STATES RELATIONS SERVICE. 597 



show that it pays to use lime, it is found that there is a very great 

 increase in the amount of lime used locally. Records are available 

 that show an annual consumption of over 4,000 tons of lime in a 

 county where previously only 150 tons had been used. This came 

 as a result of encouraging the crushing of lime rock found on the 

 farms with portable lime crushers. The great development of spray 

 rings and spray services is another illustration of ways and means 

 that may be found to get people to adopt a practice. 



Such considerations have created greater interest in and directed 

 more attention to the study of extension work as a teaching job, 

 with special reference to finding out not only the conditions which 

 may naturally prevent the people from adopting practices, but also 

 those elements or principles of pedagogy and psychology which 

 should be applied in order to bring about widespread interest on 

 the part of the local people and impel them to accept and adopt the 

 better practices. With this has come an appreciation on the part of 

 extension agents of the fact that there are great differences in people, 

 as to their ability to adopt practices, and that the teaching effort 

 needs to be defined in terms of these differing degrees of ability. 

 As a result extension agents are studying the question of breaking 

 up problems into single phases and giving increasing attention to 

 developing the teaching of better practices in terms of single simple 

 practices. For example, instead of attempting to teach at one time 

 all the large principles of orchard management, herd improvement, 

 crop rotation, soil management, poultry management, and the like, 

 the extension agent is giving more attention to teaching and dem- 

 onstrating single practices as steps in the gradual improvement of 

 an activity or industry. The thinning of fruit, the securing of a 

 purebred sire, the use of lime, the feeding of mash, all may be cited 

 as examples. 



With the recognition of the need for teaching by single practices 

 has come also a greater use of project leaders or key demonstrators as 

 extension teachers. This is natural, and with concentration on teach- 

 ing by single practices the duties and responsibilities of project 

 leaders have become more important and the accomplishments greater 

 in number. The very great progress that has been made by training 

 project leaders in terms of single practices in the field of liome dem- 

 onstration work has directed the attention of specialists and county 

 agents toward adopting the same method in working out agricul- 

 tural problems. It is being found that the usefulness of project 

 leaders as teachers is most closely connected with the degree to which 

 specialists and county agents have been able to analyze the problem 

 and break this up into simple phases and teach in terms of single 

 practices. Project leaders can be trained in terms of single practices 

 who could not be trained in terms of principles and are then able 

 to teach others in terms of single practices. 



This very logically affects the entire effort of extension agents and 

 committeemen in advancing the extension program. There has been 

 an increase in the number of demonstrations reported by county ex- 

 tension agents during the year, not only because the agents realize 

 more and more the part demonstrations may play in teaching the 

 value of recommended practices, but because more simple demonstra- 

 tions have been designed. It is quite obvious that simple demonstra- 



