THE PROGRAM OF WORK 5 



ELEMENTS IN A GOOD PROGRAM 



Any program of improvement that is not based on the 

 needs of the persons it is aimed to benefit invites failure 

 from the start. More than that the ultimate success of the 

 program is very likely to be determined by how vitally the 

 proposals affect these needs, as well as by how the exact 

 aims actually do meet them when applied to the problem. 

 This phase of a good program then becomes a question of 

 how to determine accurately what the real needs of the 

 communities and of the county are. 



As an example of a county program not meeting a need, 

 there comes to mind a non-fruit growing but chiefly dairy 

 county, where during the first two or three years of county 

 agent work, the renovation of old apple orchards was em- 

 phasized. This interested a few farmers but not the rank 

 and file. In this county the number of farmers whose 

 orchards were affected was thirty in 1914, and twenty-six 

 in 1915. In 1918 the number had fallen to five, and since 

 then practically no work affecting orchards has been done 

 in the county. On the other hand, a part of the dairy 

 program, namely the number of cows tested for milk pro- 

 duction has increased from six hundred and thirty in 1915 

 to fourteen hundred and ninety-three in 1920. The one 

 item in the program failed because it did not vitally affect 

 the welfare of any considerable number of individuals. 

 The other persisted because it did touch on a widespread 

 problem in a helpful way. 



Definiteness. Definiteness is a merit much to be desired 

 in any plan of work. A simple test to apply to a program 

 to determine whether or not it has this necessary charac- 

 teristic is to inquire if it answers three questions: What 

 is to be done? How much is it proposed to do this year? 

 How is it expected to accomplish the results desired ? Such 



