8. "Industrial Commission Report," Vol. 10, pp. ccclxviii-ccclxxx; Vol. 19, pp. 193-200.

9. International Institute of Agriculture, Rome. The following three monthly bulletins, published by the Institute contain information on the subject of this chapter. 1. "International Crop Report and Agricultural Statistics." 2. "International Review of the Science and Practice of Agriculture." 3. "International Review of Agricultural Economics."

10. "The Experiment Station Record," published monthly by the Department of Agriculture, Washington. This is the best publication dealing with the activities of the various experiment stations. It also contains abstracts of articles dealing with agriculture published in all countries.

11. "The Land Grant of 1862 and the Land Grant Colleges," Bulletin No. 13, Bureau of Education, Washington, 1918.

12. Yearbook Department of Agriculture: 1897—“Work of the U. S. Department of Agriculture for Farmers," 59-279. 1899—“Agricultural Education in the U. S.," 157-190; 1899--"Agricultural Experiment Stations in the U. S.," 513-548; 1903—“Farmers' Institutes" (historical sketch), 149-159; 1911-"Some Results of Farmers' Coöperative Demonstration Work," 285294; 1918-"Following the Produce Markets," 277-289.

13. DONALDSON, T.: "The Public Domain" (Washington, 1884).

APPENDIX

List of Publications Issued by the Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 1. Farmers Bulletins for free distribution.

2. Departmental Bulletins-technical.

3. Circulars-miscellaneous subjects.

CHAPTER XXI

THE COUNTY AGENT

The County Agent Movement. -The most significant movement in agriculture in America in the present generation is the County Agent movement. It is a movement which is closest to the farmer. It is a movement that has back of it, in most cases, a Farm Bureau composed of dues-paying farmers. The County Agent lives in the county among the farmers he serves. His work is therefore responsive to local needs and conditions, although done in coöperation with distant State and federal agencies. It is the movement which most effectively creates agricultural leadership, and is in turn directed by that leadership. And community leadership of the farmer, by the farmer, and for the farmer is the most vital need of the rural community.

Definition. A County Agent is a person of agricultural education and experience employed in a county to promote the general welfare of agriculture in that county. For over fifty years the agricultural colleges of the country have been teaching and have been conducting experiments. Enough scientific information has thus been accumulated to revolutionize agriculture and readjust rural home life and rural community life. But the teaching force and the printed bulletins proved wholly inadequate to carry to the people themselves this knowledge. The natural step, therefore, was to create an agency to make available to the farmers themselves the accumulated information and experience of the Federal Depart-✓ ment of Agriculture, the State Departments of Agriculture, the State Colleges of Agriculture, the great private experimental farms, and the practices of the best farmers themselves. Accordingly the Federal Department of Agriculture, as a first step, under the leadership of Dr. Seaman A. Knapp, established throughout the South Demonstration Agents, to carry to the individual farmer suggestions, help, and advice. These itinerant teachers succeeded in having many farmers modify their farm management in the direction of diversification of crops, home gardens, deep plowing, use of fertilizers, better seed selection, and better relationships with bankers and merchants. What the individual farmers accomplished under this leadership, they did on their own farms, under their own conditions. It is a noteworthy fact that farmers are

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not impressed with what they see done on "demonstration farms," operated with public money and not on a self-sustaining basis. But they are impressed by what they do themselves. Hence the success of the Demonstration Agent in the South-he brought about a high degree of self-help. The County Agent movement was the second phase of this demonstration work, and soon spread to all parts of the country. Now there is one County Agent in nearly every one of the three thousand counties of the United

✓ States. The Smith-Lever Act of 1914 strengthened the basis of the work from both the financial and the administrative standpoint. It is to be hoped, of course, that as the movement strikes its roots into the soil, the central control from Washington may become less bureaucratic and the local control may become more dominant and develop more initiative.

Functions. The function of the County Agent is to influence farmers by any and all wise means within his power, both as individual farmers and as groups of farmers. Primarily his aim is to increase the farmer's net income. He is also to serve as a protector of the farmer's interests in all legitimate ways.1 In a broader and more social way, he is to elevate and dignify country life and make it more worth while (Fig. 67).

