2096 Farm Eureau Circi'lar No. 5 



PART II 



THE FARM BUREAU MOVEMENT IN NIAGARA COUNTY 



Perhaps the best discussion of the purposes and the ideas underlying 

 the farm bureau movement is that given before the Erie County Farm 

 Bureau Association, March 17, 1914, by Dr. L. H. Bailey, former Director 

 of the New York State College of Agriculture.- In part he said: 



" The reason for the introduction of agents into the localities lies in 

 the nature of the situation itself. For many years we have been reorgan- 

 izing our ideas as to the agricultural and rural basis of our civilization. 

 We have devised institutions and agencies of research and of instruction. 

 We are constantly discovering, preaching, teaching, directing. All this 

 body of new fact and all the interesting and stimulating ideas must be 

 applied; and the application must be made directly in the localities to 

 the persons who live on the farms. 



"***** The most effective herald of the new country life is a per- 

 son, a man or a woman, who resides in the community and is a part of 

 it, and whose business it is to apply and to lead. 



" This person cannot solve all the problems or meet all the perplexities, 



and he will not displace the other agencies or interfere with them; but 



he will desire to aid and extend them all as well as to have a sphere of 



his own. 



************ 



" The farm bureau agent cannot remove from any man the responsibility 

 of managing his own farm and raising his own products. Of course, 

 he should be ready to go to any farm on call, so far as he is able, for the 

 purpose of giving particular advice on any subject on which he is well 

 qualified; but his larger relation is to be public rather than private. Only 

 to a very limited extent can he direct persons in their farm practices. 

 He is to represent the community or the region;. he is to stimulate it; 

 he is to point the way; he is to project meetings, policies, methods of work 

 as applicable to the place; he is to bring in experts and specialists when 

 needed; he is to have an ofhce in which the facts pertaining to the agri- 

 culture of the region are assembled and where they will be. available 

 for the use of any person who desires them. There are no such facts 

 at the present time. There are headquarters for city affairs, for political 

 affairs, and for other affairs; but we have had no headquarters for local 

 agricultural affairs. He is to be an organizer of information and of 

 movements. He will become a director of agricultural enterprises within 



his region. 



************ 



" Some persons feel that relations with buying-and.-selling efforts lie 

 outside the function of the farm bureau agent, but I am not prepared 

 to accept this view. I think that the agent should not himself act as 

 buyer or seller in any case; I think he should not be an officer in any 

 commercial organization; he should not handle funds; but I am convinced 

 that he may attempt to discover where such cooperating groups are 



'Farm bureau circular no. 3. New York State College of Agriculture. 



