702 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



in spreading new knowledge among the rural people were received 

 with much enthusiasm. 



In these conferences, as well as in the general sessions of the con- 

 gress, much attention was given to the great work of the farmers' 

 cooperative demonstration system, inaugurated by the late Dr. 

 Seaman A. Knapp and continued under the supervision of his son, 

 Mr. Bradford Knapp. The latter presented at one of the conferences 

 a carefully prepared paper in which the educational purpose of the 

 w^ork was clearly set forth, as well as the system of state and local 

 agents and the methods of organizing and conducting the work 

 among the farmers. The plans for carrying on this work in cooper- 

 ation with state agencies were described by Mr. Knapp somewhat 

 as follows : 



There are now cooperative arrangements in force in every South- 

 ern State except two. Some of these are not as complete as desired, 

 and not all have taken the form regarded as the very best, but every 

 effort is being made to meet conditions as they are found. 



In the State of Alabama the state legislature a year ago appro- 

 priated the sum of $25,000 annually, and created a State Board of 

 Agriculture, consisting of the commissioner of agriculture as ex- 

 ofRcio chairman, the director of the state experiment station and 

 the head of the school of agriculture in the Polytechnic Institute; 

 and the Farmers' Cooperative Demonstration Work in Alabama is 

 conducted in cooperation with this board. 



In Arkansas a different form of cooperation is in existence. There 

 the state legislature permits each county to appropriate money to 

 assist the Federal Department in carrying on the demonstration work, 

 and practically every county in the State has appropriated at least 

 half the salary of the agents, the total sum thus subscribed being 

 $40,000. This works very satisfactorily, and the relations with the 

 agricultural college of the State are of such close and friendly char- 

 acter as to prove mutually advantageous. 



But neither of these conditions approaches, in the final analysis, 

 the system recently introduced in South Carolina, which is re- 

 garded as an important and significant step in advance. There the 

 agi'icultural college and the Federal Department are directly coop- 

 erating in conducting the demonstration work in the State. A 

 state agent has been appointed jointly by the two cooperating agen- 

 cies, and district and local agents are appointed by a mutual under- 

 standing. One agent is located in each county, and the State is 

 divided into three districts for the purpose of supervision under 

 district agents. Each of these agents is not only the agent of the 

 Farmers' Cooperative Demonstration Work, but is also the agent of 

 Clemson College, Furthermore, the state agent is a member of the 

 faculty of Clemson College, and as such is the head of the extension 



