EXTENSION WORK IN AGRICULTURE AND HOME ECONOMICS.

From their beginning the agricultural colleges and the United States Department of Agriculture have sent out members of their staffs to make addresses at farmers' meetings. They have also distributed publications. The popular publications of the department, particularly the Yearbook and the farmers' bulletins, and the bulle tins of the experiment stations, have been freely distributed in very large numbers. An enormous correspondence on agricultural subjects has also been conducted by the agricultural institutions.

About 50 years ago the agricultural colleges and State boards or departments of agriculture began to hold annual series of meetings in different parts of the State, at which addresses were delivered by experts and successful farmers, followed by questions and dis cussion from the audience. These meetings, lasting from one to three days, have been called farmers' institutes. They proved so popular that State legislatures made special appropriations for their maintenance. Regular staffs of lecturers were employed and special publications were issued. The number of meetings grew to several thousand annually. The total attendance mounted until it aggregated several million. Special institutes for women and young people were added. Music and other recreational features were introduced, and in recent years lantern slides and moving pictures have been used increasingly.

About 20 years ago, when farmers in the Southern States became alarmed at the spread of the cotton boll weevil, the Department of Agriculture, under the leadership of Dr. Seaman A. Knapp, undertook to establish demonstrations of improved methods of agriculture on farms in that region. The farmers carried on these demonstrations under the supervision of department agents. Meetings were held at the demonstration fields. This plan proved so successful that after a time special agents were located in single counties to supervise the demonstrations and further assist the farmers. To benefit farm boys and girls, clubs were formed whose members undertook some special work at home, such as raising an acre of corn or a pig, or canning vegetables or fruit. Then it appeared that the farm women should have special assistance in their gardening and poultry raising and in conserving and utilizing their products and improving their home conditions. Women agents were therefore placed in counties where funds were available for their support.

This system of extension work spread rapidly in the Southern States until several hundred county men and women agents were regularly employed, with Federal, State, and district agents to supervise them. At first this movement was independent of the agricultural colleges, but gradually they were drawn into cooperation with it. Later a similar system spread into the Northern and Western States, where the colleges took an active part in it.

Maintained at first wholly with Federal funds, it afterwards received for several years much of its financial support from large private concerns, as well as from States and counties.

The general extension movement among the farmers culminated in 1914 through the passage by Congress of the Smith-Lever Extension Act, which made possible a combination of the demonstration

work with useful features of the earlier extension work, so as to form a broad system of practical education for the men, women, and children on the farm, supplementary to the training given in schools and colleges. Under this act the agricultural colleges and the Department of Agriculture are made responsible for cooperatively carrying on the extension system, which thus becomes a permanent part of the public system of education throughout the 48 States.

Ten thousand dollars of Federal funds are annually appropriated to each State, together with additional funds allotted to the States on the basis of rural population. The additional funds to be thus allotted began with $600,000 in 1915 and thereafter were increased by $500,000 for seven years, and are now $4,100,000 annually. These additional funds must be offset by equal amounts which may be appropriated by the State legislature " or provided by State, county, college, local authority, or individual contributions within the State."

In the year ending June 30, 1923, the extension work in the States was maintained with $18,821,144, divided as follows:

Since the passage of the Smith-Lever Act Congress has made annual appropriations supplementary to the regular Smith-Lever funds and also providing the States Relations Service of the Department of Agriculture with funds to be used in cooperation with the colleges and counties in extension work. The States and counties have more than met their obligations under the Federal legislation.

In the relations of the Federal Government with the cooperative extension service the Secretary of Agriculture is represented by a Director of Extension Service as far as general policies and administration are concerned. This service also includes the work of the department with reference to motion pictures and exhibits at fairs and elsewhere. The management of the department's affairs relating to extension work under the Smith-Lever Act and related Federal and State legislation is principally conducted through the Office of Cooperative Extension Work. The chief of that office and his assistants confer with the State extension officers and make arrangements with them regarding projects and plans of work, financial budgets, and methods of conducting the work in the States and counties. They also make arrangements for the cooperation of specialists from the department bureaus in the work in the States. The work and

expenditures under the Smith-Lever and department funds are annually inspected in all the States, and when the expenditures are approved by the department, the States are certified to the Treasury Department to receive the next installment of the Smith-Lever fund. The funds appropriated to the department for farmers' cooperative demonstration work are used for the maintenance of the Office of Cooperative Extension Work and for the payment of part of the salary of extension workers in the States and counties.

In the States each college receiving the Smith-Lever fund carries on its extension work through an extension division, at the head of which is a director, who acts as the joint representative of the Department of Agriculture and the college and administers all the extension work in the State. Under him are State leaders of the county work and a force of extension specialists in the various branches of agriculture and home economics who assist the county workers and supplement their work throughout the State. They also prepare publications and illustrative material.

In 2,100 counties out of about 2,650 agricultural counties there is an agricultural agent, in 800 counties a home demonstration agent, and in 200 counties a special agent for boys' and girls' club work. In the Southern States there are 175 negro agricultural agents and 100 home demonstration agents. The white agents also do much work for the benefit of the negro people on the farms. The agents in the counties supervise and conduct demonstrations on the farms and in the homes, hold meetings, and give advice and assistance by personal visits, correspondence, telephone messages, articles in the local press

etc.

