopolies, meant that individual
farmers must deal with powerful units with which they
were not qualified to cope. Too often big business has
taken advantage of this situation. In some cases it has

ORGANIZATION AND LEADERSHIP 77

been a real advantage to farmers. Gradually a realiza-
tion of his handicap in relationships with powerful busi-
ness organizations has come to the farmer.

This situation is equally true in the more general field
of his interests, as, for example, representation in the
larger affairs of the State and Nation. The business man
has developed extensively his industrial and trade associa-
tions. Every city has its chamber of commerce, every
village its board of trade, and these organizations exert a
powerful influence upon public policies. Labor has per-
fected its unions and has federated them. When large
questions affecting public policy, or even affecting particu-
larly the agricultural welfare, such as taxation, trans-
portation, the tariff and others, come up for decision, the
organizations of business and labor represent them and
their voices count in the final decision. In the past the
voice of the farmer has either been silent or altogether
too weak and inadequate to receive the attention it should
command.

The farmer has now sensed this situation and the pres-
ent movement toward organization is one of practical
preparation to meet it.

It is in the public interest that he should do so. Other-
wise, public policy is likely to be one-sided, unfair and
possibly actually injurious to the country's greatest in-
dustry. Inevitably, such a condition must react against
the general public interest. The public should concern it-
self less with the dangers of the organization among farm-
ers and more with its advantages. The dangers are read-
ily controlled by regulative legislation ; the advantages can
be secured in no other way.

In the same way, the rural community is too often
dominated by town and village interests and by business
men, though it must be admitted that this is more be-

78 THE COUNTY AGENT^S SERVICES

cause the farmer does not assert his power or exercise his
rights and functions than it is because business interests
desire to dominate. Moreover, this is in spite of the fact
that the rural town or village as a rule exists, primarily,
to serve the farmer. It is more difficult for countrymen
to get together than it is for townsmen. Farmers are scat-
tered over a large territory. Hours are required for farm-
ers to get together for meetings or conferences, which busi-
ness men, because of their location and their experience,
can accomplish in minutes. The farmer is closely tied to
his work, especially the livestock farmer and the farmer on
the one-man or family farm.

The only way by which a farmer can meet this situa-
tion is by organization and by the election of farmer
leadership to represent his interests on all proper occa-
sions. This representation should be unpaid locally, but
it will probably have to be paid in state and national af-
fairs. It is wholly in the interests of a well-balanced de-
velopment of a community, state and national life that
the farmer should organize, providing that he does not
go beyond his rights and what is fair to other groups and
that the interests of all the elements of the population are
considered. He must be fair. Organization must not
function wholly in the class interest or without regard to
others.

In short, the farmer is simply meeting the organization
and the leadership of other interests, with the same kind
of organization and leadership in his own field. It is high
time that he did.

THE COUNTY AGENT AS AN ORGANIZER

While organization among farmers had developed to a
considerable extent previous to 1910, it has had its great-

ORaANIZATION AND LEADERSHIP 79

est and soundest development since the county agricultural
agent came on the field. How much of this is due to cir-
cumstances, especially economic conditions, and how much
of it is due to the county agent, there is no means of
determining. Contrary to what is commonly credited to
him, the county agent usually was not the cause for the
unusual organization activity among farmers during the
past few years. The cause for the most part already
existed. Unless a real reason for organization does exist,
the organization cannot he permanent. It can he held to-
gether temporarily, hut is bound sooner or later to fail.

Many farmers have long felt the need of such organiza-
tion, hut have lacked the leadership and initiative to effect
it. These, the county agent has supplied. He has simply
made it easier to do what farmers already wanted to do
or believed they should do. In some cases it has probably
been necessary for county agents to point out the need
for organization as a remedy for unfavorable conditions
that exist. If the county agent, however, is the sole cause
for the organization — if farmers organize just to be organ-
ized and without a real purpose — an early failure is courted.

Some early and noteworthy examples of organization
among farmers are the Grange, especially in the Northeast,
but also in the West, and the Farmers' Union in the South
and Southwest. These organizations, which have existed
for nearly half a century, have shown farmers some of
the possibilities of organization and have accomplished cer-
tain results. In particular, the Grange has been a forum
for discussion and a cradle in which many other farmers*
organizations have been born. Other farmers' organiza-
tions, semi-political in character, or seeking class advan-
tage, or usually aimed at the correction of definite abuses,
have arisen, served a more or less useful purpose and dis-
appeared.

80 THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES

Both this early experience and county agent leadership
are, it is hoped, leading to a sounder and more permanent
type of organization. The tendency is more and more to
study particular situations and needs before organizing.
An effort is also made to base organization on local units
and to build up cooperative organization around commodi-
ties, in other words, to build an organization to deal with
common problems on common ground. Moreover, the
tendency in organization is toward constructive and not
simply corrective objectives. All of these factors should
make for real achievement and hence greater permanency
in farmers' organizations.

The county agent is usually called upon or finds it de-
sirable to use, at least, three types of organization work.
The first of these may be called the production type and
consists of the organization of a group of men with some
common production problem, in order to work out this
problem more satisfactorily and over a wider area. Good
examples of this type are the cow testing association, the
spray service and seed improvement associations. The
second type, and a more common one, is the organization
for buying or selling — selling grain, livestock, milk, wool,
fruit, cotton, etc., and buying farm supplies, particularly
seeds, feeds and fertilizers. The last type, with which the
home demonstration agent is perhaps more largely con-
cerned, is the social organization, examples of which are
community clubs, etc. The latter type will be more fully
treated in Chapter V.

ORGANIZING LOCAL MOVEMENTS

When the county agent arrived on the job, he found
as a rule fairly good social organizations of farmers in
most of the states, such as granges, farmers' clubs, and

ORGANIZATION AND LEADERSHIP 81

the like. He also found a considerable number of com-
mercial cooperative organizations working more or less
successfully. There was little, if any, organization, the
primary purpose of which was increased efficiency in pro-
duction.

The one noteworthy exception to this was the cow test-
ing association. A considerable number of these organi-
zations had been developed as a sort of a by-product of
farmers' institute and early college extension work.
These, the county agents took hold of, strengthened, built
up and multiplied in numbers. The purpose of these or-
ganizations was, primarily, to teach better methods of
feeding and to discover and discard ** boarder" cows by
the use of milk scales and the butter fat test. To the
county agent, this is an effective method of teaching these
fundamentals of good dairy husbandry. Usually begin-
ning with talking about this work himself — and perhaps
doing some testing for individuals — the county agent leads
a local neighborhood, by suggestion and assistance, to or-
ganize themselves into an association which can provide
a full month's work for a cow tester. For this purpose
usually twenty to thirty men are necessary. When such a
tester is employed, he visits the herd of each owner once a
month, assisting him with feeding and making general sug-
gestions for improvements, as well as weighing and testing
the milk. For this service the farmer pays the cost.

As a result of this work, large numbers of unprofitable
cows have been discarded, with increased profits to indi-
vidual herd owners by reducing or limiting their losses.
Similar types of organization are cooperative bull circles,
or the eooperative ownership of bulls. This is a simple
form of production organization, but an effective one when
it is so conducted that a high grade pure-bred bull replaces
a scrub sire. County agents have also rendered much as-

82 THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES

sistance to breeders' associations in developing local
county units or branches. This has served to bring to-
gether groups of men with common interests and to greatly
facilitate and stimulate efforts in their respective com-
munities and to increase numbers of pure-bred livestock,
and hence prosperity.

A special form of production organization is the spray
service which has been conducted in a few states. County
agents and college specialists have found that to teach the
life history of insects and diseases, and to demonstrate
what to spray with in order to control these insects and
diseases, is not sufficient. It has been found that the limit-
ing factor in gaining control of these troubles is timeli-
ness. It w^ill not do to treat spraying solely as a problem
of farm management. One cannot plan ahead of time to
sow the oats on Monday and Tuesday and to spray on
Wednesday. Exact time of spraying must be determined
largely by weather conditions, temperature which in turn
determines the rapidity of the opening of the buds, mois-
ture present and future, all of which regulate the develop-
ment of the insect or disease, and other similar factors.
This means an expert trained assistant, watching the bud
and leaf development, securing expert weather forecasts,
and the development of some means of getting this neces-
sary information quickly to growers.

This has been worked out in Western New York, for
example, by a carefully organized telephone service which
probably influences the use of from ten to twelve thousand
spray rigs. A special assistant to the county agent
is employed. In cases where the number of growers
is small, the county agent may handle the service
himself. Certain orchards, known as ' * criterion orchards, ' '
are specially watched and are under the entire control of
the assistant, that is, the farmer sprays exactly when he

ORGANIZATION AND LEADERSHIP 83

is advised that the time is right to spray. These orchards
afford both checks and experience in conducting the serv-
ice. As soon as it is determined to spray *' criterion or-
chards" in a given section, the information is telephoned
to three selected farmers in each neighborhood. By ar-
rangement, these men call up three other farmers, and then
in turn these three call up three more, and so on until all
the fruit growers who want the service, and who have paid
the fee which covers practically all the cost except the
state specialist's supervision, have been informed. While
this is a loose form of organization, it involves a good deal
of skill and time to operate it, and represents a type which
may be made very effective by the county agent. Similar
examples of the use of this type of organization may be
found in the control of rabbits and gophers in certain
sections of the country.

Another type of production organization, aimed to
render service to increase efficiency, is seed certification.
Colleges and experiment stations are constantly develop-
ing new strains and approved new varieties of corn, small
grains, timothy, alfalfa and other seeds. These are dis-
seminated by placing them in the hands of individuals,
but this is a slow and not always an effective measure. It
has been found that organizing state, regional, or even
county associations of growers interested in the use of such
good seed, may be made a very effective means of increas-
ing the use of it. Usually, such organizations work out a
plan of certifying the original source of the seed, inspect-
ing it for the presence of certain diseases, roguing out
plants untrue to type, and then certifying the resulting
product. The inspection is usually performed by experts
from the college of agriculture who merely certify
to certain conditions as they find them in the field or bin.
The associations, on the basis of these fiindings, actually

84 THE COUNTY AGENTS SERVICES

certify the product, tagging and guaranteeing, so that the
grower may be certain of the quality of his seed.

Other types of production service organizations which
county agents have found useful might be cited, such as
the operation of local lime crushing plants, power ditch-
ing machines, and the like, or land clearing, gopher eradi-
cation and others.

LOCAL MARKETING ASSOCIATIONS

The greatest immediate demand for the application of
the county agent's organization and leadership abilities
has proved to be that of cooperative buying and selling,
particularly marketing. There has been great dissatisfac-
tion on the part of the farmers with the present situation.
In too many cases neither farmers nor county agents knew
the exact remedy for the marketing difficulties experi-
enced. Farmers, however, are feeling the urgent need for
and demanding a solution of these problems; they are
ready to try almost anything in order to get experience
and to learn how they may work out these problems.

Grain marketing through cooperative elevators and the
cooperative shipping of livestock were among the first
attempts by farmers to work out this marketing problem.
The packing, standardization and merchandising of
citrous fruits in California is, perhaps, the most striking
success of cooperative organization in marketing. With
this, however, the county agents have had very little to do.

In the East the cooperative marketing of milk was one
of the first problems on which farmers were ready for
action. The comparative uniformity of this product, the
fact that dairying is a common type of farming and busi-
ness in many localities, made the problem of organization a
little easier. The first requirement was information on
conditions and proposals. This meant meetings of farm-

ORGANIZATION AND LEADERSHIP 85

ers and thorough discussion of the question from all angles.
These meetings, large numbers of which were held, enabled
farmers to reach conclusions as to what they should do.
With an understanding of needs came a desire for further
detailed knowledge of ways and means to solve the prob-
lem. The county agent's next function was then to teach
the principles underlying good organization: mutual re-
spect and understanding, confidence in one another, stick-
ing together, guarding against disrupting elements, choos-
ing leadership that was responsible and officers that are the
best obtainable — in short to call attention to the funda-
mentals which go to make up a sound and workable plan.

RELATION TO MARKETING ORGANIZATIONS

The farmers' cooperative marketing organization should
be interested in supporting and securing the cooperation
of county agents and their local supporting associations,
the farm bureaus, because the primary functions of these
public agencies are :

(1) To promote greater efficiency among farmers by
helping to organize crop and animal improvement asso-
ciations, and teaching how to grow roughage at home,
keep accounts, improve the quality of farm products, etc.

(2) To teach and to help gather needed information on
the cost of production and condition of crops and animal
products as one of the bases for individual judgment as
to what constitutes necessary quantities and reasonable
and just prices.

(3) To assist in developing and maintaining efficient
local and regional commodity marketing organizations,
and encouraging the cooperative ownership by farmers of
their own shipping and manufacturing facilities.

(4) To furnish local facilities or headquarters, such as

86 THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES

office and field organization, for and to introduce repre-
sentatives of farmers' organizations, to explain and or-
ganize a movement locally.

On the other hand, cooperation with marketing organi-
zations is desirable from the farm bureau and county agent
educational and improvement standpoint, because such co-
operative properly organized:

(1) Furnishes needed machinery for the adjustment of
those difficulties and situations which are vital to profitable
farming, but which cannot be handled by publicly sup-
ported educational institutions.

(2) Gives farmers suitable local organizations which
may be federated into regionals to promote cooperative
selling and collective bargaining.

(3) By effecting savings helps to increase the profits
from farming and thus to put farming on a better busi-
ness basis.

(4) Has the general effect of bettering rural economic
and living conditions.

Relations on this basis may mean assistance by the
county agent in securing conferences with county or
regional officers, working out of county-wide educational
plans, advising as to the local leadership, conditions and
situations, calling of meetings for the purpose of discuss-
ing the cooperative organization and its purposes, speak-
ing at meetings on the principles and general desirability
of good organization. On the part of the farm bureau
it may involve extending the facilities of the local offices
to cooperative organizers for the purpose of holding com-
mittee meetings, conducting correspondence, etc.

The functions which are peculiarly those of the coopera-
tive, in which the county agents should never engage and
for which the cooperative should itself assume complete
responsibility are :

ORGANIZATION AND LEADERSHIP 87

(1) The receiving and paying out of all organization
funds.

(2) The signing, witnessing and safe keeping of all
agreements, etc., having to do with the sale of commodi-
ties.

(3) The actual organization of local or county branches,
soliciting of members and all business arrangements con-
nected therewith.

(4) The enforcement of contracts with dealers, and the
adjustment of all disputes and complaints. In these mat-
ters the cooperative must make its own decisions.

(5) Assignment and instruction of all its own coopera-
tive leaders or organizers.

(6) Agreements on the prices of commodities and ar-
rangements for caring for surplus, etc.

ORGANIZATION FOR COOPERATIVB BUYING

Though usually of less importance because it promises
less saving — and that with more difficulty — than the co-
operative selling of products, farmers are also demanding
organization for cooperative buying of supplies. The
products or goods which are usually handled by coopera-
tives, and which it is probably most important to buy co-
operatively, chiefly on account of the control and superior
quality thus secured, are somewhat in the order of im-
portance named, seeds, feeds, fertilizers, twine, spray ma-
terials and certain others. Many cooperatives broaden the
kinds of supplies which they handle too widely and get
into lines in which, because of their nature, they cannot
compete vdth the sales services of established organizations.
Such lines are coal, oils, fencing, groceries, paints, farm
machinery and similar material.

The demand for cooperative purchasing usually grows

88 THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES

out of poor service either by wholesalers or local dealers
or both. In spite of this fact, the organization of co-
operative buying associations has been the occasion of
much trouble and criticism of county agents without, in
most cases, corresponding results to farmers. In a good
many instances — too many — county agents have pooled
orders themselves. This practice got started during the
war on account of the lack of service and the demand for
good seed, cheaper supplies, etc. Because they were inex-
perienced, because in most cases they did not have the
machinery or facilitieis to properly handle such business,
because of bad payments and of goods not always of su-
perior quality, the county agents have experienced lots
of work and a great deal of trouble. The general result
has been that they have accumulated a large amount of
kicks from everybody who had any grievances, and had
few thanks for their trouble from those who were really
advantaged.

Some of the dangers of buying are illustrated by the
experience of a county agent in Tennessee, who, when
sugar was high and apparently going higher, persuaded
many members of the local farm bureau to pool their
orders for a quantity. Some delay was experienced in get-
ting the sugar and when it did arrive sugar had dropped
nearly fifty per cent. Many farmers refused to accept
delivery, and those who did did so under protest. The
county agent was in a bad fix but deserved small sym-
pathy. While this is an extreme case, it illustrates possi-
bilities.

The relations which a county agent — or a farm bureau
for that matter — should have with commercial cooperative
buying organizations are not unlike those recommended for
cooperative selling. The functions of the county agent,
and of the farm bureau as well, in such a relationship

A careful study of all the facts should precede any attempt to
organize for cooperative marketing or for any other purpose. The
local community committee is admirably adapted, with the help
of the county agent, to make such a study and to make a sound
recommendation.

ORGANIZATION AND LEADERSHIP 89

should be confined to (1) lending moral support to the co-
operative principle represented; (2) extending the usual
office facilities in promoting dissemination of educational
information upon cooperative organization, its limitations
and its value; (3) advising with cooperative officials rela-
tive to finding put the commercial needs of farmers, par-
ticularly as to quality, and to other matters relating to
successful operation, such as securing of county commit-
tees and good local representatives.

Some things which county agents often attempt to do
themselves, but which should be left absolutely to those
responsible for the cooperative organization, are: The set-
ting up and maintaining of adequate organization to ef-
ficiently assemble and deliver orders of supplies to farm-
ers, all responsibility for assembling orders, delivery of
goods and collection of bills.

The cooperative organization should keep the county
farm bureau officers and the county agent informed as to
policies to be carried out in their respective counties and
should furnish them, for their information only, with quo-
tations on commodities offered for sale.

COLLEGE EXTENSION TEACHING

Under the present plan of operation of the extension
services of the state colleges of agriculture, the county
agents are made the county leaders of the college exten-
sion program and the local organizers of it.

Usually an agreement is entered into with the county
association whereby its office is made the clearing house
for all college extension work in the county. This results
in farmers' needs and requests for work in the county by
college specialists coming to the college through the county
agent, who becomes the middleman between the college

90 THE COUNTY AGENTS SERVICES

and the farmer for all information other than that se-
cured by personal correspondence or by bulletin. In the
same way, the college program is carried to farmers
through the county agent and through the local farm
bureau machinery. For this purpose a suitable agreement
or contract between the college extension service and the
county association should be entered into. In New York
State a part of this contract reads as follows:

"The program of work of the County Farm

and Home Bureau for 1920, duly adopted, and hereby mutually
reaflBrmed, is herewith attached and made a part of this agree-
ment. For the purpose of assisting in carrying out this program
the State Leader, under authority given by the Director of Ex-
tension of the State College of Agriculture, agrees that the Col-
lege will furnish through its central extension ofiBces such serv-
ices of its extension specialists and other representatives and such
publications and other subject matter material, as may be needed
and as are available. The expenses of such specialists will be
shared on the zone system, and services will be furnished in
Buch amount and in such form as may be mutually agreed upon
from time to time with the proper representatives of the exten-

Such an agreement puts a large responsibility on the
county agent and the local bureau and calls for real lead-
ership on the agent ^s part in its execution. He is re-
sponsible to farmers, on the one hand, to see that they
get the share of college service to which they are entitled.
He is responsible to the college, on the other hand, to be
efficient in handling and distributing its service to farm-
ers. This means a knowledge of farmers' needs and de-
sires, of what the college has to offer, and of the best means
to bring the knowledge and skill of the specialist to bear
on the farmers' program.

ORQANIZATION AND LEADERSHIP 91

Since extension work is generally carried on through
community meetings or institutes, schools, conferences, in-
spections, etc., it follows that it devolves upon the county
agent to arrange satisfactory dates with farmers for meet-
ings in their communities to get the desired specialists
there. He must make the necessary local arrangements,
advertise the meeting, follow up the teaching and the in-
terest developed in the community afterward, and gather
and report results. This will require much correspond-
ence, telephoning and telegraphing in arranging the de-
tails, all of which calls for a high degree of energy and or-
ganizing ability. It will also involve many long trips in
the Ford, late evening meetings and getting home after
midnight.

In arranging for the work of the college specialist in
the county, the first consideration, as has already been
pointed out, is the arriving at community and county pro-
grams, and means of carrying them out. This should in-
clude subjects to be discussed at winter meetings, kind of
help desired and particular persons desired, and the time
of meetings. Then the organization of the college services
in the community can best be accomplished by the agent in
two ways, (1) by request to the college scheduling officer
for the specialist desired at a particular meeting, to put
the program and its means for solution before local people,
(2) by conferences with specialists themselves to arrange
for demonstrations, inspection work, certification, and the
like. This we have already discussed in Chapter I under
''Using a Program of Work.''

One of the most important responsibilities of the county
agent is to make the wisest possible use of these facilities
and technically trained men provided by the state and
federal governments. This calls for vigorous, clear-
sighted leadership, good judgment and good organizing

92 THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES

ability. Many possibilities for accomplishing good are at
stake. A measure of the county agent's efficiency is
whether or not he gets the most out of these facilities for
his own county. Moreover, he stands between the college
and the farmers of his county and on him depends largely
the most helpful relationships.

CHAPTER IV

RELATION OF THE FARM BUREAU AND THE

COUNTY AGENT TO COMMERCIAL

ENTERPRISES

No problem with which the county agent has to deal is
more alive and full of possibilities for failure and trouble
than that of his relationship to commercial enterprises,
especially enterprises of a cooperative character. These
relationships are the source of many difficulties with farm-
ers on the one hand and with dealers and middlemen on
the other. With the pressure of an unfavorable economic
situation and as a result of a keen desire for a way out,
farmers have everywhere seized upon cooperative organi-
zation for buying and selling as a way to eliminate what
seems to them unnecessary and too high costs of handling
their products to the consumer. As a consequence they
have naturally demanded that county agents whose de-
clared purpose is the improvement of agricultural con-
ditions help them in perfecting the organizations through
which they may buy and sell cooperatively.

Neither the farmer nor the consumer has fully under-
stood the limitations under which the county agent neces-
sarily works. The farmer especially has not always appre-
ciated that the county agent is a public service and not a
class representative and that it is his obligation to teach
principles and to demonstrate practices and not to act as
the agent of farmers in cooperative buying or selling. It
is difficult to believe that many middlemen and dealers
have not deliberately misunderstood the county agent's

94 THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES

position. The consumer has not always understood the
underlying educational purpose of the county agent's work
and has not seen the advantages of uniformity, standardi-
zation and improved quality which the cooperative organi-
zation of farmers is sure to bring to him. Moreover, there
has sometimes been political interference or attempted in-
terference with the county agent and his work at the
suggestion of interested parties, by local boards of super-
visors, by state legislatures and even by Congress.

A LIVE QUESTION

"With the knowledge of what the county agent has done
for him in the way of more efficient production, the
farmer naturally expects that the county agent will help
him in the same manner with his problems of marketing
and distribution. As farmers sometimes put it, * ' We have
had enough of teaching how to grow bigger crops from
which we receive a less return than for smaller crops, until
we know better how to market at a profit what we do
grow." The general situation which lies back of this
feeling on the part of farmers, accentuated by the war, has
been made increasingly difficult by the economic aftermath
of the war. The farmer has called on the county agent to
help him with his problems of organization for coopera-
tive marketing and for cooperative buying until the aver-
age county agent now devotes almost 50 per cent of his
time to these problems. So far as the absence of coopera-
tive action is a limiting factor in successful agriculture
and so far as county agent's teaching is sound and his ac-
tivities legitimate it is desirable that he should do so.

The extent of the activities in helping farmers to organ-
ize for cooperative marketing is indicated in the last report
of the States Relations Service. In the thirty-three states

RELATION TO COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISES 95

in the North and West alone the county agents assisted in
forming 1,701 cooperative associations during 1921. The
combined membership of these associations was 227,424
farmers and they did a business of over forty million dol-
lars. During this year county agents also report having
assisted 123,035 farmers in buying and selling through
other channels to the extent of more than ten million
dollars additional.

On the other hand, those middlemen and dealers who
handle the supplies or buy the products which farmers
with the help of the county agent have now organized
themselves to buy and to sell feel that their business has
been interfered with by a publicly employed agent. This
group, which probably constitutes less than five per cent of
the population, is well organized and has been most in-
sistent in its objections, claiming that public agents are
interfering with private business. The position of this
group is stated in an editorial appearing in '^Who is Who
in the Grain Trade'' in the issue of November 20, 1921:

"The county agents were not created to help farmers to market
their grain. Had this been the understanding, when the Smith-
Lever Bill was under debate in Congress, the measure would
never have been passed. If the farmers can be helped as busi-
ness men. by paid agents of the government, why not the shoe-
makers, the wholesale and retail grocers, the dentists, the manu-
facturers or jobbers of any kind, or even the much-despised grain
dealers? How can the Federal Government give aid to one
branch of industry and withhold it from another?"

This statement indicates a fundamental misconception
of the purpose of the county agent movement. What this
group of citizens forget is that farmers have not only a
perfect right, but an obligation as well, to seek to estab-
lish the most efficient methods of handling their products.

196 THE COUNTY AGENT^S SERVICES

If it can be shown that through cooperative organization a
higher grade of more uniform agricultural products can
be sold to the consumer at a more reasonable price and
still net the producer a better profit, then it is both in the
interest of the producer and consumer that the new method
be followed. As one student of the subject has pointed out,
**the railroad was not invented to punish the man who was
furnishing transportation so much less efficiently with his
stage-coach; it represented merely a better method. The
inventor of the linotype machine was not *mad' at the
old-fashioned typesetter. He merely found a better way
to do an important piece of the world's work. Progress
is not made by appeals to class prejudice.''

Other members of this class popularly known as middle-
men take a more reasonable view of the county agent and
the activities which he represents. This group seeks to
adapt itself to changed conditions and to meet the new
problems created by cooperative organizations among
farmers. Its representatives, though often misinformed as
to the real purposes of the farm bureau, adopt an inquir-
ing attitude.

''What influence is the farm bureau and other similar co-
operative movements going to have upon the manufacturer of
feeds, fertilizers, orchard sprays, and other farm supplies in his
method of selhng and distributing his goods?"

asks the representative of a large advertising agency mak-
ing a study of the matter for its clients.

"What will be the ultimate effect of the farm bureau upon
the thousands of dealers who have been handling farm supplies
for years, and upon whom the manufacturer now depends to
furnish him with needed supplies? Will the farm bureau even-
tually assume the functions of a dealer, carry a stock of sup-

RELATION TO COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISES 97

plies throughout the year, and serve as a financial bridge be-
tween the manufacturer and the consumer as the dealer has done,
thus eliminating the dealer and making a shortcut between the
manufacturer and the consumer?"

This inquiry, of course, represents an extreme fear not
warranted by the facts in the case. But it also indicates
a much more rational view of the problems which such
organizations create and a much more satisfactory ap-
proach to their solution.

THE INTENT OP CONGRESS

Since all discussions of this question sooner or later
come back to the original authority on which the work
of the county agent is based, it may be desirable to exam-
ine the law. The Smith-Lever act itself does not define
specifically the activities of county agents, but confers
broad authority to give *' instruction and practical demon-
strations in agriculture and home economics." To deter-
mine then the real intent of Congress we must turn to
the discussions in that body when the bill was passed and
particularly to the report of the committee which intro-
duced the Smith-Lever Bill. The Honorable A. F. Lever,
Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, who,
perhaps more than any other one person, was influential
in shaping up this legislation and in securing its passage
through Congress, in the elaboration of his remarks on
the bill made it clear that its purpose included the eco-
nomic as well as the productive phases of farm life. He
said:

"To teach the farmer the best methods of increasing production
is exceedingly important, but not more vitally so than is the im-
portance of teaching him the best and most economical methods

98 THE COUNTY AGENTS SERVICES

of distribution. It is not enougli to teach him how to grow
bigger crops, he must be taught to get the true value for these
bigger crops, else Congress will be put in the attitude of regard-
ing the work of the farmer as a kind of philanthropy. The itin-
erant teacher or demonstrator will be expected to give as much
thought to the economic side of agriculture, to marketing, stand-
ardizing and grading of farm products as he gives to the matter
of larger acreage and yields. He is to assume leadership in every
movement whatever it may be, the aim of which is better farm-
ing, better living, mx)re happiness, more education and better
citizenship."

It is clear from this authoritative statement that the
county agent is well within the intent of the law in assist-
ing farmers to work out more efficient methods of market-
ing and distribution. But since the administration of a
law is fully as important as determining its application to
practical problems, it is desirable to see what the attitude
of the States Relations Service in the Department of
Agriculture, which, is charged with the administration of
the Lever Act, is on this question. Dr. A. C. True, the
chief of the States Relations Service, has recently ex-
pressed the Department's view as follows:

"That the agents should assist the farmers of the county wifh
every problem connected with their business from the prepara-
tion of the soil to the marketing of their products. It is natural
for the farmers to look to the agent as their agricultural adviser
and leader in marketing as well as production and to expect him
to give them information on questions of harvesting, grading and
packing. For the past two years the marketing problem has
been the most vital one to all branches of agriculture. It is be-
lieved that it is legitimate and proper for the agent to encourage
cooperative marketing, to obtain information as to what products
should be worth, where the best markets may be found and how

RELATION TO COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISES 99

these markets may be reached at the least expense to the pro-
ducer."

Not only do we have these official pronouncements as to
the intent of the law and the application of it to the work
of- the county agent, but we have the opinion of the Presi-
dent of the United States himself on this point. In his
message to Congress in December, 1921, President Hard-
ing said:

"Every proper encouragement should be given to the coopera-
tive marketing programs. These have proven very helpful to the
cooperative communities of Europe. In Russia the cooperative
community has become a recognized bulwark of law and order
and saved individualism from an engulfment in social paralysis.
Ultimately they will be accredited with the salvation of the Rus-
sian State."

THE PUBLIC INTEREST

This broad statement of what the President considers
sound public policy affords ample justification for the
legislation which sanctions the activities of county agents
so universally complained of by that portion of the popu-
lation which acts as agents in getting the farmer's prod-
ucts to the consumer. It applies to the activities of farm
bureaus as well. It makes clear the position that the
public agencies throughout the country dealing with agri-
cultural problems have quite generally assumed. The
problems of marketing and distribution are of as vital im-
portance to the whole public, consumer as weU as pro-
ducer, as are the problems of production. Cooperative
organization, because of its educational values, because of
the standardization which it brings about in agricultural
products, because of its non-profit character and because it
represents or should represent the best thought of the peo-

100 THE COUNTY AGENTS SERVICES

pie themselves on the problem, is an important means of
meeting the problem. Public agricultural institutions are,
therefore, supporting the theory and the practice of co-
operative organization among farmers for buying and sell-
ing and are endeavoring to teach the sound principles
based on world experience which should govern it.

