EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. XXXIII. August, 1915. No. 2. 



A year has passed since the cooperative agricultural extension act 

 of May 8, 1914, commonly knoAvn as the Smith-Lever Extension 

 Act, went into effect. In that period much has been accomplished in 

 creating or j^erfecting the administrative machinery for carrying on 

 the extension work in agriculture and home economics in the De- 

 partment and the several States. The general lines along which these 

 extensive enterprises will be conducted have also been quite well 

 determined. 



All the States have assented to the provisions of the Act either 

 through their governors or their legislatures and the action of the 

 governors has been ratified by all the legislatures which have been 

 in regular session during the year, A single agricultural college in 

 each State has been designated as the beneficiary of this Act, thus 

 providing for a unified administration of the Act within the State. 

 In several States where the college designated is not coeducational, a 

 cooperative arrangement for the work in home economics has been 

 made with the State college for women, and similarly in a few States 

 having separate land-grant colleges for negroes a cooperative ar- 

 rangement has been made for extension work among people of that 

 race. 



In all the States the colleges having charge of the work under 

 the Smith-Lever Act have created extension divisions or services and 

 have brought under these divisions all their extension work in 

 agriculture and home economics whether carried on with Smith- 

 Lever or other funds. In some States these divisions are not yet as 

 clear-cut as is desirable, and in some cases old state laws or general 

 administrative regulations of the institutions adopted years ago have 

 thus far continued a confusing union of the extension organization 

 with that of the experiment station. In thirty-two States a separate 

 officer is in charge of the extension work usually under the title of 

 director, in thirteen States the extension director is also director of 

 the experiment station or dean of the college of agriculture, and in 

 three States there is still an acting director. In almost every State 

 the extension work has already become such a large and varied 

 enterprise that a separate officer in active charge of its operations 



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