REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE. 13 



esses is through the direct touch of well-trained men and women. 

 With additional funds made available through the regular agricul- 

 tural extension act, and especially through the emergency food- 

 production measure, the Department, in cooperation with the State 

 colleges, quickly took steps to expand the extension forces with a 

 view to place in each rural county one or more agents. When this 

 Nation entered the war in April, 1917, there was a total of 2,149 men 

 and women employed in county, home demonstration, and boys' and 

 girls' club work, distributed as follows: County agent work, 1,461; 

 home demonstration work, 545; boys' and girls' club work, 143, In 

 November of this year the number had increased to 5,218, of which 

 1,513 belong to the regular staff and 3,705 to the emergency force. 

 There were 2,732 in the county agent service, 1,724 in the home dem- 

 onstration work, and 762 in the boys' and girls' club activities. This 

 does not include the large number of specialists assigned by the 

 Department and the colleges to aid the extension workers in the field 

 and to supplement their efforts. 



It would be almost easier to tell what these men and women did not 

 do than to indicate the variety and extent of their operations. They 

 have actively labored not only to further the plans for increased 

 economical production along all lines and carried to the rural popula- 

 tion the latest and best information bearing on agriculture, but also 

 to secure the conservation of foods and feeds on the farm; and, in 

 addition, many of them have aided in the task of promoting the bet- 

 ter utilization of food products in the cities. They constitute the 

 only Federal machinery in intimate touch with the millions of 

 people in the farming districts. They have, therefore, been able to 

 render great service to other branches of the Government, such as the 

 Treasury in its Liberty Loan campaigns, the Red Cross, the Young 

 Men's Christian Association, and other organizations in their war 

 activities, and the Food Administration in its special tasks. 



WORK OP THE DEPARTMENT. 



It would require a volume even to outline all the things which the 

 Department of Agriculture has done. It stimulated production, 

 increasingly controlled plant and animal diseases, reducing losses 

 from the cattle tick, hog cholera, tuberculosis, predatory animals, 

 and crop pests, and, in conjunction with the Department of Labor, 

 rendered assistance to the farmers in securing labor. It safeguarded 



