602 EXPERIMENT STATION EECORD. 



bind itself to an annual appropriation which will soon reach beyond 

 $4,500,000, and the States in accepting it agree to practically dupli- 

 cate the amount for a like purpose ? It is not a sop to the farmers. 

 It is the mature expression of a national policy. It is for the im- 

 provement of the country's greatest industry, that the national re- 

 sources may be made more productive and conserved for the benefit 

 of posterity. 



The Smith-Lever Act. as the extension measure just enacted seems 

 destined to be known, completes a campaign of education extending 

 over several years. Its inception may perhaps be traced to the report 

 of a committee on extension work of the Association of American 

 Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations in 1906. This com- 

 mittee, as the result of an inquiry into the status of agricultural ex- 

 tension teaching, found three hundred and seventeen agencies, includ- 

 ing thirty-eight agricultural colleges and experiment stations, then 

 engaged in some form of extension work, mainly farmers' institutes. 

 It recommended that each agricultural college organize as soon as 

 practicable a department in extension teaching in agriculture, coor- 

 dinate with other departments or divisions. 



This recommendation was repeated in 1907 and 1908, and in the 

 latter year the committee also advocated " that the Association place 

 itself on record in favor of a moderate federal appropriation to be 

 made to the land-grant colleges for the purpose of carrying on exten- 

 sion work in agriculture under a plan which requires the States also 

 to make appropriations for the work." 



At the Portland meeting of the Association in 1909, the same com- 

 mittee reported a detailed plan for federal aid. This plan included 

 an annual appropriation of $10,000 to the land-grant college of each 

 State and Territory for extension work in agriculture, domestic sci- 

 ence, and other phases of rural life. This initial appropriation was 

 to be supplemented after two years by annual grants, equal to those 

 made by the respective state legislatures, but not to exceed one cent 

 per capita of the total population of the State or Territory. 



A bill embodying these ideas was introduced into the House of 

 Kepresentatives December 15, 1909, by Hon. J. C. McLaughlin of 

 Michigan. No action was taken on this measure in either House of 

 Congress, although in the following June a bill providing for co- 

 operation with the States in vocational education was favorably re- 

 ported from the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, in 

 which an appropriation was included for extension departments in 

 the land-grant colleges under a plan differing from the McLaughlin 

 Bill in numerous important details. 



Meanwhile, the extension idea was widely propagated and found 

 many advocates among public men. Demonstration work had been 



