EDITORIAL. 605 



It will be noted that the Extension Act provides for cooperative 

 action between the General Government and the States, between 

 the Federal Department of Af^ricnlturc as representing one agency 

 and the agricultural colleges as representing the other. For the pres- 

 sure for extension activities has not been confined to the colleges in 

 the States, but has been felt in increasing degree by the Department 

 of Agriculture at Washington, and Congress has seen fit to appro- 

 priate moneys for demonstration work to be used in the States 

 through the Department. 



The Department and the colleges, with their experiment stations, 

 constitute the two great agencies for acquiring agricultural informa- 

 tion. There are many minor contributory agencies which are not to 

 be overlooked, but they are independent and incidental rather than 

 primary. The Department, working on broad lines and problems, 

 frequently not bounded by a State but regional, w^orks out matters 

 which it is desirable to get before the people, or leads up to a cam- 

 paign which it is in the interest of the States to have conducted. 

 The individual stations likewise make discoveries which are of 

 both state and regional application, and they also work out details 

 for local conditions, sometimes covering an entire State, sometimes 

 much more restricted. 



These results and applications, whatever their source, deserve to 

 be brought to the attention of the public, and this makes desirable 

 some organized action. The new extension measure provides the 

 colleges with the means for this and also provides for cooperation. 

 The funds carried in the Smith-Lever Act are not appropriated 

 directly to the Department of Agriculture as its funds to dispense 

 among the States, and they are not given to the States unconditionally. 

 They are designed " to provide for cooperative agricultural exten- 

 sion work between the agricultural colleges in the several States . . . 

 and the United States Department of Agriculture." The Department 

 receives no portion of the fimds appropriated under the Extension 

 Act, but these are paid semiannually to the state authorities on the 

 warrant of the Secretary of Agriculture, who is charged with the 

 proper administration of the law. The plan of organization at the 

 colleges contemplates the establishment of extension divisions at each 

 of the colleges. Into these all the extension funds and work will be 

 grouped, just as those for experimentation and research are grouped 

 in the experiment stations. These extension divisions are state or- 

 ganizations and not federal, and the funds supplied under the new 

 act become the fimds of the designated college, subject to certain 

 conditions and to a measure of federal control. 



On the other hand, the Department has separate funds appropriated 

 to it by Congress for extension (demonstration) work to be con- 



