178 RURAL RECONSTRUCTION 



the crop may be (which is what our statesmen appear to be keen 

 upon), but what it actually costs them on their own particular farm 

 to produce this, that or the other crop, to keep their live stock, 

 deducing from all this information which branch of their husbandry 

 yields them a profit and which is carried on at a loss. 



Here is the official explanation of the object of such work : — 



" A farm management demonstration aims to teach a farmer a 

 practical method of summarising and analysing his farm business 

 as a means of determining the profit or loss incurred in conducting 

 it and of deciding upon modifications which promise to increase the 

 net income of the farm. These demonstrations are conducted in 

 most cases by county agents with the assistance of a farm manage- 

 ment demonstrator, who is co-operatively employed by the college 

 and the United States Department of Agriculture. On July 1st, 

 1917, the work was in progress in 300 counties in twenty-seven of 

 the northern and western States. Both at the State Agricultural 

 College and in the Department of Agriculture there are specialists 

 in various branches of agriculture and home economics, who aid 

 county agents in their work and also give direct instruction to 

 farmers in counties where there are no county agents." 



It must be evident that such practice constitutes a most useful 

 help to farmers, marking a great stride towards conducting 

 farming on genuine business lines, even though it represent only 

 one side of the subject, namely, what is actually being done at a 

 profit and what at a loss, without supplying the other instruction, 

 which is to show how things might conceivably be carried on on 

 more profitable lines. That other side, although it does not come 

 under the particular head here treated of, is not by any means 

 neglected, for the 2,500 county agents or so employed (the figure in 

 January, 1918, was 2,351), supplemented by special experts and farm 

 demonstrators, are careful to point out to farmers in detail at what 

 points they could probably do better by adopting different methods 

 —just like the valued " control " officers in Sweden, Switzerland and 

 elsewhere. Such work, no doubt, demands a great deal of officering, 

 which is, as it happens, in the United States not stinted. But the 

 expense incurred has certainly thus far proved worth the money. 

 The results are considered distinctly satisfactory. 



Farm demonstration goes further. The Farm Management 

 Bureau has in course of time come to point out to farmers generally 

 what books it will be well to keep, and how to keep them. 



It will be at once remarked that the " demonstrators' " work 

 possesses the great merit of having actuality about it. The talking 



