TWE COUNTY AGRICULTURAL AGENT =^= By H.W. Hochbaum, Senior Aqriculturist Office of Cooperative Extension Work EXTENSION SERVICE^ MISCELLANEOUS EXTENSION PUBLICATION NUMBER - I UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, Washington, D. C. fe FOREWORD The county agricultural agent has become an appreciated counselor and assistant in rural life in America, He is found in about 2,500 of the 2,850 rural counties in the United States. Even in this profound economic depression, when public expenditures of every kind are being given the closest scrutiny, and, with part of the cost borne directly by farmers themselves through local taxation, practically every county is holding on to its county agent. This circular by Mr. Hochbaum visualizes the things county agricul¬ tural agents do and the way they work. It furnishes a background which serves to explain the popularity of county agents with rural folk and business men. It is believed that supervisors, specialists, new county agents, and .local leaders will profit by reading this circular and that through it farmers and business men will get a clearer understanding of how to utilize this new, vital county force that has come into rural life to help increase farm income and promote the abundant rural life. Chief, Office of Cooperative Extension Work. 6408 Miscellaneous Extension Publication No. 1 June, 1932 THE COUNTY AGRICULTURAL AGENT By H. W. Hochbaum, Senior Agriculturist, Office of Cooperative Extension Work, Extension Service. CONTENTS Page What is a county agricultural agent? . 3 A day with the county agricultural agent . 5 Is the agent a service man? ... 9 The county agricultural agent is a teacher . 12 What is a program of work? .... 16 Plans that work .. 23 The county agricultural agent works through local leadership . 29 What helps does the county agricultural agent have? . 33 How is the county agricultural agent trained and directed? . 37 A job analysis . 41 6408 WHAT IS A COUNTY AGRICULTURAL AGENT? Is the county agent an agricultural expert, a local source of in¬ formation on all agricultural problems, an adviser to all the farmers of a county on what to do and how to do it best? Though the uninitiated may have such a picture in mind, it must be said that agriculture and country life are too broad., too varied in the nature of many individual problems of man and farm for any one agent to pose as an expert qualified to an¬ swer all problems. Of course, county agents do get many calls for infor¬ mation on numerous problems. As a local representative of the State College of Agriculture and the United States Department of Agriculture, a county agent gladly handles these requests. He may make a special trip to a farm to study a problem at first hand. Then if he does not know the answer, he refers the problem to the college or department for special inquiry and solution. The county agent has been reared on a farm, and his judgment and suggestions are based on his practical farm experience. He has usually had, also, four years of training in an agricultural college. This gives him a broad background of scientific agriculture, and special training in some one field such as dairying, livestock husbandry, fruit growing, or crop management.. Often he has had a few years of experience after college in farming or teaching before he becomes a county agent. The county agricultural agent is an extension representative in the county of the State agricultural college and the Federal Department of Agriculture. He serves as leader in the improvement of farming and farm life. It is his job to study the farming of the county and to know intimately the big problems which are holding back the best possible development of farming in that county; to know what conditions and circum¬ stances affect each problem locally. Then it is his responsibility to work with the college and with leading farmers locally in finding the most practical solution for these problems, always in terms of local needs and conditions. He is then ready to call the attention of the farmers to these problems and their solutions, and with the help of the leaders attract the attention of the majority of the farmers, teach them the sig¬ nificance of problems and solutions, and encourage and influence them to adopt the improved practices which are recommended. Thus, in a county where dairying predominates, the county agent might concentrate on teaching— (1) The need for better hay and. the importance of growing some legume like alfalfa, (2) The need for feeding rations based on the production of in¬ dividual cows. (3) The value of having a business large enough in volume and diversified enough to insure the largest net income. (4) That cows not producing enough to pay a fair profit must be - 3 - 6408 replaced by cows which produce 250 pounds, or more, of butterfat annual¬ ly- (5) That better bulls must head each herd in order to get cows of more profit-producing capacity. (6) That production should be adjusted to demand. In a county where fruit growing is the chief industry, a county agent may concentrate on the following: (1) Determining what constitutes a profitable unit in fruit grow¬ ing. and what other enterprise or enterprises should be taken on or en¬ larged in order to bring in the larger incomes. (2) Determining what other areas and products from such areas compete with the local fruit industry, and how that competition must be met. (3) Teaching the control of insect pests and diseases by means of a local spray service. (4) Training trees and managing the growing orchard. (5) Grading and marketing fruit. In either county the agent would also give some attention to pro¬ blems found in poultry keeping or field or vegetable crops, which are minor industries locally. He would also encourage rural boys and girls to become interested in farming and farm life, skilled in the work of the form, and to acquire an appreciation of the values of country life, through the boys' and girls' 4-H club work. He gives support also to movements which may arise in a county to improve community and living conditions, through church, school, farm, health, and civic organizations. He is the leader of the rural-improvement work in a county, and has at his command the resources and special help of the State agricultural college and its cooperating agency, the United States Department of Agriculture, to aid him and the people locally in meeting the problems of a satisfying country life, The county agent with a program comprising the larger problems will give from 50 to 70 per cent of his time to advancing that program, Grad¬ ually he, the local leaders associated with him, and the people in general as well, can see the progress that has been made and can measure the re¬ sults, in terms of more alfalfa, higher producing cows, more profit, higher standards of life, and better communities. The county agent is on the job the entire year in a county. That means continuity of attack and teaching on the larger problems. The education of any group is a long-time matter, but proceeds the faster when no long intervals occur to break the teaching effort. The recom¬ mendations of the agent have to be practical, for he lives with the people he is trying to influence. The teaching is practical, for the agent teaches practices—specific things to do to meet actual local situations and problems. These are based on a thorough study of the local conditions, farm surveys and records, and the experience and judgment of the bes + - 4 - 6408 farmers in a county, as well as the best teachings of colleges and experi¬ ment stations. In short, a county agent is more than an expert. He builds for the future by studying the larger problems and by teaching the people the significance of these problems and how to improve their situation. In addition, he stands ready to find the best information on problems of individual farmers. His services are free to all. He is a public official, representing the college of agriculture and the Federal Depart¬ ment of Agriculture, as well as the local people, in jointly attacking the larger problems which may affect farming and farm life in a county. A DAY WITH THE COUNTY AGRICULTURAL AGENT This county agent climbs the stairs to his office in the courthouse before his stenographer shows up in the morning. Here is his chance, he thinks, to go over his accumulated mail and to outline some plans for an important piece of work, to get a start before the rush of the day and the evening before him. But "Brrringl," goes the telephone. "Hello! Yes, this is the county agent. Oh! Hello, Mr. Brown! What's that? Grasshoppers bad? Well, don't let a few hoppers scare you. Feed them a little sweetened poison. Sure. Here's the formula. No, you mix it in this way. Don't get it too wet. Yes, put it out at sundown. Are any of your neighbors complaining? Better get a few together. Let's see, can you do it this evening? I'll come out and give a demonstration of mixing the poisoned bait. Sure. Thanks for the help. I'll be over at four this afternoon. You can get all the material at your local store." "Now for that plan of work. There goes the phone again. Hello! Yes, this is Smith. Why, yes. I can give you a formula for poisoning hoppers. Here it is." He gives the formula. "Can't you come to Brown's at four this afternoon? We are going to give a mixing demonstration there. Bring some of your neighbors along with you. Good." The county agent resumes his thinking and planning. His mind, runs along the following lines: "Nov/, I'll get busy on that plan of work for the alfalfa campaign. Farmers ought to be thinking about alfalfa in time to select and test the soil and get it ready this fall for next spring's seeding. It would be fine if I could get 150 or so putting limestone on this fall. We ought to get at least 2,000 acres more planted this year. Wonder how a slogan contest would go to work up immediate interest. We can run a tour of our alfalfa demonstrations about that time also. Those printed circular letters the crops specialist has prepared certainly look good. Guess I'll send them out about 10 days apart to my dairy list. That means I have to check with the cream stations and condenseries. and - 5 - 6408 see the assessor’s rolls to bring this list up to date. I can start on that next week. First thing to do is to see the chairman of the alfalfa committee and talk these plans over with him. Then we can make a survey of the county and have the alfalfa committee and a few of the leading dairymen in to a meeting here. The crops specialist has some fine informa¬ tion on alfalfa. He ought to be at the meeting. With the figures I'll get on hay acreages and feed bills in the county, surely we'll show these people the need for making alfalfa, the big issue in this county and get them back of this campaign." The agent works with ruler and pencil, drawing up a tentative plan for the alfalfa campaign. His secretary enters. "Good morning. Miss White. Yes. I came down early. We have a busy day ahead. "Will you take this letter, please?" He dictates a letter warn¬ ing farmers about grasshoppers, and includes directions for combating this pest. "Get that out as a circular letter and send it to the entire mailing list. Also let the papers know that farmers in this county are threatened with an outbreak of grasshoppers. Please tell also what we are recommending that farmers may do to control them. You might also let the papers know about the demonstration meeting at Brown's this afternoon. Tell them I'll call them up after the meeting and report it," A farmer with a diffident look enters, and the county agent gives him a hearty greeting. The farmer wants to know something about growing alfalfa, a new crop to him. The agent gives him a circular on alfalfa growing, but emphasizes five or six recommended practices which are es¬ sential to success in that county. He tells the farmer where to get limestone and recommended, seed. He also lends the .farmer material for testing xne acidity of his soil that he may know how much limestone to apply. "Guess we'll have to put him down as the first cooperator this year. Miss White, you got his name and address and general conditions for our alfalfa records, didn't you? "Now, Miss White, will you copy this outline of the alfalfa cam¬ paign? Please make one exti'a copy. I want to show this outline to the county agent leader-and the extension agronomist when they come down next week. Make a note for the papers, too, that Mr. Avery, who just left, is going to plant 15 acres of alfalfa." Another farmer, who is chairman of the county alfalfa committee, comes in. "Hello, Mr. Gregory." says the agent. "I have been wanting to see you. Do you know, I found that the average expenditure for feed in this county is over $500 per farm. Don't you think that this is en¬ tirely too much, when you consider that our dairy herds are small? It seems to me we ought to do something. Please let me have your opinion - 6 - 6408 of some plans I have been thinking over.” There follows a conference on feeding methods, needs, methods of growing alfalfa, and plans of work, which lasts until lunch time. They go out to lunch together still talking about alfalfa. The secretary, meanwhile, is busy with letters, news notes, plans of work, and in making records of the many activities of the agent. Telephone calls from time to time are recorded; notes are made of committee meetings, arrangements for farmers' meetings, and helps wanted, so that the agent may attend to them on his return. Several farmers call also; note is made of their needs, and assurance is given that the agent will attend to these at once. Sometimes the secretary gives out a bulletin or circular which she knows will give necessary information. 