DEPARTMENT REPORTS. 73 



able method of distributing the costs as the benefits accrue to all 

 classes and occujjations. 



ORGANIZATION. 



There has been considerable progress in organization and this has been 

 largely in the direction outlined in the report of last year. This year 

 greater efforts have been made to secure an organization in every com- 

 munity, with which the agricultural agent can work. A community is a 

 fairly well defined territory and is naturally the social and economic 

 unit for agricultural agent work. The boundaries of the township some- 

 times coincide with the boundaries of the community, but as a rule it 

 has not been found possible to make the township the unit for local or- 

 ganizations. The agricultural community generally has a town or small 

 city as the central meeting place where the people come regularly to sell 

 their farm products and to buy the usual articles consumed; this town 

 or city is the banking center and, to a very large extent, the educational, 

 religious, and. social center. Within a certain radius of this center, 

 therefore, the people are acquainted and have many interests in com- 

 mon. vSuch a center is, consequently, the natural place of assembly and 

 provides the logical setting for organized effort, whether of a community 

 organization as a whole, or of organizations for forwarding specific en- 

 terprises such as potato or bean growers' associations, pedigreed seed 

 associations and the various kinds of live stock organizations. At the 

 community center it is easier to have regular meetings and out of such 

 conferences there is gradually growing a consciously formed agricul- 

 tural program by means of which the problems of the community may be 

 worked out cooperatively and systematically. The form of this organiz- 

 ation varies according to local conditions, but some kind of an organiza- 

 tion is essential in order to secure the largest results. The interest and 

 assistance of a much larger number of people is being secured by a})por- 

 tioning the various phases of the work to committees and by uniting the 

 efforts of tJie different local organizations in the solution of problems 

 common to all the i)eople of the community. 



The county organizations are being greatly strengthened by the growth 

 of the community organizations. There are many agricultural problems 

 which the community has to meet but which are more far reaching than 

 community limits; tlie community organizations, therefore, need to be 

 closely related to a county organization and to the state and national 

 forces interested in the problems of agricultural development. 



Moreover, as stated in our report for April, 1016, such a system is es- 

 sential if the agent is to accomplish wliat devolves upon him. The re- 

 ports of the men show the rapidly growing demands upon their time for 

 assistance in all sections of the counties and for almost every conceiv- 

 able agricultural need. To meet these increasing demands branches of 

 the County Farm Bureaus are being formed in the various communities 

 of the counties as rapidly as possible and the work is being carried on 

 through groups and committees. It is only by this group method that 

 the numerous calls can be answered and that the efforts of the farm 

 agents can be made of largest benefit to the people of the county. More- 

 over, these community organizations affiliated with a county organiza- 

 tion furnish the machinery not only for reaching more people but also 



