TEACHING THE CULTIVATORS 59 



de VEtat and the konsulenten, to place themselves at the service of 

 all agriculturists in their district, to be consulted by such, free of 

 charge, by letter or by word of mouth, at these men's pleasure, to 

 visit them when necessary and prompt them on all questions 

 affecting their calling. 



The Belgian Government likewise comes, through the agronomes, 

 to the assistance of such men in this way, that it grants the 

 purchasers of 5,000 kilogrammes of basic slag, phosphates, 

 superphosphates, wool refuse and raw potash salts, or else 2,500 

 kilogrammes of nitrate of soda or lime, cyanimide, concentrated 

 potash salts or sulphate of ammonia, also of 5,000 kilogrammes of 

 feeding-stuffs, the right to have the goods so purchased analysed, 

 free of charge, by the Government chemist, whose analysis decides 

 the point of quality. If such lots be taken in instalments, the 

 said right pertains to the purchaser in respect of one instalment. 



In all the countries named stringent and very precise regulations 

 are in force to ensure that the officers appointed, as has been shown, 

 shall be thoroughly competent for their office on matters of theory as 

 well as of practice. Moreover, they are to assist and advise culti- 

 vators in the purchase of seeds, feeding-stuffs, fertilisers, and the 

 like, to ensure that they are genuinely served. 



Very probably it was these European precedents which made 

 their influence felt across the Atlantic, thanks to the excellent 

 results which they achieved by individualising instruction and 

 divesting teaching of its abstract generality and consequent dry- 

 ness, and getting hold of the man in his own particular, either gain 

 or else loss bringing, business. But in travelling across the water 

 these precedents gave birth to a scheme which, by its comprehen- 

 siveness, its directness in application, and its remarkable results, 

 puts us Europeans in a manner to shame. It is, in the United 

 States, the " county agent," now appointed and heartily supported 

 by the County Farms Bureaus, in Canada the " county " or else 

 " agricultural representative," whom the authorities, the public 

 and farmers look to for the advancement of national husbandry, 

 the increase of production, the improvement of " country life," and, 

 in time of stress such as that of the late War, for fruitful service in 

 the expansion of food supply. 



It appears to have been about the beginning of the century that 

 the institution of county agents first made its way on to American 

 soil, beginning in the south, which, with its greater needs, has given 

 birth to more than one most useful movement in the province of 

 agriculture, such as, for instance, the boys' and girls' clubs, which 