7/hen the agent returns, the requests are given attention. Some are answered by letter. Others are referred to the extension division of the State agricultural college for special attention. Others are met by a personal call at the farm of the inquirer. The county agent then calls on the local seed and implement dealers to enlist their help in carrying out the plans for an alfalfa campaign. The questions of laying in stocks of seed of hardy varieties, inoculating material, implements, superphosphate, and lime are taken up with the dealers, and they are requested to be fully prepared to sell these mate¬ rials at fair prices. The agent also visits the operators of cream sta¬ tions and milk plants to interest them in the need for alfalfa and to win their cooperation. They can do much to interest their patrons in alfalfa. The agent next drives his car to the Brown farm 10 miles out, where the poison-mixing demonstration is to be held. On the way he stops at several farms for a few minutes to answer previous calls for assistance with problems, or to see men who are at the head of committees on the major lines of intensive work. When he gets to Brown's farm, he finds a dozen farmers in work clothes are assembled. Together they go out into the grainfield to see the grasshopper damage. A few hints on life habits of this pest are given. The crowd then goes back to the barn. Here bran, poison, lemons, and molasses are found. The agent gives a few brief in¬ structions and then directs Mr. Brown in mixing the materials. A few questions are answered. The agent then goes on to the field and shows Mr. Brown and the farmers how to strew the bait, leaving him to finish the job, and giving directions about future applications. The farmers are given a circular which outlines the problem of grasshopper control, and which gives directions for mixing the poison bait, and are told to keep in touch with the agent by telephone. In a day or so the agent will call up Mr. Brown and some of the other farmers and find out if the anticipated good results are being obtained. Then a news article will appear in the press, which makes note of the demonstration and the results farmers have obtained by poisoning the hoppers. Thus the agent not only tells, but he shows right on the ground - 7 - 6408 how it is done. The farmers learn by seeing and doing, and gain con¬ fidence because of the demonstration of results. The agent directly reaches and teaches a dozen farmers or so with this one effort, and through the success of these farmers he indirectly reaches many other farmers. After the demonstration the agent rides back to the county seat. Not long after supper he drives out 15 miles in another direction, picking up a committeeman and a farmer or two. He has arranged for an evening meeting of dairymen to discuss a problem which should be of common in¬ terest. This may be the business organization of dairy farms. Before the meeting is called to order, the agent greets many of the farmers present, exchanging a word with some who ask for suggestions on this or that problem. The chairman of the dairy committee then calls the meeting to order. He explains the purpose of the meeting and briefly outlines the need for better business organization of the farms, He then introduces the county agent. The latter in an informal manner gets right to the meat of the problem by presenting on charts the farm-business records of local dairy¬ men. He discusses the amount of cash income received by sales of milk, stock, and other farm products, and how this and the net income are af¬ fected by the size and balance of the various enterprises, the effective use of labor, the efficiency of production, and prices and costs. Good and bad, before and after examples from the county are shown, the great emphasis being placed on the need for each man to study his farm operations from a business-management standpoint. The value of local experiences and examples is constantly brought out. Many questions are asked. The agent asks for volunteers who will keep a year’s account of their farm opera¬ tions for later diagnosis, or for cooperators who will use his help in making a business analysis of their farms. The talks are interspersed with comment and facts of an economic nature, such as the influence of competing areas, the market supplies and demands, and the present and future outlook for the dairy business. New knowledge is acquired, and new attitudes are developed. About 10 o'clock the meeting breaks up. The agent before leaving completes arrangements for starting some of those present in the new work. Perhaps a bulletin or circular of instruction is given to each man. The agent is then off for home. The next day is much the same in general, yet infinitely varied because of the many cases or problems which come before the agent. He may proceed with the plans, meetings, written material, and personal contacts demanded by some of the other large problems he is attacking. He must, however, keep in mind and follow up the many angles of the work done the day before. His goal is to influence hundreds interested, or who need to be interested, in working out the larger problems. There¬ fore he is wise not to carry too many lines, not to have too many irons in the fire. - 8 - 6408 IS THE AGENT A SERVICE MAN? The new county agent has been on the job for a few months, long enough for farmers to know there is such a man, but not long enough for them to know just how he works, how he can help them. He has visited a hundred or more farms, held 20 to 30 agricultural meetings, and written a few circular letters and statements for the local papers on farm problems and what should be done about them. Then comes a morning's mail with the following letter: "I read your article on culling chickens and would like you to cull mine. I have about 200. When can you come? Etc." John Jones. The county agent calls up Mr. Jones and says: "Hello, Mr. Jones. I got your letter. Glad you want to cull your flock. Yes, that's right. Grain and mash are too high in price to feed boarders. How many eggs have you been getting? About five dozen a day? Well, you are right. Two hundred hens ought to be doing better than that. Let me ask what are you feeding them? No mash, you say? Any green feed? How much grain?" "Well now, Mr. Jones, let's try to give those chickens a chance to prove what they really can do. Won't you try feeding mash in a hopper so that they will have this feed before them all the time? You may use any commercial brand of mash which is made up in accordance with the recommendations of the college. If you prefer to mix your own mash, I can give you the college formula. Got a pencil? Here it is." "Are you using lights? No? Well, it seems to have paid Mr. Brown and Mr. Smith and a lot of commercial poult.rymen in this county. Better give your hens a little more grain too." "Now, Mr. Jones, feed them as J have suggested for two weeks and then we'll do the culling. No, it is not hard to learn. How about two weeks from today, say at 2 o'clock? Do you think you could get a few of your neighbors to come, say 10 or 12, to see how the culling is done? No you won't have to entertain the visitors. We always like to demon¬ strate culling wherever we can. Might as well show a dozen persons as one. Please phone Phillips, Cooke, Schmidt, Truxton, and six or eight other neighbors of yours. I'll send a notice to the paper." Thus the county agent again sets the stage to teach several pe-rsons instead of serving only one individual. The demonstration method is so effective that he uses it whenever he can. This county agent is a good teacher. He uses the participation method and the telling method as well as the demonstration. Let us view again his technic and compare the con¬ duct of the demonstration work with that described previously. - 9 - 6408 The day for the demonstration comes. The agent arrives an hour before the time scheduled. He and the farmer look over the flock. They discuss the feeding practices. Farmer Jones admits he has been getting more eggs since he fed as the agent directed, and says the hens seem to be in better condition. "Yes,” says the agent, "but there are still some boarders there. He explains the high points in selecting laying birds and tells Mr. Jones how the demonstration will be conducted. Soon other farmers come, and when 10 have arrived the agent begins his demonstration. He explains how the hens were brought into condition by feeding. Then, taking a hen, he goes over the various points which denote a layer. In contrast he shows another hen, with shrunken comb, yellow beak and legs, yellow, dry vent, smooth feathers, and so on. This hen he drops in the cull coop near-by. He takes another and goes over the same points. "She’s a layer," he says, and puts her into another coop. Then he passes a hen to Farmer Jones and asks him to judge whether she is a cull or not. Jones misses one or two points, and the hen is put in the cull coop. Then hens are passed to other farmers who are asked to judge whether these are culls or layers. Questions are asked; points are cleared up; many problems of poultry feeding and management are discussed. Altogether, 40 to 50 birds are culled. The audience is told that Mr. Jones will keep the culls separate from the layers for a few days to contrast production, and that the results will be reported to the local papers. Various in¬ dividuals are asked whether they will cull their flocks, too. A circular on culling is left with them. Mr. Jones and some of the farmers then get to work, catch the rest of the flock, and begin to cull them as the agent waves nis good-byes. The county agent receives many requests for service of this kind, but always tries to avoid making the service personal. Requests for tree pruning or spraying, seed inoculation or selection, soil testing, ditch blasting, land terracing, or any of the 'other important problems farmers become interested in are turned into demonstrations from which more than one farmer may learn, and all see the thing under actual farm conditions. Farmers soon learn that the agent is not in the county to do these things as services for the individual but to teach the masses. Another problem often presented to the county agent is pictured in the following: An agent is holding a meeting. He discusses some practices of value in increasing the yields of a crop, or the need for getting high¬ er-producing cows. Then he invites discussion, and a farmer in the back part of the room blurts out with considerable feeling: "Well, all that may be all right, but I'll have to say we farmers don't need any help in producing. We don't need to know how to get more milk or more bushels of corn to the acre. Give us some help in selling our stuff. That's what we need. I've got 1,000 bushels of the finest potatoes you ever saw, and v/hat can I get for them? Forty cents! We want the county agent to help us sell our stuff. We can produce it, etc." 6408 - 10 - Is the agent up against it now? What will he do? How should he handle this problem? What may be expected of him? May he actually try to sell produce «for farmers? May he act as a business or marketing agent for a cooperative association, buying or selling as it may direct? May he act as an official of an organization or conduct membership campaigns? "I'm sorry to hear that, Mr. Jones," is the county agent's reply. "This certainly is an off year for potatoes. Of course it won't help you now, but did you read the outlook report the State extension service and the Department of Agriculture sent out late last winter? That report cautioned farmers about increasing their potato plantings this year. "Now I didn't mean to say I told you so. Let's get together on this and see what we can do. Maybe we can help you sell your potatoes to better advantage. I'm going to ask you and any other potato growers to stay a few minutes after this meeting to go over the situation." A handful of .farmers stay after the meeting. This is not a large potato-growing county, so the agent does not advise organizing a cooper¬ ative marketing association. He points out that a large city 200 miles away is the principal market for the crop. He tells them, however, that the low prices offered and the so-called discrimination of the potato dealers result because the local potatoes are largely ungraded and poor in quality. His offer to bring in a market specialist to give a grading demonstration is accepted. He also expresses the hope that with the help of this specialist, buyers may be found if the potatoes are graded. Perhaps he goes a step farther and asks some of the men to act as demon¬ strators another year in growing potatoes of better quality. Dairying is the big industry of this county, and many farmers are talking of the need for better marketing measures. But here the agent has a real problem. When he takes the problem to the department of econom¬ ics at the State college he finds that the premium market his county has always enjoyed is very much endangered. The metropolitan dealers say the farmers are not supplying enough milk in fall and winter, but are pro¬ ducing a surplus in spring and early summer. Can they be taught to change their methods, freshen more cows in fall, feed more heavily in summer and fall, or use other methods that will bring a better supply in those months when most needed? The dairy and market specialists of the college say. "Yes." The big cooperative dairymen's associations say "Yes." The county agent is given all the facts and information and a program of practices which farmers should adopt to adjust their milk production to the demand. Back in the county, with the help of the speci¬ alist, dairy papers, local press, farmers' meetings, and circular let¬ ters. he carries these facts to the people, and helps the farmer to adapt his business to new market conditions. Often a county agent must go further and show farmers the need for a cooperative-marketing association and help them to organize one. First of all he must have all the facts he can get on the particular crop - 11 - 6408 or product. He and the specialist in marketing from the State college go over these facts and the local situation. Then they meet with a few of the leading producers of the particular product. The facts are pre¬ sented, the conditions discussed, and the place for a cooperative asso¬ ciation is considered. The various principles fundamental to the success of a farmers' cooperative marketing association are made plain. The field is surveyed for farm leaders who will serve as a fact sifting and or¬ ganization committee. The ground is gone over thoroughly. Agent and specialist help these leaders to determine whether there is real need for an association, and what type is sound for local conditions. A full knowledge of marketing conditions affecting the county is given them. A plan for a workable organization is adopted. Advice, counsel, informa¬ tion, guidance are given these leaders and the people who come to meet¬ ings. More committees are set to work to help people understand the situation and the workings of the proposed organization. Membership is sought by the leaders, Business contacts are made outside of the county. The organization is established by the efforts of the farm leaders. Then it is managed and conducted by officials whom the members have approved. It is the agent's duty to aid in organizing the association on a sound basis and to give such advice as he can to its officers in their efforts to transact its business efficiently and to build up its member¬ ship. The only limitation of the extension agent to giving assistance to a cooperative association is that which any public official must recog¬ nize, namely, that he can not engage in any private business which con¬ flicts with the performance of his full services as a public servant, that he can not serve as an officer of a cooperative association, transact business or handle funds for it, or enroll members. 