Farm Bureau Defined. -A definition of a Farm Bureau formulated by the States Relation Service, although a lengthy one, is yet a comprehensive statement of the functions of such a bureau.2 It runs as follows:

"A County Farm Bureau is an association of people interested in rural affairs, which has for its objects the development in a county of the most profitable and permanent system of agriculture, the establishment of community ideals, and the furtherance of the well-being, prosperity, and happiness of the rural people, through coöperation with local, State and national agencies in the development and execution of a program of extension work in agriculture and home economics."

1 A County Agent in Clay County, Minnesota was approached by a creamery promoter, and offered four hundred dollars for his support in foisting a creamery on a non-dairy community. The County Agent advised the farmers not to organize the creamery, and his advice was followed.

A County Agent in Lee County, Illinois, was asked by a farmer concerning the merits of a patent oats-smut treatment being sold by a solicitor. The County Agent advised that the "patent treatment" cost five times as much as, and required twice the work of the simple formaldehyde treatment, with no better results.

Fake schemes are becoming difficult to work among farmers, now that the County Agent has the agricultural forces mobilized for protection against frauds and fakes.

2 Circular 13, Office of Extension Work, North and West, States Relation Service, January, 1919.

FARM BUREAU DEFINED

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The Farm Bureau, as defined in this manner, is the usual form of organization through which the County Agent functions. The Farm Bureau is composed of the representative farmers of the county, and contains, under favorable conditions, from 50 to 100 per cent of the farmers of the county in its membership. Membership dues are paid annually, ranging from one dollar to ten dollars per member. It is to be hoped that this local support will steadily increase in volume. The Farm Bureau adopts a definite community program and appoints necessary committees to effectuate the plans. The Farm Bureau is, therefore, a local institution, organized by

FIG. 67. County agent and a farmer in conference in the field. Shows tractor attached to spring-tooth harrows in the background, Montgomery County, Md. (U. S. D. A.)

the people of the county. The Farm Bureau plan enables the community to carry out a wider program of community-effort than did the organized demonstration work in the South. The Board of Directors of the Farm Bureau chooses and appoints the County Agent and fixes his salary. The County Agent thus chosen must be approved by the State College of Agriculture (i.e., State Director of County Agents), if the Farm Bureau wishes to receive a share of the State and federal moneys for this form of extension work.

A wide-spread popular error concerning the County Agent was that his job was to give advice to the farmer. And since the County Agent is frequently more youthful than the farmer, this view of his functions was discouraging. The State Director of Farm Bureaus for New York State stated the functions of the Farm Bureaus to be, in the order of their importance, as follows:

1. The federation of all the existing agricultural forces and organizations in the county to a common purpose (i.e., schools, local granges, clubs, societies, etc.).

2. Agricultural leadership in its broad sense.

3. Organization of associations for better methods of production (e.д., cow testing, seed improvement, etc.).

4. Organization of marketing associations for both buying and selling. 5. The study of local economic needs of the county, that correct farm management practices may be demonstrated and introduced.

6. The giving of personal advice to farmers. This is last and least important.

7. General-"All these functions should be exercised with the point of view of increasing the financial profitableness of farming within the county by increasing the net income of farmers, and of making country life and work increasingly worth while in the larger sense." 3

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These functions of the Farm Bureau are, strictly speaking, the functions of the County Agent, since he is the agent of the Bureau. Finances. The County Agent work is financed through three sources-federal, State and local. The local money comes in the form of dues from members of the Farm Bureau and from a tax on the property in the county. The State usually raises a fund for this work by a tax. The Federal Government, through its taxing powers, collects funds which are apportioned to the States on a basis of the rural population of the State. The Smith-Lever Act made the flat appropriation of $10,000 per annum to each State. After the fiscal year 1915-1916 the grant under this act increases annually up to the year 1923, the maximum for that year and each year thereafter being a total of $4,580,000. All grants above the first $10,000 must be duplicated by the State, in order to entitle the State to receive the federal grant. The table in the appendix to this chapter shows the significance of these financial terms.

The cost of the County Agent to any individual farmer is but a small amount a few dollars at most. Compared with what a laborer pays in annual dues to his union, the average farmer is contributing lightly to his Farm Bureau.

Growth of the Farm Bureau. - The very rapid spread of the Farm Bureau through the North and the West is shown by the following figures: