298 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



| OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR, 



The Service, in which has been brought together the administra- 

 tive and advisory work of the Department in its relations with the 

 State agricultural colleges and experiment stations has already 

 demonstrated its usefulness in strengthening and coordinating those 

 relationships. Naturally the chief attention has thus far been given 

 to the organization ancT administration of the cooperative extension 

 work, since this was a comparatively new line of work in which the 

 methods of operation of the State institutions and the different 

 branches of the department had in many respects not been fully 

 developed or standardized. The proper content and scope of exten- 

 sion work in agriculture and home economics under Federal and 

 State legislation had not been denned or even considered in any 

 thorough way. Many questions of public policy, meaning of various 

 words and phrases in the laws, methods of cooperation with depart- 

 ment bureaus, State colleges, and other institutions, county govern- 

 ments and organizations, private organizations, and individuals, etc., 

 have had to be considered and passed on. The far-reaching charac- 

 ter of the agricultural extension movement had not been clearly ap- 

 parent even to those who had been most intimately associated with 

 it and even now there are a multitude of matters connected with it 

 regarding which we are still feeling our way. Apparently much 

 progress has been made in settling the general lines of work and in 

 shaping the methods of cooperation. The public system of cooper- 

 ative agricultural extension work is now operating in all the States. 

 Headquarters and agents for the work have been located in over 

 1,200 counties. Federal, State, county, and local agencies are ac- 

 tively cooperating with a large measure of harmony and effective- 

 ness, and on a broader scale than ever before. Many organizations 

 and individuals have contributed to this result. 



Those branches of the Service which have dealt with the experi- 

 ment stations, the" agricultural schools and farmers' institutes, and 

 the investigations in home economics have continued to work in much 

 the same ways as heretofore and with comparatively few changes in 

 personnel. 



Tim organization of a new Service with large forces and funds 

 has necessarily caused a relatively great elaboration of the general 

 administrative office. Attention is therefore briefly called to the 

 present functions of the different branches of the Director's office 

 as they have been developed during the past year. 



To aid the Director in the examination of project and budget 

 statements and financial reports, the preparation of correspondence 

 and reports for the Director's or Secretary's signature, the coordina- 

 tion of the work of different branches of the Service, and to keep 

 such record of projects, budgets, reports, rulings, conferences, and 

 other administrative matters as are required in the Director's office, 

 an administrative assistant has been employed. 



The organization of the Service, with a force now aggregating 

 about 2,300 employees as compared with about 250 in the former 

 Office of Experiment Stations, has necessitated a large measure of 

 reorganization and enlargement in the offices of the chief clerk and 

 the chief accountant. The changing character and great increase of 