1/ Where these limitations are understood and lived up to, is the work handicapped? Not at all. On the contrary, the work goes forward with better understanding and with abiding results. After all, one of the first precepts of the extension work is to, develop rural leadership, and no agent can be leader as well as servant. No organization will thrive unless it builds and develops its own leadership and assumes responsibil¬ ity for its problems and affairs. The agent gives counsel; but the farmers assume responsibility, sign up the membership, hold the offices, write the letters, make the decision, learn. THE COUNTY AGRICULTURAL AGENT IS A TEACHER The morning session of the annual conference of extension agents at the State agricultural college has just closed. Three county agricultural agents are going to luncheon together. One asks. 1/ Warburton, C. W. Possibilities and Limitations of Assistance to Cooperative Associations by the Extension Service. U. S. Dept. Agr. Ext. Serv. Circ. 112, p. 7 1929. Mimeographed. - 12 - 6408 "Say, just what did the director mean when he said we were teach¬ ers? I didn't understand him at all. The. farmers of my county would laugh at me if I said I was a teacher." "I didn't understand either," says another. "I thought our job was to show farmers better practices and not have classes in agriculture." "Of course he did not mean that we were classroom teachers," says the third, an older agent, "having regular classes, covering about so much subject matter. I think the director is taking the larger view of what teaching is." "Yes, but what is it? Seems too deep for me," returns the first agent. "That may be because it is new to most of us," is the rejoinder. "I think what he means is that a real teacher does more than give informa¬ tion to those who want it. He influences people who have a certain prob¬ lem, to recognize it and want to do something about it, makes them want to learn. Every county agent knows of course that what he recommends must work, must be practical. But he ought to teach so that people see this as a solution to some problem, some want they have. And when they learn, his teaching has got to make them successful with this new prac¬ tice. They must be so successful that they really get the results they thought they would get." "I can't see that," replies the first. "Our job is to carry out the facts and show people that they work locally. Then it is up to them. We can't make them want it." "Well, I've been wondering," says the second agent. "Something's wrong with that method. Take Smith in Brown County. He had fewer demon¬ strations than I did. He certainly didn't have any more meetings. Yet look at the alfalfa he got in his county. Three times as much as you or I did. How did he do it?" "His conditions are different. He has a better class of leaders in his county." "Thanks, but that old alibi doesn't help me. How did he get so many farmers to act, to plant alfalfa? How can I do it?" "Now you're coming," says the third. "Talk to the director or county agent leader some time this week, and see whether they can't help you. I'll tell you what the director told me when I talked to him. "He said that the number of meetings held, lectures given, demon¬ strations staged, bulletins distributed, news articles written, number of people to whom information has been given, are no true index of an agent’s influence and worth. These things may lead the agent into thinking that he is very busy, but sooner or later he'll realize that he's up against - 13 - 6408 the acid test of real teaching, namely: How many people have changed and improved their methods as a result of his teaching? Hew many people grow alfalfa instead of timothy? Raise better cows by using a purebred bull? Get more money for their apples because they have learned to spray effec¬ tively? Raise better pullets because they have learned to grow healthy chicks? The director's idea is that there is little learning unless people change. They've got to be successful and satisfied with the change too. Moreover, they ought to have new bodies of knowledge, new attitudes, new appreciations, as well as new skills. There's more to teaching than better practices. All this means more than giving people information or letting them see a demonstration. Sometimes, I wish the college and research people understood that better. "Now we all know that the worst of this is that the majority of the people do not come to the county agent ready to be told. The classroom instructor has the advantage that his pupils are there, physically at least. He can 'fail' them if they do not make the grade. But our poten¬ tial learners are scattered over all the out-of-doors. They show many different degrees of teachability. Their conditions vary infinitely. Yet the county agent has to have something the great majority can adopt. He must reach these people, must influence them to want to change. And in changing, these people should learn so well that the recommended practices, often received indirectly and at long range, will bring them success. This success should bring them satisfaction, make them readier in attitude and betuer prepared by this successful experience to try the next step, to use knowledge truly learned in still further improving their situation. Practical? Yes, indeed! For let an untried theory or opinion get out, or failure instead of success be the farmers' too, and then the teacher himself may be 'failed' and the cause of improved agri¬ culture hurt for some time. "Take alfalfa, for instance. You work up a lot of interest in the crop. Some farmer who never asks about it, tries the crop. He fails because he didn't use lime enough or use northern seed. Then he says, 'You can't grow alfalfa. I know, I tried it. The county agent is not practical. ' "Probably, in such cases, the farmer got the idea, but did not learn the detailed practices which are essential to success. I think we ought to use enough demonstrations, circular letters, news articles, meetings, contests, and so forth, and use these long enough so that such a farmer knows what to do, and does it, and is successful even though he may never come to ask us for advice." "Say, that's fine! Didn't know you had all that in you. But coming right down to my own problems, just how do you do all this? Take that swine sanitation project of mine for example. What can I do to get more farmers to adopt the practices which they ought to, in order to raise hogs successfully?" - 14 - 6408 "Tell me how you handled this work?" "Oh, we had a fine demonstration and a fair demonstration meeting. The demonstrator followed our directions to the letter. He overcame his dcubts and scrubbed and washed the sows before farrowing. The brocd houses also were scraped and scrubbed. I know because I was there, and not a bug or egg could have remained. The pigs came into a clean world. Then when they were old enough to move, they and their mother were moved in a wagon to a new clover pasture on which no pigs had been kept for several years. No parasites ever troubled them. There they were fed corn and tankage, and say, how they did grow - 200 pounds at 6 months. Some pigs! "Still we did not have much enthusiasm at the demonstration meeting - about a dozen farmers out. How they smiled when the specialist told them about washing the sow with warm, soapy water. Didn't get many questions out of them, and only one farmer said he'd like to try the same methods." "I had about the same results," says the older agent. "Now I do not have the project in my program." "Why not?" "I should have known better at the start. My county is not a hog county. You can not expect a farmer to have clean pastures in rotation and do all these things unless hogs are a major business with him." "Say, I never thought of that." "How can you expect people to change unless the thing is of some importance to them? I’m afraid that we are inclined to feel that because a thing seems important to us it ought to be important to all the people, too. Look at it through their eyes, their conditions and situations. "I don’t know your county well. Maybe you didn't plan this so that the leaders were back of it from the start. Did your hog growers know how important the problem was? In Steuben County the local leaders made a survey covering over 300 farms, and they found cut something about the losses from parasites and diseases and what caused them. What did you do to follow up the demonstration? Did you have a list of all your hog growers? Did you keep facts on the problem and the solution before these men all the time? What did you. do to make them know that they had the problem and that swine sanitation was the logical answer, that the methods advocated would bring them more money?" "That’s enough! I get the idea. I’m going to see the swine specialist and the county agent leader this week and plan this thing right." "I’ve certainly got a new light on things," says the second agent. "I hope I have not been preaching too much," says the agent who has led. the discussion. "I have problems of my own in my county, and make - 15 - 6408 mistakes too. But the problems of what learning is, how persons learn, and how we can teach so that they really will learn, have opened a new field of thinking and planning for me. You know what that fellow from the Office of Cooperative Extension Work told us? Here it is in a circu¬ lar. Read that. That's what I am trying to follow." 0 Before the agent can influence people to learn to change, however, he must know what to change them from and what to change them to. Before he centers his teaching effort on hog sanitation, beef-feeding demon¬ strations, purebred-sire campaigns, spraying fruit trees, culling chick¬ ens, growing alfalfa, or the like, he finds out what the situation of the industry is in the county. What has happened, what is happening, what will happen? Just what do the farmers do, how do they grow the par¬ ticular stock or crop and why? What are the local soil and climatic condi¬ tions? What practices do the people follow? What incomes do they have? Can they afford the new equipment, soil treatment, or seed? What supplies of the needed thing are available and how may they be increased and cheapened? All the local conditions which surround the enterprise and which make the problem are ferreted out. Then the solution, in terms ox these local conditions, can be found. The agent can not set up a group of practices like a stereotyped college course, covering about so many principles, so much subject matter. The agent can not generalize. He must always consider the wherefrom and the whereto of what he is trying to do in terms of John Jones and his neighbors who live in the county. Here is the big advantage of effective extension work. The agent localizes. He studies the patient first, before he prescribes. He knows his life history and habits, and the local conditions. He doesn't pre¬ scribe until he diagnoses. Then he finds a solution which is practical, which the great mass can adopt. His teaching fits local conditions and needs. WHAT IS A PROGRAM OF WORK? The solution if the larger problems of the county, the things which the agent will emphasize and that large numbers of farmers may well adopt, constitutes the county extension program. This program is based on the various community programs, each of which is determined by analyses and diagnoses of local situations and needs. Such analyses and determinations are made with the leaders and the people residing in a community. The procedure is outlined in the following description: The county agent hurries through his supper. He has the preoccu¬ pied air which the wife of a county agent knows so well. "Where to, to¬ night?" asks his wife as the county agent dons his heavy coat. "Oh, we have a community program-planning meeting at Bennett's." "Looks like a cold night for a drive. When will you be home?" "Well, that's only 25 miles. Ought to be back before 12," is the reply. "So long, don't for¬ get your brief case," his wife calls after him. "Well, I nearly forgot ray program material. Gocd-by." - 16 - 6408 There is snow on the ground as he speeds his little car to