REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE. 43 



purely incidental; but as extension activities have grown a more 

 definite share of the time of specialists has been devoted to the work. 

 More recently in some institutions certain officers have been assigned 

 wholly to this service. These officers are expected to supplement 

 the field work of the county agents, to furnish them advice and 

 assistance, to give short practical courses of instruction, to con- 

 duct demonstrations along special lines, to prepare publications, to 

 address meetings of farmers, and to answer inquiries. In general, 

 it is their duty to gather up the available information in their several 

 specialties, and particularly that of the State experiment stations, 

 to put it into effective form, and to furnish it to farmers directly or 

 through the county agents. 



Specialists also are sent out by the department to work with the 

 extension agents. Among these, for example, are specialists in 

 dairying, animal husbandry, the use of hog-cholera serum, tick eradi- 

 cation, marketing of agricultural products, farm management, and 

 the home canning of vegetables and fruits. 



Funds for extension work. — For the current fiscal year the depart- 

 ment funds available for this purpose aggregate $1,200,000. Under 

 the extension act $1,080,000 is allotted to the States. The total 

 Federal contribution thus amounts to $2,280,000. This is met by 

 approximately $2,653,000 from the States. The latter includes 

 $600,000 to offset the equivalent allotment of extension-act funds, 

 $499,000 from additional State appropriations, $333,000 from college 

 funds, $944,000 from counties, and $277,000 from local organizations 

 and miscellaneous agencies. The total from both Federal and State 

 sources is, in round numbers, $4,933,000. Of this sum about one- 

 half will be expended in the demonstration and other activities of 

 the county agents. Much of the work done by these agents bears 

 directly on farm-home problems, but $550,000 has been allotted for 

 distinctive instruction in home economics. Nearly $300,000 has 

 been allotted specifically for activities among boys and girls, and 

 yet this sum does not represent the total which will be used in exten- 

 sion work among young people. Approximately $1,000,000 will be 

 devoted to the tasks of the specialists. 



This general review of the national cooperative extension system 

 shows that under the stimulus of the Federal act forces previously 

 in operation have been strengthened and that altogether the move- 

 ment for the practical education of the rural people has been broad- 

 ened. 



