606 EXPERIMENT STATION fiECORD. 



ducted in the States. The most conspicuous examples are those for 

 the cooperative demonstration work in the South which originally 

 grew out of the ravages of the boll weevil, and demonstration work in 

 the northern States which was an offshoot of the farm management 

 studies. These two funds, together with other contributions to be 

 used with them, amount to approximately $800,000. In addition 

 there are other funds, portions of special appropriations, which are 

 employed in demonstration and extension activities. 



Heretofore the Department's demonstration work has been con- 

 ducted in part independently of the agricultural colleges. No uni- 

 form plan has been followed, and the varied activities in extension 

 lines have not been definitely brought together and administered 

 through one departmental agency. Such an administrative agency 

 has now been established, through a States Relations Committee, and 

 to it will also be assigned the general administration and supervision 

 of the new extension fund under the Smith-Lever Act. There will 

 thus be for the first time a single central agency in the Department 

 which will deal with the extension work of the Department and with 

 the extension divisions of the several colleges. The Department 

 now proposes to make the agricultural colleges state centers of all its 

 demonstration and other extension work, to be conducted in coopera- 

 tion with the state institution. It will be united in the closest man- 

 ner feasible with the state activities, so as to secure unity of action 

 under a consolidated state organization. It is felt that such a com- 

 bining and coordinating of these efforts will materially strengthen 

 the conduct and the effectiveness of the undertaking as a whole. 



Cooperation between the Department and the agricultural colleges 

 has been discussed in an abstract way for a long time, and there have 

 been many instances of such cooperation covering a wide range of 

 subjects. There is now, however, an opportunity for cooperation on a 

 national scale along the broad and varied lines of extension work in 

 agriculture and home economics. This should be improved by de- 

 vising and putting into operation an effective system which, while 

 carefully preserving the autonomy and special responsibilities of each 

 party, will bring the state and federal agencies for the betterment of 

 agriculture and the practical education of the people on our farms 

 into such close and harmonious relations as w^ill best procure the 

 economical and efficient use of the great sums of the people's riioney 

 devoted to these purposes, and create an American system of exten- 

 sion service for our rural communities more widespread and beneficial 

 in its operation than anything in this line the world has yet known. 



To do this it will be the Department's aim to make the system 

 cooperative in the best and most liberal sense, — a joint effort provid- 

 ing for cooperative planning, while entrusting to the extension 

 departments of the colleges the details of execution, in accordance 