the schoolhouse 25 miles away. There it looms dark and cold. "Thought the committee was going to have it warmed up," soliloquizes the county agent. He blankets his car, goes inside, and after finding fuel busies himself nursing a fire. The farmer committeeman who was supposed to look after this comes in. "Well, you're kind o' early, ain't you? Maybe I'm late. Had a sick cow I had to fix up before I came." "That's all right. Did you get her fixed up?" is the rejoinder. "No. It's a case of abortion. Seem to be having bad luck this year. There's a lot of it, but what can you do?" "Well, I’ll tell you. I think, as yGu say, the problem is a big one, and I want you to bring it up to-night. The college is interested in a method of control which seems to be bringing good results. Perhaps we can run a demonstration or two here," "I surely would be interested in that," says the farmer. Soon other farmers come in twos and threes, stamping snow from their shoes, exchanging cheery greetings. They talk with the agent and each other about conditions of their herds, feeding, the price of feed, condi¬ tion of the market, progress of the cooperative milk-marketing associa¬ tion. The agent talks with one farmer, the local committee chairman, on the things that might be taken up in the meeting and how to proceed. The chairman calls the meeting to order. He says: "I'm glad so many of you turned out in spite of the cold. We ought to make a good program of work tonight. We've done a good year's work I think, but there are some big jobs ahead of us." He calls on four or five farmers wno served the past year as lead¬ ers of various committees, to report the year's results in the community. Thus the alfalfa leader reports: "We were supposed to get 20 men to plant alfalfa this year. A lot of things came up which we didn't figure on when we started last winter. On account of the weather, we got a late start. Then we couldn't get northern-grown seed as cheaply as we had figured. The county agent tested a lot of soil though, and our lime pool went through in fine shape, for we bought nearly 300 tons of limestone. As nearly as I can make out, 23 men planted alfalfa, and I think there are 115 acres of alfalfa that were¬ n't here last spring. The fields all looked fine, too, this fall. All except one or two where they didn't put on lime enough, I guess. We ought to have a lot more alfalfa, though." The other leaders give their reports. Some report that the goals set last winter were reached or exceeded, while one or two report little done. But the progress, as a whole, the numbers of farmers demonstrating or adopting recommended practices, is encouraging. The chairman calls on the county agent who supplements some of the ~ 17 = 6408 reports with other data, or gives a word of explanation about conditions which affect each enterprise. He points with pride to the 770 rk of the leaders, and thanks and encourages them. Then the agent opens a discussion of the extension work for the year to come. This is a dairy community. The need for more alfalfa is accepted and the meeting discusses the plan of work and sets a new goal for the number of men to be influenced to plant alfalfa the coming year. It is decided to have a tour to visit the best alfalfa fields during the summer. The problem of producing more milk per cow profitably is next con¬ sidered. The agent shows data on the part purebred bulls, bred from high-producing cows, play in increasing production. The discussion which follows shows that the local people do not have knowledge on what the pro¬ duction per cow is, locally, or how many inferior bulls there are. A leader and a committee are appointed to make a study of that question and also of what the production per cow averages. It is agreed that when these data are obtained, if the figures show need for such emphasis, the com¬ munity will join in a county-wide campaign to get farmers to buy or use bulls with ancestors which produced, not less than 350 pounds of butter- fat a year. The work of the herd-improvement association is next discussed, and the need for more members is emphasized. The difficulties are brought out, the costs are outlined, and new goals are set. The dairy committee¬ men outline a new plan for finding unprofitable cows which the college is developing. This system differs from the methods used by the herd- improvement association in that each member takes milk weights, feed records, and samples of milk, for each cow, and sends these in to a near¬ by central laboratory, where tests are made, and essential data on produc¬ tion, feeding, and costs are compiled and sent to each member. It is agreed that 10 members of such an association will be sought. Next the farmer who is struggling with abortion in his herd is asked to tell of the situation in the neighborhood. The chairman, reading from material given him by the county agent, shows that on farms where con¬ trol measures are followed and all replacement cows are raised on the farm, the disease is a negligible factor, but that on farms where replace¬ ments are purchased nearly 50 per cent of the cows are affected. There is animated discussion, a general agreement that the problem is serious. The county agent is called upon to say what can be done. He cutlines the chief factors and tries to straighten out some misconcep¬ tions about the disease and its control. He encourages the farmers by showing that new knowledge developed by the State college of agriculture and the United States Department of Agriculture points to an effective method of control. He shows what demonstrations in other counties have accomplished. The chairman puts the question ~ whether a demonstration in controlling abortion should be carried on in the community. This plan - 18 - 6408 is agreed to, and the farmer who first brought up the problem is appointed to carry on a demonstration under the direction of the college and the county agent. The rural boys' and girls' 4-H club work is then discussed by the county agent and one of the leaders. A local boy made a good record last year. His heifer calf won first prize at the State fair. Several of the leaders comment on the effect the boys' and girls' club work is having on the young people of the community. "Why," said one of them, "you know I never could get my boy inter¬ ested in the farm or even in school work. Then, through the urging of one of his pals, he joined the 4~H club, and I wish you could see him now. He is really interested in farming and in the things of the country. He seems to have more purpose in his school work too. And he's going to make some of the other boys step around some with his heifer calf." "That's fine," says another. "Club work has given my girl real interest in farming and home making." It is agreed that the community should have at least 10 dairy- calf club members, boys who would each keep a purebred calf under the direction of the extension service and a local leader. It is also agreed to interest at least as many girls in home-making clubs. Perhaps, even though it is late, the county agent introduces the present need for a better business organization of farms, the need for in¬ creasing farm incomes as a whole. He talks of the size of business, effi¬ ciency of labor, market needs and trends in terms of local farming, and may urge the holding of a farm-management school. He may even suggest the need for a county long-time agricultural policy or program which will guide the redirection of the local farm businesses and operations in line with present economic trends. He succeeds in interesting the farmers present, and the chairman is appointed as a delegate to a county meeting where the facts on the need for farm reorganization and the methods of determining needed readjustments will be discussed by representatives from the colleges and farmer delegates from the county. - 19 - 6408 The program which has been agreed upon is as follows: PROBLEM _ SOLUTION GOAL LEADER I. High feed costs. Grow 1 acre of alfalfa for every cow. 25 cooperators. 1 J. Smith. II. Higher-producing cows. Bulls from cows producing at least 350 pounds of butterfat. 8 scrub bulls replaced. John Rollins. Ill.Higher-producing cows. ... ... - ... Test cows. Feed to produc¬ tion . 5 members in herd-improvement association. 10 members in dairy-record association. Will Brown. IV. Interest boys and girls in farming and home making Calf-club work. Sewing and cook¬ ing clubs. 10 members. 10 members. • Preston Jones. Mrs. Will Brown. | V. Control of abortion.. i Control demonstration. 1 demonstration. H.J. Peters. j VI. Economic readjustments in farming. i Long-time agricultural program. ! Charles Wilson. "About how many county agents get at their problems, develop their programs as you say, in this way?" asks the new extension agent. "Reports for 1930 from the county agents show that 2,196 county agents developed programs following the principles here described." replies the supervisor of county agents. "The figures tell us that in nearly 70 per cent of the communities in counties with county agents the local people and the county agents sit down together, discuss the larger problems of a county, find out the best solutions, agree to do something about it, and place local leaders in charge with certain definite goals of accom¬ plishment to reach. To be exact, extension programs as described here have been developed in 32,260 communities out of 43.196 communities in counties served by county agricultural agents." - 20 - 6408 "Are the local people willing to help? Do they volunteer as lead¬ ers in carrying on this work?" "In many ways, that is one of the finest things in extension work. The work wouldn’t be as strong as it is today but for the splendid help and cooperation of a real army of local leaders. In 1930 alone, 127,413 volunteer local loaders in agricultural work with adults, and 32,636 local men and women leaders in the work with rural boys and girls were in this army. They helped make local programs of extension work and in get¬ ting the extension agents in closer contact with local needs, thereby truing up the recommendations with local requirements. They gave their time, effort, and leadership, too, in helping to influence their neighbors to see the greater needs of the farming communities and to want to do something about it." "But don't the program making and leadership require a lot of time?" "Yes, in a way. But think of the benefit to the agents. As supervisor, I can not think of any way by which agents might so quickly learn the real situation and problems, and their practical solution. In no other way could the agent become acquainted more easily with the people of a county or find the leaders to help reach the great numbers who are benefited by extension work. This system, too. has given the agents a real job. It directs them to do organized, systematic work on comparatively few well-chosen tasks. It has helped them to reach far larger numbers than any system of individual helps could. The people and the agents, with Government and college departments of agriculture, are united by this system on the larger problems, are working together in building a bigger, better agriculture and rural life." "What's ahead in program making? How can the methods be improved?" "Our greatest problem is to get the extension workers and local leaders to see the need, of an economic long-time agricultural adjustment program which should serve as a basis for the current extension programs." *' "Just what do you mean?" "At present, most extension programs are based largely on improving the production and quality of our agricultural products. Now we ought to take a farm-management view of the farm business of a county. The farmers' incomes are too low. That may be because the individual farm business isn't big enough, or because the farming is not in line with present and future economic situations and trends. Our programs ought to be based on a thorough study of such facts. We need an agricultural policy for a county. This would consider as a whole the agriculture of a county, the economic situations which affect or may affect farms of the different types, the organization of such farms, and how the incomes are made. Then re¬ adjustments would be determined which would help the farmer to fit bet¬ ter into the economic situation.- Such readjustment recommendations - 21 - 6408 might urge him to expand or to add certain farm industries or to decrease others, to build a bigger farm business in line with market trends and needs and the general economic situation. Emphasis may be placed too on improving the labor efficiency of farms or cutting down costs of produc¬ tion in other ways. Perhaps there is need for the addition of other enterprises to certain farms that a better-balanced business may be devel¬ oped. Again the studies may show a place for the production of higher - grades of products, or higher-priced produce, as seed potatoes or grain, asparagus or fruit.” "Have you any examples of such policies?" "Oh, there are now a good many. Here is one worked out for Jeffer¬ son County, N. Y. Timothy hay has long been an important crop there, but the time has passed when this crop returned a profit normally. The facts of the situation and the readjustments recommended in the Jefferson County policy are in part as follows: 2/ THE HAY SITUATION IN JEFFERSON COUNTY "Jefferson County has been one of the important hay-producing counties in New York State. There is no prospect of a satisfactory demand for the quantity of hay now being produced for sale. The city demand has almost disappeared. The demand from intensive eastern dairy farms prom¬ ises to increase slowly, but it demands clover or alfalfa hay. High freight rates are encouraging southern farmers to grow more of their own hay, and the Middle West offers keen competition to New York for supply¬ ing whatever deficiency exists. "In occasional years of short crops prices of timothy hay may be fairly satisfactory, but in years of average or large crops, it is im¬ possible to market the quantity of timothy hay now being produced at prices that will pay a fair return to the producer. "The heavy clay soils, often poorly drained, are more suitable for hay production than for other cash crops. Many farms in Jefferson County were bought and paid for by selling timothy hay, and it is difficult for many oersons to realize that under the present conditions it takes some¬ thing besides a large amount of hay to make a profitable farming business. Program of Adjustment (1) The amount of timothy hay sold in Jefferson County must be reduced considerably if satisfactory returns are to be obtained. There are many ways of doing this. 2/ Improve Your Agriculture. Report of the Jefferson County Agricultural Conference Committee, Jefferson County, N. Y., 1929. 