The attack on the activities of county agents and farm
bureaus in this field seldom, if ever, comes neither from the
mass of consumers nor from the mass of producers. It
usually comes from certain of that small percentage of in-
dividuals who are directly engaged in the handling of farm
products between producer and consumer and who fear
what they call interference with their business. Their
fears are unfounded if they are really performing useful
and needful services. Instead of county, state and na-
tional legislatures cutting down their appropriations for
county agent work as they are so often urged to do by
these interests, because it is complained that too much of
the agent's energies and time go into this field of coopera-
tive organization for marketing purposes, these bodies
should increase their appropriations. The consumer is
even more vitally concerned with the working out of this
problem just at this time than he is with the solution of
the problems of production. The same is true of farmers.
This is the issue and it should be squarely met. If legis-
lators choose to fight the personal battle of this small
minority against the interests of the great majority of
producers and consumers, then the issue should be made
perfectly clear to all concerned. This is the only basis on
which it can be settled.

It is then sound public policy to regard the establish-
ment of a cooperative organization to buy farm supplies
or to sell farm products, when such an organization is
based on a real need and upon a real desire of the group

RELATION TO COMMERCIAL EN'TERPRISfiS l6l

to be organized, in exactly the same way as the establish-
ment of a lime or an alfalfa demonstration is regarded and
to render the same kind of assistance. It is sound public
policy for the county agent to make a statement of the
facts and conditions surrounding the problem and the
possible results to be obtained by the action, and to give
advice in establishing the demonstration. He does not and
should not assume any executive functions or responsibili-
ties in connection with the enterprise.

WHAT COUNTY AGENTS DO

Since there is much misunderstanding as to the appli-
cation of this policy and as to what county agents really
do in relation to the needs and activities of farmers for
cooperative buying and selling, it is desirable to state these
quite definitely.

It is the aim of county agents to assemble and to present
to farmers through publications, lectures, demonstrations,
conferences and discussions the facts bearing on results of
cooperative organizations in given localities and under
given conditions. If organization is then determined upon
by the farmers concerned, it is the further duty of the
county agent to give all information at his command as
to the best ways and means by which cooperative organi-
zations may be effected and utilized. Both county agents
and farm bureaus are advocates of the principle of co-
operative action. They assist cooperative groups by fur-
nishing (1) the facts as to the need for the objects pro-
posed, (2) the probable best means for meeting the needs,
and (3) advice as to the best ways to put the plans into
practical application. This aid of course should be given
only when farmers want and ask for such assistance.

102 THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES

WHAT COUNTY AGENTS DO NOT DO

"While believing in and advocating the principles of co-
operative action, county agents should always avoid urging
such action on the part of farmers or any propaganda to
bring about cooperative organization. There should be a
real need for cooperative action and there should be a
strong desire for such action by a group, before county
agents are justified in helping the group to organize.
Neither does the county agent aim actually to do the busi-
ness for these organizations. Even if it were legitimate
for him to do so it would not be advisable because it
would be likely to defeat the essential principle of local
initiative and local responsibility. County agents should
never be associated with such cooperative organization in
any business way.

It cannot be asserted that there are not some agents
who, a^ a result of their own zeal and the enthusiasm of
the moment, or more likely under the pressure of certain
individuals or groups of farmers who have not thought
the question through carefully, taking into consideration
all its future bearings, have not at times violated these
principles and rules of action. Such violations are the
chief basis of complaint and they are the only grounds
that those complaining have to stand on. However, such
cases are not common and as a rule these principles have
been, as they should continue to be, guiding ones
throughout the history of the movement.

While the county farm bureau is an independent local
association of farmers and has a perfect right to engage
directly in cooperative buying and selling, it is not be-
lieved that it is usually good policy for it to do so, for
reasons pointed out elsewhere. It can probably function

RELATION TO COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISES 103

best by supporting the county agent and applying its
energies to the working out of the county program.

FARM BUREAU OBJECTIVES

In order that we may better understand the true rela-
tion of the problems of cooperative organization for buy-
ing and selling to the whole problem of agriculture and
thus be better able to measure the activities of county
agents in this field against their activities in the field of
production, it may be desirable to define the larger objec-
tives of farm bureaus and county agents. This ought to
help us in determining what should be their relationship
to commercial activities.

All county agents' objectives are educational. In gen-
eral the same is true of farm bureaus, although to a less
extent and probably with more exceptions. Briefly, the
two principal objectives of both county agents and farm
bureaus are, (1) to make farming more profitable and
(2) to make country life reasonably satisfying. In the in-
terests of the whole public as well as of farmers them-
selves it is imperatively essential that there be maintained
upon the land a vigorous, intelligent, self-reliant agricul-
tural citizenship. This can only be obtained by securing
and retaining such conditions as will make farming a
reasonably profitable business and the country a finan-
cially and socially satisfying place in which to live.

Naturally we expect that the specific plans and pro-
grams of county agents and farm bureaus will be such as
promise the surest and speediest road to these ends. An
adequate farm income is recognized as of first importance.
Aside from the social phases of country life problems, then
we should expect programs to include two main lines of
effort, (1) how to secure efficient production, (2) how to

104 THE COUNTY AGENTS SERVICES

buy supplies and to sell products most efficiently. Both
county agents and their supporting agencies, the farm
bureaus, will naturally approach the solution of these
problems from the educational standpoint and in their re-
lation to public welfare as well as to the welfare of
farmers.

THE IMPORTANCE OP PRODUCTION

There is much loose talk about arbitrarily reducing pro-
duction and tending to minimize the problem of produc-
tion. Its purpose is really to emphasize marketing and
distribution problems rather than to minimize production
problems. In relation to production there are two funda-
mental facts which must always be kept in mind.

In the first place everybody must be adequately fed. If
farmers do not perform this task well themselves, the
Government must in the interest of the people to be fed
find some way to do it itself. Moreover, the public has a
right to demand the greatest possible efficiency in produc-
tion consistent with a fair standard of living on the farm ;
and farmers have a public obligation to be reasonably ef-
ficient.

In the second place, efficient production still offers the
biggest opportunity and the largest incentive for indi-
vidual gain. While it is true that the effect of big crops
on the nation on the whole is likely to be lower prices, per-
haps below the cost of production and usually with a
smaller net return to the producer, nevertheless, the effect
of a big crop secured by the individual as a result of his
own efficiency, and with reasonable expenditure of money
and effort, is usually greater profit to that individual.
Every good farmer is trying to get the largest possible
crop with a reasonable expenditure of time and money;
and if he succeeds he is apt to be proud of it. It is

RELATION TO COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISES 105

usually true also that those farmers who have found their
business most profitable and most satisfying are those
who have been able to secure crops above the average at
a reasonable cost of production.

It is, therefore, both the individual farmer's public obli-
gation and his personal intention to continue to produce
as large crops as he can with reasonable means and con-
tinually to strive for increased efficiency in his business.
The public, including the middleman, does not object to
any activities of county agents and farm bureaus that tend
to bring about this result. It is clearly in the public in-
terest. What the public does not always understand and
what the middleman complains of is the application of
county agent's and the farm bureau's activities to com-
mercial organization for buying and selling. It is on this
point that the public needs to be clear.

COMMERCIAL ACTIVITIES

When we speak of commercial activities among farmers
in a public sense we usually mean cooperative buying and
selling.

There seems to be a tendency in some quarters to desire
to limit the activities of public agricultural agencies to
the increasing of production and to believe that it is not a
public function to undertake to help farmers solve their
commercial problems. Strangely enough, few persons have
objected to the making of appropriations for the general
advocacy of cooperation and to the teaching of cooperative
principles. Legislatures have even been willing to pass
permissive cooperative laws. But when it comes to the
application of the principles advocated and to the practi-
cal utilization of the legislation through the advice and
demonstrations of county agents, opposition usually arises.

106 THE COUNTY AGENT'S. SERVICES

This is especially true of those comparatively small groups
of persons who are engaged in handling farmers' products
to the consumer.

For example, certain business men in a small city in a
county maintaining a county agent in cooperation with
farmers through their county association had always
been boosters for the county agent work and had supported
appropriations by the local Board of Supervisors. When,
however, the needs of farmers demanded the organization
of a cooperative milk producers' association which began a
retail milk delivery business in that city, they took vigor-
ous exception to the county agent's activities in assisting
the organization of this efficient local cooperative. In de-
fense of their attitude they pointed out that milk sold for
about six cents a quart in their city some ten years ago
and that it now sells for sixteen cents. Of course the in-
crease was charged to the cooperative organization which
had been formed with the aid of the county agent. One
of the most vigorous objectors was a supervisor who hap-
pened to be a dentist in the town. He seemed utterly
oblivious to the fact that the same reasons which led him
to charge $2.50 for filling a tooth in 1921, which he had
been willing to do for 75 cents in 1911, operated in the
milk business as well. Nor did he take into consideration
the fact that an adequate price for milk insured a steady
supply of a high quality product for the future.

THE PUBLIC IS CONCERNED

It is as much a public function to help to work out the
problems of marketing and distribution of farm products
as it is to assist in maintaining and increasing the effi-
ciency of production. Efficient marketing and distribu-
tion mean standardization of products and packages, bet-

RELATION TO COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISES 107

ter quality, uniformity and a steady flow to market, all
of which are as important to the consumer as to the pro-
ducer. Public institutions, farm bureaus and county
agents should stand firmly on this ground regardless of
opposition.

It is urged as an objection by some that since county
agents help to organize cooperative associations which may
be maintained for the purpose of giving a group of farm-
ers a better position from which to bargain with other
citizens of the state, they should not be aided by taxing
all of the citizens of the state. The answer is, that if co-
operative association is effective in enabling farmers to
secure a larger share of the retail prices paid by con-
sumers for their products, the entire state will in the end
be benefited by the resulting maintenance of or the pos-
sible increase in the food supply. Thus it is well known
that few farmers are able to compete with city industries
in the wages paid to laborers and as a result the tendency
is to reduce crop acreage.

It' is also true that in nearly all effective cooperative or-
ganizations the central purpose is not to increase prices
by controlling the market. In fact, that is not possible,
except with special crops which are grown only in very
restricted areas. The real purpose of cooperative organi-
zation is rather saving through the promotion of more ef-
ficient systems of buying and selling and so to distribute
products as to avoid the gluts in the market which so fre-
quently result in a loss of revenue to the growers and in
the waste of food that should go to consumers.

POSSIBLE DANGERS

There have been and still are those who would have the
farm bureau itself enter directly into cooperative buying

108 THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES

and selling, forgetting that this is only one of the many-
important problems in the solution of which farm bureaus
can render assistance, and which are vital to the success-
ful organization and the development of agriculture.
True, the need in this field is very large, for the abuses
have been large. Sound judgment and business experi-
ence, however, indicate that commercial transactions re-
quire a business organization on a local unit and com-
modity basis adapted to this specific purpose and that this
organization must necessarily be so constructed that it is
not adapted to do other things. Moreover, it is usually
impossible as well as impracticable to combine commercial
and educational activities, the one prejudicing the success
of the other.

The question is, therefore, shall we divert this great
educational and representative organization which has
been builded, into a single channel, making it over to meet
one of the important problems in the agricultural field, or
shall we use it educationally to encourage and to foster spe-
cific local units and commodity agencies adapted to the serv-
ice which can meet the problem? An educational policy
will leave the farm bureau organization to continue its edu-
cational activities, to complete the marketing organization
program, to help establish and to federate more local agen-
cies, to foster and to develop a more adequate and satisfy-
ing country life — in short, to round out the program. By
following this policy the farm bureaus will have retained
their identity and will not have been swallowed up by a
single phase of the problem.

Fortunately, on this point the American Farm Bureau
Federation, whose leadership will be extremely potent, has
already chosen wisely and in accordance with this policy.
If its leadership is followed, the future of farm bureaus in
respect to this problem looks bright. The American Fed-

Farmers in Essex County, New York, bringing in their small
individual lots of wool to the wareliouse for grading and pooling.
Standardization of products and packages, better quality, uni-
formity, a steady flow to market, all of which tend to result from
well conducted cooperative enterprises, are as important to the
consumer as to the producer.

mS "■■saijaj;

The county agent's office should have a business-like appearance.
To modern business office equipment should be added exhibits, pic-
tures, maps, charts and other illustrations of the work. An efficient
clerk, stenographer or secretary adds much to the general efficiency
of the county agent's office.

EELATION TO COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISES 109

eration has declared itself in respect to both state and
county farm bureaus, as follows :

"The farm bureau as an organization shall not engage in com-
mercial activities nor shall it hold stocks or bonds in organiza-
tions undertaking such activities. It may encourage, however,
the organization of such activities or industries as may seem
necessary or advisable to the board of directors."

The attitude which the county agent should take upon
the question of engaging directly in buying or selling for
farmers is still clearer. If it is not the business of the
farm bureau it is certainly much less the business of the
county agent to attempt to buy supplies for farmers.
Usually no great savings can be made and farmers can
make these savings themselves by buying in quantity and
paying in cash. The public has no obligation to pay for
the time and overhead expense of the county agent in
making this small saving which is not of importance in any
case. Moreover, as has been pointed out, the county as a
unit is not of a character to lend itself well to the distribu-
tion of supplies purchased. A county agent, a part of whose
salary is paid from public funds, is not justified in spending
his time buying or selling in competition with private agen-
cies not so subsidized. It has been shown that there are
other more important problems for the county agent to
spend his time and energy upon, including the teaching
of the principles which underlie sound organization and the
development of initiative and leadership among farmers.
The county agent needs to be careful that he does not spend
his time in saving a few cents for farmers where he should
be helping them to earn many dollars.

UO THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES

A SOUND PUBLIC POLICY

It should be clear that the function of the county agent
in relation to cooperative organization among farmers
should be to so present the facts to farmers that it will cause
and help them to think through their own problems and
decide upon their own responsibility what it is desirable
to do. Farmers cannot and should not be told what to do
or what not to do in cooperative buying or selling. They
should be helped to help themselves since this will
strengthen their own ability to solve their problems.

The principle that the county agent should confine his
work on marketing as well as production problems
to educational activities is sound and should be rigidly
adhered to. While he should at all times maintain a sym-
pathetic and understanding contact with such undertak-
ings and be ready to assist in suggesting the most efficient
type of organization he should never take an active part
in organizing or operating or assume responsibility for
any marketing undertaking.

There are certain basic principles which underlie co-
operative organization for marketing or for buying sup-
plies. If these are not adhered to, failure is almost in-
evitable. Farmers can get knowledge of these principles
either by expensive experience or by seeking, securing and
practicing what the experience of others teaches. They
are entitled to have this experience and advice readily
available. The county agent and the farm bureau are the
obvious local sources of this information.

m

JK

CHAPTEE V
PERSONAL AND SOCIAL CONTACTS

It is undoubtedly one of the handicaps of any large organi-
zation that it tends to minimize personal contacts and to
substitute mere machinery for them. On the other hand,
it is a quality of good leadership that it makes much of
personal contacts. How to maintain a proper balance so
as to retain the value of the personal relation and leader-
ship and at the same time secure the benefit from organized
or concerted action, is a problem which calls for the best
skill of the county agent.

A LIMITING FACTOR

Probably nothing can take the place of the personal
influence of one individual upon another as a means of
securing desirable reactions. If it were possible to do
extension teaching directly by personal contact between
instructor and farmer, this would be ideal. But the time,
money and men available will not permit the reaching of
a sufficient number of persons to justify this. Therefore,
the personal relation must be approximated or reduced to
the minimum consistent with a proper balance and the effi-
cient use of funds.

But there is still another side to the personal contact
method. Especially when contacts originate as individual
requests, the work done is likely to be of a miscellaneous
character and often trifling as well. Under such circum-
stances, the net result at the end of a season may not be as

111

112 THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES

great as if well organized and coordinated. So that even
personal contacts need to be made with a definite worth-
while purpose in view. Personal contacts so organized that
they contribute toward a useful end are often the best
investment of time and effort.

In all public work the personal contact is a limiting fac-
tor. Public men too often fail to understand problems un-
less they are able to talk with the average man in the street
about them and to get his opinions and reactions. The
public frequently misconstrues or misinterprets what a
public man says because it does not know him personally
and therefore does not understand his normal reactions.
Such personal contact between leaders and individuals
typical of the public or mass are always desirable to the
degree necessary to be able to understand and interpret cor-
rectly. Personal contact is essential to effective leadership.

The county agent should always keep his personal con-
tacts at the maximum consistent with the efficient use of
his time. But circumstances will in the majority of cases
inevitably compel the supplementing of the direct personal
contact method by some other method, because a sufficiently
large number of people cannot otherwise be reached.
Probably the best substitute for an individual personal con-
tact is the small demonstration or lecture in which there is
opportunity for questions. This is an approximation of
the ideal personal contact. Correspondence through the
personal letter may make a very good substitute, but this
depends to a great extent on the writer. As a rule cir-
cular letters necessarily lack personality.

CONTACTS IN THE OFFICE

Nine hundred and seven farmers called at a county
agent 's office in the North and West yearly on the average

0

PERSONAL AND SQCIAL CONTACTS 113

for the six-year period from 1915 to 1920. Thifi number is
increasing and was more than twelve hundred in 1920.
In certain counties the number of office calls is from
two to three times this number, depending largely on
the location of the office in the county with reference
to its center, its general accessibility and attractive-
ness, on the local policy and on the personality of
the county agent. The 1,000 or more voluntary calls
made at his office annually constitute a real opportunity for
service and a challenge to the county agent. In addition
to personal visits, thousands of telephone calls are r'feceived
annually.

The office call is a valuable contact because it is per-
sonal— man to man. Moreover, it usually represents effort
and initiative on the part of the caller. It also indicates
knowledge of the county agent and appreciation of the
fact that he may be able to render a needed service. It
implies confidence that the county agent will be able to
furnish what is wanted. The office caller is a seeker after
something. The county agent has or should have in his
office all the facts at hand — in references, charts, figures,
proofs. Usually it is the county agent *s own fault if the
maximum value of the office call is not secured and the
farmer given real help.

Some county seats or office centers are so located that
they cannot serve the whole county. This wiil be readily
seen by comparing two counties. The county seat of county
number one is the geographical center of a level, gently
rolling area with splendid state roads radiating from the
county seat at regular intervals. A trolley system also
extends out from the center in all directions as do steam
railroads. It is a natural business and trading center.
The number of office calls in this county in 1921 was 2,254.
The county seat of county number two is a railroad, June-

114 THE COUNTY AGENT^S SERVICES

tion point on one side of a large county. It is not a logical
or geographical center. Neither is it a trade and business
center. The county is rough and mountainous, has less
wealth, fewer state roads and railroads and no trolley
lines. The number of calls at the county agent's office in
this county was 1,546. The greater part of these office calls
come from the community in which the office is located ; but
there is no better center in the county. Greater extremes
than these may be found in certain mountainous counties
where, for example, there are no railroads, no improved
highways and very few automobiles. An effort should al-
ways be made to locate the county agent's office at the point
of greatest accessibility in the county. This is usually the
county seat, because the problem of central location is also
met with in other phases of county activities.

A good location of the office in the town is also essential.
The office should preferably be on the ground floor and in
or near the principal trading center. It should be so sit-
uated that it is not difficult to find and to use it. Some
county agents actually prevent farmers from making use
of their offices because of their failure to advertise or to
make it convenient to use them. On the other hand, an
office may be too convenient so that it becomes a mere loung-
ing place and checking room, thus tending to preclude the
carrying on of important business there.

The office should be prominently labeled. In some cases
it may be desirable to advertise it in local papers or to
put up directions in such places as garages, livery stables
and stores telling how to get to it. An upstairs room on
the second or third floor is very undesirable except in
large city centers where elevators are available. The best
location as a rule is a ground-floor room on a side street
near that part of the city where farmers do most of their
trading. An office with a chamber of commerce and with.

PERSONAL AND SOCIAL CONTACTS 115

too expensive equipment which forms too great a contrast
with conditions under which the farmer lives is undesirable.
It tends to repel rather than to attract farmers.

THE OFFICE ITSELF IMPORTANT

The interior of the office is worthy of much consideration.
It is very important that it be neat, orderly and business-
like, but not to the extent of being cold and forbidding.
It should, on the other hand, be inviting and attractive
so that visitors will feel welcome and at home. But care
must be used not to carry this to the extent of tempting
the office visitor to remain in the office after his business
has been transacted. The office should not be a lounging
place for loafers, but a busy, workmanlike place of business.

Preferably, the county agent's offices should consist of
two or three rooms. An outside general reception room
with a big table, files, book cases, a stenographer's desk,
etc., is very desirable. Such a room should also be large
enough for conferences and small meetings on occasion.
If another connected waiting and rest room for country
people can be made available, this is very desirable. The
county agricultural agent and the home demonstration
agent should each have separate and private offices off the
main central office where they can concentrate on their
work, dictate letters and talk privately with visitors.

The meeting of an office caller is an art which should
be studied and cultivated. He should be made to feel
welcome and at ease; but at the same time encouraged to
state his business definitely and promptly and to ask hia
questions without unnecessary delay. The county agent
should always be courteous and cordial, but at the same
time definite, encouraging and stimulating in his discussion
and replies, so that the caller will be left with a desire to

U6 THE COUNTY AGENT^S SERVICES

come again. The caler should not be hurried, but he
should be left with no excuse to stay and visit after he has
obtained what he wants. How to dismiss an office caller
without offense is as important and as much of an art as
welcoming one. It demands firmness, an air of finality
without any suggestion of brusque dismissal or lack of
cordiality.

A county agent's office may be made to promote the work
by giving it not only a businesslike appearance but a farm
atmosphere as well. To modern business office equipment
should be added exhibits and pictures illustrating the work,
charts showing progress and results, a news and advertis-
ing bulletin board and plenty of demonstration material
collected in season and displayed both within and without
the office. The office itself may be made a teacher and a
source of information.

A factor of considerable importance in an office, as num-
bers of county agents will testify, is an efficient clerk and
stenographer or secretary. She should have the same ability
to meet and to serve people that we have described for the
county agent. S^ch an office secretary may take much of
the load of office calls off the shoulders of the county agent
by her ability to give satisfactory information, to satisfy
the inquiries of caHers and to do all this as well as he can.
This will permit the county agent more time in the field.

(DONTACT BY CORRESPONDENCE

The written letter is an important though a second-hand
form of personal contact which may be of great usefulness.
Since it is easier and requires less time for its use, it reaches
a much larger number of individuals at less cost than does
the office call. The average county agent receives and
sends out several thousand pjersotial letters each year.

PBRSONAL AND SOCIAL COljrTACTS 117

Replies to definite written inquiries of farmers are prob-
ably the most effective letter contacts, since they represent
a definitely expressed need and effort on the part of the
inquirer writing the letter. But personal letters originated
by the agent with the purpose of suggesting improved
methods, stimulating and encouraging to action, wisely
used, are full of helpful possibilities.

Letters are likely to be of value to the receiver in direct
proportion as they give a satisfactory answer to a real need
for information and advice, or as they encourage and stimu-
late desirable reactions. The effectivenaes of letter writing
also depends upon the extent to which the writer puts his
personality into the letter and gives his information indi-
vidual and personal application. Since it is more difficult
to do this in a circular letter than a perstnal one, circular
letters are less useful.

Promptness in attending to correspondence is a necessary
virtue. Failure on the county agent's part to answer
letters promptly and satisfactorily not only wastes an op-
portunity for useful service but very often results in actual
injury to the work in the county. Any one who has had
large experience in handling correspondence knows the
vital importance of prompt answer to inquiries.

Sarcasm and acrimonious debate have no place in letters.
Every county agent will receive letters asking inexcusably
foolish questions, making impossible proposals and sugges-
tions and often severely criticizing himself or his work.
One may write a sarcastic, critical or argumentative reply
if he must; but it will always be better, having relieved
himself of his thoughts, to hold the letter over night and
then to tear it up or forget to mail it. Experience has
proved this course not only safe but wise and satisfactory.

118 THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES

CONTACT IN THE FARM VISIT

There is probably no more effective or satisfactory eon-
tact made by a county agent than that made with the
farmer on his own farm when the visit is made for a defi-
nite purpose and at the farmer's request. Here the farmer
and the agent meet where the problem exists. Advice and
suggestion given under such circumstances should be valu-
able if ever. The county agent can see the situation inti-
mately and should be able to fit his advice to conditions.

Especially, when such a visit is made in response to a
request for information and help on a problem, is it useful
because it indicates a desire for help and initiative on the
inquirer's part. He is likely to be in a receptive frame of
mind. The chances of a right kind of reaction to do things
are best under such circumstances. The need for great care
in giving advice has already been pointed out. It is
doubly important here. Usually it is best simply to give
the facts and to call attention to needs and probable
good ways of meeting them, leaving the farmer to make his
own decision. Too often farmers insist upon definite advice
or recommendation and are not content with facts or prin-
ciples.

A county agent must not be afraid to say that he does
not know. It is better both for the inquirer and the in-
former frankly to admit lack of knowledge or information
when it exists, than to appear to be wiser than one really
is, or to give an incorrect or an evasive answer. This re-
quires knowledge of one's limitations, good judgment and
courage. Men will usually respect the county agent more
if he does not pretend to know what he does not know. But
no one is in a better position to secure needed information,
and the county agent should always be ready to do this.

The appearance, conduct and attitude of the county

PERSONAL AND SOCIAL CONTACTS 119

agent in making a farm visit is important. It will be well
if his automobile is not too expensive, because this suggests
an easy time and a good salary. The county agent should
not be so well dressed as to give any suggestion of hesi-
tancy to get his feet or clothes dirty or to lend a helping
hand with the hay or with repairing some farm machinery,
nor to make the farmer feel that he ought not to invite the
agent to the barn or field. On the other hand, many county
agents go too far and dress so carelessly as to appear
slouchy in dress and to be catering for favor by this means.
This sets a bad example. In a word, the county agent
making a farm visit, should be his own self-respecting
self, and dressed for the occasion. He should never be
patronizing, but always free and open and inviting ques-
tions and confidence. Without being in too much of a
hurry, he should be businesslike and leave as soon as he is
through. He should not waste either his own or the farm-
er's time.

CONTACT IN PtJBLIC MEETINGS

Clarity and conciseness in public talks, together with
ability to stop when one has delivered his message, are jew-
els much to be desired in the crown of a public speaker.
The ability to concentrate on a few outstanding important
points is very desirable. An audience is most likely to
remember and benefit by condensed statements. Long
drawn out discussions are likely to confuse and leave noth-
ing distinctive to remember. Lack of emphasis in public
address is a serious fault.

Personal attitude and appearance before an audience has
much to do with the effectiveness of this form of con-
tact in producing useful reactions. Confidence without
over-assurance, boastfulness or suggestion of egotism is a
very desirable quality. Evident mastery of a subject tends

120 THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES

to inspire confidence. Direct open frankness whicli invites
questions usually wins the favor of an audience. The
speaker 's attitude must not be patronizing or superior. It
should always indicate sympathy and understanding but
never pity. The dress and manner of the speaker should
be dignified but not affected.

The effective public speaker will also avoid antagonizing
people in the audience or discussing in a partizan way
argumentative questions upon which people are divided or
over which they are contending. It is better to advise and
exemplify mutual agreement and understanding and the
necessity of working together than to take sides. A neutral
conciliating attitude will put the speaker in a stronger
position and make his judgment and advice more sought
after. Yet the county agent should never hesitate to hold
decided views on the side which he feels to be right when he
has firm convictions on a subject. He should be able to do
this without being offensive or stirring up antagonisms.

A public speaker should always keep cool. When he
loses his temper he usually says things that he will be sorry
for later on. A county agent's success depends as much
01 his ability to get along with people and to make friends
without arousing undue antagonism, as upon any other one
factor. Most county agents have enough experience and
technical training to succeed. A less number have those
personal qualities that command support alike from public
and coworkers and which are just as essential to success
as a county agent.

It is always well to avoid the use of the personal pro-
noun '*I" as much as possible. A county agent in common
with all public servants should forget his own personal
interests and status and devote himself to service. He
must be broad-minded, conscientious, liberal and forgetful
of self. This is the best way to establish confidence in one^s

PERSONAL AND SOCIAL CONTACTS 121

leadership and to enhance his work. Seeking personal ag-
grandizement is likely to spoil both work and results.

INSPIRATION AND ENTHUSIASM

Confidence in the ideals of an organization and in its
leadership is of first importance. Without it little else
can be accomplished. With confidence as a basis real effi-
ciency of operation may be secured.

Confidence and efficiency are good as far as they go, but
a leader who stops here falls far short of his possibilities.
If he does not lead and inspire men and women to come
into the organization and to want to render service them-
selves, he may in the end fail altogether. He must be able
to develop enthusiasm for his own ideals and those of his
organization. Neither confidence nor efficiency alone is
sufficient to build a strong organization. Without the con-
stant inspiration engendered by the personal enthusiasm
and contacts of the leader, confidence may be lost and effi-
ciency made impossible.

The county agent without vision or the ability to look
ahead into the future and see what is likely to happen be-
fore it does happen, can never be a good leader. The out-
standing leader is able to visualize future problems an4 to
anticipate them. ** Forewarned is forearmed.'' The abil-
ity to see a need before it arrives and to prepare a com-
munity for its coming enables the leader to perform a
valuable service to the community. It is human to delay
preparation to meet a need. The county agent may be
very helpful in stimulating such preparation.

The enlargement of the vision of others is a part of the
obligation of the county agent to render service. It is not
given to every one to see all the possibilities of community
life and growth, nor to anticipate the full development of

122 THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES

its producing capacity and the efficient marketing of its
products. To help those whose vision is limited to see the
larger things and generally to enlarge outlooks, is to achieve
real gains which are certain to yield rich accomplishments
in later years. It is a great art to be able correctly to
evaluate things ; not to be overwhelmed with details which
only clutter up one's time, but to emphasize really impor-
tant things; to leave undone the unnecessary or unimpor-
tant, and to devote one's energies to the things that really
count.

Optimism is a great asset to any public worker. He
must be able to see the good in things and in men. With-
out being blind to disagreeable facts or underestimating
adverse circumstances, a county agent should have the abil-
ity to bring out the good and the worthwhile in the folks
with whom he works.

Loyalty to his work and to his employers and his asso-
ciates is vital. No agent should say to any one 's back that
which he would not say to his face. Injury to others
through misrepresentation or unfair or cutting remarks
does them a wrong and usually reacts upon the speaker.

THE PLAY SPIRIT

No county agent or community leader can carry on his
work successfully unless he is able to develop a spirit of
working together in the community, neighborhood and
county, and nothing develops such a spirit like group play.
Real play means laughter and fun. It means a feeling of
freedom from restraint. ''It breaks the ice." It dispels
formality and stiffness and makes folks *'feel at home."
To confine county agent activities to the serious is to ap-
peal only to one side of human nature and to miss a splen-
did opportunity to serve both the community and the work.

PERSONAL AND SOCIAL CONTACTS 123

More and more recreation is coming to have a real place
in county agent work both for its own sake and because it
helps to balance community life and programs. It intro-
duces desirable contrasts. It opens up new horizons. It
encourages and even teaches cooperation. Indeed, play it-
self is a form of cooperation since most play requires the
acting together of several or many individuals. Because it
is one of the simplest and most pleasant forms of coopera-
tion, it is an excellent way to begin the development of com-
munity spirit. This is especially true of group recreation.

