SOCIAL PHASE OF AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 361 



lieve the farm problem to be much more than a question of technique. 

 They want light on the whole problem. 



The college, chiefly through its socialized extension department, has 

 a mission also to those professional people whose sphere of work is in 

 the rural community. The rural educator, the country clergyman, the 

 editor of the country paper, and even the lawyer and physician who 

 deal with country people, should have a large share in helping to solve 

 the farm problem. They, too, need to know what the rural problem is. 

 They, too, need the eye that sees the necessary conditions of rural 

 betterment and the heart that desires to help in rural progress. By 

 some of the same methods that reach the farmers themselves can the 

 college instruct and inspire these others. 



And, finally, the college will take its place as the ' social organ or 

 agency of first importance in helping to solve the farm problem in all 

 its phases.' The church, the school, the farmers' organization — all 

 these social organs have their work to do. None can do the work of 

 the others. But they should work together. Each should appreciate 

 its own mission and its own limitations; each should recognize the 

 function of the others, and all should intelligently unite their forces 

 in a grand campaign for rural betterment. More properly than per- 

 haps any other agency the socialized extension department of the agri- 

 cultural college can act as mediator and unifier, serve as the clearing- 

 house and directing spirit in a genuine federation of rural social forces. 

 Inspired by the conscious purpose of the college to help at all points 

 in the solution of the farm question, informed by the knowledge ac- 

 quired through research into the economic and social problems of agri- 

 culture, aided by a multitude of educated farmers trained in the colleges 

 to know the rural problem and to lend a hand in its settlement, digni- 

 fied by its status as a coordinate branch of the college activities, the 

 extension department may well act as the chief agency of stimulation 

 and unification in the social movements for rural advancement. 



In this discussion the practical details of carrying out the program 

 advocated have not been touched upon. When once it becomes a dis- 

 tinct policy of the college to assume leadership in the movement for 

 rural betterment, such questions as subject-matter for study, text -books, 

 qualified instructors and time in the curriculum will settle themselves. 

 Neither has any attempt been made to give illustrations ; and, therefore, 

 this paper may seem dogmatic if not academic, a prophecy rather than 

 an outline of progress, the statement of an idea rather than a practi- 

 cable program. But I think there is abundant evidence that a current 

 is setting in toward the enlargement of the work of the agricultural 

 college, along the social lines indicated. The rapid development of 

 farmers' institutes, the growth of other phases of extension teaching, 

 the sentiment of those in authority that the experiment station must 



