STATES RELATIONS SERVICE. 439 



The staff on the pay roll of the office at the rate of $1 or more per 

 year on June 30, 1922, was as follows : 



County-agent work (men) 2,433 



Home-demonstration work (women) 975 



Boys' and girls' club work (men and women) 328 



Total 3, 736 



as coiii])ared with a total of 8,707 on June 30, 1921. 



In addition to the above, the land-grant colleges, with which the 

 office is cooperating, were employing approximately 750 subject- 

 matter extension specialists. 



During the year considerable concern was expressed by various 

 business interests relative to the part county agricultural agents were 

 taking in aiding farmers in their marketing problems, holding that 

 the primary function of such airents under the Federal cooperative 

 agricultural extension act of 1914 was to aid farmers in matters of 

 production rather than marketing. The Secretary of Agriculture 

 held, however, that the carrying on of extension work in marketing 

 by county agents is an entirely proper extension activity, and that it 

 is as much the business of such agents to aid farmers in an educa- 

 tional way in their marketing problems as it is to counsel with them 

 on matters of production. This point of view has been generally 

 accepted by administrative officials in charge of cooperative extension 

 work in all of the States, with the understanding, however, that the 

 agent shall not himself buy or sell for the farmer or any farmers' 

 association, but rather shall teach farmers the principles and methods 

 of marketing, cooperatively or otherwise. 



During the year the fact has also l^een impressed upon the public 

 consciousness that the county agricultural agent is essentially a pub- 

 lic official and therefore may engage with propriety only in business 

 of a public nature, being administratively responsible to the land- 

 grant college of the State concerned, regardless of the sources of 

 funds which enter into his employment. 



Notwithstanding the depressed condition of agriculture at the 

 beginning of the year, the number of those engaged in county-agent 

 work was increased by more than 50. There still remain, however, 

 around 300 agricultural counties without county agents. 



Extension work to meet the needs of the farm home was consid- 

 erably increased during the year, though the number of those en- 

 gaged in home-demonstration work was increased by only about 

 40. Especial effort has been made in many of the States to en- 

 courage the county agricultural agents in counties where no home- 

 demonstration agent was employed to give attention to the prob- 

 leuis of the rural home as well as general farm problems. The 

 county agents have thus rendered special assistance in placing water, 

 heating, and lighting systems in rural homes, the development of 

 home gardens, and the encouragement of the women to organize 

 in order that they might receive the help of extension specialists 

 from the land-grant colleges in nutrition, clothing, household man- 

 agement, and like matters. In the sections of the country where 

 home-demonstration work is relative^ new there is increasing evi- 

 dence that as farm women become acquainted with its purposes, 



25684— AGR 1923 29 