6408 - 22 - (2) The transition from market-hay production to dairying has been going on for some time in certain sections of the county. Since Jefferson County is, in general, well adapted to dairying, this movement offers the best solution of the problem for the majority of farmers and should be accelerated. (3) One of the logical steps in changing part of the present ti¬ mothy-hay acreage into more profitable lines would be to use more meadows for pasture. (4) When soil permits, clover or alfalfa should be substituted for a part of the present area of timothy hay. Shorter rotations will usually be necessary. (5) Those Jefferson County farmers having soils light enough to permit the profitable production of cabbage, potatoes, beans, and other similar cash crops will probably find it advisable to substitute some of these crops for a part of the land now devoted to market hay." "Time does not permit me to give all the recommended adjustments, but you can see how significant such findings are and how they must in¬ fluence the recommendations of the various specialists and county agents, "One of the best features of this type of program or policy mak¬ ing is that the local people cooperated fully with the agricultural col¬ lege in sifting the facts and in agreeing upon what should be done. The people had a big part in the whole undertaking. Consequently, they accept the findings. That isn't always the case when some one else tells them so and so," PLANS THAT WORK The problem of carrying out an extension program, of influencing farmers by means of sound method in teaching to adopt the appropriate recommendations, can be met only by well-planned outlines of work. That is, each of the major problems listed in the program requires a detailed outline and schedule which shows what teaching aids have been selected, and just how and when they will be used. Let us see how a supervisor of county agricultural agents helps a county agent in making such a plan. "What is your most important problem?" asks the county agent lead¬ er as he and a county agent get ready to plan a work outline. "Well, I haven't been here long enough to know them all. But this is a dairy county. Feed is high. The farmers should have more legume hay. Alfalfa grows well here. Mr. Jones, whom I succeeded as county agent, had 31 farmers demonstrating just how it should be grown, and the stands these men got look just fine. There are also about 12 older fields in the county which convince me, as they have convinced my extension 6408 - 23 - committeemen and other leading farmers, that alfalfa can ge grown here profitably," "I happen to know that the extension agronomist feels that same way about it. We both feel that the county is ready for some intensive work to get more dairymen to plant alfalfa. You know, milk flows where alfalfa grows," says the county agent leader. "Now the first thing we've got to work out is a statement of the situation. That means a brief resume of the dairy situation here, the general feeding problems, the feed costs, kind and quantity of hay grown in the county, the need for alfalfa, soil and climatic conditions, sources of lime, fertilizer, and seed, the results of your demonstrations, and so on. This is the platform you stood on. It gives you and your leaders confidence in the job and helps them to convince others. Here's the ex¬ tension agronomist's bulletin on alfalfa growing. We can use some of that, but must be sure to get the local conditions and needs set out. Let's see your census statistics on the agriculture of the county," They work for an hour or two and produce a creditable statement of why alfalfa should be grown in the county in answer to certain local needs and conditions, and they give it to the stenographer for copying. Then they work out a statement of the specific practices which each farmer should follow in order to be successful with alfalfa, They follow closely the recommendations of the specialist, varying these in one or two details because of local farm practices and conditions. The practices to be emphasized are about like these: (1) Use well-drained fertile soil. (2) Test soil for amount of lime needed, and apply accordingly. (3) Use 200 to 300 pounds of superphosphate per acre, (4) Use 8 to 10 pounds of certified Grimm or Ontario Variegated seed per acre. (5) Inoculate seed with commercial culture. (6) Use half-seeding barley or oats for a nurse crop, or sow alone in a firm seed bed the first of June. (7) Avoid pasturing or making hay the first summer. These directions represent the least a farmer can do to be success¬ ful with alfalfa. They stand as injunctions, terse guides to success. They are practices applied to local situations, not principles. They are specific, not general. They are used in all literature and other teach¬ ing agencies and kept before the farmer constantly by this means or that. These recommendations must be stamped on his mind, remembered as guides to success. - 24 - 6408 "How about limestone, superphosphate, and northern-grown seed?" asks the supervisor. "What does ground limestone sell for here? Super¬ phosphate? Is the supply of seed sufficient? Will your local dealers cooperate in making these needed supplies more available at reasonable prices?" They find that ground limestone can be delivered F. 0. B. at local stations for $2.50 to $3 a ton, a reasonable price. The superphosphate can also be purchased reasonably. The supply of recommended seed is more uncertain, however. The State leader thinks that the extension agronomist at the college can help with the problem and promises to see him about it. "You've got to make it easy for them," says the State leader. If the things called for by the new practice can not be obtained cheaply and conveniently, the agent may as well not begin. Over in Green County, though limestone was only 50 cents a ton, few farmers used it until the agent developed a trucking service which delivered this lime at reasonable cost right on the farm. In Derker County the whole 'Grow healthy chicks' program fell down because the people did not have a sure supply of dis¬ ease-free chicks." "How many farmers are there in your county who can and should grow alfalfa?" asks the leader. "Have you a dairy mailing list?" With the help of the stenographer such a list is found, but it proves to be an old one which does not specify who's who. "It doesn't seem to me that will do," says the leader. "What you need on such a list is the location of every man, how big his farm is, how many cows he has, whether he is owner-operator or tenant. I think to begin with that you can go to the assessor right here in the courthouse and use his tax list. That will give you the name of every man, the number of dairy cattle he has, the size of his farm, and whether he owns or leases. Then you will probably have to check with the lists of the patrons of the local creameries and milk plants. No doubt you will find that you will want to keep this list of names up to date all the time, however, and add to or change it as you hear of new men. County agents say the best way is to check with local committeemen every year, letting them go over the names and correct the list, as they know the people of their community. You see there will be a lot of mail to send out, letters, circulars, bulletins, cards, notices of meetings, and you want the man who ought to know about alfalfa to get these, and not the apple grower or the truck gardener," "When can you get the list?" asks the leader. The agent agrees to work on it the very next day with his stenographer. "We need to be sure that the local situations and needs are all considered so it would be well to visit 30 to 35 dairy farmers right on their farms and ask them if they see the need for alfalfa, and what has held back the greater planting of this crop. At the same time you ought - 25 - 6408 to talk with your local editors, business men, and milk and cream plant operators. In this way you will learn much about local situations which may modify your recommendations. Invite all those you see to come to a special meeting to discuss the need and to help you plan the work. That was done in Smith County. A lot of facts on the local dairy and feed situations were brought out, and farmers and business men agreed that the introduction of alfalfa on dairy farms should be the first order of busi¬ ness. These men, who knew the needs of the county, gave many valuable suggestions. Because they had an important part in the analysis of the problem and in planning the work, they were eager to launch the alfalfa campaign and get behind it." Agent and supervisor make a list of the committeemen, farmers, and business men who will be interviewed, and they plan how and when the cir¬ cular letters, news articles, and meetings will be used. The county agent then asks how the great mass of farmers may be made to see the need for alfalfa and be moved to plant it. He suggests sending out a circular on alfalfa growing to all dairy farmers. The county agent, leader raises the question, however, whether it would not be better teach- ing practice to make the farmers in general feel the need for alfalfa be¬ fore giving them a mass of technical information on how to grow the crop. He says: "We are learning, in extension work, that if you want to teach people, you must first make them want to learn. Usually they don’t start unless they see that they are affected by a certain problem, and see that what you recommend is something which will be an answer to their wants, Therefore we now plan extension work so that farmers are led to recognize certain problems and to want to do something in solving these problems, before giving them technical instructions. The agent in Hoodin County used a series of six printed circular letters which told the farmer how great his need was for more legume hay, arid that alfalfa filled this need ideally, and would bring him increased profits. These letters, as you can see, kept the want and the solution before the farmer. Just read them over, and see if they would not help a farmer to realize his needs better, and influence him to want to do something about it, to plant alfalfa because 'Alfalfa acres are money makers' or 'Milk flows where alfalfa grows.’" Agent and leader agree to include in the plans of work, provision for a similar series of letters. A special alfalfa edition of the local paper is also considered, It is contemplated, too, that many news items which will report the trials and successes of individuals in growing al¬ falfa will be given to the paper. Then the supervisor raises the question of what goal should be set for this extension activity, i. e., how many farmers the agent will try to influence to plant alfalfa. There are about 1,800 dairy farms in the county. It is agreed that a fair goal would be to teach 200 of these the first year to plant alfalfa and be successful with the crop. In order 6408 - 26 - to be sure that 200 or more farmers will actually respond to the influence of the teaching, the county agent leader proposes that enrollment cards be used. Farmers agree over their signature on such cards to plant the num¬ ber of acres of alfalfa they think is desirable, to follow the recommend¬ ed practices, and to report their results with this crop. "Just how is that done?" asks the county agent. "A few days after the last letter of the series on the need for alfalfa has gone out, each farmer on the list gets another letter with the enrollment card. Here's the one Richards used. You see it is not a pledge. It merely states that I, Farmer Jones, am going to plant 5 acres of alfalfa and that I will try to follow the practices suggested. Ten days later another letter and a card go out to all those who have not responded to the first. Richards got 35 returns on the first letter, 117 on the second. Meanwhile an honor roll, a list of all those who are going to plant alfalfa, is kept in the local paper. Perhaps your lo¬ cal leaders can also get a few enrollments at local meetings. While they are doing this you can send out a third letter and card to those who did not reply to the first two. All these are timed so that the individual is led to act in time to carry out the cultural practices of the season. Thus, most of your folks ought to be signed up in time to get lime on the ground." "You see, this method brings the proposition home to the farmer, causes him to think whether he is going to plant alfalfa, to act in time, to do something about it now instead of an indefinite later time. Then, if you don't get your 200 signers after the third card goes out, you can get local committeemen to go out and get some of their neighbors to sign up. It's work, but when you are through you have your 200 men, all plant¬ ing alfalfa. In 4 to 6 years you ought to have this county on the alfalfa map." "Can we do this? Isn't this high-pressure salesmanship? Isn't it sufficient to carry on the gospel, to tell the truth about alfalfa and the methods of growing it in newspapers and at meetings?" asks the agent. "I wouldn't say so. High pressure usually is felt when what you offer is