104 EXPERIMENT STATION EECOED. 



take part in the selection and appointment of the agent, and stand 

 behind him in his efforts to advance the agricultural interests of the 

 county. Many of these organizations include business and pro- 

 fessional men, as well as farmers, and their complex organization 

 has given rise to special problems. It is, however, now very apparent 

 that while the cordial sympathy and support of all classes of our 

 people in the movement for the improvement of agricultural con- 

 ditions is very much to be desired, the farming people themselves 

 should control and in the end determine the character and work of 

 the organizations on which the extension system must depend for 

 its local support. 



Another t3^pe of local organization being tested in various places 

 is the small community club. Where a considerable number of these 

 clubs exist in a county they are often confederated to form some 

 kind of a county organization. The exact relations of organizations 

 of either type to the extension system, the breadth and variety of 

 their functions relating to extension work or other enterprises, and 

 the most effective forms for their organization are as yet largely 

 undetermined and they must still be considered as in the experi- 

 mental stage. 



Another important line of extension work which has been de- 

 veloped in a large way by the Department and the agricultural col- 

 leges prior to the passage of the Smith-Lever Act and which has 

 been carried over into their new extension organizations is the boys' 

 and girls' club work. In the Southern States this enterprise is 

 organically associated with the county agent work, but in the other 

 States has a more separate organization. Through the club work 

 the extension agencies are brought into close touch with the State 

 and local officers and teachers, who largely cooperate in the forma- 

 tion and management of the clubs. This has raised many interesting 

 questions regarding the relations which the club work might or should 

 sustain with the regular school instruction in agriculture and home 

 economics. For example, is it practicable and desirable to consider 

 the club work as in the nature of a home project for the pupils and 

 to give school credit for this work? Undoubtedly such questions 

 w^ill require much consideration by the extension officers in the 

 future. 



For many years the agricultural colleges have done a large amount 

 of extension work through the members of their faculties and experi- 

 ment station staffs. At first this was purely incidental to their regu- 

 lar duties, but as the demand for extension Avork has grown a some- 

 Avhat definite and, in many cases, a large share of the time of 

 specialists in various branches of agriculture and home economics 

 has been devoted to this work. More recentlv in some institutions 