Perhaps the most common and the most useful form of
group recreation is community singing. Nearly everybody
likes to sing, or at least to hear singing. It is surprising
how under good leadership groups of people yield to the co-
operative spirit aroused by simply singing together. One
can almost feel the change in the atmosphere of such a
meeting. When interspersed with subject-matter talks or
addresses, it both promotes the serious objects of the meet-
ing and enlivens it generally. And where cooperative ac-
tion together in matters of common concern is the end de-
sired, it may even prove to be the deciding factor.

There are some communities which need to learn to sing
and to play together before they are ready for other forms
of community activity. Recreation is sometimes the key
which will unlock the cooperative spirit, where more seri-
ous approaches would and do fail. Children yield most
readily to such an influence but it is not without its effect
on adults. A community comes to mind where both an
evening meeting and an extension school had failed because
of bad feeling which existed over the question of the pool-
ing of products. This community was brought to a
saner view of the situation and to cooperative action
through recreation activities, chiefly singing, which were
accompanied by a talk by a person able to arouse commu-

124 THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES

nity spirit and to stimulate cooperation without getting
into details which sometimes develop argument and an-
tagonisms.

There are many simple contests, games and even physical
exercises in which large groups may participate and with
which most persons are familiar. They require no special
skill, but do call for leadership. To best serve their pur-
pose, they must be well done. They tend to relieve the
srjneness and the seriousness in meetings and to emphasize
community of interest and to encourage cooperative action.

COMMUNITY RECREATION

In order to encourage and to increase community spirit
and action, it is coming to be the practice to hold one or
more county-wide gatherings in each county during the
year. Such gatherings are also held in the communities,
but these usually include more than one community. They
are of many different types : field days, picnics, clam bakes,
ox roasts, etc. All have certain features in common. They
are characterized by field games and contests, usually in-
cluding a ball game, by picnic dinners and by ** speeches."
It is surprising what such meetings sometimes accomplish
in the way of developing community spirit.

Some of the possibilities of such meetings are indicated
in the quotation which follows and which is taken from the
report of a home demonstration agent :

"One hundred men, women and children for miles around gath-
ered in a meadow at for a com roast and clam

bake. There is no village or even a cross-roads, merely a school-
house. I made a few remarks encouraging them in this getting
together for play. Games occupied the rest of the P.M. One
man said to me: ^You have no idea of the change in the spirit
of the people of this community since the farm and home

PERSONAL AND SOCIAL CONTACTS 125

bureau meeting here last winter. Then we did not know eacH
other and appeared too afraid to do anything together. Now
the women have home bureau meetings each month and are do-
ing all sorts of new things. We have had socials and now this
picnic. It is fine.' A few months ago a Sunday school was
started and it is held in the school-house every Sunday after-

Community or county-wide gatherings of this nature
have long been held under other auspices than those of
county agents, but they have more or less broken down in
the last decade or two. They seem to have been less fre-
quently held in many parts of the country and to have been
less successful. Under the county agent's leadership they
are experiencing a real revival. They should be more
used than they are, as they may be of great value not only
in stimulating the play spirit and recreation generally, but
also in breaking down some of the barriers that often exist
in communities and in opening the way to more complete
cooperation. County agents will do well to make larger use
of them both on the county-wide basis and on the commu-
nity basis.

PICNICS AND FIELD DATS

Since the important purpose of a picnic or a field day is
play and rest, too many and too long speeches should be
avoided. It is usually well to have at least one good ad-
dress, preferably after the picnic dinner, when people are
ready to relax and listen for thirty or forty minutes to an
inspirational talk. Speakers on such occasions should
either discuss some public problem of outstanding impor-
tance or the means of community growth and development.
In other words, they should use the occasion to encourage
and to stimulate community spirit.

A well-made program carefully thought out and planned

126 THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES

in detail and carried througli to the letter is one of the
first essentials of success. It is well to have several things
going on at once in order to meet the requirements of dif-
ferent ages and the tastes of different groups. If this is
done, care must be used to see that undesirable conflicts are
avoided.

There will always be more or less local talent available
in the county, such as song leaders, Y. M. C. A. secretries
and others who can help in the organizing and conduct of
such gatherings. In some of the states specialists in rural
sociology and rural organization are available at the state
colleges to assist with the programs. Full responsibility
should be delegated to some competent person who should
be in charge of each part of the program. The county
agent should not try to do it all himself, but should delegate
everything possible to others. He will be busy enough
seeing that all of the machinery runs smoothly.

A location must be chosen which is suitable and con-
venient. Such a location should be chosen with the follow-
ing things in mind : Shade, drinking water, clean grounds,
care of rubbish, room for sports, retiring conveniences, etc.
Picnic lunches are usually best on such occasions because
they throw groups of people together and tend more toward
a social good time. But some provision must usually be
made for those who cannot conveniently bring lunches. It
is well to see that city and village people cooperate as well
as farmers.. Farmers alone do not often constitute a com-
munity. The best community spirit cannot be developed
unless all its component groups participate.

RURAL DRAMATICS

The play or drama given in the rural community by local
talent may be a useful means not only of developing the

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PERSONAL AND SOCIAL CONTACTS 127

play spirit, but of teaching useful lessons in working to-
gether as well. This means of arousing community spirit
should be more widely used than it is. In the same way
the historical or allegorical pageant has wonderful possi-
bilities for community development. Both help to train
local talent. They may also be useful in bringing about
needed improvements in the community.

Many persons hesitate to undertake local plays or pag-
eants, because they fear that they have not the necessary
skill or ability to give them. One does not need to be a
professionally trained actor to take part in a simple play
or pageant. With a very little study and drill he can take
part to his own credit and good and to the advantage of the
community. Many suitable plays are available. Some-
times local talent is available to write them for the occa-
sion. Usually helps may be secured from the State Uni-
versity.

COMMUNITY CLUBS

No means of personal and social contact is more impor-
tant than that in the local grange, farmers' club, union,
or other community group which meets regularly for the
discussion of local problems or for recreation. This fre-
quent meeting at regular intervals, usually in a hall of its
own, is a great advantage possessed by such organizations
as the grange, which as yet is not as generally enjoyed by
farm bureau groups. This vital need must be remedied
either by closer cooperation or by local organization of its
own if the farm bureau is to function locally. Here the
influence of leadership has full play. The finest of con-
tacts may be established in such groups and the influence
of personalities should be at its maximum. The alert
county agent will make the most of these opportunities
and see that other local leaders do also.

128 THE COUNTY AGENT^S SERVICES

Efforts at community betterment which stop at a single
or occasional meeting can seldom accomplish their full pur-
pose. Large and permanent values grow out of sustained
interest and continued effort. Much may be started in a
single meeting. Usually, however, real accomplishment
grows out of discussion over a considerable period and well
considered action by the people of the community on the
basis of their knowledge and desires maturely arrived at.
No means serves the end of permanent achievement in com-
munity life better than the regular club or local meeting.
Moreover, the effect of these meetings is cumulative.

SOCIAL VALUES

The social contact is invaluable. No county agent can
be very efficient without it. He must know the people with
whom he is .working, especially the leaders, in a personal
way. They must know him for his personal worth and
character. "Without such personal contact in a social way
the value of personality is likely to be lost and this great
asset of leadership dissipated. Confidence may not be es-
tablished or retained if acquired. Certainly enthusiasm
cannot be developed.

No county agents or local leaders ever know just how
valuable even the most casual personal contact may be.
So often a word of encouragement, a little information
given, an opinion expressed or a suggestion carelessly
dropped may prove to be the seed out of which great good
grows. No influence is more potent than the continued
impression of one strong personality upon another. One
has only to look about him to find everywhere ample evi-
dence of the truth of these observations.

CHAPTER VI
THE COUNTY AGENT'S JOB AND OPPORTUNITY

To few persons comes a bigger job and a larger opportu-
nity for service than comes to the county agent who is alive
to them. But as in other fields of service, much depends
upon the use that is made of the opportunity. The county
agent's job is usually what he makes it. It may be merely
one of great activity in unessential details and doing things
for farmers which they should do for themselves. Or, it
may be the organizing of the agriculture of a county, the
better training of its leadership and giving its citizenship
a new vision of their responsibilities, obligations and op-
portunities.

THE SIZE OF THE JOB

If the county agent is to be to agriculture what the
teacher is to the school and the pastor is to the church,
then his job is fairly well outlined. He is to teach, to
inform, to lead and to organize the agricultural interests
of his county to the common end of *' better farming, bet-
ter business, better living." He is essentially concerned
with the permanent welfare of the people of the county
in which he works. He is expected to help to make its
farming more profitable to the end that living in the homes
of its communities may be more satisfying, and thus the
■whole public welfare served.

The county agent will find that his constituency will vary-
all the way from about a thousand persons living on two
or three hundred farms to fifty or one hundred thousand

129

130 THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES

rural people living on ten thousand farms and in the rural
communities of which they are a part. The land embraced
in his school room — the county — may be from a hundred
thousand to several million acres, or from a few hundred
to many thousand square miles. The investment in the
farming industry in a county is seldom less than a million
and often runs into many millions of dollars. The annual
income and outgo from the farms of the smallest county
is very large, while that from the largest and most pros-
perous counties would rival the operations of large cor-
porations. But it is the rural citizenship of the county
that is its greatest asset and whose welfare and prosperity
is the county agent's greatest concern.

If there is such a thing as an ''average" county — and
there is a median between the limits of the extremes just
enumerated — it will be found to contain about twenty-five
hundred farms with approximately twelve thousand per-
sons living upon them. It will be about twenty miles wide
and thirty miles long and will contain about three hundred
thousand acres, about half improved land, and with farm
property worth about twenty-five million dollars, with an
annual income of approximately five millions and a pur-
chasing power of nearly or quite the same amount. These
averages vary greatly with the section of the county and the
type of country as well as with the individual county. In
any case it is a man-sized job, even physically and quan-
titatively.

When in addition one surveys the problems of the county
qualitatively, studies its people, its resources and its op-
portunities, he will usually be tremendously impressed with
the opportuntiies for service and the need of leadership
more fully to utilize its possibilities. Of course all prog-
ress is not dependent upon the county agent. But he can
stimulate local initiative, organize local forces and furnish

THE COUNTY AGENT'S JOB AND OPPORTUNITY 131

a ** leaven" which may result in much leavening of com-
munities.

NECESSARY QUALIFICATIONS

It will be readily apparent that if the possibilities of a
county agent's job are to be realized, and the opportunities
which it offers utilized, a person possessing not only knowl-
edge and ability but training, experience and certain per-
sonal qualities as well must be secured. Unless such a job
is to be a mere office to be perfunctorily filled — in which
ease it is practically useless — it is no place for a politician
or any other individual who is merely hunting for a job. It
must not be filled by an individual because he has influence
or a **pull." It is no place for an untrained farmer or
an inexperienced local favorite young man.

In Chapter III we have already pointed out some of the
necessary and important qualities of leadership. These
apply especially to county agents. An understanding and
sympathetic knowledge of farming and farmers and some
practical experience in the business are almost indispensa-
ble. Some special scientific training in agriculture, in-
cluding not only the productive processes of crop and ani-
mal growth, and the control of insects, diseases and other
limiting factors, but also in the business management of
farms and cooperative organizations, is essential. This
ought to be further supplemented by training in the gen-
eral fields of economics, sociology and education. "While
this may seem quite ideal now, the time will come when such
special advanced preparation or ** graduate study'* will not
only be sought but demanded for this exacting job.

But training and experience, essential as they are, are
not in themselves sufficient qualifications for a county
agent. Unless they are accompanied by those personal
qualities which make men acceptable as leaders to be fol-

132 THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES

lowed, they may be in vain. That vague and not easily
definable quality called '* personality'' is equally essential.
It must attract, inspire confidence and be able to arouse
enthusiasm. And it must have native ability and energy
to begin with.

There is great variation in the different states in the
exact requirements to make a candidate acceptable as a
county agent. As is pointed out in Chapter VIII, expe-
rience and knowledge of local conditions has been empha-
sized in the Southern states rather than special training
in the colleges. In the Northern and Western states the
emphasis has been put upon technical training. In the
South agents are as a rule older and more experienced
but not so definitely trained for their jobs as in the other
states. Only in isolated instances has political power or
other local influence been allowed to name the agents. As
a group county agents stand out as men of unusually good
personalities, energy and leadership. They are doers of
things and real leaders in their counties as a rule. No one
who has attended state conferences of county agents can
have failed to note the characteristic energetic ability of the
young men usually found there.

One of the states which has from the beginning set a
high standard of qualifications for county agents is Illinois.
The qualifications deemed necessary there for college ap-
proval of a county agent are :

(1) Graduation from a good agricultural college or the
equivalent in educational training.

(2) At least five years' actual residence and practical
experience on a farm.

(3) At least five years' successful experience in some
line of agricultural work after attaining the required edu-
cational training.

THE COUNTY AGENT'S JOB AND OPPORTUNITY 133

(4) In addition to these technical requirements the can-
didate must be otherwise acceptable and fit for the responsi-
bilities of a county agent.

These qualifications are ideals worthy of emulation by
all the states. Unfortunately they are not always prac-
tically attainable. The supply of men with these quali-
fications is limited. The demand for well trained and
well experienced persons in other lines, particularly in
commercial concerns dealing with agricultural supplies, of
cooperatives for managers and executives at higher sal-
aries than can be paid for agents is a competition some-
times hard to meet. County committees are often con-
fronted with the choice of accepting an agent below this
standard either in training or experience or going without
one. This standard should, however, be maintained wher-
ever possible. It is likely to be raised rather than lowered,
as the standards of intelligence and education among farm
people increase and as the supply of trained men from the
colleges becomes sufficient to meet the demands.

ADVANTAGES

The greatest appeal of the county agent's job to ambi-
tious young men is the wonderful opportunity which it
presents for service to agriculture. To be placed in so
large an area as a county, with the active backing and help
of a body of its best and most progressive farmer citizens
and with the support and cooperation of the state college
of agriculture and of the United States Department of
Agriculture, equipped with all the necessary facilities for
office and field work and with large freedom to exert one's
personal influence and ability and to apply them in carry-
ing out his ideals of service, is an opportunity such as

134 THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES

comes to few young men. Several thousand have accepted
the challenge of this opportunity in the last few years, a
few to fail, but the great majority successfully.

A large proportion of young men from the farms, espe-
cially those graduating from the agricultural colleges, nat-
urally desire to return to the farm for a life work. Many
are prevented from doing this at once by lack of capital and
by debts acquired in obtaining an education. To these
county agent work especially appeals not only as a means
of earning money but as an opportunity for valuable ex-
perience both in public service and in farm management.
A county agent has or must soon acquire the community
point of view. He soon learns the need for and the value
of community spirit and service. This makes him a more
useful citizen later in his own community. Moreover, he
has an unexcelled opportunity to come into close contact
with and for observation of the methods of the best farm-
ers in his county. If he is alert and receptive this expe-
rience may be of greater personal value to him than years
of graduate study.

The salary or income advantage of county agent work is
excellent. Very few agents have to begin their work at
less than fifteen hundred dollars a year, and in most states
assistant agents begin at this or a larger salary. Coun-
ties which pay less than $2,000 are usually strictly rural,
the county seat is a small town and rents and other living
costs are proportionately low. The average county agri-
cultural agent receives between $2,500 and $3,000 a year.
Many county agents receive from $3,500 to $5,000 annually.
The salaries of home demonstration and boys' and girls'
club agents have about the same range with a lower upper
limit and an average perhaps twenty per cent less.

Salaries are usually less in the poorer and more exclu-
sively agricultural counties with less taxable wealth and

THE COUNTY AGENT'S JOB AND OPPORTUNITY 135

larger in the richer farming counties and in those with
cities and hence having greater property valuations. In
general, salaries of connty agents are lowest in the South
and highest in the Middle West and in certain wealthy
Eastern counties.

The rapidity and comparative ease with which a county
agent's salary can be and often is raised is an advantage.
Coming as it does from several sources — federal, state and
county appropriations and the fees of farmers in the county
associations — there are many sources from which to obtain
the necessary funds if desired. There is very little ^'red
tape" to be complied with. Ability and success are in
most cases quickly recognized and rewarded. Increases in
salary depend chiefly on the county executive committees,
and these men, usually deeply interested in the work and
close to it, are as a rule appreciative of real service ren-
dered and liberal in recognizing it.

During the calendar year of 1921, 511 county agricul-
tural agents, 276 home demonstration agents and 137 boys*
and girls' club agents resigned. In their places and in
new and unfilled counties were appointed 639 new county
agricultural, 284 new home demonstration and 109 new
boys' and girls' club agents in the United States. This in-
dicates large opportunities and frequent openings in this
field of service, not difficult to win when a person prepares
himself for it.

To the uninformed observer this high percentage of turn-
over and short term of service may seem to contradict and
offset the advantages of the job just enumerated. This is
not the case. A usual and inevitable percentage of ap-
pointees fail to make good, partly because they are not
adapted to the job and partly from lack of sufficient prep-
aration of the right kind. The greater part of the re-
placements, however, are due to the fact that the success-

136 THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES

ful county agent because of his broad experience and dem-
onstrated ability is immediately in great demand by
commercial or cooperative concerns dealing in farm sup-
plies and commodities or in more advanced positions in the
extension service and in related fields able to pay larger
salaries. In other words, county agents' work is a great
training ground for young men for the general agricultural
field and is often a stepping stone to other and still more
lucrative and satisfying fields of service.

DISADVANTAGES

Aside from its disadvantages the county agent's job is
far from an easy one. It means lots of hard work and
long hours. Hard work is not in itself a disadvantage,
but there is a limit to the endurance of all men. When to
hard work, which any healthy virile young person should
welcome, is added the element of long hours, many of them
at night, with duties of an exacting character, even an
ambitious high-idealed youth wearies of it sooner or later.
The facts show that he does.

If it is a great advantage to have the acquaintance, con-
fidence and support of large numbers of farmers in the
county, it is equally a disadvantage to have to be at their
constant call when information or other help is wanted.
Contact with all these individuals must be maintained in
some form in order to keep the opportunity for service
open and to carry forward the work. This is one of the
penalties of all such public service and one which wears
on most men in time. To some, of course it is less irk-
some than to others; but of all it exacts much time and
energy.

To be constantly on the alert to do things that need to
be done, to get them done, and in so doing not to offend

THE COUNTY AGENT'S JOB AND OPPORTUNITY 137

but to please men; to assist in formulating and carrying
forward county and community programs of work ; to help
to build and to maintain all the necessary machinery to
do the work; to inspire local leadership, create enthusi-
asm and keep the whole idea functioning; these are some
of the responsibilities and obligations which the county
agent must meet and which naturally get to be wearing.
Especially when they are not appreciated by those who
benefit, as is sometimes the case, is it easy to become dis-
couraged. The job is an exacting one.

The county agent's life is a busy and a strenuous one,
if he is a good agent. There is always so much to do. The
more capable and successful an agent is, the heavier is the
pressure on him and the greater the demand for his serv-
ices. The work not only keeps him busy. It drives him.
It absorbs his physical energy. Long hard drives in the
**fliver'' almost every day and in all kinds of weather
and conditions. Many " talks '* on all sorts of occasions
in every part of the county call for thoughtful preparation
as well as for energy and skill. Many evenings are spent
away from home and midnight returns from meetings at
distant points in the county are the common thing. Con-
stant telephone calls are apt to be his lot at night as well
as during the day. All these and other demands of the
work call for devotion and the larger outlook if one is not
to be overwhelmed by multifarious details.

FIRST STEPS IN COUNTY AGENT WORK

The county agent new to his county is sometimes at a
loss to know where to begin — what to do first. It may be
well therefore to indicate some of the most important first
things to be done.

The efiScient county agent will be more than a personal

138 THE COUNTY AGENT^S SERVICES

worker, especially when he is supported by a strong county
organization. He will have many facilities and much ma-
chinery to use in his work. His first job, therefore, should
be to familiarize himself with these. He needs to know the
office personnel and their fitness and adaptability for
various tasks, his files, his library references, his office
equipment and general facilities. This will require only
a few days.

The next and equally important step is acquaintance
with the field organization and personnel. This calls for
visits to community committeemen and other local leaders
in their homes and on their farms in order to know them
personally and in their own environment, to be known by
them and to plan local work with them. Such personal
acquaintance is vital. Many new agents make mistakes in
underestimating its value or in delaying it. Little prog-
ress can be made in any locality without that personal
knowledge which affords some .basis for mutual confidence
and respect. An agent comes to mind who was obliged
to resign after six months in his county, chiefly because he
had failed to make contacts with local committeemen and
could not therefore get active local cooperation. This will
require more time — a month or two. Meetings and dem-
onstrations are good helps to this end.

A third step which should be begun simultaneously with
the others is the study of the county's agriculture and its
problems. Every possible means should be used for this.
In the office census figures, old reports and records and all *
other available data should be studied. Especially should
a new agent familiarize himself with great care with what
has been done in the county by his predecessors. All such
information needs to be checked by his own observation in
the county and with committeemen and farmers generally.
From all possible sources the county agent should inform

THE COUNTY AGENT'S JOB AND OPPORTUNITY 139

himself and gather all necessary facts to help him know
his problem thoroughly.

Having completed these steps, which will not usually
occupy more than two to four months according to the size
of the county, the county agent should have made the
county program of work his own and have the plans for
its development well under way. He may also have
changes to suggest in the plans. It is very important that
the county agent know the county program and have his
plans perfected for its carrying out at the earliest possible
date after his arrival in the county.

GOALS AND IDEALS

Unless the county Lgent approaches his job with high
and right ideals, unless he keeps always in mind the larger
goals, he may succeed with details but fail of really im-
portant accomplishment. It is highly important therefore
that he keep the larger objective before him.

He must believe that individuals and communities are
capable of solving their own problems and act accordingly.
Remembering that his own chief function is to teach better
methods and practices and to assist in developing local or-
ganization and leadership as the best means of solving local
problems, he must allow local people to assume responsi-
bility and encourage them to do things for themselves.
Ability for self-help is the best result of education and
the soundest basis for permanent improvement.

The surest and most effective way to help men and women
is to help them to help themselves. Men acquire the ability
to do by doing for themselves rather than by simply being
told or by having things done for them. Developed capac-
ity and ability for self-help are permanent — the improve-
ment goes on. If the so-called assistance is from without,

140 THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES

improvement is likely to stop when the outside assistance
ceases. Moreover, direct aid to individuals and to groups
must always be limited — only a comparative few can be
effectively reached. But self-help under the incentive of
wise leadership and sound organization, as well as indi-
vidual initiative, is unlimited.

The county agent's job is no sinecure. It is a challenge
of real opportunity to strong young men and women. The
aspirant to such a job must be willing to work hard, ready
to overcome all kinds of difficulties and discouragements.
But above all he must have a big vision of the size and
the possibilities of his field of work. To one who has such
a will to win and such a vision of service, there surely comes
great reward both in material personal advancement and in
spiritual satisfaction.

PART n

THE BACKGROUND AND THE MEANS OF
SERVICE

CHAPTER Vn

THE AGRICULTURAL SITUATION AND
OPPORTUNITY

Too many of our people regard farming as an occupation
with which they have no particular concern and merely as
a matter of general interest. This all too common attitude
on the part of persons not engaged in agriculture or re-
lated pursuits is a cause for grave concern to students of
the problem of feeding the Nation. The great consumer
public is or should be as vitally concerned with the welfare
of agriculture and with the rendering of the necessary
public service to farming as are the farmers themselves in
having this service.

WHT THE PUBLIC IS INTERESTED

Because the problem of an adequate food supply at
reasonable prices is probably the biggest before the Nation,
a sound and efficient agriculture is a public necessity. The
farms are the source of the Nation's food supply and as
such must be safeguarded, conserved and developed to meet
the needs of a growing population. For its own protection
a nation should be self-supporting in peace as well as in
war. The consumer should be interested in the mainte-
nance of the quality of the product through protection from
insects and diseases by inspection and demonstration, grad-
ing and standardization to secure uniformity, and efficient
methods of marketing to preserve quality up to the time
of delivery.

143

144 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

Moreover, an efficient and prosperous citizenship on the
farms is essential to public welfare. Agriculture can be
sound, permanent and efficient only when it is profitable
to farmers. That this has not always been the case during
the past fifty years, the strong continuing movement of
population from country to city is evidence. This con-
stant movement from farms to cities, supplemented by the
natural growth of cities and by immigration chiefly to
cities, has changed the ratio of one farm family to one city
family in 1860 to one farm family to practically three city
and village families in 1920 ; so that now one farmer must
feed his own and two or three other families.

That the farmer has been able to do this is due in part
to the great improvement and increased use of farm ma-
chinery, and in part to education and the application of an
increased intelligence to his problems. But conditions in
the country are not yet sufficiently attractive to hold enough
of its best young men and young women there. The aver-
age age of farmers is high. We are probably due for a
further recession from the farms.

Agricultural conservation, development and education
are therefore matters of public concern. There is great
need for more intelligent public understanding and con-
sideration of farm problems, and for the formulation of a
forward-looking constructive public agricultural policy.
The county agent system can and does contribute to these
ends and is therefore in the public interest. Farmers may
receive the direct benefits of the county agents' work, but
the general public often receives the larger if the less direct
benefits.

THE OBLIGATION OF FARMERS

Because agriculture is of such great importance to all,
the farmer himself has a peculiar obligation and responsi-

AGRICULTURAL SITUATION AND OPPORTUNITY 145

bility to the whole nation. It is vitally important that he
support and cooperate with the public efforts to aid agri-
culture. Government cannot help the farmer unless he
tries to help himself. But in a partnership with farmers
much help can be given by public agencies. Such a system
of cooperation between farmers and the public is essential
to a permanent agriculture.

Marketing and distribution are consumers' as well as
farmers' problems — no one group can solve them alone and
without the support of the other. The public must come to
understand and appreciate the farmer's problems and to
work with him sympathetically toward their solution.
More real progress has been made in the effective organiza-
tion of farmers to achieve these mutually desirable ends
in the last decade than in the preceding half century.

This has been made possible chiefly through the great
national system of agricultural extension in which the
county agent is a most important element. Through the
county agent the principles of successful farming and mar-
keting are being demonstrated. Farmers are coming phys-
ically together, are learning to know and work with one
another, and to think their problems through. Local unit
and commodity organizations are growing up to meet mar-
keting problems. Common experience and common prin-
ciples applied locally are leading to the uniformity which
is making possible state and national organization. The
county agent is contributing an educational, reasoning
viewpoint and attitude toward the problems. Gradually
farmers are acquiring this attitude themselves.

In a larger way and to aid and promote the great end
of a sound and permanent agriculture in the interests of
all, a partnership has been formed between science and
practice. The colleges and experiment stations are the
sources of scientific facts. Farmers must be the ones to

146 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

make practical use of these facts. Many failures in farm-
ing can be traced to unscientific principles and methods.
Much that science has found out awaits application by the
farmer to make it useful. The farmer cannot afford not
to use to the utmost the facts science has revealed. The
colleges cannot afford to be without an organized touch
with practical men and affairs. The farm and home bu-
reaus are the joint or partnership agencies which, support-
ing the county agent, are harnessing science and practice
in an efficient team.

CHANGES IN AMERICAN AGRICULTURE

No attempt to describe the functions, work and oppor-
tunities of county agents and county farm bureaus would
be complete unless it were fitted into the background of the
situation in which the modern farmer lives and works.
Therefore, in the beginning of this section, we need first
to remind ourselves of the principal changes which have
taken place in American agriculture in the last fifty years
or more, the effect of these changes on the business of farm-
ing and on country life, and their relation to the work and
opportunities of county agents.

Agriculture with all its natural stability and conserv-
ativeness has been no exception to the rule of rapid develop-
ment and change which has taken place in America since
the Civil War. Probably in no section of American life
and industry have these changes been more profound in
their influence or more disturbing in their effects. Orig-
inally a purely agricultural country with a dominant farm-
ing population, the United States has become a country
of trading and manufacture as well as of farming. In
spite of the fact that the business of farming has grown
enormously, it necessarily has come to hold a smaller if

AGRICULTURAL SITUATION AND OPPORTUNITY 147

increasingly important place, relative to the total wealth
and occupations of all our people.

INCREASED EFFICIENCY

The total value of our agricultural products has grown
from a few hundred millions in the early part of the nine-
teenth century to the enormous total value in 1919, of
twenty-four billion seven hundred million dollars. It has
more than tripled in value since 1900. In 1820 the total
number of persons in the United States which had to be
supplied with food from our farms was only nine million,
six hundred and thirty-three thousand, eight hundred and
twenty-two. By 1860 it had grown to thirty-one million,
four hundred and forty-three thousand, three hundred and
twenty-one persons, while in 1920, sixty years later, the
number had grown to one hundred and five million, seven
hundred and eight thousand, seven hundred and seventy-
one.

A still more startling evidence of growth and change is
the fact that while one hundred years ago but four and
nine-tenths per cent of the population was urban, to-day
more than one-half (51.4) of our people live in cities.
Indeed, less than one-third of our workers were engaged
in agricultural pursuits in 1920 as compared with eighty-
seven and one-tenth per cent one hundred years before.

The situation might have been serious had not the Amer-
ican farmer increased his man efficiency tremendously. Dr.
G. F. Warren has shown that the farmers* efforts are now
fifty-nine per cent more productive than they were fifty
years before. Further evidence of this can be seen in the
production of cereals. In 1860 the total pounds of all
kinds of grain produced by our farmers amounted to two
thousand and ninety-six pounds for each person in the

148 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

country. In 1920, in spite of an increase of two hundred
thirty-six per cent in population, the total pounds of grain
produced per person had increased to twenty-six hundred
and twenty-eight. Even the latter amount was a decrease
from the high point of 1880 when the amount was twenty-
eight hundred and forty-seven pounds per person. To
state it another way, the rural population produced one
hundred seventeen per cent more grain per worker in 1920
than in 1860.

OVER-PRODUCTION

This relatively great increase in agricultural production
had a tremendous influence on the business of farming.
Prior to the Civil "War the agriculture of the country,
though expanding rapidly, had been practically normal in
relation to the total population. Immediately after the
Civil War, however, under the stimulus of high prices, free
government land and the too rapid building of railroads
under government subsidies, new areas of land were opened
up faster than new population needed an increased food
supply, with the inevitable result of an over production of
food, and hence of cheap food.

The most striking result of this condition was the be-
ginning of a great movement from the country to the
cities. Cheap food meant cheap labor and cheap material,
and these two factors made possible a period of city build-
ing and of urban development which was the most remark-
able characteristic of the last century in the United States
and which has not yet come to an end. A better idea of
just what this means is obtained when we contrast ourselves
with China, where about eighty per cent of the population
are engaged in food production, whereas our own system
of agriculture and the efficiency of our farmers in the
United States makes it possible for more than two-thirds.

AGRICULTURAL SITUATION AND OPPORTUNITY 149

of our workers to engage in industry, trade and manufac-
ture, while the other one-third produces the food to feed
alL

Another and a reflex result of this condition of over
production and consequent cheap food, was a falling of
land values, more especially in the older East and South,
where the farms had been longer settled and hence the land
longer used. This went so far in some parts of the coun-
try as to cause the abandonment of much of the rougher,
poorer and least productive land in these regions. Banks
compelled to foreclose mortgages acquired numbers of these
poorer farms. This tended to break down their confidence
in the business of farming, which later had its effect in the
impairment of the farmers' credit in these sections, and
from which it is only now beginning to recover.

