324 ANNUAL EEPOETS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



and advisory relations regarding the expenditure of $3,020,000 of 

 Federal funds ($1,440,000 for agricultural experiment stations and 

 $1,580,000 for cooperative extension work) and $1,100,000 of State 

 funds used as an offset for Federal funds under the extension act of 

 May 8, 1914. In addition, the agricultural colleges and stations used 

 in experimental and extension enterprises over $6,250,000 derived 

 from sources within the States. 



On June 30, 1917, the force carried on the rolls of the States Re- 

 lations Service aggregated about 2,500 employees. The State agri- 

 cultural experiment stations employed about 1,900 persons, of whom 

 about 600 did some extension work. The total number of persons 

 employed in cooperative extension work in agriculture and home 

 economics was about 3,500, of whom about 2,300 were carried on the 

 rolls of the States Relations Service. 



During the last year the work of the service and the cooperating 

 colleges, experiment stations, and other organizations was materially 

 increased and modified by conditions growing out of the European 

 war. The reduced yield of important staple crops in the United 

 States in 1916 due to adverse climatic and other conditions, com- 

 bined with the greatly increased need of European peoples for these 

 products, made it necessary for the department and the State agri- 

 cultural institutions to modify and intensify their plans and activi- 

 ties relating to the agriculture of this country in 1917. This neces- 

 sity was vastly augmented when the United States entered the war, 

 and it became essential to organize its agricultural forces on a war 

 basis and to instruct the people in both city and country how best 

 to utilize and conserve a limited food supply. To a remarkable ex- 

 tent the people throughout the country turned to the Department 

 of Agriculture and the State agricultural colleges for advice and 

 assistance in these matters. There was widespread recognition of 

 the fact that in the cooperative extension system, with its combina- 

 tion of Federal and State administrative officers and subject-matter 

 specialists, with county agents, farm bureaus, and other local or- 

 ganizations, a very effective means was provided for nation-wide 

 dissemination of the needed facts, as well as practical demonstrations 

 of the measures required to increase agricultural production along 

 the best lines and to secure the most economical utilization of the 

 products of the farms in the homes of the people. Congress re- 

 sponded to the widespread demand for the immediate expansion of 

 the cooperative extension forces by taking up legislation to this end, 

 but pending its discussion and passage the department and the 

 States speeded up their work along these lines with such forces and 

 funds as they were able to obtain and utilize. Thus the work of 

 these agencies was profoundly affected and increased before the end 

 of the fiscal year and the foundation laid for a much greater service 

 now that larger resources have been put at their command. Much 

 of the increased acreage and yield of im,portant staple crops, the 

 multitude of home gardens, the canning or otherwise preserving of 

 perishable products, the modification of southern agricultural prac- 

 tice by increasing the production of foodstuffs without injury to cot- 

 ton growing has l3een due to the efforts of these agricultural agencies 

 prior to the end of the last fiscal year. 



