STATES RELATIONS SEEVICE. 355 



the Bureau of Animal Industry and the Bureau of Markets, the 

 county agents in Texas cooperating with county agents in Louisiana, 

 Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Florida, 

 assisted in directing farmers in regions of heavy crop production 

 to obtain cattle from the drought-stricken regions of Texas, resulting 

 in the transportation of about 300,000 head under this arrangement. 



The drought. — The drought of 1918 has been much more severe 

 than that of 1917 and has affected not onlj- Texas and Oklahoma, 

 but has extended into Louisiana. Arkansas, Mississippi, parts of 

 Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky. The entire crop-production 

 program of the Southern States has been disturbed, except in some 

 of the extreme Eastern States. 



Finally, the county agent has not only been a leader in outlining 

 and promoting the agricultural program for his county to meet the 

 war needs, but has also assisted in all patriotic movements; in the 

 sale of liberty bonds and war savings stamps, the Red Cross cam- 

 paign, and similar war activities among the farmers of the country. 



HOME DEMONSTRATION AND GIRLS' CLUB WORK. 



It should be understood that in the South the girls' club work is 

 handled by the home-demonstration agents, while the boys' club 

 work is handled by the men county agents. In 1917-18 season there 

 were 1,232 women agents in the 15 Southern States, of which 849 

 were employed on emergency funds. Many of these were not put 

 on until the spring of 1918, and hence the full effect of the work can 

 not be outlined. The report for 1917-18 is based on reports from 715 

 counties. 



A slightly different plan of work was inaugurated in 1917 under 

 war conditions, both in the women's work and in the girls' club work. 

 The regular work of enrolling and training women and girls in 

 groups by having them conduct demonstrations was continued as a 

 regular activity, but at the same time every effort was made to enlist 

 a large emergency enrollment. For example, the regular enrollment 

 of women in 1917 was 82,227 in 3,812 different clubs. The emergency 

 enrollment, receiving instructions through the county home-demon- 

 stration agents, and the local volunteer leaders, selected mainly 

 from the regular enrollment, reached 1,470,408. In the work for 

 girls the regular enrollment was 73,306, while the emergency enroll- 

 ment of girls receiving instructions from county home-demonstration 

 agents was 980,272, making a grand total of women and girls en- 

 rolled 2,606,213. Federation of women's clubs, civic and church 

 organizations of women, and many women's organized war activities 

 assisted in obtaining this large enrollment. The whole plan was an 

 organized effort to reach the largest possible number of women with 

 definite instruction on food production, such as gardening, poultry 

 raising, etc., food conservation, such as canning, drying, brining, and 

 preservation of fruits, vegetables, and meats; the manufacture of 

 dairy products, such as butter making, cheese making, etc., and the 

 use of foods made necessary as substitutes under war conditions, 

 such as the wheat-saving, fat-saving, and sugar-saving work. Under 

 the influence of this work in its assistance to the Food Administra- 

 tion, many sections of the South voluntarily gave up the use of wheat 



