FIFTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART IX. 631 



that is a grand line of work. Here is a county where one man success- 

 fully grows alfalfa; another man is successful in feeding pigs; another 

 is successful in feeding cattle; another in dairying. We go to that county 

 and organize a farm tour of farmers, and visit these different farms. The 

 man who has been successful in growing alfalfa explains to his neighbors 

 and friends just how he grew it, and it is a demonstration that is of dis- 

 tinct educational value, and is lasting, and it has been done right in the 

 community; there isn't any question about it. These farm tours take up 

 a great deal of time during the spring months. Then there are the school 

 picnics. The schools are at the present time making demands upon our 

 department to come out and meet with them during the graduation — 

 especially the rural schools. Then there are spraying demonstrations. 

 Our horticultural men are booked solid during the entire spraying period 

 for the spraying of fruit trees and vegetables. 



During the summer we have our bulletin work, summarizing these 

 data that I have already mentioned, attending school picnics and insti- 

 tutes, taking care of our demonstration farms, and snatching some time 

 for vacation. Sometimes we don't get it, but it is a good thing to take 

 some time off in the summer. 



Then in the fall our fairs begin, and we have a tremendous demand — 

 more than we can fill — for judges at fairs, along the line of judging live 

 stock, farm crops, horticultural exhibits, and home economics exhibits. 

 Colt shows make a great demand upon us, and we were unable to fill the 

 demand last year. We went out of our way to fill a large number of 

 these dates for colt shows. Then there are the institutes and short 

 courses that begin again in the fall, and the preparation for the winter 

 work. And we have some extra things to look after during the entire 

 year. The boys' and girls' club work is growing, and should grow. Then 

 there are the dairy test associations that have to be taken care of. I 

 presume some of you are familiar with these; if you are not, there are 

 some of these organizations up in the northeast part of the state that 

 are going to make Iowa famous from the standpoint of dairy production, 

 because they are applying strict business principles to their methods of 

 dairying. Ten men give their entire time in this state to looking after 

 the cows in these associations, and those men are paid by the ones who 

 own the cows. That is a fine line of work for any community which is 

 really in earnest and wants to go into the dairy business. We are or- 

 ganizing a co-operative egg association in connection with one of these 

 test associations. 



Then there are the special things that come up — the hog cholera control 

 work, and foot and mouth disease, and the Hessian fly, and all these other 

 things that are bobbing up continually; and the organization work that 

 we keep at constantly from one end of the year to the other, believing 

 thoroughly that if the problems of this state are to be successfully solved, 

 they must be worked out by the people in the communities. We can 

 furnish some assistance, but when it comes to the actual working out of 

 the problem, it must be done by the people who live in the communities. 



I have not mentioned one other line of work — the county agent work, 

 which is growing in this state, and is destined to grow rapidly in the 

 future. I want to point out briefly some of the plans for developing 



