STATES RELATIONS SERVICE. 367 



Organization. — The organization of county and city units was car- 

 ried on in the majority of States simultaneously with that of the con- 

 servation of food, and the placing of a home-demonstration agent on 

 the farm-bureau staff on a coordinate basis with the county agricul- 

 tural agent and club leader has marked an advance in home economics 

 extension work, 



ResuLiTS. — Among the outstanding results obtained from the pro- 

 duction and conservation activities may be mentioned the increased 

 number and quality of home gardens; the increased number of home 

 poultry flocks; the establishment of community drying and canning 

 kitchens; a vast quantity of food preserved by canning, drying, and 

 storing ; a stimulation of the demand and use for milk and milk prod- 

 ucts. The home-demonstration agents have taken an important part 

 in the special food campaigns of the past year, such as stimulation of 

 the consumption of potatoes, cottage cheese, and home-grown, 

 products. 



An unforeseen by-product of home-demonstration activities has been 

 the Americanization work carried on by agents in sections populated 

 by people of foreign birth or extraction. In many instances it was the 

 home-demonstration agent in her food-conservation work who gave 

 the foreign women the first understanding of the war and their duty 

 as American citizens. 



EXTENSION SPECIALISTS. 



The work of specialists employed by the State agricultural col- 

 leges was supplemented during the year by that of specialists rep- 

 resenting various bureaus of the department, cooperating with the 

 Office of Extension Work North and West. The department special- 

 ists assisted in placing in the States cooperative instructors of exten- 

 sion and demonstrators on both regular and emergency funds. They 

 extended their study of extetision methods now practiced in the States 

 and were in a way the means of transmitting the best methods from 

 State to State. In some instances a closer correlation of the subject 

 matter plans for extension work within a State was brought to the 

 attention of extension workers. 



These specialists carry to the States the results of the research 

 work of the various bureaus of the Department of Agriculture, and 

 through the State extension specialists the information is conveyed 

 to county agents and to other local extension representatives, and 

 thus made known to people on the farm and in the home. A further 

 value in the work of the specialists through their intimate contact 

 with the work in the field is found in the fact that they learn of the 

 problems of the farmers, and are thus able to bring to the research 

 bureaus of the department information of value in planning the work. 



The following bureaus, offices, and divisions cooperated very 

 closely with both regular and emergency funds : 



The Forest Service stimulated a wood-fuel campaign as a means 

 of increasing the supply of fuel wood, and to provide an oppor- 

 tunity for the application of approved forestry principles in select- 

 ing trees for cutting, and in selecting gunstock and airplane timber 

 for the War Department. 



The Bureau of Animal Industry through its specialists, entered 

 actively into a campaign during October and November for increased 



