mental, propaganda, and instructional work in agriculture, collects statistics, and reports on general agricul tural conditions. Working under each of the agronomic engineers are one or more men whose positions are called itinerant chairs. Their duties consist in studying the needs of agriculture, suggesting means for its improvement, disseminating agricultural informa..on, both written and oral, giving lectures, conducting field demonstrations, and assisting the cooperative associations.

Sweden. Expert agriculturists known as agricultural advisers paid by contributions from the Government as well as from the various agricultural societies, travel over the country giving the farmers advice, conduct demonstrations, gather statistics, and give courses in general agriculture, bookkeeping, and home economics.

Switzerland.-A State law providing for extension work in agriculture was adopted in 1920. It established winter schools in the principal agricultural regions and summer housekeeping schools for young country girls, the faculties acting also as itinerant instructors. The department conducts short courses or schools on various subjects throughout the rural districts, also numerous individual lectures by specialists on all agricultural and home-economics subjects. The above are all paid for by the Government. In addition, the Swiss Agricultural Society and the various agricultural organizations in the Cantons provide instruction by means of lectures from specialists and recognized practical men. Farm bookkeeping is emphasized. Demonstrations are not featured.

United States

Early Extension Work. From their beginning the agricultural colleges and the Department of Agriculture disseminated agricultural information among the farming people through correspondence, distribution of publications, and addresses at meetings by members of their staffs. This work was greatly increased through their connection with the farmers' institutes. The colleges gradually enlarged the scope of their extension work, particularly in the decade beginning about 1905, when distinct extension divisions were organized. Among the activities added were reading and correspondence courses, extension schools, competitive judging of livestock and other products, and boys' and girls' clubs.

The spread of the cotton-boll weevil in Texas led the Department of Agriculture, through the Bureau of Plant Industry, to attempt not only to diminish the injury to the cotton crop by this insect but also to offset its atack by improving the general practice of agriculture in the South. Through this movement was developed, under the leadership of Seaman A. Knapp, beginning in 1903, the system of extension work through supervised demonstrations by farmers on their own farms, county agricultural and home demonstration agents, and boys' and girls' clubs. At first this work was independent of the colleges, but gradually they came into more or less definite cooperation with it. The States and counties in the South also made appropriations for its support. By 1914 more than 1,000 men and women agents were employed in 15 Southern States.

In 1909 the office of farm management of the Bureau of Plant Industry began farm demonstration work in Ohio, and in 1911 the first county agent was appointed in New York. This work spread in the Northern and Western States in cooperation with the agricultural colleges. counties, and local organizations. In 1914 more than 200 agents were employed in this work.

Extension Legislation.-In 1905 a standing committee on extension work was appointed by the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations. This committee reported in 1908 in favor of a Federal appropriation for extension work, and in 1909 a similar recommendation by the committee was adopted by the association. As a result a bill for this purpose was introduced in the House of Representatives, December 15, 1909, by James C. McLaughlin, of Michigan. The same general proposition was embodied in other bills in both houses. The Department of Agriculture joined in this movement. After long and careful consideration Congress passed the Smith-Lever Extension Act, which was approved by President Wilson, May 8, 1914.

Extension System. This act was broadly drawn to make possible the establishment of a permanent nation-wide system of extension work in agriculture and home economics which would include both the demonstration and county-agent system and the other useful features of extension work as developed by the agricultural colleges. It provided for definite cooperation between the colleges and the Department of Agriculture in the planning, adminis tration, and conduct of the work. Soon after the pas sage of the act the department and the colleges generally entered into a formal agreement, through a memorandum of understanding," regarding the organization of cooperative extension work and their respective relations thereto.

66

Pending authorization by Congress of a permanent organization in the department to carry on the business necessitated by this act, a committee consisting of the director of the Office of Experiment Stations and the chiefs of the two offices in the Bureau of Plant Industry which were conducting demonstration work was appointed by Secretary Houston.

On July 1, 1915, this business was taken over by the newly created States Relations Service. General supervision was committed to the director of that service and the detailed work was intrusted to two offices of extension work transferred from the Bureau of Plant Industry. The office of extension work in the South was given charge of the work in 15 Southern States and the office of exten. sion work in the North and West of the work in 33 Northern and Western States. In addition to work under the Smith-Lever Act, the States Relations Service admin. istered the direct department appropriations for farmers' cooperative demonstration work. These funds have been used mainly in the States, but also for the maintenance of the Washington extension office.

Among the major problems which necessarily received much attention in the first years after the passage of the Smith-Lever Act were (1) the interpretation of this act as related to the legality of expenditures under it; (2) the establishment of a system for plans of work, budgets, accounting, and reporting; (3) the uniting of the force employed by the department in the South with the college extension forces; (4) the development on a larger scale of the county-agent system in the North and West and the building up of home demonstration and boys' and girls' club work in that region; and (5) the further development of organizations of farming people to support the extension work and participate in it.

The new plans and methods of work in the department and the States under the Smith-Lever Act and related Federal and State legislation were scarcely estab lished when the entrance of the United States into the World War brought unusual difficulties and a very great expansion of effort.

