402 EXPERIMENT STATION EECORD. 



Although several kinds of extension work have been carried on for 

 some time, the movement to organize it and give it more definite 

 form as a department of the college is quite new. It is still in the 

 formative stage, and the details of organization are yet to be worked 

 out. The same is true of the scope to be given it, and its relations to 

 certain phases of work which the agricultural colleges and the experi- 

 ment stations are now doing, and to such agencies as the farmers' 

 institutes. 



But there is a widespread demand for more direct contact with the 

 rural population, and a well-defined belief that in the form of exten- 

 sion work this will be the next significant development in the educa- 

 tion of the American farmer. No one familiar with the conditions of 

 agriculture in various parts of the country will question the great field 

 of usefulness open to such a department. Soils are suffering and 

 being depleted by lack of proper treatment to conserve their fertility, 

 wasteful methods are pursued in handling irrigation waters and 

 various by-jiroducts of the farm, weeds, insects, and plant diseases 

 are allowed to devastate fields, poor s6ed and inefficient cultivation 

 to greatly reduce quality and yield, and improper selection of cows 

 and other stock to cut doAvn the profit almost or quite to the point of 

 loss. Economists and such men as James J. Hill are crying out 

 against our improvident and reckless agriculture. 



The exi^eriment stations have in large measure worked out the 

 remedies for these conditions, and pointed the way to more intelligent 

 and remunerative practice; they have demonstrated these things 

 to the farmers, and have spread the new^s broadcast through the i^opu- 

 lar bulletin, the agricultural press, the farmers' institute, and the 

 railroad special. The good they have accomplished in this Avay is 

 the strongest argument for a wider organization of extension work, 

 for it demonstrates that the farmers can be reached and that a large 

 proportion of them can be led to put the teachings of agricultural 

 science into practice. 



But the abilities of the stations in this line are limited by the other 

 demands upon them. In entering upon such work they are stepping 

 out of their field as investigators and delaying develojjment along 

 the lines with which they are especially charged. More and more 

 it is becoming apparent that investigation and extension work in 

 agriculture do not belong together, although mutually dependent and 

 closely associated. The demands upon each are fast assuming such 

 proportions that a separate force is becoming necessary to carry on 

 the more important features of the work. There will be some over- 

 lapping for a time, as there will be with the regular educational work 

 of the college, but the interests of all phases of the work are fast call- 

 ing for greater differentiation. 



The extension department seems the next logical step in the devel- 