THE REACTION

It was of course inevitable that these conditions would
eventually tend to correct themselves as they did. The
opening of the twentieth century saw a gradual rise of
prices which in the latter part of the last decade the world
war brought to a level never before reached in the history
of the United States, although the farmers' purchasing
power did not show relatively as much increase. The farm-
er's economic situation, which had been gradually improv-
ing since the beginning of the new century, was still further
ameliorated by the war prices, and he was heartened and
rendered much more able to cope with his growing prob-
lems of infertility, insect and disease control and marketing
and distribution.

A growing consciousness of the problem of the farms
and of the public dependence upon and obligation toward
agriculture was beginning to be apparent at the opening

150 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

of the century. It had already manifested itself in the
establishment of a national Department of Agriculture
with a Secretary of Agriculture in the President's cabinet,
in the founding and permanent endowment of agricultural
colleges and experiment stations in all the states, in thef
setting up of a rural free delivery of the mail, and in other
ways. To these were added in the first decade of the new
century the building of many new market roads and the
beginnings of a very large development and wide extension
of agricultural education.

All these developments were stimulated by the war and
its effects, and together with the ever increasing applica-
tion of modem inventions to farming and country life,
such as the telephone, farm power machinery, especially
the gasoline engine, the automobile, the truck and the farm
tractor, they have brought about great changes on the
American farm.

THE RURAL COMMUNITY

The rural community of the period before the Civil War
was practically self-sustaining. Its women carded, spun
and wove, cut, fitted, sewed and knitted the farm family's
clothing. Its men made the needed shoes, furniture and
farm implements. Its people lived and worked together
in the fields, churches and schools and were able to supply
the greater part of their own needs.

The rapid development of railroad transportation soon
began to effect changes in rural communities. The build-
ing of great new highways and especially the coming of
the automobile completed the transformation. The rural
community was no longer self-sufficient and self-sustaining.
Rural isolation, and unfortunately many rural ideals also.

AGRICULTURAL SITUATION AND OPPORTUNITY 151

gave way to a new social life in which the town and city
were too largely the pattern. This marked the beginning
of the breakdown of the small rural town and of the serious
impairment of many rural institutions, notably the rural
church.

The industrial development of the period had of course
been accompanied and aided by great and efficient organiza-
tions of capital and labor. The owners of capital had early
acquired great power and influence as a direct result of
this organization. Taking its lesson from this example and
out of its necessity, labor has now developed similar power
and influence through organization. But the farmer, in a
similar and more difficult position, had not yet learned the
lesson of the need and the remedy for it. He had his social
organizations, of which the Grange or Patrons of Hus-
bandry was perhaps the oldest and most noteworthy. He
had attempted economic organization, usually without suc-
cess either because of a lack of a proper appreciation of the
problem and its attendant difficulties, with consequent lack
of preparation along right lines, or because of attempting
to remedy an economic difficulty by political means.

But out of the wreck of many commercial cooperative
enterprises much experience had been gained and some
solid achievements attained. The most notable of these
were the cooperative grain elevators of the Middle West
and the fruit marketing in California and in the North-
west. So that at the opening of the twentieth century the
American farmer was just coming to a realization of his
need for economic organization and of the means of attain-
ing it. He was at the threshold of a period of organization
in agriculture when the isolated individuality of the

152 BACKGROUND AND ]\CEANS OF SERVICE

farmer was to give way in large measure under the pres-
sure of economic necessity, to collective organized action
in matters of common concern.

THE OPPORTUNITY

Into this general situation in agriculture near the be-
ginning of the second decade of the new century there came
the county agent. Never was there greater need or a
greater opportunity for service to farmers. The problems
of production were becoming acute. There was great need
for the further application of science to practice. Agri-
cultural experiment and research institutions had accu-
mulated much valuable information which, though available
in bulletins, needed wider dissemination, demonstration and
application. Instruction and demonstration of the prin-
ciples of good organization as applied to marketing, and
assistance in setting up marketing units was needed.

Community consciousness was beginning to stir in the
minds of farmers; social and community problems were
crying for attention. The need of educational leadership
was never greater. Farmers had always been individual-
ists. They were beginning to realize the necessity of com-
mon action, but needed to be shown how to accomplish it.

In short, the field was ripe for leadership such as a
virile public service agency might furnish. If county
agents could help to meet adequately any of these major
needs, if they could be the means of assisting to work out
the solution of any of these pressing problems, the success
of the movement would be assured.

CHAPTER Vin
THE BEGINNINGS OF COUNTY AGENT WORK

CharacteristicalLiY, county agent work began with a def-
inite project of service to farmers in a time of need. It
established an ideal often forgotten, but always a first
principle of successful county agent activity — service
through education.

IN THE SOUTH

Down in the Southland a new pest of ''King Cotton,"
known as the *'boll weevil/' had reached such a destructive
stage by 1903 and 1904 in certain areas of East Texas, where
cultural methods were far from good, that it threatened the
very existence of several communities. The cotton crop,
which was the main income producer here, was so reduced
as seriously to affect the farmer's credit and his buying
power. So the business of many small rural towns was
drying up. In this emergency Congress was appealed to
and an appropriation was secured. With this appropria-
tion and under the direction of Dr. Seaman A. Knapp in
the Department of Agriculture an effort was begun to*
control the boll weevil.

So far there was nothing new in the undertaking. Sim-
ilar troubles had occurred before. Appropriations by Con-
gress were a common but not always a sure remedy. It
was the methods employed by Doctor Knapp that proved
to be epochal.

Working in cooperation with the Department's trained
scientists in the Bureaus of Plant Industry and Entomol-

153

154 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

ogy, Doctor Knapp soon learned that certain better cultural
methods, properly carried out, would measurably control
the new pest even if it did not eradicate it. By burning
old stalks, by early planting of early varieties with better
seed, by better preparation of the seed bed, by more thor-
ough cultivation of the crop, by agitation of the stalks,
and by other means, the injury done by the weevil could
be reduced to the minimum necessary to produce a living
return. How to convince farmers of this and how to get
these practices generally adopted was the real problem.
That the pest could at least be measurably controlled had
already been demonstrated on a few selected farms by fed-
eral agents who knew what could be done. But these were
limited in their influence on the practices of neighboring
farmers. To convince the majority of the cotton planters
of the value of the practices advocated was the task to
which Doctor Knapp resolutely set himself.^

LOCAL COOPERATION ENLISTED

Beginning with the most progressive citizens, mostly
townspeople who owned and rented out their land to negro
and other tenants — including besides a few leading farm-
ers, merchants, bankers, lawyers and teachers — the coop-
eration of the cotton planters was enlisted. The new
methods were preached up and down the land, by word of
mouth and in the newspapers. It was not difficult to get
town cooperation, for farm buying power had been seriously
depleted and the merchants grasped at any promising
straw.

To aid in securing local cooperation from the farmers
themselves. Doctor Knapp established districts with local
agents in charge, the district agents being lieutenants for

1 The first county agent in the South was W. C. Stallings in
Smith Co., Texas.

THE BEGINNINGS OF COUNTY AGENT WORK 155

the state agents. These local agents were preferably and
usually local farmers ''in good repute with the people''
who had been practically successful with the control meth-
ods advocated by the Department, and who had local knowl-
edge of the problems and the methods of the people with
whom they worked. They traveled from farm to farm
and gave personal instruction to farmers who by actual
demonstrations showed that cotton could be profitably
grown in spite of the weevil.

The farmers on these supervised farms were known as
''demonstrators." In addition to these the local agents
secured the cooperation of other cotton growers in the
neighborhood who under their general suggestions also
practiced control measures. These latter were known as
''cooperators." The difference between the "demon-
strator'' and the *'cooperator" was that the latter was not
personally visited on his farm, although he was invited to
visit his neighboring demonstrator to receive the same per-
sonal instruction from the demonstrator. Both received
the same instructions and made the same reports.

In spite of the handicap of negro and "poor white"
tenantry, these local demonstration methods were so suc-
cessfully used that by 1906 a reasonable control of the boll
weevil had been obtained in the limited areas worked in.
Then there began to be demands for the application of the
plan in other areas and in other states, and it was soon
extended to parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Ala-
bama and Tennessee, everywhere with a considerable degree
of success.

Not only was application of the method extended to new
areas, but it was applied to new crops and to new practices.
New crops, particularly corn and legumes, were introduced
and their growth and culture demonstrated. Crop rota-
tions, humus, its value, and how to get it and keep it,

156 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

drainage, farm accounts, and the greater use of livestock,
all these and other things were successfully taught by the
**show me" method.

As a matter of fact, when Doctor Knapp attempted to
demonstrate better cultural methods in the Southeastern
states, particularly in Georgia, he found the cultural prac-
tices of farmers there far in advance of those in Texas
and in many localities even as good as his own demonstra-
tions there. Since the weevil had not then reached this
territory the demonstration work became a matter of prepa-
ration for its coming. This preparation took the form of
ejfforts to diversify the farming of these states. The early
work was chiefly one-acre demonstrations of corn growing
with boys, which was followed by the introduction of hogs
gmd cattle. Much good was accomplished, the fuller results
beij^ harvested with the coming of the weevil.

EXTENT OP EARLY DEVELOPMENT

It is estimated that there were in 1904 about fifteen
agents engaged in this work and about twenty agents in

1905 with from four to six thousand persons enrolled. In

1906 under the term ''cotton culture farms," there were
about twenty-five agents doing demonstration work in parts
of the five states mentioned above. Approximately eight
thousand persons were cooperating at that time. Three
hundred and fifty-nine farms were secured and placed
under the full supervision of the agents for the purpose of
securing special results. By the end of 1913 the number
of agents in the thirteen Southern states had increased to
eight hundred and seventy-eight and the number of dem-
onstrators and cooperators to one hundred two thousand
seven hundred and eighteen. Beginning in 1909 these
agents also carried on demonstration work with women and

THE BEGINNINGS OF COUNTY AGENT WORK 157

boys and girls, and it was not differentiated into separate
lines with special agents in charge until 1914. This part
of the story is left for later consideration.

Teaching by showing and with local cooperation proved
to be so successful that by 1914, when the Smith-Lever Ex-
tension Act was passed and county agent work inaugurated
throughout the whole country, the farm demonstration
movement had spread to all the thirteen Southern states.
To this southern group the states of West Virginia and
Kentucky were later added, and this made the Division of
Extension Work, South.^ Because the county was recog-
nized as a local political unit with a local appropriating
body, the demonstration work was soon organized on a
county basis and the agents were called ''county agents."

Financial cooperation on the part of the counties was
begun in 1909 when Mississippi passed a law authorizing
its county commissioners to appropriate funds for the sup-
port of county agents. Up to this time the greater part
of the cash cost of the work had been paid from Congres-
sional appropriations supplemented by gifts from the Gen-
eral Education Board and by some local contributions from
Chambers of Commerce, banks and individuals.

In 1911 the first cooperative relations were established
in the states. In this year the federal Department made
an agreement with the South Carolina and this marked the
beginning of the influence of the colleges of agriculture
in the South upon the county agent movement. From this
time on with increasing county and state financial aid
and under the Smith-Lever Act, the localities came to have
a larger part in the organization, conduct and control of
the county agent work in the South.

1 Combined with "North & West" in 1922.

158 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

IN THE NORTH AND WEST

In the states outside the cotton belt the county agent
movement had a later and somewhat different origin, al-
though the general idea of practical field demonstrations
directly on the farms, adapted from the South, was the
same.

In the majority of the states in the North and West the
nature, status and comparative wealth of the agricultural
population had created different problems which necessi-
tated a somewhat different method of attack. Particu-
larly in the Middle Western states and in parts of the
Eastern and the far Western states, farming was generally
more advanced and better diversified and developed. The
type of farming was more permanent, a greater proportion
of the farmers owning and living on their farms. The
complication of negro tenantry was absent. The problems
were special ones, among which the economic aspects, par-
ticularly efficiency in production to lower costs and mar-
keting and distribution, were most urgently in need of
solution. Livestock and fertility problems loomed large.
There was as much or more to be done, but it required a
different organization and a different approach to accom-
plish results. A larger amount of self-help was essential
and the resources of farmers had to be organized to bear
upon these problems.

EARLY ATTEMPTS NOT SUCCESSFUL

It was under the direction of Professor W. J. Spillman,
then chief of the Office of Farm Management, that the so-
called ''farm management field studies and demonstra-
tions" were carried on in the first decade of the new cen-
tury. A few men with large districts, usually comprising

THE BEGINNINGS OF COUNTY AGENT WORK 159

several states, were visiting and observing the practices of
the best farmers in several regions, and then by writing
these up for publication ^ and by conducting field excur-
sions to visit these best farms, and sometimes by actual
demonstrations, they were endeavoring, in an inadequate
way, to apply the method so successful in the South to
Northern and "Western conditions.

The policy and the tendency in this work was always to
localize it by taking on additional men as fast as the funds
would permit. In 1908, for example, the writer became an
assistant to Lawrence G. Dodge, who had for several years
been carrying on this type of work in the New England
states and in New York and Pennsylvania. The writer
gave practically all his time to New York state. In 1909
Mr. George Monroe of Dryden, N. Y., began for the Bureau
of Soils some demonstrations on some so-called * ' abandoned
farms '* in the hill country of Tompkins County, N. Y.,
looking toward their rejuvenation with lime and clover.
In the summer of 1910 three other practical farmers, Mr.
E. C. Gillette in Yates and Steuben Counties, Mr. D. P.
Witter in Tioga County, and Mr. George Hinman in
Broome County, were employed by the federal government,
under the writer's direction, to carry on demonstrations
with farmers in this territory. About the same time Mr.
A. B. Ross, who was working independently in the farming
section near Schnellsburg, Bedford County, Pa., was put on
the government payroll for the same purpose.

None of this work was permanent. Little, if any, local
support was enlisted, and while no doubt much good was
done in individual cases, its chief value was that it did
throw light on the general problem. Similar isolated and

1 For examples, see Bureau Plant Industry Circular No. 64, "Agri-
cultural Conditions in Southern New York," and Bulletin No. 32
of the same Bureau, "An Example of Successful Farming in South-
ern New York."

160 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

mostly unsuccessful attempts to apply the Southern plan
in the North were made elsewhere at about the same time.
The most notable of these was in Ohio, where at one time,
according to W. A. Lloyd, "more than four thousand co-
operative experiments were carried on.'^

BROOME COUNTY, NEW YORK

It was in Broome County, at Binghamton, N. Y., on
March 1, 1911, that the first county agent in the Northern
and Western states was permanently established; and this
was by the Chamber of Commerce. During the summer
of 1910, partly as a result of the report of the Country
Life Commission, of which L. H. Bailey was chairman, and
partly aroused by a visit of the then Secretary of Agricul-
ture, James Wilson, to inspect some of the work above
referred to, and who were impressed by the number of the
apparently "abandoned farms" on the hills of Southern
New York, Byers H. Gitchell, then Secretary of the Bing-
hamton Chamber of Agriculture, began the agitation for a
"farm bureau,'^ or department of the Chamber, as a means
of "extending to farmers the same opportunities for co-
operation now enjoyed by the business men of this city."

The idea was aided and encouraged by the Delaware,
Lackawanna and Western Railroad, which had planned a
demonstration farm along its lines but which, on the ad-
vice of W. J. Spillman, gave up the plan and joined with
the Binghamton Chamber of Commerce in the employment
of a permanent resident county agent in Broome County.
This railroad, due largely to the influence of its former
general traffic manager, George A. CuUen, continued to
aid this and other bureaus in New York state with its con-
tributions and support up to 1920. Following a summer's
study and survey of the situation by all the parties inter-

THE BEGINNINGS OF COUNTY AGENT WORK 161

ested in the plan, including representatives of the State
College and the Federal Department of Agriculture, an
agreement was reached whereby the work was to be jointly
financed by the Binghamton Chamber of Commerce, the
Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad and the
U. S. Department of Agriculture. The State College of
Agriculture, unable to contribute financially, was to ''give
advice and encouragement." The object of the plan as
set forth in the formal memoranda was stated to be :

**To undertake propaganda work in the agricultural dis-
trict in the vicinity of Binghamton, N. Y., to make an
agricultural survey of the territory, study the farmers'
problems, find their solution by a study of the practices
of successful farmers, study the relation of types of farm-
ing to local conditions of soil, climate, markets, etc., dem-
onstrate systems of farming used by successful farmers of
the district, and conduct demonstrations with farmers, do
educational work through the media of institutes, etc., ad-
vising with the farmers individually and otherwise as to
the best methods, crops, cropping systems, stock, labor,
tools and other equipment.''

So with these worthy objects in view, in the spring of
1911, John H. Barron, farm reared, and a graduate of his
State College of Agriculture, was established with an office
in the Binghamton Chamber of Commerce as the first
locally employed county agent in the Northern and West-
ern states. The first year his only means of getting about
was a livery horse and buggy, but this was soon succeeded
by the all but universal county agent's Ford.

Though the program was ambitious, the results were not
startling. Farmers were more or less indifferent. They
felt that something was being done for them — some thought
to them — in which they had little or no part. Their ex-
perience was that railroads and business men usually had

162 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

some selfish object of their own in fostering such move-
ments. They couldn't imagine such organizations abso-
lutely unselfishly "helping the farmer"; and they felt,
moreover, that they didn't need this kind of help. As
indicated in the statement of objects, the movement was
from the outside, and though with the best of intent just
another attempt of the city man to help the farmer raise
more food for the consumer. It soon developed that the
farmer was more interested in getting more money for
what he did raise. Had not the agent been of a very prac-
tical turn of mind, a farm-reared boy who knew farmers,
and a member of that old and worthy farmers' organiza-
tion— the Grange — the effort must certainly have failed.
As it was farmers — except a few of the most successful
men — ^more or less disinterestedly tolerated it.

THE MOVEMENT SPREADS

Meanwhile two more agents had been added to counties
in New York, G. P. Scoville in Chemung on April 1, 1912,
and F. E. Robertson in Jefferson on April 14, 1912. Other
counties in New York followed in rapid succession, until on
January 1, 1914, there were nineteen agents at work in
this state.

This was typical of events in several states. In Missouri,
Sam Jordan began work in Pettis County in April, 1912,
under the auspices of the ** Boosters' Club." About a year
later he was appointed as a county agent by the Missouri
College of Agriculture and the U. S. Department of Agri-
culture. C. W. Mc Williams was officially appointed county
agent in Cape Girardeau County, Missouri, in August,
1912. During the same year a *' Better Farming Associa-
tion" was organized in Bottineau County, North Dakota,
by a group of bankers with Thomas Cooper, now Dean of

John H. Barron, the first county agent in tlie Nortliern and
Western States, and James Quinn, the first county farm bureau
president, on Mr. Quinn's farm at Binghamton, Broome County,
N. Y. The application of lime for the improvement of hill pas-
tures was one of the earliest and most useful demonstrations in
this territory.

A county club leader pointing out to the club members the good
points of a dairy calf owned by one of their number. The com-
pletion of the project, whether it be rearing a dairy calf to
maturity or growing a crop, together with the securing and ac-
counting for the results, is a first essential to good boys' and girls'
club work.

THE BEGINNINGS OF COUNTY AGENT WORK 163

the Kentucky College of Agriculture as secretary. M. B.
Johnson was selected as county agent. This was before
federal funds were available. Later, Mr. Johnson was ap-
pointed a county agent by the U. S. Department of Agri-
culture and is said to be the third agent so appointed in
the Northern and Western states. Since the first two, John
Barron of Broome County, New York, and A. B. Ross of
Bedford County, Pennsylvania, have resigned to accept
other positions, and since Mr. 5l. B. Johnson is still em-
ploj^ed as a county agent, though now in McKenzie County,
North Dakota, it is claimed that he is really the ** senior
county agent in the United States" in point of service. In
Illinois two county agents were appointed on June 1, 1912 :
Mr. W. G. Eckhardt in DeKalb County, and Mr. John
Collier in Kankakee County.

During 1912 and 1913, agents were also appointed in
counties in several other states, including Vermont, New
Jersey, Minnesota, and Indiana. In August, 1912, the first
specific appropriation by the federal government was made
available for county agent work in the North and West.
During the year ending June 30, 1913, about one hundred
agents were appointed in as many counties in the thirty-
three Northern and Western states. These appointments
fully launched the movement in this section of the United
States.

PUBLIC RECOGNITION

The state legislature in several states now recognized the
movement by authorizing their county Boards of Super-
visors, County Courts, or County Commissioners, as they
are variously called, to levy money for ''farm develop-
ment" and for the ''support and maintenance of county
farm bureaus." North Dakota and New York were among
the first of states to pass such laws, which they did in 1912.

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THE BEGINNINGS OF COUNTY AGENT WORK 169

Other states soon followed, and the next year several states
still further recognized the county agent work by making
available state appropriations for its support. These in-
cluded New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Missouri,
and New York. Indiana had made funds available through
its state college for this purpose as early as 1911.

In addition to this public recognition and aid to county
agent work, the support received from private sources had
much to do with the successful launching of the movement
at this time. Without doubt, the movement would have
been much slower in getting started had it not been for
the encouragement and financial support of Chambers of
Commerce and certain railroads. Chambers of Commerce
saw an opportunity to develop their rural territory and
some of them made the mistake of attempting to control and
to make the work a part of their own organization, which
handicapped both them and it. Railroad corporations be-
came interested in the movement as a means of stimulating
agricultural development along their lines. In this the
Lackawanna and the New York Central systems in the East
and the Great Northern Lines in the West were the leaders.
Philanthropists also became interested in the movement.
Julius Rosenwald of Chicago, through the Council of
Grain Exchanges, made available one hundred thousand
dollars, at the rate of one thousand dollars per county for
the first one hundred counties to organize. This offer, in
connection with the local enterprise of Chambers of Com-
merce, was undoubtedly no small incentive in securing the
appointment of agents in many counties.

Federal aid was made definite and the government fully
and permanently committed to the support of the move-
ment in cooperation with the states by the passage of the
Smith-Lever Act by the Congress in 1914. Briefly the ob-
ject of this act is **to disseminate useful and practical infer-

170 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

mation on agriculture and home economics and to encourage
the application of the same." This is accomplished by the
appropriation of considerable sums of money to be dupli-
cated by the states, and expended and administered
through the state agricultural colleges. Although not spe-
cifically so stated — and wisely as it has turned out — it was
undoubtedly the intent of Congress that the greater part of
this money would be used in the support and maintenance
of county agents. This act, with the accompanying state
legislation, made permanent the county agent plan and sys-
tem and guaranteed its future, as far as. government, can
accomplish this (see Chapter X).

FARMERS TAKE A HAND

Up to this point, as has already been pointed out, the
county agent system was an overhead outside agency chiefly
promoted by urban and government interests. This fact
was recognized by many state leaders and organizers of the
work, who also realized that the movement could not be per-
manently successful nor reach its maximum of usefulness,
unless farmers had a larger share in its management and at
least partial responsibility for it. No sooner was a realiza-
tion of this fact borne home upon those in charge in the
states than steps were taken to correct it.

In New York,^ in Illinois and in Iowa, as early as the
summer of 1913, the organization of county associations of
farmers, variously known as county Farm Improvement,
Soil Improvement, Better Farming and Farm Bureau Asso-
ciations, was begun on a paid membership basis. In the
beginning practically the sole object of these associations
was to cooperate with the public agencies in the support

1 The Broome County Farm Improvement Association was organ-
ized on Oct. 10, 1913; the Chemung County Farm Bureau* Association
on Aug.. 29, 1913.

ETHE BEGINNINGS OF COUNTY AGENT WORK 171

and management of the work of county agents. At this
time this idea of cooperation or partnership with farmers,
in the management of county agent work, received little or
no support in most of the other states, or at the federal
headquarters' office at Washington, indeed, little attention
was paid to it. But gradually, as it proved itself and as
considerable numbers of farmers came to have a definite
interest in and to give definite support to county agent
work through their associations, the interest in the idea in-
creased, and it spread rapidly to many other states in the
North and West.

Thereafter, county associations of farmers multiplied,
and some states even required their organization in new
counties before they would cooperate in the employment of
a county agent. This plan developed some of the strongest
county associations and programs of work. These county
associations soon came to be known as **farm bureaus,''
and were officially recognized as *'the county group of
farmers cooperating with the college and the Department
of Agriculture in carrying on county agent work." In
some of the states these organizations and their functions
were formally recognized by law as ^'public county asso-
ciations. ' '

Not until these cooperating county organizations were
well established, and generally accepted officially as local
cooperating institutions, could it be said that the county
agent system was successfully and permanently inaugurated
in the Northern and the Western states. Its future was then
guaranteed by farmers as well as by government legislation.

boys' and girls' club work in the south

No sooner was the farm demonstration work well started
in the South than Doctor Knapp saw the possibilities of

172 BACKGROUND AND MEANS- OF SERVICE

utilizing the boys to demonstrate that the South could grow
large yields of corn per acre, and thus^ promote the diversi-
fication program. He began with corn clubs, organizing
his junior demonstrators in groups so as to conserve the
county agents' time. The clubs were used **to instruct boys
in practical agriculture on the farm" by requiring each boy
to grow a full acre of corn, keep cost records and write up
his work, as well as exhibit it. The general basis of award
was: Yield, 30 per cent; showing of profit, 30 per cent;
history, 20 per cent, and exhibit, 20 per cent.

The first boys' club was organized in Holmes County,
Miss., in 1907. By 1910 the enrolment of boys had become
large in several of the states (in twelve Southern states it
totaled 46,225) and began to attract public attention.
Many boys made more than one hundred bushels of corn
per acre. Badges of merit and other insignia were awarded.
Encampments were held at fairs. Scholarships in agricul-
tural colleges, trips to colleges and to Washington, pigs,
calves and many other things were offered as prizes. Corn
clubs led naturally to pig clubs and these also grew apace.

Of the work, Doctor Knapp said that it

"may be regarded as a method of increasing farm crops . . .
or it may be considered a system of education for boys and adults
by which a readjustment of country fife can be effected and
placed on a higher plane of profit, comfort, culture, influence
and power."

girls' clubs

The next step was the organization of similar clubsr for
the girls. It began in 1910 in Virginia and South Caro-
lina with garden clubs. Tomatoes were a favorite crop.
The crop grown, the canning club was organized to take
care of it. Later, sewing, cooking and bread clubs were

THE BEGINNINGS OF COUNTY AGENT WORK 173

added. Poultry clubs were popular. Nutrition clubs are
the latest and most progressive addition to the club groups.
The same general plans and ideala that governed the boys'
club work were applied to the girls* clubs and with equal
success.

The growth of the work has surprised even its sponsors.
A few figures will suggest its extent. In 1918, a war year,
there were established in fifteen Southern states 9,026 girls'
clubs with a total membership of 286,278. They cultivated
77,264 one-tenth acre plots, put up 6,629,590 containers of
vegetables; 65,734 containers of fruits; 54,128 cans of
meats ; 42,751 containers of pimentoes ; 62,342 cans of relish
and chutney and many other similar products. The sew-
ing clubs turned out 39,175 caps and aprons, 7,711 dresses
and 64,220 miscellaneous articles, such as towels, laundry
bags and holders.

But the great result was the training of so many boys
and girls to do useful things, and the encouragement and
stimulus to them to go to school and college, which many
of them did.

All of this work with boys and girls in the South was
carried on by the county agricultural and home' demonstra-
tion agents. So popular and productive was it that in some
counties the agents gave over practically all of their time
to it. But as this resulted in a neglect of the work with
adults, and as its popularity waned somewhat after the
war, there is now a tendency toward better balance. A
county agricultural agent in the South is not supposed to —
and probably on an average does not — give more than fifty
per cent of his time to boys' clubs. Home demonstration
agents expend up to sixty per cent of their time and effort
with girls' club work.

174 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

EXTENT OF CLUB WORK

The figures which follow will give some idea of the ex-
tent and development of the work with boys and girls in
the South up to the beginning of the war period in 1917.
The records do not show separate figures for the boys in
clubs until 1909, and for girls' club enrolments until 1911.
Nor is the number of special agents for boys' and girls'
work differentiated from those doing adult work until 1914 :

GROWTH OP boys' AND GIRLS' CLUB WOBK

No. of boys
and girls'
club agents

Enrolments in
boys' clubs

Enrolments in
girls' clubs

1900

1910

1911

1912

1913

19U

(1)
379

1915

(2)
387

10,543

46,225

54,362

65,376

91,196

53,380

62,842

....

....

3,153

20,300

33,060

33,175

45,581

1916

(3)
455

75,605
53,507

(1) Agents for "boys' and girls' clubs."

(2) Agents for "girls' clubs"; 842 other agents listed as working
with "adult and boys' clubs," in 1915.

(3) Agents for "women and girls' work"; 886 other agents listed
as working with "adult and boys' clubs," in 1916.

CLUB WORK IN THE NORTH AND WEST

Boys' and girls' club work really had its inception in the
Middle Western States where a few district school super-
intendents undertook to develop the idea as early as 1900.
It was then primarily a contest in the growing of crops
and poultry. The state colleges of Iowa, Illinois, Indiana
and Ohio took it up a few years later and corn growing,
home gardening, poultry raising and milk testing by boys
and girls became a popular form of extension work in these
states. After a time, however, interest in the work waned.

THE BEGINNINGS OF COUNTY AGENT WORK 175

It was from this early work that Doctor Knapp got his
suggestion for similar work in the South.

It was not until after the passage of the Smith-Lever Act
that club work in the Northern and Western states was
really begun extensively throughout the territory. Three
states were cooperating in 1911-12, and only six during
the following year. The Lever Act, together with the emer-
gency appropriations during the war, gave the club work
its greatest impetus. Beginning with eight county leaders
in 1913-14, the number rose slowly to one hundred and
eighty in 1917, at the time of the United States' entrance
into the war, to the high point of nine hundred and thirty-
five on July 1, 1918. Since then the number has fallen
away to one hundred and forty-eight county leaders in
1920, largely because of its emergency character and the
fact that it was supported chiefly by federal appropriations
and not made a part of the local county extension program.

The total enrolment of boys and girls in the club work
in these thirty-three states in 1920 was 216,479 in 13,897
organized clubs. Only 31.8 per cent of this enrolment was
secured by paid county club leaders, however. Two-thirds
of it was enrolled by county agricultural and home demon-
stration agents and by voluntary local leaders. In all there
were 1,403 of these voluntary local club project leaders, 48.5
per cent were in counties having paid county club leader-
ship. Although such a large proportion of the enrolment
was outside of the counties with regular club leaders, much
more work was accomplished in counties with leaders.

THE PROGRAM

The program of work in the Northern and Western group
of states is not unlike that in the South, with organized club
demonstrations with crops such as corn, sugar beets, pota-

176 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

toes and garden, with animals, sueli as pig, calf, baby beef,
sheep and poultry, with canning, bread making, meal prepa-
ration, clothing and handicraft for the girls, and with hot
school lunches, and many others. Miscellaneous items are
not taken up. The bushels of crops grown and the animals
raised run into large figures just as they do in the South.