not really needed by the farmer, when it is not a real solution to his problems—his wants. Or you try to make him do something before he has time to think his problem through and conclude that your answer is sound. Now there's no question that farmers here need alfalfa or that they can grow it. There is no learning without action. The farmer has got to do something about it. The enrollment card makes it easy for you to get this action. "White County has been demonstrating alfalfa for years. Of course, they've more alfalfa than when they started. But at the rate they are going now it will be 10 years before they have as much alfalfa as Richards got in one year." 6408 - 27 - The county agent is learning rapidly that the problem of affect¬ ing a large number of farmers, of getting them to adopt recommended practices and to be successful with them, demands organized, systematic, continuous teaching effort on his part. With the help of the county agent leader, he plans the use of the enrollment cards, and sets ap¬ proximate working dates for each activity. Consequently he has a work plan and calendar to guide him throughout the year in preparing the various agencies and is making the most timely use of them. The super¬ visor hints that the agent will have a busy season. Then, still intent on planning the work of introducing alfalfa so that the highest degree of success will be won, he says: "After the summer is over, you. will want to get a full report of the results of your efforts to get alfalfa planted." "What's that for?" asks the agent, "In the first place for your own satisfaction and guidance. Won't you want to know just how many farmers planted alfalfa and how successful they were with it? Then you can set your stakes ahead for the next year, your goal, more intelligently. You will also be enabled to judge the success of your teaching method better. Then we want a report, not an estimate, for our records. This report wijlj, also give the farmers who have not planted alfalfa, confidence in the crop and in the methods you recommend." "What's the best way of getting such a report?" asks the agent. "You handle that just as you did the enrollment card, except that you use a report card on which each farmer states how many acres he planted, what practices he followed, what results he got, and what further help he needs. Here is one used in Summit County. The agent got 196 reports like this, about 80 per cent, we figure. Swane, in the adjoining county, thought one card mailing would be enough. But he got less than 15 per cent returned. It takes a lot of tactful follow-up to get a report from 196 farmers, But say, a full, honest report is a joy and a great help to the agent. If I were you I would send these report cards to the entire list of farmers who should grow alfalfa and not only to those who enrolled. There are always some who do the thing you are try¬ ing to get them to do, but they may not sign up." "What do we do next year?" the county agent wants to know. "You can tell better after the reports are in," is the reply. Even this summer, as soon as you have a report of some one's failure, or only partial success with alfalfa, you will need to get in touch with the individual, at once. His failure may be due to mistakes on his part, or to the inappropriateness for his situation of some cultural recommen¬ dation. Turn these failures into successes if you can by helping each individual correct his methods. No doubt, the year's experience may 6408 - 28 - force you to modify some phases of your cultural recommendations, Of course you can see the value of telling the story in a different way next year. Perhaps you will want to use teaching aids then which were not used before The things used this year too will need to be changed somewhat, in order to lend variety to your approach to the farmer. Another thing to study carefully is continuity. You may find that your plans do not provide for keeping your alfalfa message before the farmers so as to impress them continually. Fill in the holes in the year's effort. A circular letter here, an exhibit there, and a constant reporting of real news on the alfalfa work can be added without much extra effort, and obtain good results for you." "How many lines can I handle this way?" asks the agent. "You know there’s a lot of other work to be done here." "To be sure," says the leader. "But you just try this organized systematic plan of teaching, and see how far you’ll get. As you learn the methods you can gradually plan other lines of work the same way until you can handle four or five lines planned in a similar way and your other miscellaneous work as well. You see, the peak of the work in each line comes at a different season. The peak of the alfalfa work comes in late winter and spring. The chick-rearing project loads you up in fall and winter. The purebred-bull work comes in summer, and so it goes." THE COUNTY AGRICULTURAL AGENT WORKS THROUGH LOCAL LEADERSHIP The county agricultural agent who can select, train, and direct local farmers to help in determining the program of work and in carrying it out, knows that the various recommendations in the program may be more quickly accepted by large numbers of farmers. Indeed, one of the first tests of efficient agricultural extension work is just that: Is the agent a leader and an organizer of the leadership which exists in every rural community? The following scenes are enacted in almost any State extension office. A director of extension and a State leader of county agricultural agents are considering the problem of filling a vacancy on the staff of county agents. "What do you think of moving Jones from Hill County to the vacancy in Block County?" asks the director. "Oh, he’s all right, I guess," replies the leader, "Jones certainly knows his subject matter." "Well, do you think he would be a good county agent in Block County?" "I hardly think so," is the leader's answer. "You know he’s not a good organizer. Block County is one of the best organized counties in - 29 - 6408 the State. We ought to put a man in there who can take hold of the com¬ mittees right away and follow up the work of the agent who is leaving The new agent should be able to give about the same leadership the ex¬ tension leaders down there have been getting. Now Jones doesn't work well with committees or with other** farm organizations. He's too much of an individualist." "Why do you emphasize organization and leadership so much?" asks the new extension dairyman who "just dropped in to see the director." "I thought demonstration was the watchword in extension work." "That's true in a sense. But in many ways organization and leadership are of greater importance. Demonstrations and everything else an agent does may be made more effective through local organized leadership." "Hoy/ do these leaders function? How useful are they?" asks the specialist. "Of course that varies. Some of them are just ’tagged' leaders by agents who follow the form of our directions. Others are just nominal leaders with whom the agent has all too rare counsel. But the great majority give their time and effort freely in furthering the local ex¬ tension program and in buixding up extension work. You know it isn't easy for everyone to organize, plan, and systematize the work so that a lot of people understand their part, follow directions, and reach the goals set, get numbers of people to adopt this or that practice success¬ fully, and develop new attitudes. That takes real leadership, and that's what a real county agent has to have." "Here are our directions to newly appointed agents. You will find that local leaders are used as follows: (1) To sponsor and guide the progress of the local extension work. (2) To identify problems, by making surveys, studying local condi¬ tions and situations, and determining the fitness of recommended prac¬ tices as solutions to the local problems. (3) To help in planning the work necessary to advance the program chosen. (4) To lead in getting neighbors to recognize that they have the problem or problems met in the local extension program and to influence these neighbors to adopt the recommended practices. (5) To teach such persons how to carry on such practices success¬ fully. "That seems definite, and I can understand the plan of local 6408 - 20 - leaders better,” says the specialist. "I’m new to the work yet, so ex¬ cuse my questions. Tell me, though, what you mean by an extension organization." "In this State our county extension organizations are organized solely for the purpose of cooperating with the college and the Depart¬ ment of Agriculture in furthering extension work in the county. The membership is made up of interested farmers, usually from 15 to 20 per cent of the farmers in a county. They pay a small membership fee, av¬ eraging about $2. This organization is headed by an executive committee, made up of the officers and project committeemen, that is, one man for each important agricultural activity in the county. He is chosen for his leadership in the particular field of activity, and directs the work on a county-wide scale. Then in each community there is a smaller com¬ mittee, which usually does not have more than five or six members and functions in the same way locally." "The work of the organization is of course purely educational. It serves as a medium through which the county agents and the whole ex¬ tension service may reach the general body of farmers with the extension program. The leaders and members are public-spirited. They see extension work in its proper relationships. They are interested in the development of the best agricultural interests of the county as a whole. Their mem¬ bership fee is merely a sign of their interest in public affairs and does not mean that they are entitled to service which the nonmembers can not have also." "Just how would I work with such an organization?" asks the specialist. "Let's see, you tnink more purebred dairy bulls are the greatest need of the dairymen of the State?" "That's right," says the dairy specialist. "Of course there are other problems, but I think the biggest problem is to raise the produc¬ tion of our cows through better breeding." "To get the work started, you first select the counties in which dairying is a major enterprise. Then with the county agent, you study the production of cows in each county. If this production is low, de¬ spite good feeding and management, and it is found that large numbers of cows are bred to inferior bulls, you and the county agent may agree to make the introduction of purebred bulls, with ancestors of high produc¬ tion, a major extension activity in the county. You and the county agent visit 30 to 35 dairymen and introduce the need for more cows which pro¬ duce 7,000 pounds of milk or more annually. You observe the cows and the bulls on farms in the county. You learn more of local situations and needs. Then you and the county agent meet with the executive com¬ mittee of the local extension organization. Information and suggestions 6408 - 31 - which bear on local conditions will be given you which will help you draw up your recommendations and plans of work. Then the county agent opens discussion of the problem of obtaining higher-producing cows in community program-making meetings. The local leader in dairying dis¬ cusses the local problems. Facts on the scrub-bull situation are brought out. The methods proposed for interesting the owners of inferior bulls to buy purebreds are discussed. A goal is set, that is, the people agree to help the agent in replacing a specific number of scrubs with purebreds. Now the stage is set for the ’real work.' "The local committeeman may, with others, make a survey to find where the scrub bulls are. Meanwhile the county agent sends out circu¬ lar letters on the need for better bulls to his list of dairymen. Per¬ haps meetings are held, and you may speak at some of these. The news¬ papers report what certain farmers have done in improving production through using better bulls. Perhaps a tour of local farms, where pure¬ breds are kept, is made also with the help of the local leader. He also helps the agent influence some of the scrub-bull owners to want to change. You will have to help them to find good purebred bulls. Perhaps you'll wind up the work for the year by a mock bull trial, which the local com¬ mitteemen help you conduct. After it is all over and the goal has been reached, local leader and county agent plan what to do next year. That, in short, about covers the usual procedure." "Later, I am going to ask your help in planning this piece of work. I'm sure my work is going to be a lot more effective by working through the local leaders and an organization," says the specialist. "The dairy specialist came in at just the right time," said the director. "I hope you can follow up this talk and help him get his work organized in the real dairy counties. I am sure we must find a man for Block County 7/ho has considerable organizing and leadership ability." "How would Steele, who used to be agent .in Custer County, do?" asks the county agent leader. "He would be a good man for that county, but can we get him?" "I think so," answers the county agent leader. "He made his record as manager of the Dairymen's Cooperative Association, for he built up its membership and business. Now he wants to get back into extension work. He’s a good organizer. The year he left Center County nearly every community had a local program of three to five projects. These were headed by well-selected active local leaders." "When can you see Mr. Steele?" asks the director. "I think if we can get him to take Block County the work there will go forward without any break." "I'll be in his neighborhood tomorrow. I will call him up now and tell him we are considering him." 6408 - 32 - WHAT HELPS DOES THE COUNTY AGRICULTURAL AGENT HAVE? The cooperative extension service is manned by directors, super¬ visors, county agricultural agents, county home demonstration agents, county club agents, and specialists in many different fields of farm and home activities. One State employs over 400 extension agents, while the smallest number employed in any one State is .17. Table 1 gives a summary of the total number of extension workers arranged by classes of work; Table 1, Number of extension workers, June 30, 1931. Directors and assistant directors. 