630 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



having here this morning, to get this latest valuable information which 

 conies direct from the experiment station, and that is the purpose of the 

 extension department. It is the business of the extension department to 

 get this material out to the people of the state in just as efficient and 

 effective a manner as possible. It is the business of the extension de- 

 partment to take the experimental work of the Iowa experiment sta- 

 tion and of the other experiment stations throughout the country, sift 

 the unimportant from the important, condense and summarize it. It is 

 also the business of the extension department to gather information 

 from the experience of successful men throughout the farming regions, 

 and sift and condense that, and combine it with the experiment station 

 material, and present it to the people of the state. Most of you are 

 familiar with that work, and I will dwell upon it but briefly this morn- 

 ing. 



The extension department has been in operation for the last eight 

 years, and during that time it has grown from the small department 

 to one of the largest departments of our college; and last year, accord- 

 ing to the report of the extension department, nearly 500,000 people 

 were reached in one way or another by the department of agricultural 

 extension. I can give you just a brief summary here. I have jotted 

 down a few notes, so that I can save time for you this morning. Some- 

 thing like thirty-five one-week courses were held last year, which in- 

 cluded the topics of farm crops, animal husbandry, and home economics. 

 About seventeen two and three-day courses were held, which taught 

 the same subjects. These were somewhat in the nature of institutes. 

 Fifty-five one-week home economics courses were held, in addition to 

 these thirty-five that I have mentioned, and eight two and three-day 

 home conomics courses; and fourteen teachers' short courses were 

 held throughout the state. Practically 26,000 people were reached, 

 and in our institutes 29,000, and at other meetings something like 

 400,000 people. 



There was a time when we had to go out and work up new lines of 

 work, but at the present time it is difficult for us to get the right kind of 

 men in order to meet the demand that comes from over the state. This 

 demand has grown so that we have to work from one end of the year to 

 the other. During the winter months, we have our short courses and 

 farmers' institutes, which keep our entire force as busy as can be, and 

 we are obliged to employ additional help in one way or another during 

 the winter, in order to carry this work through, and then are unable to 

 meet all the demands made upon us. 



In the spring months you might think that the work would drop off, 

 b,ut our home economics workers are booked today for every available 

 bit of their time during these spring months, for this short course work. 

 Then we have calls for assistance at teachers' institutes, and we are 

 planning now to conduct agricultural work in connection with the 

 teachers' institutes, and in that way prepare the teachers to teach agri- 

 culture in the schools, or, at least, give them some encouragement and 

 help along that line. Then we have our demonstration farms that we 

 have to look after in the spring months, and our farm tours. I think 