On the whole, the club programs of work are probably
rather more definite and more closely supervised and give
more consideration to the education of the children and less
to using them to effect rural improvements. The percentage
of the original enrolment completing the projects is some-
what larger, and from this standpoint the work is more
satisfactory.

The question of the relation of the club work to the
schools and to the Smith-Hughes work is an important
one. This was discussed in Chapter II.

HOME DEMONSTRATION AGENTS

Apparently, Doctor Knapp had the possibilities of dem-
onstration work in the homes with adult women in mind
from the first. He once spoke of it as the logical "third
step in advance." Beginning with a specific and pressing
problem with the men, he developed demonstration work
to the point where he saw its limitations as well as its suc-
cesses. He then saw the opportunity to improve farm con-
ditions through the next generation — the boys and girls —
and at the same time to educate them broadly. But all the
time he had a still larger, deeper purpose which he once
expressed in the following language :

"The home eventually controls the viewpoint of a man; and
you may do all that you are a mind to in schools, but unless
you reach in and get hold of that home and change its condi-

THE BEGINNINGS OF COUNTY AGENT WORK 177

tions you are nullifying the uplift of the school. We are reaching
for the home."

As far as records seem to indicate, the home demonstra-
tion work got under way in the South in a small way about
1913. The first girls were enrolled in clubs in 1911 as we
have seen. In 1915 the enrolment of 6,852 women is also
recorded. The number of women enrolled in 1916 was
15,455, and in 1917, 54,601 ; but no separate listing of home
demonstration agents occurs until 1917, when the number
is given as 566 agents for '* women and girls' work.''
There were, however, women agents working with girls'
clubs as early as 1910 and with adult women by 1915.

The home demonstration work was really an expansion
and enlargement of the girls' club work, just as both girls'
and boys' clubs were an expansion of the original demon-
stration idea. As the boys' clubs had established a partner-
ship between father and son, so the girls' clubs now brought
about a mother-daughter combination for home improve-
ment. * ' They began in the garden, worked in the backyard
and then into the kitchen," writes Mr. 0. B. Martin, one
of Doctor Knapp 's early assistants.

Teaching by demonstration, gardening and poultry rais-
ing, canning and preserving fruit, vegetables and meats and
their juices, sewing and knitting, the women agents soon
gained large audiences in clubs and elsewhere. In pursuing
these details of the program, they apparently always kept
in mind the larger needs of the home and ever sought its
improvement. Running water in the house, fireless cookers,
installing motor-driven equipment such as washers, churns,
sewing machines and the like, all served this end. There
was scarcely anything which promised help to farm women
and the lightening of their tasks or broadening their vision
to which the home demonstration agents did not put their

178 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

hand. And where their leadership was good, they won a
place of peculiar influence in the homes of the South, negro
as well as white.

IN THE NORTH AND WEST

Home demonstration work in the Northern and Western
states, like agricultural agent work, had a somewhat differ-
ent and much later origin. In most of the states it was a
direct outgrowth of the agricultural work, and the women
agents were appointed in cooperation with the county farm
bureaus. Boys' and girls' club work did not occupy as
important a place in the work here as it did in the South,
special club agents being employed for this purpose. In
Illinois home demonstration agents were employed entirely
apart from agricultural agents in cooperation with county
home bureaus, and in New York with a farm and home
bureau association which recognized both agents on an equal
basis. Its early history has been recorded by Miss Florence
E. Ward of the United States Department of Agriculture.^

"The work actually began in Erie County, New York, in
August, 1914, when Miss Mills was appointed home demonstra-
tion agent on state funds. The second appointment was that of
Miss Gertrude M. McCheyne, who began work in Box Elder
County, Utah, on May 1, 1915. Other agents appointed on state
funds were Miss Minnie Price, who began work in Hampden
County, Massachusetts, in July, 1915, and Miss Eva Benefiel,
who was appointed in Kankakee County, Illinois, in August of
the same year."

During 1916 eleven appointments were made coopera-
tively between the state colleges and the United States De-
partment of Agriculture as follows: In New York four, in
Massachusetts three, in New Hampshire two, and in Utah
and in Arizona one each. In 1917 the number of home

1 Department Circular 141, January, 19(21.

THE BEGINNINGS OF COUNTY AGENT WORK 179

demonstration agents increased to twenty-eight. Emer-
gency appropriations and war needs raised the number
rapidly to eight hundred and three in 1918, but this num-
ber soon fell away to six hundred and nine in 1919, and to
two hundred and eighty-six in 1920.

STRONG AND WEAK POINTS

Home demonstration work in the North has suffered from
several circumstances which have seriously limited its de-
velopment. Some of these the South has shared. Others
it has not. In too many states strong home economics de-
partments in the state colleges have been lacking, so that
a good base for extension work, which the men agents had
in the agricultural subject-matter departments of the col-
leges, was absent in the ease of the women's work. This has
usually resulted in a weak or an unsound program, except
where the need has been met in some other way. For this
reason many agents have failed to justify themselves to
their counties. The girls' club work has probably made it
somewhat easier to maintain the work in the South.

Again home demonstration work in the North suffered,
greatly from a forced and superficial development during
the war. It was longer and hence better established in the
South, but also suffered there, though perhaps to a less de-
gree. Poorly trained agents were put in the counties by
both state and federal governments, often without a worth-
while program, but to promote the general ''food will win
the war" idea in such detailed ways as were passed down
from above by the Department, the colleges and the Food
Administration. The counties were not ready for the
agents in many cases, did not want them, and in but few
cases offered either financial or organized cooperation. So
with the close of the war the work of more than half of

180 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

these emergency agents was dropped. But the influence

of their war efforts continued, and in many counties has

V ^^ had to be lived down before the work could be permanently

^^^y^established.

^<v » The war borne demonstration agent work was more often
a liability than an asset. Until very recently few home
demonstration agents have had good organized support
from the women of their counties. They have had co-
operators, but not moral and financial support. Farm
women have felt little or no responsibility for the agent or
her work. The home demonstration agent has more often
worked for than with rural women. Only in proportion as
this piece of work has utilized the fundamental principles
of good organization and leadership for real service of a
vital character, outlined elsewhere in this book, has it be-
come permanently established. Elsewhere it has failed, at
least temporarily — and unfortunately this failure has been
too general.

THE PROGRAM OP WORK

Food preservation and the proper use of food — ^now dig-
nified under the title of *' human nutrition" — have loomed
large in the home demonstration program. At first it con-
sisted largely of canning and giving out of receipts. Now-
adays it is dealing with important nutrition problems.
Clothing work, beginning with details, is becoming the dem-
onstration of correct principles of clothing design and use.
Household management, home nursing, health in the home,
community enterprises, and the improvement of home sur-
roundings, all occupy an important place in the agent 's ac-
tivities. Usually she gives more attention to social and com-
munity problems than the agricultural agent. Less work
in gardening, poultry and other production enterprises is
engaged in in the North than in the South.

CHAPTER IX

THE EVOLUTION OF THE MOVEMENT

It was inevitable that the permanent objectives of the
county agent movement should be the result of an evolution
of ideas and ideals. Even though it might have been given
to a single individual in the beginning to see all its possi-
bilities or even its probable development, he would hardly
have had the temerity to have proclaimed them then.

DIFFERENT IDEALS AND POINTS OP VIEW

Certain it is that those who in its beginning thought that
they saw the future of county agent work did not agree
as to what this future was to be. Particularly, during the
period from 1910 to 1915 ideals and viewpoints were ex-
ceedingly diverse. Farmers themselves hardly realized at
all what this new idea had in store for them, and were at
first quite inclined to be critical. Educators were afraid of
its future as an educational movement. Its own sponsors
were not at all agreed as to what it ought to do. Indeed,
the evolution of the ideals of the movement has not yet
ceased and ten years from now it may have — probably will
have — ^taken on quite a different character than it now
possesses.

To federal authorities and employees, the county agent
was a government representative. To most college adminis-
trators and professors, he was the field agent and itinerant
teacher of the college. To others he was a ' ' farm adviser, ^ '

a rural agricultural leader, an organizer of farmers, accord-

181

182 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

ing to their concept of the movement. His farmer con-
stituents usually judged him by the service that he ren-
dered their respective communities. He was variously
looked upon by them as a college man or ''book farmer,"
and therefore a useless and expensive luxury, a real expert
or specialist, and consequently as a valuable source of in-
formation, or, by still others as just another agent and in
the class with the peddlers of books or lightning rods.
Some states there were whose people regarded the county
agent wholly as a public officer, while others would have the
management of his work partly in the hands of those he
chiefly served, the members of the county farmers' asso-
ciation. The evolution of these various points of view to a
more or less common ground is a most interesting study.

Washington's viewpoint

The United States Department of Agriculture had from
the first looked upon the county agent as i];s own local rep-
resentative among farmers and as a disseminator and a
teacher of the information which its scientists and repre-
sentatives had discovered and gathered. This is well shown
in the Department's Bulletin 259, issued in October, 1912,
by W. J. Spillman, then in charge of the work, which gives
as the objects of county agent work:

(1) To carry to the farmer the results of scientific re-
search in his behalf, as well as the results of experience of
other farmers and to aid the farmer in applying these re-
sults to his work, and

(2) To reorganize and redirect the agriculture of the
various sections of the country.

A good many persons in the Department, and in the
Congress as well, apparently regarded the farmer as one
badly in need of scientific information, which if he only had

~ THE EVOLUTION OF THE MOVEMENT 183

and applied would surely and immediately make him suc-
cessful, but one incapable of acquiring it himself. Natu-
rally, then, these persons saw in the county agent a means
of direct communication between the scientist and the
farmer, who would take to him the information that he
needed and show him how to use it.

Again many of these persons in official Washington real-
ized that the government was paying a considerable part
of the county agent's salary in the early days, and they
quite plausibly expected that this entitled the Department
of Agriculture to control his activities. The franking privi-
lege or free use of the mails, which is extended to all county
agents through the Department, has proved to be a most
convenient and useful means of reminding county agents of
their connection with and their responsibility to the De-
partment. At the beginning of the work, before the enact-
ment of the Smith-Lever law, when the Department paid a
large share of the county agent's salary direct, its influence
in shaping the movement in the direction which it thought
it ought to go was proportionally larger than now when the
public's share of his salary is paid through the college.
At that time the federal government undoubtedly exerted
too large an influence for the permanent good of the move-
ment.

But as the states through their agricultural colleges, and
later the farmers through their county associations acquired
a larger share of control, particularly as the counties began
to pay a correspondingly larger proportion of the bills, their
local and more practical viewpoints helped to give a better
balance to the movement. Indeed, so far has this localizing
influence gone, that there are many who now feel that the
movement is now too much in the hands of farmers for its
own good and that of the Nation. But this is an extreme

184 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

view which only experiences that we have not yet had can
confirm.

There is a real need for a more sympathetic understand-
ing between the farmer and representatives of the De-
partment of Agriculture at Washington, whose primary
job it is to aid him in meeting his problems. Farmers have
often failed to visualize and therefore to appreciate what
this great public agency has in the way of information that
is helpful and useful. They need contact with the workers
in the Department in order to know their qualifications and
the service that they can render. In the majority of cases
when he comes really to know these men, the farmer finds
that they are farm reared, sincerely interested in the prob-
lems of the farmers, and earnestly desirous of being helpful.

On the other hand, these government representatives are
often under the handicap of having spent so much time in
their oflSces and in hotels in the big cities, while on their
travels, that they have failed to understand all the farmer's
problems and the limitations under which he labors, and
consequently fail to appreciate his point of view. Too
often their observation of farm conditions is from Pullman
car windows and from automobiles on the state road, rather
than in the barnyard and the back lot. They need a closer
and more sympathetic contact with farmers. The county
agent may well be the one to bring the farmer and the
government's agricultural employees closer together on the
common meeting ground of the farm bureau office, the com-
munity meeting and the field demonstration, to their mutual
advantage.

THE VIEWPOINT OP THE STATE COLLEGE

At least two objects seem to have been prominently in
the minds of those who drew the state legislation and for-

THE EVOLUTION OF THE MOVEMENT 185

mulated the state policies affecting county agent work: in-
creasing the food supply and agricultural education.

The first was the idea of the development and conserva-
tion of the agricultural resources of the country by increas-
ing the area and productivity of the tillable land and hence
the Nation's food supply. This idea was also probably at
the root of the Chamber of Commerce and railroad interest
in the county agent movement. It was and for the most
part continues to be the background reason in the minds of
city dwellers and consumers as to why the government
should interest itself in the farmers ' problems. By increas-
ing production, it is vaguely hoped that the cost of food
will be reduced. So in the state 's legislation the words ' ' de-
velopment" and '* improvement" frequently occur. Thus
in Pennsylvania the counties appropriate *'for the purpose
of improving and developing the agricultural resources of
the county." The New Hampshire law provides for ''the
development of the farming industry," while Indiana ex-
pects *'to promote the improvement and advancement of
agriculture, ' ' and Illinois * ' soil and crop improvement. ' '

The other dominant idea in the public mind, as indicated
in the state legislation and official statements of those in
charge of it, was education — the extension of the accumu-
lated knowledge of the state colleges of agriculture and
the experiment stations, so as to make it readily available
on the farms. In Missouri, for example, it was thought
that **it is the chief function of the farm adviser (county
agent) to bring to the attention of Missouri farmers these
more profitable systems of farming which have been deter-
mined by the most careful and painstaking investigations of
the experiment stations. * ' In Oregon, the useful application
of ''the vast fund of agricultural information" was stated as
the first and most important reason for county agent work.
The majority of the state laws provided for the employment

186 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

of '*farm demonstrators," *'farm advisers" or * 'county
agents" on a county unity basis, placing them under the
supervision and direction of the state agricultural college.
Both these functions then, agricultural development and
extension of agricultural education, have from the first
been the ideals of most of the states as to what the county
agent's work should be. Incorporated in most of the state
legislation on the subject, in one form or another, they
have also come to be quite generally accepted as ideals, both
by the public and by the profession.

THE COUNTY AGENT AS A TEACHER

That the good county agent should be a teacher of better
agriculture — a more profitable farming and a more satisfy-
ing country life — almost goes without saying ; but it is much
more easily stated as a theory than practiced as a fact. His
school house, if not ''the world," still embraces from two
hundred to two thousand square miles, and his pupils from
5,000 to 50,000 in number are adult men and women, to-
gether with children of advanced school age and above, with
ideals, habits and customs already well established. He
has little or no control over his pupils — ^he cannot compel
them even to listen to his teaching, much less to accept and
practice it. He must depend on drawing his pupils to him
by giving his instruction in as interesting and useful form
as possible, and by showing them through such demonstra-
tions "that he who runs" will be persuaded to read and to
accept. It is not an easy task. Not only do practical ex-
perience and good technical college training count heavily,
but also personality and the qualities of good leadership
enter very largely into such teaching. It is, necessarily,
done under all sorts of conditions and in widely scattered
places, in barns and fields, in school houses and in grange

THE EVOLUTION OF THE MOVEMENT 187

and club halls. But it has the frequent advantage of plenty
of good illustrative material readily at hand, in live plants
and animals.

That so much of better farming methods, of better living
facilities and of better farm business and farm organiza-
tion, has been taught so many farmers by the itinerant
county agent in so short a time as a single decade is ample
evidence that he is functioning as a teacher.

The name *'Farm Adviser'* used in several of the states
to designate the county agent, is significant of the emphasis
put by these states on the advice phase of the county agent's
work. It was evidently expected that a considerable part of
the agent's time would be consumed in advising individual
farmers, upon request, in the management of their farms.'
This personal or individual service, if wisely and compe-
tently given, is of great importance and value to the man
who wants it, and almost invariably it necessarily occupies
a considerable portion of the county agent's time and effort.
However, the dangers and the cost of giving such individual
advice, the limited proportion of farmers in a territory of
from one to ten thousand farms who can be thus aided, to-
gether with the greater need for and the less cost of group
assistance, have all tended to minimize this personal service.
But the name ** adviser" has stuck.

It was Ben Franklin who said **we can give advice but
not conduct." Advice implies knowledge and deliberate
consideration if it is to be worth having. It is difficult for
a county agent or any other person to secure all the requi-
site information about a particular farm or farmer to give
very valuable advice. Nor can he be sure that his advice,
if given, will be correctly interpreted and followed. The

188 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

possible loss and injury from poor advice should make the
adviser very certain that his recommendations are worthy
to be followed before he gives it.

The value of all such advice is direetly proportional to
^ the known definite knowledge and experience of the adviser.
It must be practicably and applicable and it must be wisely
applied. The wise county agent will stick to general prin-
ciples in advising, realizing that the man who does not
know how to apply such principles is both dangerous and
useless to advise in any case. It is, however, reasonable to
suppose that a person who has made a special study of a
problem and who has had a wide experience, especially if
he kas the requisite local knowledge to apply it, is the best
qualified to give worthwhile advice.

ORGANIZING FARMERS

Possibly because of the relatively unorganized condition
of American agriculture and the need and demand for co-
operation among farmers at this time, this form of county
agent service has come to occupy a relatively large part of
his time and attention. In the early consideration of the
county agent's functions, this phase was given little serious
thought, except perhaps in relation to local farmers' clubs
or granges, or to such minor production organizations as
cow testing associations.

As a result of a better realization of their marketing
problems accompanying and immediately following the war,
farmers have now demanded that county agents give a
larger proportion of their time to helping set up farm
marketing organizations. Mr. W. A. Lloyd of the Depart-
ment of Agriculture has shown that the agents have re-
sponded to this demand by increasing the proportion of
their time devoted to marketing from seventeen per cent in

THE EVOLUTION OF THE MOVEMENT 189

1915 to sixty-one per cent in 1920. So farmers themselves
consider that one of their most important needs lies in this
field of cooperative organization for economic ends, and •
have expressed their point of view that county agent work
should have as one of its most important ideals the meas-
urahle fulfilment of this need.

Not only was there a need for the organization of the
farm forces for cooperative buying and selling, but there
was also need for their organization to make possible the
better application of scientific methods and modern ideas to*
production. The cow testing groups, seed improvement and
breeding associations are good examples of the results of
the county agent's organizing ability applied to this field.
The bringing together of the best breeders, the most skilful
growers in the county improvement or of farmers generally
in farm bureau association itself, as a federation of forces
for a better and more efficient production, is a powerful
force toward improvement.

Efficient production still offers the best incentive and the I
largest opportunity for individual gain. Every good
farmer wants to get the largest crop obtainable with a
reasonable expenditure of time and money. And it is
usually true that those farmers who have found their busi-
ness most profitable and most satisfying are the ones who
have been able to secure crops above the average without
excessive costs of production. The county agent then
should not neglect this part of his field because of the great
stress put upon marketing at the present time, but strive to
maintain a well-balanced effort.

EURAL LEADERSHIP

Leadership is hard to define because it so often consists
of the intangible. And yet it is very real and vital to

190 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

almost every successful enterprise. Good leadership in-
spires confidence, stimulates initiative, gets things done.
All this implies knowledge, training, personality and power.
No need among farmers was greater and no results of
county agent effort have been more worthwhile than the
exercise by the county agent of his own qualities of leader-
ship, and the searching out and arousing the abilities of
local farmers who have these leadership qualities. Little
considered as a reason for the county agent's existence in
the beginning, good leadership has come to be one of its
essential qualities. The agent who lacks it labors under a
handicap, however well trained and experienced in other
ways he may be.

A HEADQUARTERS FOR AGRICULTURE

Every community has its headquarters for religious af-
fairs in its churches, for its educational affairs in schools,
and for its political affairs in election districts, but few,
if any, of the more than twenty -five hundred agricultural
counties in the United States have, until the coming of the
county agent, had any headquarters for what is usually
their most important single business — farming.

Prior to the advent of the county agent and his local
office usually at the county seat, hardly a county could be
found where a stranger could go to find out the county's
farming and market resources if he thought of purchasing
a farm there, or who bred pure stock of a particular breed,
or who had pure seed to sell in case he wanted to buy. In-
deed, the local farmers themselves had no adequate means
of knowing these things. Nor did these same counties pro-
vide any rallying point for farmers or their organizations,
or facilities or other encouragement to advertise and to
develop its resources, There was no suitable place where

THE EVOLUTION OF THE MOYEMENT 191

agricultural statistics and records could be kept available
or made most useful to the people of the county, or where
information and advice as to what the best practices and
methods, could be locally at hand. These needs and others
the county farm bureau office and the county agent have
met. Now farmers wonder how they got along without such
a headquarters previously.

SUMMARY

The ideals of a movement, the scope and possibilities of
which could not be entirely foreseen, have by processes of
evolution and as a result of new perspectives, now come to
a more or less common ground. Old viewpoints have given
way to new and more competent ones. While there would
undoubtedly be disagreement as to the relative importance
of the various ideals, according to local conditions and
points of view, there has come to be more general accord
as to the ideals which should properly govern the func-
tions of a county agent. These may now be summed up
in the order of the degree in which it seems that they prob-
ably vitally affect the farmers' and the nation's welfare.

(1) Rural leadership in its broad sense, including the dis-
covery, stimulation and training of farmer leadership — ^help
to help himself.

(2) The teaching, chiefly by demonstration, of sound and
improved farm and market practices and methods to the
end of greater farm efficiency.

(3) The organization and federation of the local agricul-
tural forces to the common purpose of more efficient pro-
duction, marketing and distribution.

(4) The establishment and maintenance of a useful
county headquarters for agricultural affairs.

(5) The giving of advice to individual farmers on their
farm practice, farm management and marketing problems.

CHAPTER X

THE PRESENT ORGANIZATION AND STATUS OP
COUNTY AGENT WORK

By provisions of law and by general public acceptance,
county agent work has become an integral part of the co-
operative extension service of the state agricultural colleges,
and a local agency for the conservation, development and
protection of farm resources, in which farmers are directly
and vitally interested. As such, it functions in cooperation
with these colleges which also represent the United States
Department of Agriculture in their respective states. All
public agricultural educational agencies, county, state and
national, are related to one another and functioil in co-
operation with each other as a part of the national agricul-
tural system. Before one can fully understand the func-
tioning of a particular part of this system, like the county
agent work, he needs to call to mind the other parts and
other public functions and properly to differentiate the sev-
eral kinds of institutions and their functions.

POXJR PUBLIC FQNCTIONS

In general, the state exercises four special relations or
obligations toward agriculture, both in the interest of farm-
ers and for the benefit of the general public. These are:
(1) law enforcement or administration, (2) research or in-
vestigation, (3) resident teaching at state schools and col-
leges, and (4) the extension teaching function. All of these
have been established by law and are annually provided for

192

ORGANIZATION AND STATUS OF WORK 193

by public appropriations. Each deserves a brief descrip-
tion here.

LAW ENrORCEMENT

The law enforcement or administrative function is exer-
cised by both federal and state governments. To the U. S.
Department of Agriculture is entrusted the enforcement
of all federal laws specifically affecting agriculture and the
food supply, together with the administration of all funds
appropriated by the Congress for agricultural purposes.
In the same way, to the states' departments of agriculture
is assigned the administration of all the state laws directly
affecting agriculture and the food supply.

The federal department was established on May 15, 1862,
and its head, the Secretary of Agriculture, was raised to the
rank of a cabinet officer in 1889. In sixty years it ha^
grown to large proportions, now employing more than fif-
teen thousand persons and having the supervision of the
expenditure of more than thirty million dollars annually.
Only a part of this is expended for law enforcement, how-
ever. The Department inspects meat, grain, canned goods
and other food commodities prepared for interstate ship-
ment, enforces federal pure food laws, administers the for-
est service, has charge of the protection of plants and ani-
mals from insects and diseases with quarantine powers, and
all other agricultural regulatory work of the federal gov-
ernment. In addition to these duties, it conducts the fed-
eral weather service, gathers and disseminates agricultural
statistics, including crop reports and administers federal
aid to road building.

The functions of the state departments, while in general
regulatory, are less uniform in character and less clearly
defined. They enforce state laws relating to livestock, fer-
tilizers, feeds, human foods, the control of insect pests and

^%

194 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

diseases, etc. In some states they also have charge of
forest legislation, highway administration and immigra-
tion. They collect and publish agricultural statistics and
in most states have the supervision of the public aid to
state and county fairs. In the past they have usually con-
ducted farmers' institutes, but in most states this educa-
tional extension activity has now been transferred to the
state agricultural colleges.

To state or federal departments then, according to
whether the question is local or national, should be ad-
dressed all inquiries concerning the law, all complaints re-
garding its enforcement, and reports or suggestions con-
cerning the things it is charged to do.

THE RESEARCH FUNCTION

The object of research is to discover and make available
to farmers and to the public generally fundamental agri-
cultural truths. This function is exercised by state and
federal experiment stations and by the U. S. Department of
Agriculture. To these public institutions we owe most of
our knowledge of seed, feed, fertilizer and human food
analysis, bacteria in milk, and our ability to control in-
sects and diseases by spraying, together with other equally
valuable and useful information.

In 1887 the federal government, through the Hatch Ex-
periment Station Act, established a federal system of ex-
periment stations and with it the principle of public sup-
port of these institutions. They were further aided and
encouraged by the supplementary Adams Act of 1906. Al-
though the federal government was the pioneer in establish-
ing these stations, the states have now become their chief
sources of support. Approximately four millions of dollars
of federal and state funds are now expended annually for

_J

ORGANIZATION AND STATUS OF WORK 195

agricultural research and investigation ; but this is insuffi-
cient to maintain the work as it should be, and to keep in
advance of extension of which it must be the chief source
of supply.

AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES

In order to make it possible for persons to prepare them-
selves especially for agricultural pursuits, whether for
farming itself or for related public service, the federal Con-
gress in July, 1862, made provision in cooperation with the
states for the giving of systematic and scientific instruc-
tion, information and training in the principles of agricul-
ture. This epoch-making legislation, known as the Morrill
or Land Grant Act, because it appropriated thirty thou-
sand acres of public land (instead of money) for each rep-
resentative which each state then had in Congress, laid the
foundation of agricultural education in the United States.
Its object was to endow, support and maintain **at least
one college in each state where the leading object . . . shall
be to teach such branches of learning as are related to agri-
culture and the mechanic arts."

This act was also supplemented in 1890 and again in 1907
by additional federal legislation and appropriations, and
its purposes enlarged to include the training of agricultural
teachers. As in the case of the experiment stations, these
colleges now derive the greater part of their support from
the states and are controlled by state appointed boards of
trustees. To officers of the U. S. Department of Agricul-
ture, however, is entrusted the administration of all the
federal appropriations assigned to these colleges. Every
state now has its agricultural college and 35,000 to 40,000
students annually receive instruction at them. In most
states there are also special agricultural schools and courses
in high schools.

196 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

THE EXTENSION FUNCTION

Legislative acceptance of ''extension/' as it relates to
agriculture as a public obligation, marks a new and im-
portant step in public policy. When adequate state and
federal provision had been made for the support of agri-
cultural colleges, it was still necessary for persons who
desired to take advantage of it to come to the colleges and
live there at their own expense in order to receive the in-
struction. This, naturally and in itself, limited the number
of those who could take advantage of the instruction pro-
vided. In accepting agricultural extension as a public
function, the state and federal governments have under-
taken to make scientific and practical agricultural and
home making instruction and information available ^^to all
the people in the localities where they reside.'* This marks
a great step forward in public education and is a necessary
corollary with experiment station research and agricultural
college teaching and extends their usefulness. The county
agent plays a vital part in this plan.

Extension work is not entirely of recent origin. Farm-
ers' institutes were an early and important method of ex-
tension teaching. These were begun in Illinois, Iowa and
New Hampshire as early as 1869 or 1870, in Michigan in
1875, in Massachusetts in 1878, in New York in 1887, and
in most of the other states about the same time or soon
after. The farmers' institutes were pioneer institutions in
agricultural extension teaching and did much to prepare
the way for our present agricultural colleges and schools
and especially for the extension system and the county
agent.

With the growth of the agricultural colleges under the
Morrill Act, considerable staffs of teachers, though few in
number at first, were gradually accumulated. In addition

ORGANIZATION AND STATUS OF WORK 197

to their resident teaching, these men began to give lectures
about the state, in order to establish contact with farmers,
to learn their problems, as well as to give information. The
demand for this pioneer service grew rapidly as the peo-
ple became acquainted with it. Out of this work grew most
of our modern forms of extension. Personal visits and ac-
quaintanceships led to series of lectures in various com-
munities and then to local extension schools or short courses,
farm trains, local surveys, tests and demonstrations on
farms, winter short courses at the colleges, and finally to
local demonstration agents. Out of correspondence devel-
oped bulletins, reading courses, and a regular system of ex-
tension publications. And from a limited cooperation with
granges, farmers' clubs, churches, fairs and schools, came
an organized relationship with farmers through their public
county associations or farm bureaus.

A national extension system employing thousands of
agents and specialists, and reaching yearly hundreds of
thousands of farmers, has now been evolved. This was
made possible by the Smith-Lever Extension Act, which
was itself the culmination of a quarter century or more of
the slowly developing extension movement.

THE SMITH-LEVER EXTENSION ACT

By July 1, 1914, farm demonstration work in the South
had been carried on for nearly ten years and farm manage-
ment field studies had been under way in the North and
West for almost as long. Together, they had resulted in
the appointment of six hundred and seventy-six agents in
the South and two hundred and fifty-two in the North and
West. There was a widespread sentiment that these two
lines of work should be put upon a permanent basis and

198 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

legislation was therefore sought from Congress which would
accomplish this end.

Under the leadership of Representative Lever of North
Carolina in the House and of Senator Hoke Smith of
Georgia in the Senate, with the help of Department officers,
and the intelligent persistent backing of the agricultural
colleges, the Smith-Lever agricultural act was worked out
and passed by the Congress in May, 1914. It became ef-
fective the following July. The act contains several im-
portant provisions which, since it forms the basis of county
agent work, should be generally understood. These are (1)
cooperative management with the states, (2) progressive
appropriations, (3) the state duplication or offset of fed-
eral moneys, (4) the method of the distribution of funds,
and (5) certain limitations.

COOPERATIVE MANAGEMENT

The federal Department of Agriculture had begun to do
some independent extension work in the states and this
had tended toward confusion and sometimes toward mis-
understanding. A precedent had been set in the Hatch and
Adams experiment station acts for close cooperation with
the state colleges and this precedent was now followed by
the framers of the Smith-Lever Act. It was provided that
all work done under the act must be in cooperation with
the states through the Land Grant or state colleges desig-
nated by the state legislatures which must also formally
accept the provisions of the law before it became operative
in any state. It was further provided that the director of
extension at the state college must draw up definite plans
and projects covering the work proposed for the ensuing
fiscal year and that these must be approved by .the Secretary
of Agriculture before the funds became available.

