4 EXPERIMENT STATION EECORD. 



This is true of all education, and is coming to be realized especially 

 by the extension workers themselves. It is being learned that exten- 

 sion teaching in agriculture carries with it unusual responsibilities, 

 since it deals with matters which are of vital and immediate import- 

 ance to the farmer and his family, affecting their income, daily life, 

 and community interests. 



On the other hand is the necessity for taking account of the 

 special knowledge of conditions often possessed by the farmer him- 

 self, in connection with the introduction of modified practice. All 

 this points to a restatement of the princiiDle that "how to apph' 

 the results of experiments to his own conditions will ever remain 

 the problem of the individual farmer." It indicates that the mis- 

 sion of the count}^ agent or other extension worker is to be fulfilled 

 less by hard and fast prescriptions than by suggestion and coopera- 

 tion. 



The working out of the new relationships and adjustments arising 

 out of the development of extension formed a theme of discussion, 

 not only within the association itself but in various other bodies 

 which met at that time, notably the American Association of Farm- 

 ers' Institute Workers, the Society for the Promotion of Agricul- 

 tural Science, and the American Farm Management Association. 



Extension work of various kinds had begun to attract the atten- 

 tion of a considerable number of agencies outside the agricultural 

 colleges before the Smith-Lever Act was passed. These have often 

 worked independently and on a separate plan. One problem has 

 been and still is to relate these various activities to the common 

 purpose, and give them direction. A great step has been made in 

 the provision to unite through cooperation all the extension work 

 of the Department of Agriculture and that of the colleges, center- 

 ing it in the extension departments of the agricultural colleges. 

 This has already been followed by the union or cooperation with 

 the colleges of other agencies engaged in extension work in the 

 Stales. 



As regards the farmers' institutes, the importance of whose work 

 as a propaganda for arousing interest in measures for the improve- 

 ment of agriculture and country life is thoroughly appreciated, it 

 was made plain during the meetings that Avhere the institutes are 

 directly connected with the colleges they can be easily modified in 

 most cases so as to fit them into the extension system. With the 

 development of the county-agent s^^stem, supplemented b}'^ the em- 

 ployment of specialists at the colleges, it may ultimately become a 

 question as to how far it will need to be supplemented bv the insti- 

 tutes or similar agencies, but for the present the aim will evidently 

 be one of cooperation with all the agricultural, commercial, social. 



