EDITOEIAL. 105 



certain officers have been set apart wholly for this service. With 

 the coming of larger funds for extension Avork under the Smith- 

 Lever Act, much attention is being given to the enlarging and 

 strengthening of the force of extension specialists in practically all 

 the States. 



These officers are expected to supplement the work of the county 

 agents by giving them advice and assistance in connection with 

 special problems which arise in the counties, to carry on short prac- 

 tical courses of instruction, often called movable schools, in various 

 parts of the State, to conduct demonstrations along special lines, to 

 prepare extension publications, to address meetings of farmers, to 

 answer the inquiries of county agents or farmers on a great variety 

 of subjects, etc. In general, they are to gather up the available 

 knowledge in their several specialties, and especially the knowledge 

 obtained by the state experiment stations which bears directly on 

 the farmers' problems within the State, to put this knowledge in 

 effective form for delivery to the farming people, and to carry it to 

 them directly or through the county agents by word of mouth, 

 demonstrations, or publications. 



The organization of such a force on a large scale is giving the 

 administrative officers of the colleges much trouble and perplexity. 

 The determination of the status of the extension specialists as mem- 

 bers of the college faculties and their relations to the teaching force 

 and the station staffs is by no means an easy or simple matter. The 

 question as to how far the extension specialists should devote all 

 their time to extension work or should combine such work with 

 teaching or research is a very complicated one. Obviously there is 

 great danger that persons employed on the extension staff will waste 

 much time and energ\^ in traveling about on indefinite errands, will 

 do too much offhand talking or writing, will be content to be super- 

 ficial students of their subjects, will not give sufficient attention to 

 the planning and conducting of worth-while demonstrations, will 

 make their teaching too theoretical or sensational, etc. 



The standardization of the work of extension specialists has 

 hardly begun. The colleges are practically compelled to increase 

 their numbers rapidly by the appointment of the best available per- 

 sonnel. They must not, however, neglect to establish some reason- 

 able system for scrutinizing the work of these officers with a view to 

 determining its real value as measured by its practical results. It is 

 believed that such specialists should be called upon from time to time 

 to outline their work quite definitely in project statements to be re- . 

 viewed and approved by the extension director. They should be 

 encouraged to restrict their principal endeavors in any one year to 

 a few well-chosen and strictly limited subjects and should be made 

 to feel that their success will be measured largely by their ability to 