ORGANIZATION AND STATUS OF WORK 199

Under this act a general agreement was entered into be-
tween the U. S. Department of Agriculture and each of the
state colleges, under which the colleges agreed to establish
and maintain an administrative division, to administer all
extension funds through this division and to cooperate with
the Department in all of its extension work. The Depart-
ment in turn agreed to establish and maintain a states rela-
tions service through which it would conduct all agricul-
tural relations with the states and that it would carry on
all of its extension work in cooperation with the colleges.
Both mutually agreed that all extension work should be
planned and executed together, the colleges initiating and
the Department approving the plans, that all agents ap-
pointed should be joint representatives of both and that
the headquarters of the work should be at the colleges.
Thus all agricultural extension work is cooperatively
planned and executed in each state.

FINANCES

Not all the funds provided were made available the first
year, as most of the states did not have the organization
ready to make good use of them. The first year ten thou-
sand dollars was appropriated to each state without re-
striction. The next year six hundred thousand dollars more
was made available and thereafter five hundred thousand
dollars was added each year for six years or until and in-
cluding the fiscal year of 1922-23, and permanently each
year thereafter — a total of four million, five hundred and
eighty thousand dollars annually.

This money, after the original ten thousand dollars to
each state, was to be distributed **in the proportion which
the rural population of each state bears to the total rural
population," as determined by the next preceding federal

200 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

census. This latter provision caused some shifting of funds
in 1920 from the Eastern and Middle "Western to the Far
Western and Southern states. Moreover, this additional
money was not to be paid to any state *' until an equal sum
had been appropriated for that year by the legislature of
such state, or provided by state, county, college, local au-
thority, or individual contributions from within the state.*'
And this duplicate or offset money is subject to the same
rules and regulations as the federal funds.

These moneys cannot be used for buildings or for the
purchase or rental of land, for teaching at the college, for
agricultural trains, or more than five per cent of them for
printing. With the state appropriations which are usually
much more than sufficient to meet the required offset and
the county appropriations and other resources of county
agent work, there is now (1922) annually available approxi-
mately eighteen million dollars for extension work in all
its phases.

Up to this point the procedure in all the states is quite
uniform. As already pointed out in chapter three, there
is a wide difference in the various states, in the relations
between the states — the state colleges — and the counties.
In some states the colleges dominate — ^if not entirely control
— the work, while in others they share its management with
the counties on a partnership basis. There are all degrees
between these two extremes.

Usually and ideally, however, much the same relation-
ship is established between the college and the county asso-
ciation as exists between the college and the Department
of Agriculture. A memorandum is entered into between
the college and the county association, or farm bureau as

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ORGANIZATION AN'D STATUS OF WORK 205

it is usually called, which should provide for at least four
things: (1) financing the work, (2) a program of work,

(3) the cooperative employment of the county agents, and

(4) supervision.

The amounts of the finances needed are arrived at by
means of a budget in which the probable expenses for the
ensuing year are carefully estimated in detail to cover
salaries, travel, office and car maintenance, and miscellane-
ous items. The college provides a part of the salary and in
some states a part of the expenses, the franking privilege —
to the agent as a representative of the Department — and
certain services of its specialists. The remainder of the
budget is then raised locally, chiefly by securing appropria-
tions from the county Boards of Commissioners or Super-
visors or County Courts, as they are variously called, by
membership fees and also, to a less degree, from private
contributions and miscellaneous sources. In the making of
this budget the county committee usually has the benefit of
the experience and the advice of the county agent leader or
his assistant.

THE PROGRAM OF WORK

Recently the colleges as cooperating parties in the work
have quite properly begun to insist that the counties de-
termine upon very definite programs of work for the co-
operatively employed county agents, which they must ap-
prove, and then that the agents stick to these programs.
This progressive step has been an evolution and the result
of a miscellaneous activity of agents which has too often
failed to be productive of results.

Ideally, this program is finally arrived at by a large com-
mittee of farmers, usually called the county advisory com-
mittee, made up of the community committees from each
community in the county and thus representing all the

206 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

agricultural interests and all the sections of the county.
This advisory committee receives and passes upon the re-
ports and recommendations of special project committees
appointed in advance by the farm bureau president on the
advice of the county agent, to represent special phases of
the county's farming, as dairying, fruit growing, etc., or
special problems, as drainage and the use of lime.

In arriving at their recommendations these special com-
mittees have the services of the specialists of the colleges.
The county agent is always on hand to help and to guide
the committees with advice and suggestions out of his wide
knowledge of the county, its problems and needs. The
program thus arrived at is recommended to the county
executive committee and the college, who pass upon it in
relation to their resources and ability to carry it out. Men's
and women's programs of work are often arrived at sepa-
rately by different committee groups and this would seem
to be good policy as many of their problems are quite dif-
ferent, and as it enlists more persons in the work. In such
cases certain features, as recreation, general community
betterment and the like, are determined upon together.

There are, of course, wide variations in this simple plan
of procedure. Many elaborate schemes for arriving at a
county program for county agents have been devised by
Department supervisors and state county agent leaders, but
most of them have failed or only been approximated be-
cause they were too cumbersome. In all too many cases no
plan of procedure at all is used, or even the simple plan
outlined above is not carried out, leaving the program
making entirely to college representative and county agent.
This is poor psychology and secures neither the best pro-
gram nor the best cooperation and results.

ORGANIZATION AND STATUS OF WORK 207

SELECTING AND SUPERVISING AGENTS

The most common plan of selecting county agents is the
nomination of several suitable candidates for a county by
the college, from among whom the county committee selects
one that it believes can best serve the county. By this plan
the college is able to draw on a wider range of candidates,
and local nominations, which nearly always make compli-
cations, are avoided, but the county committee actually
makes the final choice and, therefore, feels responsibility for
its agent. In some states the college makes the appoint-
ment and assigns the agent directly to the county. Occa-
sionally, the county selects its own candidates and asks
college approval of its choice. In any case, the agent should
be approved by both parties.

The candidate selected becomes the official representative
of the state college of agriculture and of the IT. S. Depart-
ment of Agriculture in his county, as well as the agent for
the cooperating county committee. From the Department
he receives the government frank. The state college usually
paj^s at least one hundred dollars a month or twelve hun-
dred dollars a year toward the salary of each agent in the
county, about one-half of which is commonly derived from
the federal and one-half from the state sources. Some states
pay more and a few less. The county agent then represents
all the parties concerned, individually and cooperatively,
but his chief job is to carry out the program mutually
agreed upon.

Prior to the passage of the Smith-Lever Act, county
agents were appointed by and reported directly to the
U. S. Department of Agriculture, in the South through
the district supervisors. Beginning in 1914, however, super-
visors, known as state leaders, who are the joint represen-
tatives of the Department and the colleges, were appointed

208 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

in each state. Under both federal and state laws the gen-
eral supervision of the work of the county agents is vested
in the colleges. This in turn is now delegated to the county
agent leaders, who report to the state director of extension
and through him to the Department of Agriculture.

Further, by agreement with the county associations co-
operating— ^written or implied — ^the supervision of all the
field and the office work of the agents, including means
and methods of carrying out policies and programs mu-
tually agreed upon, and the correlation and systematization
of projects and reports, together with the general conduct
of the work in the counties, is placed in the charge of these
county agent leaders in each state. They meet county
executive and advisory committees to determine upon plans
of work and to advise with them on problems that may
come up inspect county offices and field work and receive
monthly or quarterly reports from the agents. There are
usually separate state leaders for home demonstration
agents and for boys* and girls' club or junior extension
agents, as these three fields are somewhat differentiated in
activities. Their work is correlated by the state extension
director to whom all report.

THE PRESENT STATUS

With the passage of the Smith-Lever Extension Act, the
number of county agricultural agents increased rapidly.
On July 1, 1914, there were nine hundred and twenty-eight
counties with agricultural agents; on July 1, 1921, eight
years later, the number had increased to two thousand and
forty-six counties. This means an agent in more than two-
thirds of the three thousand and eleven counties, not all of
which are agricultural, in the United States.

The home demonstration work which began later has

ORGANIZATION AND STATUS OF WORK 209

grown in 1921 to cover approximately six hundred and
ninety-nine counties, about two-thirds of which are in the
South.

Boys* and girls' club agents numbered a little less than
two hundred on December 1, 1921, but much of this work
is carried on by the adult men and women agents.

Agents in all three groups were hastily appointed during
the war period as an emergency measure and without the
necessary preparation in advance or sufficient local interest
and support, with the result that the work was abandoned
in several hundred counties, so that there are now fewer
agents than in 1918, when the high point, with twenty-four
hundred and thirty-five counties with agricultural agents
alone, was reached. The movement, having suffered this
war reaction, is now recovering and will undoubtedly ulti-
mately cover all the agricultural counties.

CHAPTEE XI

THE FARM BUREAU AND ITS RELATION TO THE
COUNTY AGENT

Any one who will picture to himself the difficulties which
would face a new county agent, a stranger to the county,
in undertaking his job without a local organization of farm-
ers to sponsor, to introduce him and to work with him,
will readily appreciate the reasons for the farm bureau.
The practical impossibiltiy of securing and maintaining
good contacts with several thousand farmers on an indi-
vidual basis, would practically force group organization.
How to obtain the necessary information about county con-
ditions and individually successful farmers and leaders
would be a troublesome problem. And trying to finance
and to maintain the work on a sound basis without the help
of a local organization would be likely to discourage the
most ingenious.

This proved to be the experience of the early agents who
tried it. So that it was not long before local advisory
groups or committees were gathered together by the agents
in an informal way. These advisory and informal com-
mittees later became the nuclei for the more definite county
farmers' organizations.

SINGLENESS OF PURPOSE

A point in connection with these organizations which
early became clear was that they should be practically
single in purpose and that they must be wholly indepen-

210

FARM BUREAU: RELATION TO COUNTY AGENT 211

dent. Few big new ideas have made themselves felt when
they were but one of several objects of the organizations
promoting them, a sort of '*side show to the main tent."
A big idea, a new movement, in order to succeed must
usually have a definite organization to promote it. The
association together of persons who believe in and are co-
operating in a movement gives it a strength and an impetus
that can hardly he obtained in any other way. This has
been true in the case of the movement for prohibition, with
most big political questions, with the Red Cross, and with
innumerable private enterprises.

For this reason, as well as others, the farm bureau move-
ment could not be a department or a bureau in a city
chamber of commerce. Nor would a bureau so organized
be likely to secure the sympathy or enlist the support of
farmers. They would — as they did — whether or not un-
justly, suspect the chambers of commerce of ulterior mo-
tives and of promoting their own interests through it. And
it followed that if farmers would not accept the work and
the management of city men, that they must not expect too
much from their pocketbooks. Farmer management implied
farmer financing.

A question frequently raised is why some farmer organi-
zation already in existence could not have been used. Why
duplicate and multiply organizations ?

Many satisfactory reasons are apparent to those who have
given the subject some thought. There were, in the first
place, no national farmers^ organizations in the sense that
they covered the whole country, and which were so organ-
ized that they could take over and promote this idea. Each
one was strong in one section and weak or wholly absent in
another and local situations had often arisen which had
made it practically impossible to change these conditions.
None of the big national farmers' organizations believed

212 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

sufficiently in the movement in the beginning to want to
father it. Even if they had, they could not and should not
have supplanted the objects for which such organization
was created with another and more or less foreign object,
such as the support of the county agent would be to them.
Such combination of the farm bureau movement with an-
other would, therefore, have weakened and caused it to fall
short of its full development. Lastly, nearly all present
farmers' organizations have limitations from which the
farm bureau movement must be kept free if it is to fulfil
its purpose. It must be non-secret, non-partisan, non-politi-
cal, and all inclusive, if it is to successfully carry out its
ideals. Other farmers' organizations are needed in their
own fields to do their own work. The informal structure of
the farm bureaus soon differentiated them from all other
organizations and largely avoided antagonisms and petty
jealousies.

what's in a name?

The county farm bureau association idea, as we have
seen, did not grow up in a year. Chiefly educational in
character, its development has been neither spectacular nor
emotional. It was an evolution out of the experiences which
proved the need for it. The sponsors of the idea had to
demonstrate its greater effectiveness as an aid in carrying
on county agent work, and its indispensability in ** reaching
the last man."

The movement was unfortunate in the name it acquired
as a department of a chamber of commerce, from which it
was apparently unable to free itself. ** Bureau," as has
been said, sounds too much like a piece of furniture, or the
seat of a government bureaucrat. The name ''County
Council of Agriculture," used in several of the Southern

FARM BUREAU: RELATION TO COUNTY AGENT 213

states, would have been more pleasing to the ear and much
more significant. It was unforunate, too, that the word
** association'* was dropped because of its significance of an
organization. This was partly because the name *'farm
bureau" was shorter and therefore snappier than with the
word ** association *' attached, and partly because in 1916
a national convention of state leaders in Washington, after
a long discussion and vigorous opposition, voted to adopt
the name.

It seems to the writer that the true significance of the
name *'farm bureau" is as the combination of the cooperat-
ing agencies taking part in the work, of which the county
association — the farm bureau association — is one, and the
public institutions — the Department of Agriculture and the
state college — the others. This conception which properly
differentiates all parties and which has avoided the antici-
pated confusions in the public mind which have since
arisen elsewhere, is written into the New York law and
observed in that state.

The definition of the county association — officially known
as the farm bureau — that is now generally accepted in prac-
tically all of the states is as follows ;

"A county farm bureau is an association of people interested
in rural affairs, which has for its object the development in a
county of the most profitable and permanent system of agricul-
ture, the establishment of community ideals, and the furtherance
of the well-being, prosperity, and happiness of the rural people,
through cooperation with local, state, and national agencies in the
development and execution of a program of extension work in
agriculture and home economics."

This definition characterizes a farm bureau in three es-
sential ways: (1) as a local association of rural people;
(2) as offering a broad program for the improvement of

214 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

agriculture; and (3) as a means of cooperation with state
and national public agencies in the execution of such a
program. We may conclude that this conception of a farm
bureau in the thirty-three Northern and Western states
is practically universal. The exceptions do not affect the
general definition, but rather the degree of its application.
Some states, for example, place greater emphasis on the
local associations than do most other states.

The farm bureau idea as embodied in this definition seems
to be accepted in the majority of the Southern states in a
g-eneral way. Conditions and present organization are so
different, however, that its application takes quite different
forms.

EXTENT OF COUNTY BUREAUS

In the thirty-three Northern and Western states in 1919,
1,121 counties, or 70 per cent of all the agricultural coun-
ties in these states, were employing county agents on a per-
manent basis. Of the counties reported as employing
agents, 82 per cent had ** associations of people," as previ-
ously defined, supporting the work.

Summarizing for the entire country, it would appear that
on December 1 ,1921, 2,052 counties, or about 68 per cent of
the entire number, were employing county agents, and 1,015
of these, or a little more than 49 per cent, supported their
agents by paid membership associations ; but less than one-
half of the latter were reported to be functioning well. In
addition there were on the same date 596 counties in the
fifteen Southern states reporting local farmers* clubs.

COOPERATIVE MANAGEMENT

In many states — Iowa, New York and others — the local
board has full control of all local funds, including appro-

FARM BUREAU: RELATION TO COUNTY AGENT 215

priations of county commissioners or boards of supervisors.
In several states this power is limited to the funds derived
from membership, and county appropriations pass through
the college as in Ohio and Indiana, the county board advis-
ing only as to expenditures. In many states the local
board has so little control even over local funds as to make
its powers and responsibilities nominal in character and
confined to ''incidentals'' and advice. Apparently about
the same condition exists in the South, with a considerably
larger degree of state centralization, and less actual control
and management because of a less amount of local funds
and in some cases no local organization.

In most of the states, the counties, properly, have an
important part both in the determination of policies and
in the making of programs ; but the degree of responsibility
varies somewhat with the amount of funds contributed.

In all of these points the Southern states fairly con-
sistently retain full supervision of the agents at the college,
fixing and paying the greater part of the salaries and often
the expenses also, and using local county organizations,
where they exist, in a purely advisory capacity in making
up programs.

Perhaps in one-half of the states the local boards make
written agreements with the college concerning finances,
program, and employment of county agents, and many of
those who do not have such agreements now are planning
them. In most cases this is provided for by the state law.

Most states in the North and West recognize the county
association as an independent association over which the
state has no control, except in so far as their acts must be
** cooperative'' under the laws, and as is ''mutually agreed
upon" in connection with the county agent's work.

Recognition of this independent association as a partner
^ith the public institutions in the conduct of "cooperative

216 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

extension work in agriculture and home economics" is made
by nearly all the states.

In the South the county association or council was at first
apparently almost exclusively an advisory organization with
few if any administrative functions. It was ** usually con-
sulted in making up programs and budgets," but has had
little real power to administer funds or initiate a program
in the past. This is changing rapidly, however.

COOPERATIVE FINANCING

In twenty-one states in the North and West in which
the figures were gathered in 1919, the average total cost of
a county farm bureau was four thousand and thirty-one
dollars. The income, which was somewhat greater than
this, was derived as follows :

Total Per Cent

United States Government funds (including

S.R.S. and Federal Lever ) $938 18.8

State Lever and state free funds 893 18.0

Appropriations of county boards of commission-
ers or supervisors 1,945 39.0

Membership fees in county association 665 13.3

Other local sources and miscellaneous 644 10.9

Assuming that the few items mentioned under ** Miscel-
laneous" are all local, it appears that on an average the
counties in the Northern and Western states in 1919 were
paying 63.2 per cent of the cost of the work, of which nearly
two-thirds was derived from county tax money, and about
one-fifth from membership fees. In general the cost of the
bureaus was highest in the East and lowest in the West.
Counties in the Eastern states derive their largest support
from county appropriations, and counties in the Western
states from state and federal aid. High membership fees
and increasing numbers of members had in 1921 greatly in-
creased the income from this source.

FARM BUREAU: RELATION TO COUNTY AGENT 217

In the South the average cost per county is usually much
lower. Funds are derived more largely from federal and
state sources than in the North and West. County appro-
priations provide the remainder, no membership fees be-
ing available in most counties.

Nearly 90 per cent of the counties employing county
agents in twenty-three states in the North and West have
membership associations with a fee. In 1919 the $1 fee
was decidedly the most popular, 370 out of 687 counties, or
54 per cent, having it. Six counties had a fee of fifty cents ;
22, a fee of $1.50; 40, a fee of $2; 74, a fee of $2.50 or $3;
117, a fee of $5; and 54 counties in Illinois had a fee
of $10.

In 1921 after the organization of the state and national
federations all this had changed and materially larger fees
were the rule. Only one state had a fee of $1 in all its
counties. Six states had a fee of from $1 to $10; eight
from $2 to $10; six from $5 to $10; nine, $5; and fifteen
states $10 for each member.

ADVANTAGES

The advantages of existing relationships between the
county agent and the farm bureau most frequently men-
tioned are :

(1) The local responsibility, and hence the greater local
interest, of farmers when they have a part in the financing
and management of the work.

(2) The relationship develops the power of a local organi-
zation and a local leadership, and provides a way for the
full utilization of these.

(3) It brings public institutions into direct contact with
farmers and localities, and vice versa.

218 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

(4) It emphasizes the educational character of the pro-
gram because the plan is itself educational.

DISADVANTAGES

Too few states see any disadvantages whatever in the
plan — an evidence of possible over-satisfaction, which may
limit progress because of absence of alertness and safe-
guards. Disadvantages mentioned by four states are :

(1) The danger of becoming involved in political ques-
tions and engaging in politics.

(2) The danger that the local association may undertake
enterprises, particularly of a commercial nature, in which
neither the public partner nor the joint representative —
the county agent — may properly take part.

(3) The delegation to, or the assumption by, the county
agent of too much responsibility and too many duties, espe-
cially relatively unimportant details, to the detriment both
of local initiative and of the educational program for which
the bureau chiefly exists j in other words, making the agent
a mere chore boy.

HOW THE BUREAUS FUNCTION

How do the county bureaus really function? Is the
county agent the real motive power and the farm bureau
simply his instrument, or is the bureau the real force in
the county and the agent its employee to carry out its pur-
poses and program, as arranged with the public institu-
tions ?

We have discussed the ideals, the organization and the
relationships of the movement. We now need to see
whether the ideal is being realized and to what extent.
That there are now nearly one million members who pay

FARM BUREAU: RELATION TO COUNTY AGENT 219

more than four million dollars in dues ought to be sufficient
evidence that the organization is a fact. How then is this
force applied to the solution of county problems?

THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE S JOB

An organization scattered over so wide an area as a
county must necessarily depend very largely on a small
elected executive committee. From seven to nine members
is usually thought sufficient. Larger committees work with
less facility and do not add appreciably to the wisdom of
the decisions reached.

"While this committee should, as far as practicable, repre-
sent the different sections of the county and the various
phases of the county's farm interests, it is more important
that its members pe so located that they can meet once a
month if necessary and be able to give the work of the
bureau their time and best thought. It is especially im-
portant that the president and the secretary-treasurer be
located near the office and not too far apart, for both must
see the agent frequently and usually both must sign all
bills. It often happens that a village business man with
farming interests — a bank cashier for example — ^located in
the town where the office is may be able to serve as secre-
tary-treasurer, thus establishing a desirable town connec-
tion and perhaps facilitating the business of the committee
as well.

Having made a budget, the first responsibility of the
executive committee is to raise the necessary funds to meet
it. It must also supervise the expenditure of the money.
Keeping careful records of its disbursement is very im-
portant as more trouble is likely to arise over a little finan-
cial laxity than almost any other one thing. People will
not readily forgive error or oversight in handling, not to

220 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

mention misuse, of public funds. Passing upon the pro-
gram recommended to it by the advisory council, determin-
ing upon the most urgent phases of the work, conferring
with state leaders and adapting state policies to local needs,
employing agents, receiving reports, and meeting emer-
gency questions as they arise, all require sustained interest,
good judgment and a close acquaintance with the work.
An executive committee that does not do the work expected
of it, and in doing so inspire confidence, is not living up
either to its opportunities or its obligations.

COMMUNITY COMMITTEEMEN AT WORK

Every rural community should have a live representa-
tive committee, of from three to ten members, to look after
its interests with the bureau, and to promote the interests
(sometimes called projects) of the bureau in its community.
Its chairman elected by the local members or appointed by
the county president should preside at all local meetings.
If this committee is on the job it will largely determine
the amount and character of the work done by the agent in
its community. The full committee should meet with the
agent at least twice a year, once to plan the year 's program
and once to sum up the results.

Not the least of the committee's duties nor always the
most agreeable, is to plan and to carry out the local mem-
bership campaign and secure the local quota of members.
The making of a community map, defining its boundaries
and locating all farmers and members and listing bureau
work, is always helpful in stimulating interest and in pro-
ducing results. Committeemen will also be called upon
frequently to furnish local information as to conditions and
to answer questionnaires and referenda for the state and
national oiBfices. If this is done promptly and with care, it

Membership getting has not always been the most agreeable of
the community committeeman's jobs, but the process has been a
valuable educational one both with him and with the members.
Membership should be based primarily on the local program of
work and only secondarily on the state and national federation
programs.

FARM BUREAU: RELATION TO COUNTY AGENT 221

may contribute very effectively to the solution of state and
national questions.

The community committeeman is not without his com-
pensations and privileges. He is one of the recognized agri-
cultural leaders in his community. The very fact of his
being chosen is a recognition of his success, his good in-
fluence or his ability as a leader. He also becomes a^o-
ciated with other good farmers and leaders in his own
county to his own profit. He is considered the local repre-
sentative of his state college and the United States Depart-
ment of Agriculture in extension work and of his state and
national farm bureau federations, and is on all mailing lists
to receive special helps and news. He meets state and other
representatives who come from outside the county to attend
meetings and conferences and whose contact with the com-
munity is usually made through him. With his county
agent, he is, or should be, in frequent contact.

THE ADVISORY COUNCIL

The county advisory council or committee is made up
of all the community committeemen in each community in
the county, or in some of the larger counties of the chair-
men of these committees only. In the majority of the
counties, on account of the limitations of distance, time and
cost, this council meets but once or twice a year, though in
small counties with centrally located offices which are fa-
vored with good transportation, it sometimes meets monthly,
at least throughout the winter season.

Its chief and very important function is to recommend
the county program of work based on community needs, as
has already been outlined in Chapter X, and to advise the
county committee on the larger or special countj^-wide prob-
lems which need attention. It usually helps to plan the

222 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

membersliip *' drive" and frequently at an annual dinner,
with outside speakers, great enthusiasm is aroused and the
whole piece of work enlivened. At least one meeting of the
council annually is indispensable alike to good farm bureau
or county agent work.

THE COUNTY FARM BUREAU NEWS ^

An important need in any organization, sometimes over-
looked, is that for a regular medium of getting the organi-
zation news and information pertaining to the work to the
entire membership — a house organ. This is especially need-
ful in cases where the membership is widely scattered and
gets together in meetings but infrequently. The members'
interest in the organization can only be consistently sus-
tained by keeping them constantly and fully informed about
what is being done. The plans of executive committee and
agent, immediate and future, what other farmers and other
county organizations are doing, news of the college and the
Department and of state and national federations, together
with results accomplished, farm organization news gener-
ally, local agricultural information and advice, especially
that which is purely local in character and which the farm
journals and weekly papers are not apt to carry, should be
printed and sent to members at least monthly.

A large and increasing number of county farm bureaus
now have their little monthly papers known as **Farm
Bureau News " or " Farm Bureau Bulletin. ' * These usually
have departments of special interest to men, to women and
to boys and girls. They often carry local advertisements
for their members at a low rate, especially of pure-bred
seed and livestock, and exchange columns for the conveni-
ence of their members who have articles they want to trade
for others. They also carry some local merchants' adver-
tising. This, it is claimed by some, is unfairly in competi-

FARM BUREAU: RELATION TO COUNTY AGENT 223

tion with local papers and therefore not good policy ; though
it could probably be shown without difficulty that the use
of the News stimulates rather than reduces advertising else-
where. Because of the high grade of the circulation of
these little papers, many national advertisers are now seek-
ing space in them and this is probably in competition with
local papers. This is a matter of policy for each local com-
mittee to decide. Advertising revenue usually defrays from
one-half to all their cost. The News belongs exclusively to
the local organization and the member's fee includes the
subscription price. In the absence of such publications
frequent circular news letters are used to keep the members
informed.

Some persons have asserted that there was no need for
these publications and that they were competitors of local
newspapers who could and would be glad to perform all
the service that they render if given a chance and necessary
material to do so. This is the newspaper man's point of
view. No house organ can or should take the place of a
regular news service to local weekly and daily papers,
which will give them what their readers want to know of
the bureau's activities. The specialist in organization
knows that it is desirable to have a house organ owned
and controlled by the membership it serves which can
publish what and all that it desires to get to its members
when it wants to do so. The rapid spread of the county
**News" idea is the best evidence of the need for it unfilled
by other agencies.

Another disputed question is whether or not the county
agent should serve as editor of the **News." The United
States Department of Agriculture and the American Farm
Bureau Federation have agreed in a memorandum that it
is best that he should not. Theoretically, the executive
committee, which is responsible for the paper, should ap-

224 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

point an editor from the association to write all the organi-
zation and most of the editorial material. It should be
the function of the county agent to prepare all agricultural
information and news. Practically, the county agent is
usually compelled to do this, as he is the best qualified,
though it does draw heavily upon his time. If he will
always remember that he is a public and an educational
agent, refrain from taking sides on argumentative ques-
tions, and from making criticisms which are likely to
jeopardize his wholesome influence with his constituency —
which many agents either cannot or do not do — he may
continue to edit the ** News'' without more harm than good
by so doing.

THE ANNUAL MEETING

The annual meeting of the association has two main
functions : To elect officers and transact the necessary busi-
ness of the organization for the ensuing year, and to furnish
the occasion for a rousing get-together or mass meeting of
the farmers of the whole county to hear reports of ac-
complishment, live problems discussed, and to make plans
and record suggestions for their solution. Essentials for
its success are a suitable meeting place, a businesslike pro-
gram not too long, music and a good community song
leader, and one inspirational speaker who can discuss
briefly and intelligently some of the live farm problems of
the day. It is also well to have some one — usually a county
agent leader— review farm bureau ideals so as to keep them
constantly before the members.

The mistake is often made by the program committee of
crowding the program, which then gets behind schedule
time, tires out the crowd and loses much of the value of
the whole meeting. Well-planned advertising consistently
carried out well in advance, is the only way, besides having

FARM BUREAU: RELATION TO COUNTY AGENT 225

an attractive program, to get out a good crowd. The
meeting itself requires very careful attention to details
to make it go off well. County agents and officers will do
well to remember that this is their one opportunity of the
year to get all the members together in one rousing meeting
to promote the bureau's program and work.

MEMBERSHIP CAMPAIGNS

The collection of the membership fees, especially when
these have to be solicited annually, always gives officers and
committeemen much concern. Two general plans are in
use. The oldest and best, so long as it can be continued
successfully, is the collection of the fees by the voluntary
work of the community committeemen. The other, which
has been the method used in most of the Middle West and in
the South, since the advent of the American Farm Bureau
Federation, is the canvass by paid solicitors. In either
case the territory is divided up into districts, usually
school districts, and a committeeman assigned to each.

On the voluntary basis the local committeemen, having
received previous instructions and equipment at the county
advisory committee meeting, call on all the farmers in their
respective districts, simultaneously, aided by a county-wide
publicity campaign. Where the committeeman is a good
one and knows how, he can and often does get one hundred
per cent of the farmers in his district as members. The
chief weakness in this plan is that so many local committee-
men do not know how or do not like to canvass for mem-
bers, so that they fail to function and as a result the mem-
bership is *' spotted." Another objection to this plan is that
the committeemen tire of the job, which is disagreeable to
many. This can be met in part by having the secretary
collect in advance as many of the old members' fees as he

226 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

can by mail, and by regarding the member as **for life''
unless he resigns in writing.

In the ease of the paid solicitor canvass, a crew of trained
men receiving a per diem of from ^Ye to ten dollars a
day are usually brought in from an outside county, and
assigned to ride with local committeemen and do the solic-
iting in their respective districts. A county is thus syste-
matically gone over in a regular clean-up campaign, usually
under the direction of the state federation. More good
canvassers are thus discovered or trained, and these are in
turn sent into neighboring counties as paid solicitor crews.

This plan gets a much larger proportion of the farmers
as members but at the heavy cost of from one to two dollars
apiece, which of course must be taken out of the member's
fee received for that year. While members are usually
signed up either for three or five years, or for life, often
on an authorized sight-draft basis, they can always relieve
themselves of the obligation by resigning in writing, and
they will stay in the organization no longer than they
approve of its program and are satisfied with its results.
The objections to the paid solicitor plan are that it tends
t« break down the voluntary service element — self-help, or
doing for one's self — ^which is such a source of strength in
any movement, and that it has in it the elements of the
force of trade unionism and the likelihood of misrepre-
sentation. In their zeal to get every farmer as a member
and in the excitement of the campaign, too much pressure
is often used on individuals, and promises are sometimes
made by solicitors which cannot be fulfilled by the organi-
zation. Moreover, it is an expensive method. But it gets
results which are at least temporary, and is therefore pop-
ular in most states just now.

In the older and more conservative states, where this
plan is not so popular, a compromise plan is now being

FARM BUREAU: RELATION TO COUNTY AGENT 227

tried out. A county campaign manager and a few paid
solicitors are employed, trained in a school conducted by
the state federation. These men give their whole time to
working with the voluntary committeemen where their
services are needed. During the period of development it
has been altogether worthwhile to have committeemen
visit their neighbors once a year and talk over the merits
and the failures of the work locally. It has been good
advertising for the bureau and county agent work and a
good education in its fundamentals for both committeemen
and members.

THE SIZE OP THE MEMBERSHIP FEE

Another problem which is a subject of much discussion
just now is the amount of the membership fee in the county
association. When the movement first started the fee was
almost universally one dollar a year. But as the outlook
and the program of the county associations grew and the
costs of operation increased, a strong tendency to increase
the fee developed. This was brought to a focus by the
organization of the national federation. Almost immedi-
ately the fees were increased in the majority of the states
to five or ten dollars a member, and even to fifteen dollars
in one state, a considerable part of which of course went to
state and national federations. The more conservative
states, although compelled to increase their fees, kept them
down to two or three dollars or at the most to five dollars.
At the present time, however, the tendency is still strongly
toward the larger fee.

The effect of these increased fees has been the develop-
ment of big and ambitious programs, the raising of sal-
aries and a general impetus to the movement. This has
been accompanied, however, by a more cautious attitude

228 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

on the part of the public in placing its confidence in the
movement, by the development of some jealousies on the
part of some farm organizations and by Congressional in-
vestigations into the work. How much these things will
amount to remains for the future to determine. It is a
fair question to ask whether what has been gained is worth
the price. Fees had to be raised of course as the program
was enlarged and as costs increased. The real question is
not the size of the fee but its relation to the program of
work and the results which affect the individual member
of each association.

THE HOME BUREAU

Just as in the case of agents, the farm bureau's work
with women was in most instances not differentiated from
that with men, but was carried on by the same agencies.
The farm bureaus at first appointed project committees
on women's problems which were comparable with its proj-
ect committees on poultry or on farm drainage, for ex-
ample. This, it seemed to the bureaus in some states, was
too meager a recognition of women's work, which though
perhaps less spectacular and less in the public mind, never-
theless, probably occupies a good half of the range of
farm problems.

Economic problems just now loom large. But the prob-
lems of the home; its social life and contacts, as a place
tj rear farm children, and its eiBficiency, especially in rela-
tion to its equipment and conveniences — are not all these,
after all, equal in importance with the problems of pro-
duction and marketing? It is usually the farm woman
who gives most thought to rural social and community
problems and to the needs of the children, because this is
her natural field and she is more sensitive to the need of

FARM BUREAU; RELATION TO COUNTY AGENT 229

improvements than is the man. Less is also done in this
field as a rule, chiefly because the man controls the pocket-
book.

But great progress is being made. What is needed now
is the opportunity and the means of solving problems —
organization, for example, is one means — placed in the
hands of rural women. If this is done they will probably
solve most of their problems by their own initiative. The
present organization in most of the states tends to smother
and to hold back the initiative of women. It can never
bring to their fullest exercise the latent abilities of women
to cope with their own problems. This point of view is
also in line with the trend of the times. With these facts
in mind several of the states have given a larger oppor-
tunity to women to develop a competent organization of
their own.

THE HOME BUREAU IN ILLINOIS

In Illinois for many years home demonstration work has
been conducted in some counties independently of the
county farm bureau, but like it, in cooperation with the
University of Illinois and the United States Department of
Agriculture. It is incorporated under the state law which
provides for appropriations by county boards of supervisors
for the use of ''home improvement associations^' (home
bureaus), as well as for "soil and crop improvement asso-
ciations" (farm bureaus). The home bureau in Illinois
is a county-wide organization of women interested in the
promotion of better methods of housekeeping and home-
making.

This organization selects from among a group of candi-
dates nominated by the University a trained woman to act
as its adviser and agent in carrying out the county pro-
gram of work for women. Such an agent must be a grad-

230 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

uate of a good four-year course in home economics, have
first-hand knowledge of farm life and have five years of
successful experience after graduation in some line of
home economics work.

When such an agent has heen approved hy it, and when
the county association has on its own initiative provided
not less than $2,500 of local funds, the University appor-
tions a sum of Smith-Lever money to the county ($1,500
in 1921) for the work. The women determine their own
program, which usually includes selection of food, cloth-
ing and home furnishings; keeping of household records;
planning of work; household equipment and labor-saving
devices; the hot school lunch; home nursing and other
home-making problems. Each member of the county asso-
ciation pays a fee usually of $5, and not less than three
hundred members are required to effect a permanent or-
ganization. The county a^ociation functions through an
executive board, an advisory council, local units and special
project committees in much the same way as does the
standard farm bureau.

THE NEW YORK FARM AND HOME BUREAU

The two lines of work cannot, should not, be completely
separated, because they relate to a single family unit.
The farm and the home are themselves inseparable. They
need a close correlation, but as two equal and coordinate
parts.

In order to effect this object. New York State has or-
ganized the county association into two equal and coor-
dinate parts or divisions, a farm department or farm
bureau, and a home department or home bureau. Any
person wishing to join the association chooses the division
with which he will affiliate. Naturally, most of the men

FARM BUREAU: RELATION TO COUNTY AGENT 231

choose the farm bureau and most of the women the home
bureau. Each department has jurisdiction over all mat-
ters which concern it alone. Each department elects an
executive committee of its own, fixes its own fee, deter-
mines that part of its program which affects its own
members primarily, and generally administers its own
work.

All matters of common concern are passed upon by the
general committee, which is composed of the executives
of both departments, equal in number, together with one
other member chosen by both. All budgets of proposed
receipts and expenses, the employment of all agents, joint
programs, as junior work, recreation, etc., are considered
as matters of common concern, and are decided upon by a
committee of the whole association. There is one treas-
urer who pays all bills which are in accordance with the
authorized budget, upon the order of the respective com-
mittees signed by the president. The farm bureau chair-
man is usually — ^but not necessarily — president of the
combined association. The essentials of this plan are in-
corporated in the New York law.

It is yet too early in the history of this movement to
say what plan will prove best. That both the Illinois and
the New York plans are working is evidenced by the fact
that each state has a paid-up membership of about twenty-
five thousand women, each of whom pays a fee of one
dollar, and by the addition of several new county organi-
zations since the war at a time when many counties in
other states are dropping the work. Whatever the specific
plan is, it is absolutely essential that the principles of
self-help and freedom of initiative for women be embodied
in it.

'fy^

CHAPTER Xn

THE STATE AND THE NATIONAL FARM BUREAU
FEDERATIONS

In the growth and development of the county agent and
farm bureau movements, there have been four distinct
steps: (1) The emplojonent of county agents by the gov-
ernment, at first chiefly in cooperation with urban agencies
and then in cooperation with farmers, (2) the organization
of local county associations of farmers, usually called
**farm bureaus,'' to cooperate in program-making and in
the support and management of the county agent's work,
(3) the federation of these county associations into state
organizations to promote state programs especially along
legislative and economic lines, and (4) the combination
of the state federations into a national body to promote
a national agricultural policy through economic, legisla-
tive and organization activities and generally to protect
and to work for farmers' interests.

All this has taken place in the last ten years and most
of it in the last five years. The last three steps have taken
place almost simultaneously in many parts of the country
— a fact which in itself constitutes one of the chief weak-
nesses of the movement. With the first two of these steps
we have already dealt. It now remains for us to study the
third and fourth steps in relation to their nature, purposes
and effects.

STATE AND NATIONAL FEDERATIONS 233

THE MOVEMENT TOWARD FEDERATION AND SOME OP ITS

CAUSES

By the middle of the year 1916 county agents were being
employed in more than twelve hundred counties in the
United States. In perhaps one-half of these counties,
county associations of farmers were cooperating in the
support of these agents. In several of the states one-half
or more of the counties were thus organized.

As yet, however, there were only one or two state organi-
zations or federations of these county associations, although
informal conferences of their officers had been held in
several states as early as the winter of 1915-16. This num-
ber included Vermont (October, 1915), New York, Illinois
and Missouri. Out of these conferences grew a desire on
the part of the county officers for more definite and formal
etate associations. Missouri was the first to form a state
organization of its county bureaus, which it did on March
24-25, 1915, at Slater. Massachusetts organized its state
federation at Worcester about a month later, or on May
11, 1915. Illinois formed the Illinois Agricultural Asso-
ciation in January, 1916. It was made up of individual
members of the county associations. In February, 1917,
during Farmers' Week at the State College, the New York
State Federation of County Farm Bureau Associations was
formed. In several other states similar groups were organ-
ized about the same time or soon after, so that by the fall
of 1918 ten or twelve states had federations composed of
county farm bureau units.

The primary purpose of these state federations was to
promote, protect and unify the work of the associations in
the counties and the idea in the state. The men in the
counties expected that by getting together they could profit
by each other's experiences and get ideas that would be

234 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

helpful at home. There was a natural curiosity to find
out what the other counties were doing and how they did
it. But more than this, there was undoubtedly in the
minds of many of the delegates a desire and a hope for a
larger organization that would come to mean to the state
what the county farm bureaus were coming to mean to the
counties.

But there were not only common problems to discuss,
as finances, membership, results accomplished and methods
of securing them; there were mutual legislative, educa-
tional and other interests to protect and marketing prob-
lems demanding a policy and a solution. Here were
uniform county units being formed in most of the coun-
ties, cooperating in the employment of trained and ener-
getic young men, supported by the most progressive farmers
and with forward-looking programs. It was a very natural
American trait to want to apply this idea and to use this
machinery in a larger way.

Underlying all these objects there was undoubtedly an
unformulated but none the less potent desire for a power
and influence in state and nation commensurate with the
importance of agriculture, and now being realized, as, for
example, in the formation of the "agricultural bloc" in
Congress.

PRESENT EXTENT AND FINANCES

It was not until after the organization of the national
federation in the fall of 1919, that the movement for state
federation became practically a national one. Up to this
time there were no state organizations relating especially
to farm bureau work in the South and less than twenty
in the entire United States. But with the organization of
the movement nationally and a glimpse of its possibilities,
with its eligibility to membership confined to ** state farm

STATE AND NATIONAL FEDERATIONS 235

Sureau federations and state agricultural associations based
on the farm bureau or a similar plan/' an impetus was
given to the state federation movement, which, with the
definite help of the organization department of the na-
tional, has now resulted in the organization of state fed-
erations in all the states except Pennsylvania and South
Carolina. On September 1, 1921, forty-six states, excluding
the two states just named, had a total federated member-
ship of 967,279 farmers, or an average of 21,028 per state.
The largest number of members in any one state was
124,000 in Iowa, and the smallest number 466 in Nevada.

The local county membership fees, a portion of which
constitute the means of financial support of the state fed-
erations, varied in 1921 from one dollar in Maine and
Utah and in many individual counties in other states, to
fifteen dollars in some counties in Kentucky. One state
has no fee but raises its funds by assessment. In two
states all the counties had a fee of one dollar. In six
states the fee varied in the counties from one to ten dol-
lars; in eight states from two to ten dollars, and in six
states from ^ve to ten dollars. In nine states all the
counties have a uniform fee of five dollars and in fifteen
states of ten dollars. The tendency to date has been
toward a constantly larger fee.

The proportion of this fee which goes to the state fed-
eration also varies widely. In general, it is from fifty
cents, as in New York, to ^ve dollars, as in Illinois, with the
majority of the state federations collecting from one dollar
to two dollars and fifty cents for state and national dues.
For the first year or two many of the state federations
were financed by flat assessments per county member of
from ten to one hundred dollars per county, or a fee of
from ten to twenty-five cents per county member, "or such
part thereof as many be necessary/' This was found to

236 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

be inadequate when paid secretaries and other officers were
employed. It will be seen then that the incomes of the
state federations in 1920 were all the way from a very few
hundred dollars in the smaller and more recently organized
states, to more than half a million in Illinois, with several
of the state organizations receiving more than one hundred
thousand dollars.

FEDERATION MANAGEMENT

In practically all the states the federations are gov-
erned by boards of directors made up of one or more dele-
gates from each member county, the favorite number of
delegates per county being one, with an alternate. A few
states base the number of delegates on the number of in-
dividual members in each member unit, as, for example,
one delegate for each five hundred or thousand members.
In the majority of the states the extension services of the
state colleges of agriculture are represented on the execu-
tive boards of the federations. In several states they are
not represented at all. The representative is usually the
extension director and in some eases the county agent
leader also. In practically all the states this representa-
tive has no vote on the committee but sits only as a conferee
and adviser.

There is no organic relation whatever between the farm
bureau federations and the state colleges. Both parties,
however, have so much of common interest in the county
agent work that they need to consult and advise frequently
on many matters of mutual interest. The ex-officio mem-
bership of the extension director on the federation executive
committee, preferably without vote, provides the oppor-
tunity.

STATE AND NATIONAL FEDERATIONS 237

PURPOSES AND WORK

The purposes of the state federations, as stated in their
constitutions, are most commonly as follows: (1) to cor-
relate, strengthen and promote the work of county farm
bureaus and to develop their work as a state-wide program,
(2) to advance, protect and promote the interests of agri-
culture— *'to improve agriculture economically, education-
ally and socially, '' (3) to study and to seek the solution
of economic marketing and production problems, (4) to
secure agricultural legislation necessary to protect and to
promote farming interests, (5) to cooperate with the ex-
tension service in promoting a program of work. Still
another object mentioned is *' promoting understanding
and responsibility of the farmer to society and of society
to the farmer/' The first and the last objects mentioned
(numbers 1 and 5) are the most characteristic of the East-
ern states. Objects (2) and (3) are usually those written
in the constitutions of the corn-belt states. Legislation
(4) is not very often mentioned, although it has proved
to be an important part of the work of many state fed-
erations.

It is not always statements in constitutions that deter-
mine what an organization will do. Its real objects are
more likely to be shown in the actual work which it does
in practice.

The promotion of the work of the county agents has
been from the very first the principal item in most of the
state federation programs. In the words of President
Howard of the American Farm Bureau Federation, ''the
county agent is the keystone of the federation,'' i.e., he
largely determines by his leadership whether the local
county unit or member bureau really performs its func-

23S BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

tion or not. But he has no direct connection with or
responsibility to the state federation.

The organization of farmers for the cooperative market-
ing of their products has been next in importance in the
work undertaken ; in fact, it has been first in many of the
Middle Western states. A great deal of money has been
spent in those states on high-salaried men to work on this
problem and some good results have been attained. Re-
sults have, however, not always been in proportion to
expenditures. Some states in other sections of the coun-
try have shown that by the use of voluntary committees
and public experts, they have been able to accomplish prac-
tically as much with little or no direct expenditure.

Probably next in importance has been the legislative
activities of the state federations. A number of the states
have formulated and carried out quite comprehensive agri-
cultural programs for the protection and advancement of
farming, and practically all the states have been able to
accomplish a good deal in the way of desirable agricul-
tural legislation. Practically no activity has been mani-
fested in political questions, but work has been wisely
confined to farm matters.

These three broad divisions embrace most of the work
done, although there are of course a multitude of less im-
portant matters.

FEDERATION RELATIONS TO COOPERATIVES

The large activities of the federations in helping to
organize and develop cooperative organizations for buying
and selling have raised important questions as to the rela-
tionships which should obtain between a farm bureau fed-
eration and commercial cooperative associations. Two
relationships are possible.

STATE AND NATIONAL FEDERATIONS 239

The federation may assume responsibility either actually
through making the cooperative a department in its organi-
zation, as in Michigan, or morally by naming some of its
directors or its advisory committee, as in Ohio. At pres-
ent this is perhaps the most common relationship, but it is
likely to prove dangerous and unsatisfactory; dangerous
because it makes the federation responsible for what it
does not and cannot fully control; unsatisfactory because
it will not develop a strong self-sustaining cooperative and
because the federation is likely to get the blame for failures
and mistakes without the credit for successes.

The other safer and in the end more effective relationship
is simply that of service, a helpful support without any
control — cooperation as between two self-contained and
independent organizations. The federation may in the
beginning take the initiative at the request of a group of
its members or other farmers, call meetings, secure speak-
ers and experts, and get the cooperative set up and ready
to function. After that, the federation's assistance to
cooperatives, like that of parents to their children, should
be with the view of their acquiring such strength that they
may stand alone. But there should always be mutual
services and relationships between the federation and the
cooperatives as two organizations working in the same gen-
eral field of agricultural improvement though from differ-
ent angles.

On the part of the federation certain services may be of
great value to the cooperative. Among these the active
moral support of the cooperative principle and right with
the public and particularly with legislators, will be indis-
pensable. The cooperative will often need legislative as-
sistance and protection of its interests, which the federa-
tion may well give. Educational work in connection with
the sale of commodities, particularly with reference to

240 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

standardization, grading, quality and food value, and pub-
licity as to the public values of cooperative organization,
may be made services of great value to the cooperative.

In addition to these important services the farm bureau
federation might maintain approved lists of certified public
accountants who have specialized in the setting up and
examination of the books of associations organized under
the cooperative laws. Cooperatives will need also the serv-
ices of attorneys who are familiar with cooperative laws
and their interpretation. As these are quite different from
corporation law, it may be very important to have ap-
proved lists of such attorneys available. Special aid with
traffic problems may also be needed and be very useful.
The larger commodity organizations employ their own
accountants and attorneys. Some state federations with
large incomes may be able to furnish these three services
directly with persons in their own employ and thus enable
the cooperators to obtain them at less cost. It is impor-
tant, however, that the commodity handled should pay the
cost of such services directly. It should not be subsidized.

Since every cooperative must do a certain amount of
educational work in order to maintain its organization and
position, and since this is also a federation function, these
educational programs might well be jointly planned and
executed. This purpose can be accomplished by giving
the cooperative delegate representation at the federation
meetings. This delegate representation should be with
the full privileges of the floor to help formulate a joint
program with reference to cooperatives, but without vote
on its final acceptance by the federation.

As a further means of maintaining helpful relationships
between the organizations on a mutual and independent
basis, there should be occasional joint meetings between
the executive boards of the federation and each cooperative.

STATE AKD NATIONAL FEDERATIONS 241

or if this is not practicable, then between sub-committees
of the two groups. On these occasions each should discuss
its own problems and plans for the future, with a view
to mutual understanding and cooperation where necessary
or desirable.

On its part the cooperative should give its active moral
support and endorsement to farm bureaus and to the fed-
eration and its program so far as it can, and is concerned.
It should place the federation secretary on its mailing list
to receive all printed and circular material sent out by it,
including general or circular letters to members, letters
to the trade and quarterly, annual or other reports. Espe-
cially should the cooperative maintain a regular certified
audit and see that the federation gets a copy of this
promptly.

Such a relationship puts in practice the fundamentally
sound principles of self-help and of service. It leaves re-
sponsibility where it belongs and where it will develop
initiative and leadership. Yet it provides for cooperation
and mutual help. Incidentally, it frees the federation
from the oft-made charge of trying to control or dominate
all farm organizations by gathering them all under its
protecting and fostering wing — a wrong method, a mis-
conception of function and a source of much justified
criticism.

women's work

Up to this time women's part in the farm bureau move-
ment has found little expression in the program or organi-
zation of the state federations, which have so far confined
their efforts to lines of work generally considered as pri-
marily those of men. The special interests of women,
seldom given the place in the local farm bureau program
which their importance deserves, have not as yet made

242 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

themselves felt in the state organizations. Consequently,
in most of the states, women have lost, or rather never ac-
quired, the state-wide impetus to the study and the solu-
tion of their problems which has meant so much to men's
interests. If a type of county and state organization
which gives a reasonable recognition to the special prob-
lems of the home is provided, these same advantages will,
in time, come to women.

There are many reasons why the work of women should
at the very least be recognized as one of the most impor-
tant departments of a state federation, if not as a division
of it coordinate with the men's work. It is chiefly to
women that we must look for the improvement of our
social and community life, as well as for the solution of
the more personal problems of food, clothing and of the
home life itself. The question of how rural women may
be adequately recognized and given a real opportunity to
function in a state-wide and national way in the proper
relation to the state and the American farm bureau fed-
erations has not as yet received the serious consideration
it deserves.

As this is being written a national committee of women
appointed by President Howard of the American Federa-
tion is studying the problem. What this committee will
recommend, and how much the directors of the national
organization will accept and put into operation, cannot
of course be known or accurately forecasted at this time.
It would seem that the least that each state and the na-
tional federations could do would be to create strong de-
partments within themselves, very largely self-governing,
and with their own advisory directorates and secretaries
to have charge of women's work. If this is not done there
is grave danger either that women will not function at all
in the federation movement, and thus that many important

fSTATE AND NATIONAL FEDERATIONS 243

problems may go unsolved, or, on the other hand, that
rural women's interests will be swallowed up in those of
urban women in a city-controlled organization, such as
the Federation of Women's Clubs. This would be as in-
jurious to the movement as to have allowed the chambers
of commerce to have continued to dominate the men's
work.

The Grange has set a good example of what ought to
be done, in its recognition of women with equal rights,
privileges and functioning in that order, although even
here the initiative of women is not usually sufficiently
encouraged to lead women to function in Grange work as
fully as the men. In only two or three states, however,
is this principle yet accepted and practiced. In New
York, where the home department or home bureau ia
recognized as fully coordinate with the farm department
or farm bureau in the county association, this principle
is applied to the state also, and a state federation of home
bureaus, constituted substantially like the farm bureau
federation, has been organized. As yet this state group
has no organic relation to the farm bureau federation, as
it logically should have if the county plan were to be fully
applied to the state, although the same end is secured by
mutual understanding and cooperation. Thus the women
in this state have the fullest opportunity — and exercise
it — to apply their united efforts in a state-wide way to
their own problems and to aid the men in the solution of
problems common to both.

One of the real difSculties in securing a complete func-
tioning of women in this movement, as in others, lies in
their inability to finance it properly themselves. The
fact that she does not usually hold the pocketbook seriously
handicaps the farm woman from doing her share. The
woman's work is usually inadequately financed in the

244 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

counties themselves. How then is it to be properly financed
in the state and nation ? The continued and generous help
of the men, together with a separate membership fee for
women to enable them to help themselves as much as they
can and to have all the funds thus raised for their own
work, would seem to be the logical answer.

Whether the New York and Illinois county home bureau
plans represent unnecessary extremes in securing the in-
itiative and interest of women remains to be seen. Cer-
tainly it needs better correlation with the farm bureau
federation if not actual union with it on the county plan.
But it is also certain that it has given the rural women of
these states a vital part and interest in the movement,
resulting in the actual participation of more women in
the work, securing more financial support and actual func-
tioning in the home demonstration work and its support,
than in any other states in the Union.

THE AMERICAN FEDERATION

It is an exceptional American organization that does
not aspire to be national. So it was to be expected that
there would be many farmers in the organized states who
would not be satisfied with the growth of the farm bureau
idea to state stature only. These farmers had a vision of
a truly national organization, based on units in every
county in the United States, which should come to represent
all the farmers of America whatever their special interests
might be. It was neither their hope nor their expectation,
however, that such a national organization would replace,
but rather that it would assist and cooperate with other
organized farmer groups. These partizans of the farm
bureau movement also wanted to extend it to every county
and to help to correlate and to unify both county and

STATE AND NATIONAL FEDERATIONS 245

state units into a national group with a common basis and
common ideals.

As early as 1915 there had been suggestions to this end
from Missouri, "West Virginia and other states. It was
not until February, 1919, however, that anything definite
was done looking to the actual organization of a national
federation of farm bureaus. In that year, on the initiative
of the New York Federation, and as the result of the work
of a committee headed by Frank M. Smith of Springfield
Center, Otsego County, appointed by it, representatives
from fourteen states met at Ithaca, N. Y., to consider the
advisability of organization.

As a result of this meeting, a committee of five men,
with C. E. Bradfute of Zenia, Ohio, as chairman, was
selected to arrange for a larger and more representative
meeting at which a national organization should be ef-
fected. On November 13-14, 1919, at Chicago, with thirty-
one states represented, a temporary organization was
effected and a constitution was adopted to be in effect when
ratified by not less than twenty states. When the first
annual meeting was called at Chicago on March 3 and 4,
1920, twenty-eight states had ratified. J. R. Howard of
Iowa was elected President, S. L. Strivings of New York,
Vice-President, and John Coverdale of Iowa was selected
as Secretary. At the second annual meeting, held at In-
dianapolis, Indiana, in December, 1920, thirty-seven states
qualified sixty-five directors representing 826,816 members.
At Atlanta, Georgia, a year later, the third annual meet-
ing showed sixty -three directors from thirty-nine states
with nearly a million members.

CONTROL BY DIRECTORS

The American Farm Bureau Federation is governed by
a board of directors chosen by the member states, one at

246 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

large for each state and one additional director for each
twenty thousand or major portion thereof of paid-up mem-
bers in the member county units of the state federations.
This board usually meets only in annual meeting, however,
and the immediate management of the federation's affairs
rests with an executive committee of fourteen. This com-
mittee is made up of three members each from four groups
of states ^ — the Northeastern, the Middle Western, the
Southern and the Far "Western, together with the President
and the Vice-President ex-officio. The Secretary of the
United States Department of Agriculture and the Director
of the States Relations Service in the Department are also
privileged to attend all meetings and to take part in the
discussions but without vote in the decisions of the com-
mittee. In practice only the Director of the States Rela-
tions Service attends these meetings.

In addition, there is a House of Delegates consisting of
one delegate from each member state and one additional
delegate for each ten thousand farms in that state, who
sit with and have all the privileges of directors except
the vote. The purpose of this House of Delegates is to
bring to the meetings of the Federation large numbers of
farmers from all the member counties, both for the in-
formation and inspiration they get and the enthusiasm
they engender.

The finances of the Federation are obtained by a levy
on the member states of fifty cents for every paid-up mem-
ber in each county unit which is a member of the member
state federation. This fee represents an increase, made

iThe groups of states are made up as follows: Northeastern,
Mass., N. H., Vt., Me., Conn., N. Y., R. I., N. J., Del. and Penn.;
Middle Western, Ohio, Ind., 111., Mich., Minn., Iowa, N. D., S. D.,
Neb., Kan., Mo. and Wis.; Southern, Md., Va., W. Va., N. C,
S. C, Ga., Fla., Ala., Miss., Ky., Tenn., Okla., Texas, Ark. and La.;
and Far Western, Mont., Idaho, Colo., Utah, New Mex., Ariz., Cal.,
Ore., Wash., Wyom. and Nev.

I

STATE AND NATIONAL FEDERATIONS 247

in 1920, over that first adopted, which called for ten per
cent of the dues paid in in each of the member states.
This was found to be inequitable as well as insufficient to
pay necessary expenses. A few states which did not have
a paid membership in the beginning are provided for by
a flat assessment of from two hundred and fifty to one
thousand dollars, as determined by the executive committee.

DEPARTMENTS

As at present organized the American Federation con-
sists of seven departments, as follows: Organization,
Legislation, Cooperative Marketing, Transportation, Re-
search, Legal and Information; and in addition. General
Administration and Finance Divisions, headed respectively
by the President and the Treasurer. For all other depart-
ments, except Organization, a director is employed.

The Organization Department, headed by the Assistant
Secretary and Treasurer, has been very active in assisting
the weaker member states and the non-member states when
requested to do so, in completing their organization. The
Department of Legislation is located in and does most of its
work at the national capital. It has been successful in
securing the adoption by Congress of a large part of the
Federation's agricultural legislative program for 1921,
chiefly through the organization of the now famous '* agri-
cultural bloc." The Federation, through its Department
of Transportation, has done much good work in securing
reductions and adjustments in railroad rates, and has well
represented American farmers at many rate hearings.
Directors of Grain Marketing, Wool Marketing and Dairy
Marketing have been appointed in the Department of Mar-
keting.

The President has also appointed special committees on

248 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

grain, livestock, dairy and fruit marketing, representing
farmers' organizations and sections of the country which
were primarily interested in each commodity, and these
committees have done excellent work. The recommenda-
tions of the Grain Marketing Committee of Seventeen,
which made a thorough study of the subject of grain
marketing, have already been put into operation through
the organization of the United States Grain Growers, Inc.,
which in November, 1921, reported 25,000 members own-
ing 50,000,000 bushels of grain. The Livestock Marketing
Committee has also made its report. This method of ap-
pointing large committees representing the various regional
farmers' organizations and the sections of the country
most concerned to study their problems together and to
make recommendations, has much to commend it and gives
promise of excellent results, although it has excited some
opposition on the part of other national farmers' organi-
zations, as well as dealers' associations.

The Research and Legal Departments of the Federation
function mainly on problems that arise from time to time
in connection with the matters which the Federation is
handling. An information service has been set up by the
Information Department, which now sends out material
regularly to the member states and to the public generally
by means of news letters, pamphlets, books, cartoons and
moving pictures.

PUEPOSES AND PROGRAM

The purposes and program of the Federation are pretty
well shown by the organization and work of the Depart-
ments. At the close of the first year's work, President
Howard said that its greatest achievement was the public
recognition of its representativeness and the confidence

STATE AND NATIONAL FEDERATIONS 249

won alike from fanners and from the general public.
Resting as it does upon like units in the counties, with its
membership made up of the leading and most successful
farmers in every community, with the educational back-
ground of the work of the county agents and with a rational
and conservative program, it is not strange that the Fed-
eration has commanded much national confidence and at-
tained national leadership in farmer affairs. Its truly
representative character in county, state and Nation have
given it an unequaled opportunity to really speak for rural
people in the national interest. The Federation has applied
the educational principle of self-help as never before. It
is rapidly developing national farmer leadership of a high
type, rural self-expression and a rural interest in general
public as well as special agricultural affairs such as has
never been practically realized before. It is becoming a
clearing house and a correlating and unifying force in
American agriculture. It is making possible national agri-
cultural programs.

The objects of the Federation, as stated in its constitu-
tion, are (1) to correlate and to strengthen the state and
county farm bureaus, (2) to promote, protect and to rep-
resent the business, economic and social interests of farm-
ers, and (3) to develop agriculture. All these are big and
comprehensive purposes and hardly to be attained at once
or completely. "While ambitious in themselves, all these
objects are very much to be desired by all and if adhered
to they are not likely to lead the organization far afield
from its original purposes as so often happens. There are
many dangers, however, which must be met and passed
before it is certain that the organization is to be a per-
manent and important factor in American agriculture.

250 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

INFLUENCE OF FEDERATION ON THE COUNTY AGENT

The county agent has generally welcomed the federa-
tions, state and national, and has done much to develop
and to strengthen them by his support of the idea with
his local farmers. They have put new life into his work.
As has been already pointed out, the results of county
agent work were bound to be very limited so long as his
efforts were individual only and not supplemented by those
of the farmers with whom he worked. Self help is the
only means of making large and permanent progress. So
the county agent was early forced to organize the farming
people of his county to help themselves. For the same
reasons, although he had little to do with them, he was
glad to see the state and the national federations organized,
because they meant a larger and more active support for
his work at home.

The federations have tended to give character locally
and greater public recognition generally to the work of
the county agent. They have called public attention to it,
their influence has brought farmers to its support in greater
numbers than ever before and with larger fees, the greater
part of which are spent at home. So also the federation
influence has often meant the retaining of present county
appropriations and the securing of larger ones from un-
wise or unwilling county appropriating bodies. It also
meant better state and national support.