82 State leaders and assistant leaders of county agricultural agents. 1 2 . 2 . State leaders and assistant leaders of county home demonstration agents.. 128 State leaders and assistant leaders of club work. 134 Supervisors of negro extension agents 29 County agricultural agents. 2,382 Assistant county agricultural agents 234 County home demonstration agents. 1,241 Assistant county home demonstration agents 46 County club agents. 217 Assistant county club agents. 33 Negro county extension agents. 291 Farm-management demonstrators. 75 Extension foresters. 33 Other specialists . 1,114 Total. 6,161 Though the workers in each class have specific responsibilities for specialized types of work, rather close coordination is maintained between the different lines. There is developed therefore a reenforcing and supplementing of one line of work by another. Naturally too, the extension agents help one another with special problems and activities as pictured in the following situations. There is a farmer in the agent's office when he returns from luncheon. Greetings are exchanged. The general progress of farm work and the condition of crops are discussed. Then says the farmer: "Say, Mr. Smith, here are some bugs which are eating up my beans." He gives the agent a tobacco tin one-fourth full of bugs that look like brown lady beetles. "What are they, and what can I do for them?" "Oh, these are the Mexican bean beetles," replies the county agent. "Did you see the article in last week's paper on beetles which was pre¬ pared by Mr. Emslee, the college specialist?" - 33 ~ 6408 "No, I didn't see it. Been so busy with farm work I haven't seen the paper regularly. There sure seem to be a lot of them. Are they hard to fight?" "No, not if you have a good duster or spraying machine. You have a duster? Good. Now here is a little circular on bean beetles which our specialist got out and which tells you all about it. Just follow directions and you won’t have any trouble. Yes, any hardware or drug, store in town handles the poison. Let me know how you come out." "How in the world do you handle all the problems and questions that are put up to you?" asks the reporter for the local paper. He had come in a few minutes before to get news of agricultural interest. "Of course, a county agent can not know everything about agricul¬ ture," is the reply. "But after he has been in a county for a year or two he does know the principal pests and diseases and the chief cultural practices which should be followed. You see he is out in the field nearly every day and is in touch constantly with all sorts of conditions. Then, too, the college of agriculture, with its extension specialists, and the United States Department of Agriculture seek to keep the agent fully informed as new facts are developed from time to time. Furthermore, if I run up against anything I don’t know I just take it up with the col¬ lege extension service and get the necessary information. If it is im¬ portant enough a specialist may be sent down to study the situation, to find out how widespread the problem is, and we may then work out a plan to meet the problem with his help." "Just what is. a specialist? How* does he work?" asks the report¬ er, "He’s a member of the State extension force at the college. He represents the college of agriculture and the Federal Department of Agriculture, bringing those agencies closer to the farmer through the county agent. He has special training in some one field, such as plant diseases, entomology, farm management, dairying, poultry husbandry, field crops, fruit growing, or other farm enterprises which are important in a State. You might think of the specialists as forming the second line of defense, their province being the State however. They help the county extension agents meet problems for which the agents may not be so well prepared. "The specialist's real job is to work closely with the county agents in reenforcing the work they are doing in attacking the major problems of a county. The specialist should know the conditions of a State, and the problems with respect to his special field. He works out practical solutions for these problems and trains the agents to recognize them. In counties where such problems are really important, when large numbers of farmers should be concerned, the county agent gets the local agricultural leaders to recognize these problems and to in¬ clude them in the local extension program. 6408 - 34 - "Are you familiar with the alfalfa work in this county?" the agent asks. "Yes, indeed. The farmers surely are interested in this crop now." "Perhaps we would not have got ton nearly as far as we have in teaching farmers to plant alfalfa, had it not been for the help of the crops specialist. In the beginning he helped me demonstrate that alfalfa could be grown locally Quite a number of farmers had tried alfalfa previously and failed. The crops specialist and I studied local condi¬ tions and found that farmers were trying to grow the crop on acid soi] without using enough lime. He showed us how to select the field best adapted to the crop, to test the soil, and to add enough .lime to make the crop sure. Then he and the county agent leader helped me plan the work so that a great many farmers became interested and learned how to grow alfalfa successfully. He was the principal speaker on our alfalfa tour. He gave me material for news articles which your paper printed. We got a lot of help out of these. The circular letters, circulars, and exhibits used in the alfalfa campaign also were prepared by the specialist." "Who handles the 4-H club work with the boys and girls?" asks the reporter. "In this county I handle the work under the general direction of the State club leader and his assistants. There are, however, county club agents in some counties who have local charge of this extension feature. The club program fits in very closely with the other extension work carried on." "Do you work with the rural women of a county too?" "Only as they may be interested in certain agricultural problems, as for example, growing healthy chicks. We have a county home demon¬ stration agent in this county and in about three-fourths of the counties of the State. They work with rural women in just about the same way as I do with farmer s ." "Your extension service includes three kinds of county extension agents, and a corps of State specialists?" "Yes, the county extension agents, the State specialists, and the directing and supervising officials make up the State extension sys¬ tem. All the extension agents have a program, and they work in advanc¬ ing that program in about the same way as I have described it for the county agricultural agents. Moreover, we work together so closely that the various programs are coordinated. For example, the problem of teaching rural people rational food habits is being attacked by all of us. The county home demonstration agent .is teaching the need for such 6408 - 35 - food habits, and the planning and preparation of meals to serve the right- foods. As you know, this program involves among other things the use of two servings of vegetables, other than potatoes, and two servings of fruit daily. To make it easier for farm families to have a supply of vegetables, the vegetable-gardening specialist and I are working together in getting farmers to plant vegetable gardens which will provide this need. Then in our club work the girls are learning about the same things our rural, women are learning in the foods work. Our boys, too, through health teaching, learn the values of a rational diet, while some of them are garden club members and produce vegetables for the home as well as for sale. There's nothing like working together, concentrating on one problem, we believe "I can see that," says the newspaper reporter. "Our specialists, too," continues the county agent, "are coordinat¬ ing their plans and efforts. Thus, our dairy specialist and our crops specialist consider the alfalfa program a joint activity. The dairy specialist is interested in getting farmers to plant alfalfa because it will cheapen feed costs and increase production. The crops specialist pushes alfalfa for the same reason, and also because it is a fine cash crop and a soil builder. Likewise the farm-management specialist is concerned with the work. He looks at the problem of increasing farm economies and urges alfalfa as one means to that end, besides being a crop which should replace timothy for which there is no longer a market. Meanwhile, the county home demonstration agent is teaching constantly that more milk should be used in our homes, and that helps the dairy business too. Of course our dairy calf club members know the value of alfalfa hay and they have been instrumental in introducing the crop on some farms. All in all, the result of our coordinated and concentrated effort is that we are meeting certain big problems much faster than if each extension agent pursued a program quite independent of other workers. "It seems to be a most rational way of increasing the progress in meeting large farm and home problems," is the comment of the newspaper reporter. "You seem to avoid some duplication of effort. But tell me, can you hold the interest of farmers and farm women in this way. I should think they might get tired after a while of the concentration on on a few large problems." "I used to think so, too," continues the county agent. "No doubt some of the most progressive farm people, those who move first in adapt¬ ing new teaching, may tire of the repetition. But we are always ready to work with them on other problems. Meanwhile we must remember that the great mass of people move slowly. You know we did not really begin to get results in our alfalfa campaign until the third year. To be sure, with things which do not require the changes, outlay of money, or the learning of sets of skills, this concentration is not necessary. It is the large problems, the things most vital to the farmers and the wealth and welfare of a county as a whole, which take continued con¬ centrated effort." - 36 - 6408 "Do you know, you have given me an entirely different picture of county agent work from the one I had.," says the county agent’s visitor. "I am impressed with the need for attacking the larger problems of farm¬ ing and county life and how the extension system working as a whole must meet that challenge. I am going to use the notes I have taken to write up a story. This should help our readers also to get a better picture of how you and the whole extension system work." HOW IS THE COUNTY AGRICULTURAL AGENT TRAINED AND DIRECTED? The picture of the work of county agricultural agents which has been drawn, shows how many and how varied are the responsibilities and duties of these representatives of the extension system. The roles of organizer, leader, and director of the local agricultural improvement work; of scientific observer, teacher, and agricultural adviser; of speak¬ er, news -writer, and writer of letters and circulars; of office manager; of practical farmer; and of spokesman for the local rural people as well as for the agricultural college and the United States Department of Agri¬ culture, must all be assumed. What equipment has the county agent to begin with? How is he trained for the various parts he must play? How is he coached and directed to carry on most effectively his many activi¬ ties? What helps does he have? A rough biography of a county agricultural agent just entering the work would show him to be from 25 to 30 years old. He is a graduate of an agricultural college. As a student he ranked well above the average. During his four years at college he was known for his interest in student affairs. He knows how to mix, play, and work with people. He seems to have a pleasing personality. His training at college has been largely in technical agriculture, supplemented by the study of the natural sciences, chemistry, physics, botany zoology and such humanities as English and rural economics. He was reared on a farm. While at college he special¬ ized in some interest such as dairying or fruit growing, which was an out¬ growth of his farm experience. This interest and special training fit him to do extension work in a county where the corresponding enterprises are major farm activities. Above all, he has a life interest in rural affairs and their betterment. Now he is going to be placed in a county where he will be expected to be a leader of the agricultural improvement work. There he will have to work with hundreds of people, charitable and uncharitable, leaders, followers, and protesters. The farms of the county will present a host of problems, some beyond his ken, others different from what classroom and text indicated. All these problems will test to the limit his native resources; his skill, leadership, ability to get on with people; his knowledge of agriculture; and his patience. He will be judged quickly for these things and sometimes unfairly, but he must carry on and pro¬ duce objective results. 