'4 : \ } : ;J 33JE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES 



and hence its ability to achieve its goal. But it is not 

 enough merely to have a general objective. Many good 

 movements with abstractly general objectives have failed 

 simply because they were too general, and were never put 

 into concrete form with the necessary machinery and the 

 means behind them to accomplish their ends. 



Such a concrete proposal of specific objectives and of 

 how it is expected to accomplish them is called a program 

 of work. If applied to a single community it is considered 

 as a community program. When these objectives are ap- 

 plied collectively to all the communities of the county 

 with an organization behind it to carry out the proposals 

 it is known as a county program of work. 



The general objective of the county agent movement was 

 and continues to be agricultural education of persons en- 

 gaged in farming and home making, more especially those 

 outside the school system. As we shall see, it was the 

 hope and the expectation of those who conceived the idea 

 and the method, that it would increase the efficiency and 

 the profitableness of the processes of farm production and 

 marketing, as well as increase the intelligence and elevate 

 the standards of living of the persons living on the farms. 

 Such an objective of course soon commanded the support 

 of educators and of agricultural leaders generally as well 

 as of the public. But it did not find sufficient expression 

 in action to give it force and application in the localities 

 and counties until it was interpreted into concrete proposals 

 and applied to the agricultural problems of specific com- 

 munities and counties. And nothing in the whole move- 

 ment has been so useful in giving definiteness of purpose 

 to it, and in securing for it the necessary support of farm- 

 ers and of appropriating bodies, as has the county program 

 of work. It has been the rallying point of farmer and 

 public alike. 