U. S. D. A.-10-1-26

Under the food production act the States Relations Service received $4,348,400 in 1917 and $6,100,000 in 1918. This money was used to supplement the regular Federal, State, and county extension funds in stimulat ing agricultural production and food conservation. Much of the work under the latter head was done in cooperation with the Food Administration. In other lines of war work there was also much cooperation with the Red Cross, Council of National Defense, War Department, Public Health Service, Fuel Administration, Treasury Department (in Liberty loan campaigns), and other agencies.

The organization of the counties for extension work was pushed forward very rapidly, until more than 2,400 counties had agricultural agents and about 1.700 counties and 200 cities had home demonstration agents. About 2,000,000 boys and girls were enrolled in clubs. The agents and clerks with headquarters at the colleges and the department were also greatly increased in number. At one time about 7,000 persons were carried on the reils of the States Relations Service.

To accomplish this task, it was necessary to organiz the farming people more thoroughly. The extension forces were therefore very active in promoting the older organizations and forming new ones. In the Northern and Western States farm bureaus were organized in a large number of counties. This had unexpected results after the war, when economic conditions aroused the farmers to the importance of cooperative marketing and of legislation pertaining to agricultural affairs. The county farm bureaus expanded their work beyond the educational field and formed State and national federations. This movement has spread into almost all the States and has resulted in one of the strongest of our farm organizations. It has made necessary a readjustment of the relations of the extension forces to the farm bureaus in order that the extension work may remain an educational enterprise.

Office Organization. With the nation-wide spread of the extension work and the approximate standardization of its purposes and methods, it became apparent that it would be much better to have the Federal business connected with this work transacted through a single office in the States Relations Service. Therefore, on October 1, 1921, the two offices were combined. Since that time much has been done toward adjusting the Washington sffice to new conditions in the department and the States. In order that the department as a whole might enter more fully into the extension work and the different bureaus might have more definite relations to the extension office and the State and county cooperative workers, general supervision of the extension work of the department was temporarily given to the Assistant Secretary of Agriculture and the way prepared for such supervision by a permanent director of extension work, provided for in the appropriation act for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1924. The States Relations Service was abolished on June 30, 1923, and the Extension Service was formed to take its place. The new service is composed of the following units: (1) Office of Director, (2) Office of Cooperative Extension Work, (3) Office of Exhibits, (4) Office of Motion Pictures, (5) Office of Demonstrations on Reclamation Projects, and (6) Office of Agricultural Instruction. Extension representatives of different bureaus were placed under the direction of the Office of Cooperative Extension Work as regards their plans of work and contacts with the field, while they hold office in the bureaus which are held responsible for the subject matter of their extension teaching.

On January 1, 1922, the Washington extension office was reorganized into three divisions: (1) Office administration, (2) programs, and (3) methods of extension organization and teaching. The division of programs carried on the work relating to the administration of the Smith-Lever Act and related Federal legislation, including plans of work, budgets, inspection of work and expenditures, and consultations with State extension officers regarding the administration of their work. The division of methods collected and disseminated information regarding methods of organization of different lines of extension work and methods of extension teaching of different subjects. A distinct effort has been made to consider the extension work as one unified enterprise for the benefit of the men, women, and children on American farms and to interest all extension agents in the promotion of the enterprise as a whole, rather than simply the particular line of work in which they individually are engaged.

On December 6, 1923, further readjustments were made in the Washington office as follows: (1) Office administration, and (2) field work. The latter was divided into (a) organization and administration, and (b) specialized service. Under (a) the United States was divided into four divisions-eastern, southern, central, and westernwith an officer in charge of each, and under (b) were placed subject-matter specialists, extension studies, and visual instruction and editorial work.

During the 12 years since the passage of the SmithLever Extension Act a broad system of practical instruction for the men, women, and children on American farms. outside the schools, has been developed on a permanent basis by the cooperative efforts of the department and the State agricultural colleges, aided by the counties, farm organizations, and numerous individuals. The extension system is now organized to a greater or less extent in more than 2,100 agricultural counties and annually reaches directly several millions of our farming people. More and more it has formed a broad basis of popular support of research and education in agriculture and home economics through Federal, State, and local institutions, and undoubtedly the influence of the extension work will be increasingly felt in the development of these institutions.

The entire State field service on June 30, 1924, numbered 4,744 persons. Of this number, 3,427 were located permanently in the counties, 2,174 being in county agent work, 851 in home demonstration work, 133 in boys' and girls' club work, and 269 in extension work with negroes. The county workers were assisted in their work by 696 full-time and 174 part-time subject-matter specialists located at the State agricultural colleges. There were 394 persons employed as supervisors and assistant supervisors, while the administrative officers and their immediate assistants numbered 53. Of the above total, 3,751 were cooperative employees of the Office of Cooperative Extension Work, practically all engaged either in county work, supervision of county work, or farm-management

demonstrations.

U. S. D. A.-10-1-26