6408 - 37 - The extension officials who help the county agents most in organiz¬ ing and conducting the many varied activities, are the county agent leader and his assistants, or the district agents as these supervising officers are called in some States. They represent the director of extension and the United States Department of Agriculture in agricultural extension work. They maintain contact with the governing officials of the coun¬ ties and arrange for the cooperative financing of county agent work. The supervisors know the principal rural leaders in a county and win their support of the work. These assistants to the director see to it that men are selected as county agents who will make good. They start, the new agents at work. As supervisors they are responsible for the main¬ tenance of effective extension work in the counties through the county agents. The leader of the county agricultural agents knows the larger agricultural problems of the various counties, as the farmers view these problems. He knows how to determine local programs of extension work and how to direct local people in determining such programs. Moreover, he knows how to plan the advancement of these programs, and is skilled in developing method in extension teaching. His is the opportunity to help specialist as well as agent to get nearer to the local problems to plan their work effectively, and to help the agent carry out these plans. Let us see how he may help a new agent to orient himself and to get started in extension work. Usually when a man has been selected for county agent work, he visits the central office of the extension service at the State agricul¬ tural college. Here the county agent leader or other supervisor takes him in hand. The new agent is asked to study the policies and relation¬ ships which prevail in the State. The 'financial arrangements are made clear to him. Some details of office management are outlined. The methods of conducting extension work are sketched. Circulars and direc¬ tions on program making, organizing and directing committees are studied by the agent, and illustrations from the field are given by the leader. The methods of planning work are studied. The problems of method in extension teaching are explained. The leader helps the agent to get. a rough picture of the agriculture of the county in which the agent will work by familiarizing him with census statistics and agricultural and economic data. The reports of other county agricultural agents are reviewed. The program of the agent previously employed in the county is studied in detail. Point by point, illustration by illustration, ob¬ servation by observation, as made by the leader, help the agent to under¬ stand how he shall work. Then the leader takes the new agent to meet, the director, super¬ visors, and specialists. They help the agent to understand the sig¬ nificance of the work which they and the previous agent have been doing. By this time, the agricultural needs of the county have become clearer, and certain criteria of county agent work are understood by the. agent. 6408 - 38 - After two or three days of such study and conferring, the leader goes with the agent to his county. The county commissioners are inter¬ viewed and asked to make suggestions for the work. The county leaders of the local extension organization are visted. The county's agricultural problems are discussed. The names of other leaders to whom the agent might turn in studying the community problems are obtained from the county leaders. The leaders agree with the supervisor upon some definite job on which the new agent may begin work, say, the determination of the annual extension program. The supervisor helps the agent to make a plan for obtaining such a program and agrees to come back to the county at some stated time to aid the agent with this plan. Some of the leading local business men, the editors of the papers, and the school officials are visited by the leader and the agent, and the local problems and the scope and objectives of the agricultural extension work again are re¬ viewed. The agent has been put in touch with the local problems, has met the leading men and women, has absorbed a working knowledge of how to do extension teaching. Now, the county agent leader will leave, per¬ haps not to be back for a month or so. The agent must, swim by himself for a time. But he soon catches the hang of it all. Perhaps the dairy ex¬ tension specialist comes along and spends a day. They meet the leading dairymen on their farms. The big needs are discussed. Here the agent is on familiar ground. Soon he finds himself, has a familiar contact point. Soon the leader comes again, and the agent launches forth on his round of the communities, finding leadership, meeting farmers, locating problems, planning and organizing the work. In his other visits to the county, which in a large State total about 5 to 10 per county a year, the county agent leader follows a pro¬ gram of supervision for that county which has been determined by study of each agent's work and the needs of each county. All leaders have found it essential to have a program like this, a list of the things which individual agents need help with. Of course, the supervisor meets the commissioners occasionally to keep them posted about the work and its needs, or to learn of the difficulties which they see. This is also done with the county and local leaders in the extension organization, that these may be properly trained. Some leaders of county agent work have found that the most ef¬ fective supervision of extension agents comes when the supervisory pro¬ gram is determined for each agent's needs, as follows: (1) A comprehensive analysis of the work which the State extension service expects an agent to do is printed or mimeographed. This is an inventory of ideals, relationships, methods of work, objectives, and standards of achievement, common to the State. (2) Checking with each agent to find how closely he approximates these standards, and isolating the most fundamental deficiencies. 6408 - 39 - (3) Studying reports, questioning leaders and specialists, quizzing the agent to find what difficulties have been responsible for the agent's failure to show expected development in these phases. (4) Agreement with the agent on these needs and the suggested helps to better his work. This is the supervisor's program. The help and supervision given the county agricultural agent by the county agent leader are supplemented by district and State confer¬ ences of county agents held at regular times during the year. The dis¬ trict conferences are usually designed to meet special problems to train agents for the annual program-making drives, to give them special train¬ ing in methods, or to consider certain district agricultural problems and their solutions. Out of such conferences agents have obtained real train¬ ing, The annual conferences usually are broader in scope. They serve first to keep the agents in touch with the parent institution, the col¬ lege, and to inaugurate, emphasize, or explain regulatory policies and relationships. The conferences serve to get the various extension work¬ ers acquainted with one another and to maintain morale - esprit de corps. Inspirational speakers are often features of such conferences, or other provision is made to broaden the outlook of the agent and to keep him on his toes. A large part of each conference day is devoted also to familiarizing the agents with new problems, new subject matter, or new projects of the various specialists through discussion groups and com¬ mittee work. More and more such conferences are serving also to arouse interest and to train the agent in methods of teaching. Frequently, also, special lectures or training in such work as news writing, public speaking, or organization, are prominent in these conferences. An excellent way to train prospective county agents is to employ them first as assistant county agents. Such agents are now employed in over two-thirds of the States. They are placed in the more important agricultural counties where efficient county agents are at work, to help the agents with their regular lines of activity. Under the tutelage of the experienced agent, and with the help of the county agent leader, the assistant county agent obtains invaluable experience. This should fit him, after a year or so, to step into a county needing a county agent, and usually enables the replacement agent to carry on immediately as a full-fledged county agent would. This training is based on studies and job analyses of county agent work and fits prospective agents specifically to do county extension work. The significance of clear, broad objectives, and the psychology of learn¬ ing and the principles of teaching are made clear to the prospective agent. Extension workers with long experience, and well grounded in the princi¬ ples of education, lead such courses. Extension work is recognized as a real profession. Opportunities for preparation for the work are in¬ creasing. Moreover, many colleges are making it possible for extension agents who have been successful to do graduate work and to fit them¬ selves still better for their life's profession. 6408 - 40 - A JOB ANALYSIS Perhaps no better resume or summary of the work of a county agri¬ cultural agent may be given than the following objective analysis of the duties, responsibilities, and methods of work of the county agents. This pattern outlines for student, supervisor, and county agent the stan¬ dards or criteria of achievement which are a basis for application any¬ where : CRITERIA OF SUCCESSFUL ACHIEVEMENT FOR THE COUNTY AGRICULTURAL AGENT 3/ Represents the State agricultural college and the United States Department of Agriculture in a county and carries on an educational program that results in larger farm incomes and a more satisfying country life. Usually stationed at the county seat and works under the general direc¬ tion of the State director of the cooperative extension work in agri¬ culture and home economics; the immediate supervision of the State leader of county agricultural agents, (or State agent or assistant director) and may cooperate with a local extension organization. Maintains, with other county extension agents, a county extension office as a smoothly functioning unit of the cooperative system prepared to furnish information and trained leadership in helping rural people to meet the various problems of agriculture and country life. Works as a public official and teacher with all individuals and rural organizations in an advisory capacity, fostering and encouraging new movements or organizations where needed, but insisting that groups as well as individuals must themselves perform, manage or carry on the various activities in conducting an enterprise. Makes studies and surveys of the agriculture of the county with the aid of supervisors, extension specialists, and State and Federal agencies, as well as local farmers, business men, and leaders of local rural organizations (including cooperative buying or selling organizations) to determine and agree upon the larger farming, farm economic, and rural community problems of the county. Locates leading farmers and business men and wins their interest in studying the local agricultural situations and the part co¬ operative extension work may play in the improvement of these situations. Obtains good will and friendly cooperation by maintaining a sym¬ pathetic attitude and a keen, whole-hearted interest in local agricultural affairs. Observes the character of the soil, drainage, climatic and topo¬ graphic features, crops, grazing and forest lands, livestock husbandry, transportation, and marketing facilities of each com¬ munity. 3/ Developed in cooperation with The American Council on Education, Wash¬ ington, D. C. 6408 - 41 - Makes a statistical study of acreage, numbers, yields, production of crops and livestock; shifts in agricultural enterprises; trends in near and distant market demands and supplies, in order to identify the changes which have happened in agriculture and the trends in the near future. Uses farm-management and cost-of-production data and assists in making such studies to determine, with the aid of supervisors, specialists, and local farmers and business men, the most profit¬ able systems of farm organization and business management. Surveys local farm practices in each major enterprise and, with the aid of supervisors, specialists, and local farmers, determines the economy, efficiency, and fitness of such practices in meeting local situations. Studies the long-time and yearly outlook information and aids in obtaining supplementary local outlook data to ascertain problems in production or marketing activities indicated by these data. Studies the business management and marketing efficiency of various local cooperatives with the aid of specialists and supervisors, as well as the needs for other cooperatives, to determine the problems of an efficient marketing system. Formulates long-time policies and current extension programs of work based on the problems determined, with the assistance of supervisors, specialists, associate county extension agents, and local farmers, busi¬ ness men, and representatives of the farm organizations. Finds solutions for the problems defined in these programs by working with supervisors. State and Federal extension specialists. State and Federal research agencies, the Federal Farm Board, State departments of agriculture, farmers' cooperatives, market and transportation agencies, and leading local farmers and business men. Formulates such solutions in sets of specific recommended practices phrased as terse directions or injunctions. Develops economical and easily obtainable supplies of the materials or services required in adopting those recommendations, by coun¬ seling with local leaders and business men, specialists and State agencies, farmers' cooperatives, and other business organiza¬ tions. Formulates with the help of supervisors and specialists outlined teaching plans for each major activity in the current program of extension work. Advances the extension program by following the plans of work in such an effective manner that the majority of the farmers or youths affected will learn successfully the new or improved methods, practices, and principles and gain the anticipated satisfaction from their adoption. These plans of work guide the county agricultural agent so that he— 6408 - 42 -