The federations have brought new duties and greater
obligations to the county agent, as they have asked him
for information through questionnaires and in other ways,
as to the problems and needs of farmers. In turn, farmers
have wanted help from the federations and the county
agent has been the one to pass on their requests and de-

STATE AND NATIONAL FI5DERATI0NS 251

sires and thus help to establish the connection between

them and the individual farmer.

if

It should be made clear that Iai© county agent has no
organic relation to either state or national federations.
They do not employ him, pay qj^ part of his salary, or
have any control whatever over ^liina* Neither is there
any organic relation between thfe United States Depart-
ment of Agriculture or the agr jultural colleges and the
state and national federations, \4hese federations as com-
binations of the county associations are supported entirely
by the fees of their members and manage their own affairs.
Their relations with the colleges and the Department are
cooperative as one independent institution with another.
The public partnership through the colleges and the De-
partment is with the local county associations. Thus the
county agent has no other obligation to either the state
or the national federations than a natural interest in the
success of an organization which is most helpful to him
and his work.

^

r j°>

V.

)

CFiAPTEE Xin

THE FUTURE (OF THE FARM BUREAU
ilOVEMENT

What the future of tb ^ farm bureau movement, now ten
years advanced, is to b^only time will reveal. We are all
too much a part of it, too much influenced by its function-
ing to see it clearly now. We can only observe the ap-
parent tendencies of the movement at this time, try to
appreciate its advantages and point out to ourselves what
seem to be some of its limitations if not its dangers.

Several tendencies are worthy of consideration because
they appear to involve the possibility of serious dangers
to the future of the movement. Undoubtedly what appear
to be liabilities to one observer will be considered assets
by another. But at any rate they should be discussed.

THE DANGERS OF COMMERCIALISM

One of the most serious of these dangers would seem to
be that of getting directly into commercial activities.

The pressure from farmers to put the bureaus into
business has been and still is particularly strong in the
Middle West. In several of the states where the county
agents' work had developed very slowly at first, with in-
different support from farmers, and where the farm bu-
reau idea was new and hence not well understood, farmers
were not content to wait for results from slow educational
means. They wanted direct and immediate action along
economic lines. A few of the state organizations have

252

FUTURE OF THE FARM BUREAU MOVEMENT 253

yielded to this pressure — ^some to their sorrow — and this
feeling has had a considerable influence in shaping up the
policies and the work of the American Federation itself.

The advocates of this policy forget that it is undesirable
if not altogether impossible to mix educational and com-
mercial functions and that the farm bureaus have other
and equally important things to accomplish for the suc-
cessful organization and functioning of agriculture. They
do not seem to realize that speed of action may not mean
quick results and that permanent achievement is usually
the result of education. They also ignore the history and
the experience of other farmers' organizations, notably of
the Grange.^

Sound judgment as well as business experience indicate
that commercial transactions require a business organiza-
tion on a local unit and a commodity basis, adapted to this
specific purpose, and that this organization must neces-
sarily be so constructed that it is not adapted to do other
things equally well. The real question then is, shall this
representative organization, builded primarily for edu-
cational purposes, be diverted into a single channel and
away from its main purpose, and built over to meet one of
the problems in the agricultural field, pressing though it
may be ? Is it not wiser to use it as an educational means
to encourage and to foster specific local unit and com-
modity agencies adapted to the service and which are so
constructed that they can meet the problem?

To follow this latter course will be to leave the farm
bureau machinery free to continue its educational activi-
ties on economic as well as production problems, to complete
its program of helping to create and to set up the essential
local marketing units based on commodities, to help to

1 See "The Grange Master and the Grange Lecturer," by Jennie
Buell, Chapter I, page 7.

254 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

establish and to foster more local agencies, to build up a
more adequate and satisfying country life — in other words,
to carry out a well-rounded educational program. And
the farm bureau movement will have retained its identity
and not have been swallowed up by one phase of the
problem.

Fortunately, the American Federation under the guid-
ance of wise leadership has decided well in this matter and
averted an impending danger. On October 7, 1920, its
executive committee declared itself in respect to both state
and county units in the following language:

"The farm bureau as an organization shall not engage in com-
mercial activities, nor shall it hold stocks and bonds in organiza-
tions undertaking such activities. It may encourage, however, the
organization of such activities or industries as may seem neces-
sary or advisable to its board of directors."

This sane policy is now well-established and generallj^,
though not universally, accepted. There will be many
temptations to deviate from it, and it will require clear
heads and strong minds on farm bureau boards of directors
to administer this policy wisely. Selfish political and dem-
agogic leadership is even now trying to put the farm
bureaus into business and to divert them from their larger
purposes. The danger of the farm bureaus getting directly
into commercial a«tivities will not wholly pass for some
years to come,

SELFISH VERSUS UNSELFISH SERVICE

Can any organization long endure except as it is built
upon the expectation of giving service? Is the farm bu-
reau an end in itself or simply the means to an end? In
pther words, is the farm bureau an institution built to carry

FUTURE OF THE FARM BUREAU MOVEMENT 255

out an educational program, to give service to individual
farmers and to other farmers' organizations and move-
ments, or, is it to be regarded as an organization built up
and fostered for its own sake and for the honor and emol-
ument of its organizers? Will the simple building of a
great representative national organization of farmers in
itself suffice to meet the problems at hand?

Few men, of course, deliberately advise the selfish course.
Most men speak for unselfish service. Yet actions often
speak louder and carry much more weight than words.
And right here some serious mistakes have been made by
over-zealous and thoughtless farm bureau officers and
members.

Locally and nationally farm bureau federations have
sometimes seemed to be trying to take over the work of
other farmer groups of much longer standing and to speak
for them. Naturally, this does not meet with favor on the
part of these organizations. In common with many other
less promising movements they have sometimes set them-
selves up — or seemed to do so — as representing exclusively
all farmers and all interests. This is, of course, resented
by other farm organizations. As a result there is a con-
siderable feeling in some sections of the country and in
certain farmers' organizations, particularly among their
officers, that the farm bureau movement is trying to swal-
low up or to set itself above all others. Part of this feeling
is due to natural jealousy of a new and active organization
which is doing things which they have been unable to do
themselves, and of inefficient individual leaders who see
their jobs slipping away from them. A good part of it is
probably justified by the circumstances which give rise to it.
It is unfortunate because it limits the usefulness of all
concerned.

How much better and more advantageous to every one

256 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

is the policy of service! Unselfish service is always sur^
to win in the long run over action taken with selfish
motives, and the surest way for an organization to help
itself is to be really helpful to other groups.

Most farmers' organizations were created because of
definite needs, exist for very definite purposes, and accom-
plish worthwhile things. In seeking these ends they ought
to be assisted and encouraged without thought of self-in-
terest or the effect on the helper, and not ignored, blocked
or actively opposed. Most of the jealousies and *' scrap-
ping" among farmers' organizations, not due to the per-
sonal ambitions and spites of individuals, is the result of
misunderstandings. The best preventive and corrective to
this is frequent conference between the directors, officers
and committees whose programs seem to clash. Confer-
ences well arranged and persisted in almost invariably
lead to understanding and agreement if not active coop-
eration.

In a few states the executive committees of the leading
state-wide organizations of farmers hold more or less regu-
lar conferences under an informal organization, known by
some such name as **The Conference Board of Farm Or-
ganizations," with a president and secretary and provi-
sion for calling meetings as occasion may require. The
action of such a group should not be binding on any of the
conferees unless it is unanimous. It is usually simply in-
formative, suggestive and advisory, but it leads to mutual
understanding and cooperation.

The question of farm bureau relations with other farm-
ers' organizations will have an important bearing on the
future of this as well as other farmers' organizations. It
involves either a deliberate policy of cooperation con-
sciously followed, or a policy of drifting with consequent
lack of good relationship and possibly friction. It is of

FUTURE OF THE FARM BUREAU MOVEMENT 257

vital importance to the future of the movement whether
the farm bureau allows itself to drift into a policy of self-
seeking and selfishness, or whether it exercises a positive
leadership in the policy of always striving conscientiously
to be of service to others ; service to the nation through its
efforts to develop and conserve its food supply, and deliver
it to consumers at the minimum cost; service to farmers'
organizations by helping them in every way to achieve
their objects and to fulfil their ideals when these are worth-
while, as they usually are ; and service to individual farm-
ers through helping them to build up and to maintain a
sound and a satisfying agriculture; in short, a policy of
giving to others rather than one of getting for self.

As the membership and the ofiicers of the farm bureau
movement choose, deliberately or thoughtlessly, so is the
future of this movement likely to be.

LOCAL COOPERATIVE RELATIONSHIPS

It seems clear, theoretically at least, that both the public
institutions and farmers themselves in the majority of the
states believe in a public partnership between local asso-
ciations of farmers and the colleges for the conduct of
county farm bureau work. The principle is generally ac-
cepted as sound. But practice does not always accord
with the theory. The partnership is too often nominal, and
the farmer partner — ^the local association — ^weak and merely
a convenient local vehicle for the public partner. The
farm bureau federations have done much to correct this.

Is real and vital cooperation possible, when the local
association does not control its own county funds and has
little or no power to determine policies and to adopt or
reject a program, except by tolerance or courtesy? True,
it can go through the motions in these things, and this may

258 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

have great semblance of the fact. But does not this con-
dition limit real and earnest cooperation? Can a county
agent really represent the farmer partner, when this part-
ner pays none of his salary, has nothing to say about the
amount of it, and has no supervision over his work? Is
it to be wondered at that in some states farmers' organiza-
tions oppose the farm bureaus and the appropriations for
them?

It would appear that ideal cooperative relationships ex-
ist in but few of the states. In too many states the public
institutions have in the past dominated the partnership
either through supplying funds, through provisions of the
state law (usually drawn by these institutions), or because
of lack of local initiative and local funds. In a few states
the local associations have too large a control for the best
interests of the public partner. In a majority of the
states no definite, clear-cut partnership policy exists, and
the resulting relationship is an uncertain one which makes
the fullest voluntary cooperation impossible. There is
great need for the general adoption of a clear-cut policy in
all the states which will fairly provide for the interests of
both partners.

Much is to be hoped from the national federation in this
respect. Close contact with farmers almost invariably in-
creases one's confidence in their ability and respect for
their judgment. This is the verdict of those who have
given such contact most thorough trial. The collective
judgment of the men on the land is usually sound. False
or unwise leadership sometimes leads them temporarily
astray.

Respect and confidence must be mutual, and power and
authority substantially equal, or at least each must be in-
dependently strong in order to insure the best cooperation.
If the principle of partnership and mutual and equal

FUTURE OF THE FARM BUREAU MOVEMENT 259

rights and privileges is closely adhered to, as it should be,
both policies and program will be jointly arrived at and
agreed to on a fifty-fifty basis. To assure this, both parties
must provide funds and together administer them, since
administration follows funds. The same principle will
require the joint employment of the county agent, the
sharing of his salary, and the joint supervision of his work.
Having met these standards, the public institutions
should then deal with the county organizations in all mat-
ters of program, finances, and contracts. The county
agent is the joint representative of the public and of the
farmer partner, and the relationship which he bears to the
farm bureau — the local association of people — should be
that of a skilled employee to his employer — as the hired
manager of an enterprise in which the local people are co-
operating with the public agricultural institutions for the
improvement of agriculture. Only by such means can the
best local initiative be secured while at the same time the
advantages of the public relationship are retained. In
some quarters there is a tendency to break up this partner-
ship. Officers of the Department of Agriculture are re-
sponsible for some of the tendency toward separation of
the county agent and the farm bureau. Jealous of their
own share of control of the agents and fearful of the eJffect
of interested or inspired criticism in Congress on appro-
priations, the Department has sought by agreements and
fine distinctions to differentiate the functions of the county
agent and the farm bureau and to separate their activities.
In this many of the states have acquiesced. The county
agent has been restrained, some of the local interest dissi-
pated and separation emphasized. Thus has the farm
bureau been pushed into independent and often unwise
action by the attitude of Department representatives.

260 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

ALONE OR TOGETHER?

In spite of this apparently well established and quite
satisfactory relationship, one of the most frequent pro-
posals of uninformed but enthusiastic persons is that farm-
ers should take over the farm bureau idea and the county
agent movement and "run if themselves, solely for their
own benefit. It is a plausible argument. Why not? We
believe in self-help. Why accept any aid from the gov-
ernment? Why not be free from this ''fettering" alliance
with the public to do as we please? No greater mistake
could be made.

The present plan of a partnership with the government
looking toward the solution of agricultural problems is a
new thing under the sun. Federal, state and county gov-
ernments, departing from their time-honored policy of
dealing even with local problems directly with their facili-
ties and personnel, have entered into cooperation with a
great group of the population — farmers — ^to work out the
solution of agricultural problems locally and nationally.
Which is most in the interests of the farming industry and
of the people generally — to have the government attempt
the solution of these problems alone and directly, or to try
to work them out in cooperation with those who are most
concerned and who therefore should know most about them?
Is it better for farmers to help the government and to be
helped by it in the solution of these problems and in the
determination of agricultural policies, to cooperate, or to
**go it alone"? The answer is obvious.

The present organization of the farm bureaus is non-
partizan. It is in the public as well as the farmers* inter-
ests. Organized strictly as a farmers' movement, it will
be regarded by the public as partizan whether or not it
actually is. In such a case it will lose the public sympathy
as well as the public cooperation, and is likely eventually

FUTURE OF THE FARM BUREAU MOVEMENT 261

to find itself in opposition to the great body of consumers.
If farm bureaus, for example, should attempt to use their
combined power to ^x prices or to control the food supply,
they would then be dealt with by the government with
force. They would be regulated and controlled in the
public interest. Is this the end to be desired, or is it better
to cooperate?

Few farmers' organizations have succeeded in becoming
really national in scope, in fact, there is no truly national
farmers' organization at the present time. No group of
farmers ever had before it such an opportunity to become
really and truly national, based as it is on county units
with a common plan and program and cooperating with
the government, as that now before the American Farm
Bureau Federation. And no farmers' organization ever
before had a greater opportunity for service in county,
state and nation.

The farm bureau movement has been organized so rapidly
and under such pressure from farmers themselves, once
they grasped its possibilities, that there has been too great
seeking for immediate results for the permanent good of
the movement. There is a consequent tendency to short-
sightedness and failure to look ahead to the more perma-
nent conditions, circumstances and results. This danger
must be avoided. Already temporary economic conditions
and the emergency needs of farmers have led the Ameri-
can Farm Bureau Federation into political activities which
are taking it farther and farther afield from the original
purposes of the farm bureaus. A current news letter of an
observing Washington newspaper correspondent (Mark
Sullivan) thus describes the present situation:

"Practically the single purpose of the farm bloc in Congress
and also of the American Farm Bureau Federation of which the
farm bloc in Congress is merely the political agent, is better busi-

262 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

ness for the farmer. The fanners* economic distress is the chief
cause of their power and the cure of that distress is the chief
object of their activity."

This political activity is undoubtedly stimulating inter-
est in the farm bureau just at present and furthering its
political prosperity. But this is a temporary and a dan-
gerous tendency. Unless this political emphasis is soon
corrected and balanced by a long-time permanent program
which will more vitally touch the agricultural needs of the
nation such as the better balancing of production and
consumption, standardizing and grading of products, the
simplification of distribution and the like, this national
organization will very likely soon find itself both without
a worthwhile program and with an exclusive political label
upon it.

Here then is a clear parting of the ways. Two roads
lead to the future of the farm bureau movement. Which
will it choose? The one leads to a narrow partizan, class-
conscious, selfish and probably commercial development,
which at the best must be inadequate to meet farmers'
needs, and which at the worst may wreck the whole move-
ment. The other road leads to a broad cooperative public
service plan in the interests of the whole people, which un-
der right leadership has an unusual chance to succeed. As
the membership chooses, and particularly as the leadership
leads, so will the future of the movement likely be.

A SOUND BASIS FOR MEMBERSHIP

The appeal for farm bureau membership should be based
on sound principles rather than on temporary, expedient
and perhaps unsound arguments.

The strongest basic appeal to the majority of men and

FUTURE OF THE FARM BUREAU MOVEMENT 263

women for membership in a public association such as the
farm bureau is the opportunity for unselfish altruistic
service to their neighbors, their communities, and their
counties, state and nation. This desire must be satisfied.
''Getting my money's worth" is a secondary consideration.
But service received is important.

Sustained or permanent membership in any organization
depends solely on the realized opportunity for each mem-
ber to be of service to others and upon value received by
him in satisfaction and service. Signature to life mem-
bership pledges, drafts or checks should be regarded solely
as helpful aids to the collection of dues. Memberships of
individuals in the organization, obtained upon promises
impossible or unlikely of fulfilment, or upon misrepresenta-
tions of any sort, are liabilities rather than assets.

The farm bureau is a broad public service agency, not a
class organization or a trade union seeking only the ad-
vantage of its own members ; but state and national federa-
tions do function to protect and promote the interests of
farmers. Appeals to class advantage and comparison of
dues and fees with those paid by labor unions are danger-
ous expedients.

The large membership fee has the advantage of larger
investment by the individual and greater resources for the
organization. It also has some disadvantages. It may
seriously limit the number of members, barring those of
small means who perhaps most need help ; or, on the other
hand, it may lead to paid ''drives'' which gather in mem-
bers on false promises — members who have little sympathy
with or interest in the work. Larger fees mean increased
responsibilities and obligations for service. The size of
the fee is not as important, however, as the relation between
the fee and the opportunity for service and the service
rendered.

264 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

Membership campaigns should be based primarily upon
the local community and county programs of work and only
secondarily upon state and national federation programs.
These latter are too far away, their results generally too
intangible and too difficult of application to the individual
to make them a safe primary appeal for membership.
Furthermore, the individual, perhaps, finds it difficult to
participate in the work of these organizations. His great-
est opportunity lies with the local program, and this should
always be held out to him as the main reason for member-
ship— an opportunity to serve his community and county
and as the chief source from which benefit is likely to come
to him.

THE FUTURE

It is hard for the writer to think of county agent work
as apart from that of the county farm bureau. They are
and should be almost indissolubly bound up together. The
future of the one is the future of the other. County agents
are jointly employed by a partnership of public institutions
and county associations of farmers. The two partners work
hand in hand with the closest cooperation and with prac-
tically the same objectives. This is as it should be, and
this cooperation between agencies representing science on
the one hand and practice on the other, augurs well for
the future of the movement.

The county farm bureau may, of course, if it chooses,
undertake other things than simply supporting the work
of the county agents. And it is conceivable that this may
overshadow the county agent's work, and even lead to its
abandonment. In such cases the farm bureau may be ex-
pected to develop into a single track agency of some sort —
possibly political, but more likely commercial. Eventually,

FUTURE OF THE FARM BUREAU MOVEMENT 265

if it did not perish in the attempt, it would probably be-
come organized on a local unit and commodity basis; and
if this were soundly done, we should have another farmers '
buying and selling or marketing organization which might
well serve a very useful purpose in that particular field.
This would necessarily limit the^ usefulness of this organi-
zation to this one piece of work, and leave the rest of the
field untouched so far as this organization was concerned.
As for the county agent work, under present state and
federal laws, it must go on as before. The county agent
system has become an integral part of government policy
and plan ; and because it rests upon permanent legislation
it will probably remain so. The county agent will con-
tinue to deal with the whole range of problems — economic
and social — which affect the profitableness of farming and
the satisfying character of country life, with all the edu-
cational facilities at his command. To do this to the best
advantage and with the greatest efficiency, it will probably
always be necessary to cooperate with a local organization
of farmers.

A FARM BUREAU CREED

Summarizing, then, the ideals expressed in this volume
for the farm bureau movement may be put in the form of
this brief creed:

We believe in self-help for ourselves, our community, our
country; in our own abilities well developed and properly
supported to solve our own problems; and in local and
voluntary leadership.

We believe in organization and all that it signifies ; group
association in matters of common interest and for common
ends, for educational, for social and for economic improve-
ment. We want this organization to be inclusive and not

266 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE

exclusive, based on the interest of individuals and not on
their ability to pay, and directed by persons who are lead-
ers because of their soundness, honesty and forward-looking
achievements.

We believe in a program, a definite, carefully considered
plan of work, local in conception and in character, which
looks toward the solution of the problems which are vital
to the welfare of the farm and the home. This plan of
action for the organization should be made at home by
those most concerned, but with the best expert advice and
assistance.

We believe in a partnership between farmers and the
public agricultural agencies — between practice and science
— for the working out of this program. We hold that the
public — ^the consumer — has as vital if not as direct an in-
terest in agriculture as does the farmer, and as great an
obligation to support the program and to help carry it out.

We believe in education and in demonstration as the
most important means to the ends of individual and of
group improvement and of social and economic betterment,
education for efficiency in production, for marketing and
for distribution. We believe that it is as necessary and
as much in the public interest to teach and to demonstrate
efficient methods of buying and selling as it is to show how
to produce larger and better crops.

We believe in service as the great end and goal — service
to individuals, service to groups and organizations, service
to the general public.

THE END

INDEX

Boys' and Girls* Club Work: begin-
nings in South, 171 ; beginnings
in North and West, 174; extent
of, 174 ; program, 175.

Bulletins : means of teaching, 56 ;
farm bureau news, 58, 222.

Chambers of Commerce : support of
first county agent, 160 ; relation
to farm bureaus, 211 ; relation to
agricultural development, 169.

Clubs : study, means of teaching,
57 ; community, 127 ; boys* and
girls', 171 ; girls', 172.

Colleges of Agriculture: extension
functions, 196; history of, 195;
relation to farm bureaus, 260;
sources of information, 41 ; view
of the county agent, 184.

Committeemen : advisory council,
221 ; as local leaders, 70 ; com-
munity functioning, 220; duties
with membership, 225 ; executives'
job, 219; number in U. S., 75;
privileges and compensations,
221 ; responsibility for extension
schools, 49.

Community : committee on pro-
grams, 25 ; county agents' con-
tacts in meetings, 119 ; changes
in the rural, 150 ; meetings, 51 ;
relation of leadership to, 67 ; re-
lation to town and other interests,
77.

Cooperative Organizations: dangers
of, 107 ; extent of, 95 ; functions
of, 87 ; President Harding on, 99 ;
relati<>a to public, 105 ; relation
to farm bureau, 108; relation to
county agent, 109 ; relation to
farm bureau federations, 238,
254.

Correspondence : courses, 57 ; means
of teaching, 60; contacts by,
116.

County Agents : advantages, 133 ; as
farm advisers, 187; as leaders,
189; as organizers, 78, 188; as
teachers, 186 ; disadvantages,
136; first steps In work, 137;
first In the South, 154 ; first in the
North, 160; function In relation
to cooperatives, 101, 102, 109;

26T

goals and Ideals, 139 ; how shall
they teach, 37 ; Influence of fed-
erations on, 250 ; middleman's at-
titude toward, 95 ; number and
kind of, 164-168 ; opportunities,
135, 152 ; personal appearance,
119 ; place in extension system,
200 ; personal contacts, 111 ;
qualifications, 131 ; relations to :
college extension teaching, 89 ;
commercial enterprises, 93 ; co-
operative buying, 89 ; federations,
251 ; local leadership, 73 ; market-
ing organizations, 85 ; program,
3 ; schools, 63 ; responsibility to
college, 91, 259 ; responsibility for
extension schools, 49 ; salaries of,
134; size of Job, 129; selection
and supervision, 207 ; specialist's
relation to, 62.
Comnty Agent Work : beginnings In
the South, 153; the North, 161;
evolution of, 181 ; extent of early
development, 156 ; functions of,
191 ; ideals and points of view,
182; spread of, 162.

Demonstrations : automobile toura
as, 45 ; barn meetings as, 45 ;
definition of, 40 ; versus experi-
ments, 40 ; "demonstrators" and
•'co8perators,*' 155 ; equipment
for, 89 ; exhibits as, 43 ; market-
ing, 42 ; schools as, 45 ; trains
and trucks as, 45, 46 ; what con-
stitutes good, 41.

Department of Agriculture t law en-
forcement, 193 ; organization,
193; relation to colleges, 195,
200 ; relation to county agents,
207; relation to farm bureaus,
260 ; research functions, 194 ;
source of Information, 41 ; views
of county agent, 182 ; views on
cooperative organization, 98.

Exhibits : as demonstrations, 43 ; at
fairs, 44.

Experiment Stations : research func-
tions, 194 ; sources of Informa-
tion, 41.

Extension Schools : means of teach-
ing, 48; program of, 50.

268

INDEX

Extension Service: agreement with
farm and home bureaus, 90;
finances, 201-204: history, 196:
present status, 208; program of
work, 205; selection and super-
Tision of county agents, 207 ;
specialists, 10, 61, 91

Fairs : exhibits at county and com-
munity, 44.

Farm Bureaus : agreements with col-
leges, 90 ; annual meetings, 224 ;
California program, 24 ; commun-
ity programs and results, 28 ; co-
operative financing, 216 ; coSpera-
tive management, 214 ; county
"News," 58, 222; creed, 265;
definition of, 213; extent, 214;
first farm bureau, 161, 170; fu-
ture, 264 ; headquarters for agri-
culture, 190 ; how they function,
218; legislation, 185; member-
ship fees, 217, 226, 235, 263;
membership campaigns, 225 ; mid
dleman's attitude toward, 96;
New York program, 15 ; objec-
tives, 103 ; reasons for, 210 ; re-
lation to: county agent, 210,
259 ; marketing organizations, 85 ;
public agencies, 257, 260; spread
of movement, 162 ; what's in a
name, 212.

Farm Bureau Federation, — ^Ameri-
can : dangers of commercialism,
252 ; departments, 247 ; evolu-
tion and causes of organization,
233, 244; future, 252, 264; his-
tory, 245 ; influence on county
agent, 250 ; local cooperative re-
lationships, 257 ; membership,
235 ; officers and organization,
245 ; program, 248 ; relation to
cooperatives, 109 ; relation to
local programs, 31.

Farm Bureau Federation, — State :
evolution and causes, 233 ; extent,
234: finances, 235; future, 264;
history, 233 ; influence on county
agent, 250 ; local cooperative re-
lationships, 257 ; management,
236 ; membership, 235 ; purposes,
237; relation to cooperatives,
238 ; relation to local programs,
31.

Farm Visits : means of teaching, 54 ;
contacts on, 118.

Farmers : as readers, 55 ; changes
in American agriculture, 146 ; in-
creased efficiency of, 147 ; interest
in cooperation, 94 ; obligations of,
144 ; social contacts with county
agent, 112; support of county
agents, 170 ; what they expect of
county agents, 35.

Farmers' Institutes : oldest form of
extension, 51.

Grange : As a social organization,
151 ; history, 253 ; relation to or-
ganization of farmers, 79;
women's place in, 243.

Home Bureaus (See farm bureaus
also) : creed, 264 ; future, 231 ;
functions, 218 ; importance of,
228; in Illinois, 229; in New
York, 230; New York program,
17 ; relation to American Farm
Bureau Federation, 242 ; relation
to State Federations, 241.

Home Demonstration Agent "Work :
beginnings in South, 176 ; begin-
nings in North and West, 178 ;
programs of work, 180 ; strong
and weak points, 179.

Howard, Jas. R., election as Federa-
tion President, 245 ; leadership,
74 ; relation of county agent to
federation, 237.

Knapp, Seaman A. : author of dem-
onstration work in South, 33 ; be-
ginning of work in Texas, 153 ;
on functions of boys' and girls'
clubs, 172 ; on functions of home
demonstration agents, 176.

Lantern Slides : use In teaching,
53.

Lectures : teaching by, 46 ; what

makes good, 47.
Lever, Hon. A F. : conception of

purpose of extension, 34 ; intent

of Lever Act, 98.

Marketing (See also Cooperative
Organization) : demonstrations,
42 ; importance of, 37 ; program
of state federations in, 237, 238.

Moving Pictures : use in teaching,
53.

Newspapers : farm bureau "News",
58 ; local community, 59 ; report-
ing, 60 ; relation to "News," 222,
223.

Office Calls: contacts in, 112; im-
portance of, 115 ; means of teach-
ing, 54.

Organization of Farmers : Confer-
ence Board of Farm Organiza-
tions, 256; county agents and,
78 ; development of, 151 ; for col-
lege extension teaching, 89 ; for
cooperative buying, 87 ; import-
ance of, 66 ; into marketing asso-
ciations, 84; into production

INDEX

agencies, 81 ; kinds of, SO ; need
for, 76 ; relation of leadership to,
75 ; relation to public institutions,
260 ; relation to otlier organized
Interests, 77.

Programs of Work : agreement be-
tween college and county on, 90;
application of, 28, 29 ; elements
of good, 5 ; general values of,
31 ; making, 8 ; national, 30 ;
permanency in, 7 ; reasons for, 3 ;
state, 30 ; steps in constructing,
29; typical, 11; Alabama, 14;
California, 23, 24 ; Iowa, 18, 19 ;
Kentucky, 13 ; Maine, 21, 22 ; New
York, 16, 17; using, 28, 29.

Project Committees : making of pro-
grams, 205 ; specialists' rela-
tion to, 9.

Public Speaking: contacts by, 119;
teaching by, 46, what constitutes
good, 47

Public Interests : cooperative rela-
tionships with farm bureaus, 257 ;
duty in relation to marketing, 99,
106 ; four functions, 192 ; in rela-
tion to organization among farm-
ers, 77 ; law enforcement, 193 ;
need of understanding, 93 ; rea-
sons for, 143 ; recognition of
county agent work, 163 ; selfish
versus unselfish service, 254 ;
sound public policy, 110.

Publicity : for programs, 25 ; in
farm bureau "News," 58, 222; In
local press, 59, 60.

Railroads : interest of in county
agent work, 169, 185 ; promotion
by* in Broome Co., N. Y., 160.

Record Keeping: program results,
27.

Recreation : community, 124 ; com-
munity singing, 123 ; picnics and
field days, 125 ; play spirit, 122 ;
rural dramatics, 126.

Self-Help ; general value of pro-
gram making as, 31 ; local co-
operation in South, 154 ; principle
of, 66 ; selfish versus unselfish
service, 254.

Smith-Lever Extension Act: co-
operative nature, 198 ; farmers*
expectation of, 35 ; finances, 199,
201-204; history of, 197; influ-
ence on club work, 175 ; Intent of
Congress in, 97 ; Lever's concep-
tion of purpose, 34 ; workers em-
ployed under, 164-168.

Social Contacts : importance of,
111 ; inspiration and enthusiasm,
121 ; values of, 128.

Specialists : arrangements for serv-
ices, 91 ; place in teaching, 61 ;
relation to program making, 10.

State Leaders : supervision by, 207,

Teaching: by bulletins, 56; by cor-
respondence courses, 57 ; by
demonstrations, 41 ; by extension
schools, 48 ; by showing and do-
ing, 38 ; by spoken word, 46 ; by
written word, 55 ; essentials of
good, 61 ; definition of, 61 ; how
shall county agent teach, 37;
major function, 34 ; place of spe-
cialist in, 61 ; schools' relation to
county agent, 63.

THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE
STAMPED BELOW

AN INITIAL FINE OP 25 CENTS

JiW 14 1944

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