STATES RELATIONS SERVICE. 339 



boys' and girls' club work; and ^5pecial demonstrations conducted 

 with the assistance of specialists, and other features of the work, 

 and makes such plan of work a basis for recording progress during 

 the year. Boys'-club work is an important feature of each county 

 agent's activity. Demonstrations by specialists are planned and out- 

 lined at the college and placed in the hands of the county agents, 

 who, with the assistance of the specialists, take up such special 

 demonstrations as a part of their regular plan of work. 



There were employed in the 15 Southern States during the year 

 8(30 regular county agents, 28 assistant county agents, 513 women 

 agents, 31 boj^s'-club agents, and 66 colored men agents, and 7 col- 

 ored women agents for work among colored people. Each State has 

 also a director of extension and a State agent or assistant director in 

 charge of the work of the county agents. There are 646 women 

 engaged in the home-demonstration work. Of these, 13 are State 

 agents in charge of the work in their respective States, 48 are assist- 

 ants and district agents, and 572 county women agents, and 13 

 colored home-demonstration agents. 



Resitlts. — In the season of 1916-17 approximately 120,000 adult 

 farmers conducted demonstrations in one or more lines of farm work 

 at the suggestion and under the supervision of county agents. Prob- 

 ably ten times that many farmers were directly influenced to practice 

 better methods of agi'iculture as a result of these demonstrations. 

 At the field meetings or schools held in a demonstration field it is the 

 practice to invite the neighboring farmers to take part in the discus- 

 sions, and thus to extend the agents' influence. 



During the season of 1916 demonstrations were conducted as fol- 

 lows: Corn, 543,889 acres; cotton, 333,615 acres; tobacco, 3,588 acres; 

 small grains, such as wheat, rye, oats, barley, etc., 282,074 acres; 

 various hay, forage, and cover crops, 271,269 acres; summer legumes 

 planted for hay, seed, soil improvement, and other purposes, 474,479 

 acres; potatoes, 15,193 acres; and old pastures renovated, 149,239 

 acres. 



The extent and variety of advice and assistance the county agent is 

 called upon to give is indicated by the following data taken from the 

 county agents' reports : Through the influence of county agents farm- 

 ers were induced to remove stumps from 179,382 acres to better pre- 

 pare the land for the use of improved implements; 218,989 acres 

 were drained by tile and ditch and 463,856 acres were terraced ; home 

 gardens were established or improved on 26,754 farms ; the number 

 of pieces of improved farm machinery and implements purchased 

 through the influence of county agents was 81,389; and orchard work 

 of many kinds was done, including spraying, pruning, and other 

 necessary treatment, the demonstrations in this work involving 

 544,658 trees. 



Considerable attention was given to promoting live-stock produc- 

 tion, 4,367 new silos having been constructed to aid in this work and 

 2,829 dipping vats erected for the control of live-stock pests. There 

 were 45,154 farmers instructed concerning the proper care of farm 

 manure, with an estimated saving during the season of approximately 

 10,000,000 tons. It being found necessary to supplement the use of 

 farm manures and green crops for soil-improvement purposes with 

 commercial fertilizers, 127,131 farmers were instructed in the mixing 



