594 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 

 OFFICE OF COOPERATIVE EXTENSION WORK. 

 C. B. Smith, Chief. 



The office of cooperative extension work has maintained its or- 

 ganization as outlined in the report for 1922, consisting of (1) a 

 division of programs, (2) a division of methods, and (3) an adminis- 

 trative division. It is still too early to determine the full merits of 

 the revised plan of office organization. It is probable, however, 

 that both the Washington staif and the staff in the States are think- 

 ing more directly of extension tasks to be undertaken and with less 

 concern as to the particular agency involved for their accomplish- 

 ment than has been the case heretofore. It is very certain that on 

 the whole men agents are giving considerably more attention to home 

 problems than heretofore, and that both men and women agents 

 are giving increased support to the teaching of better practices in 

 agriculture and home economics through juniors as a result of the 

 new plan. 



In the Western States there has been a tendency toward centraliza- 

 tion of administrative responsibility for the extension program in a 

 county in a single head designated by the extension director. This 

 tendency is growing in the Corn Belt States, but to no apparent 

 extent in the South or in the East. Throughout the whole country 

 there has come fuller recognition of the public character of the 

 county extension agents and of their direct responsibility to the 

 extension directors of the land-grant colleges. Farmers and their 

 wives, however, are being increasingly taken into full partnership 

 with the extension agents in determining the extension program 

 for both the farm and the home, and are functioning in an even 

 larger way in accepting responsibility for carrying out the agreed- 

 upon program. 



Probably the most marked development in extension work during 

 1922-23 was the emphasis the extension service gave to the develop- 

 ment of a sound farm and home extension program. In some cases 

 this has taken the form of councils or committees composed of persons 

 at the college and representative farmers and home makers who have 

 gone over the information available and made recommendations upon 

 which the extension program was to be based. In other cases the ex- 

 tension director has delegated one or more persons to bring together 

 the basic facts and material upon which sound extension programs 

 may be based. 



It also appears that the extension workers have given a great deal of 

 thought not only to their methods but also to their efficiency as exten- 

 sion workers. The State leaders have analj^zed not only the content 

 of the county extension programs, but have studied the activities 

 of the agents to determine how many people came in contact with 

 their ideas, and with their field and other activities, and are thereby 

 influenced to change their practices. 



The funds employed in support of extension work carried on by 

 the office of cooperative extension work in cooperation with the States 

 during 1922-23 for all purposes totaled as follows : 