To support and aid the county workers, groups of farm men and women have been organized. In about 1,500 counties this organization is called a farm bureau. It has a president, secretary, and treasurer, and committees whose members represent different communities in the county. While originally formed to cooperate in extension work, the farm bureaus have enlarged the scope of their work to include the formation of marketing organizations, publishing of papers, and matters relating to business, legislation, and the social concerns of farming communities. The extension workers are not responsible for the conduct of these activities though they may give advice and information regarding them. The farm bureaus often use part of their funds as contributions to the support of the county extension workers. For their larger enterprises State and American federations of farm bureaus have been formed.

In about 600 counties the place of the farm bureau is filled by a county council of agriculture or some other organization of farmers. Throughout the country the extension workers also have helpful relations with many kinds of farm organizations.

In making the annual plans for extension work it is now a common practice for community committees of farming people to meet together with the extension agents and work out a community program. These community programs may then be combined into a county program. Certain features of the county programs may then be taken to form a State program, and this may have certain elements of regional or national significance.

The character of the cooperative extension work is defined in the Smith-Lever Act as follows:

That cooperative agricultural extension work shall consist of the giving of instruction and practical demonstrations in agriculture and home economics to persons not attending or resident in said colleges in the several communities, and imparting to such persons information on said subjects through field demonstrations, publications, and otherwise.

In subject matter this work covers the whole range of problems relating to agricultural production and economics, as well as the home and community life of farming people. In recent years the agricultural agents have given much attention to standardization and marketing of farm products and the formation of cooperative associations. The home demonstration agents have aided the farm women in increasing and more efficiently utilizing their farm products and incomes, bettering sanitary conditions, preventing diseases, improving household arrangements and equipment, using labor-saving devices, and increasing social welfare.

In 1921 in the organized counties work was carried on in cooperation with clubs, committees, and other groups of farming people in 25,000 communities.

During the year 125,000 community and other meetings were held with an attendance of 6,000,000.

The county agricultural agents, assisted by the State leaders and extension specialists, visited 650,000 farms, on about 250,000 of which they carried on demonstrations with a large variety of crops and animals. In connection with these demonstrations, 75,000 field meetings were held with an attendance of 1,000,000.

The number of farmers who modified their crop or livestock production as a result of extension work was 2,215,000, or an average of about 1,100 per county.

The State and county home demonstration agents carried on 250,000 demonstrations, and as the result of these demonstrations 650,000 women made changes in their home practices. Home demonstration work included many matters relating to food, diet, clothing, household equipment, and management. The girls and women also did much work in gardening, poultry raising, dairying, and food conservation. Special emphasis was laid on matters relating to the health of the farming people and the care and nourishment of children in the farm home.

Five hundred thousand boys and girls were enrolled in the clubs and undertook projects on crop and livestock production, canning, home improvement, etc. Nearly 300,000 of these completed their projects and made written reports.

ENTENSION WORK IN DAIRY HUSBANDRY AND DAIRYING.

Extension work relating to dairy husbandry and dairying is car ried on by specialists with headquarters at the agricultural colleges or the United States Department of Agriculture and by many of the county agricultural and home demonstration agents.

The total amount of funds from all sources definitely allotted to dairy extension work for the year ended June 30, 1923, was $312,630. These funds were provided to employ 87 dairy extension specialists

to supplement the dairy extension work carried on by the extension agents in the counties.

In 1922, 1,300 of the county agricultural agents reported activities relating to dairying. Among the results of their activities was that 7,650 purebred dairy bulls and 15,000 purebred dairy cows were secured by the farmers to improve the breeding stock on their farms. The county agents continued to cooperate with the Bureau of Animal Industry of the Department of Agriculture and the State colleges in the promotion of the cow testing associations, with the result that there were 515 active associations with an enrollment of 12,510 farmers owning 220,000 dairy cows.

The agents also reported that 1,500,000 head of dairy cattle were treated for tuberculosis in 1922 as the result of their advice.

There was considerable interest among the boys and girls in dairy club work with the result that nearly 6,400 children completed their work in the dairy calf clubs, 600 in the dairy cow and calf clubs, and 675 in the dairy heifer clubs. In addition the boys and girls were interested in the use of dairy products as health-giving foods. Through special efforts to improve the school lunch 5,200 schools introduced milk as a part of the noonday meal, resulting in both physical and mental benefit to over 200,000 school children. many communities the extension agents also aided in campaigns for the more intelligent and larger use of milk as a part of the diet of children and adults.

In

The extension agents were also interested in aiding the farm women in areas where the making of butter is a considerable farm enterprise. In 1922, 3,250,000 pounds of butter were made according to instructions of the extension agents, of which 1,250,000 pounds were sold at a price considerably above that received for ordinary country butter. In addition farm women produced and sold, according to the agent's instructions, 500,000 gallons of cream, and 2,200,000 gallons of sweet milk and buttermilk.

SECONDARY EDUCATION IN AGRICULTURE.

Secondary education in agriculture is given in two types of schools: (1) Special agricultural schools and (2) departments of ordinary secondary (high) schools.

The special agricultural schools are organized as branches of the agricultural colleges or as independent schools in counties or larger districts. Most of these institutions are public schools, but there are also a considerable number of private schools in which agriculture is taught. The special schools usually have their own buildings, farms, livestock, farm machinery, and laboratory apparatus. The fact that they have relatively large equipment for agricultural instruction and more thoroughly vocational courses makes these schools particularly attractive to more mature students who have not been able or inclined to prepare for college, but desire instruction which will make them better farmers. There are now about 170 such schools in the United States.

In general, courses in agriculture covering from two to four years are combined with courses in English, mathematics, elementary science, history, civics, and manual training to make a