10 THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES 



action of the association either directly or through this 

 council determines the program to be recommended for 

 the county for a given period. But this program cannot 

 be finally operative until approved by the county executive 

 committee which must reconcile it with its financial re- 

 sources and with the time and the ability of its agents to 

 carry it out with the help of local organization. This may 

 mean cutting it down, omitting what seem to be the least 

 important or the least urgent of the recommendations. 1 



The College Specialist. There is another aspect of pro- 

 gram building that requires consideration. In spite of 

 the fact that farmers necessarily live with their problems 

 and perhaps partly because they do they are not always 

 able correctly to diagnose them and to prescribe the reme- 

 dies. Perhaps it is because they live too close to them, 

 because they are not familiar with experience elsewhere 

 which would permit comparison and be suggestive. This 

 inevitable situation constitutes the need for and at the 

 same time is the opportunity of the trained specialists of 

 the colleges of agriculture for service. 



Technically prepared by a study both of the principles 

 which underlie the problems of farmers and of the problems 

 themselves, each in his own particular field, fortified with 

 an intimate knowledge of the findings of science as to ways 

 to meet them, and well acquainted with the experience of 

 other farmers in meeting them because of his wide oppor- 

 tunity for observation in other counties, the specialist 

 may be of great service to a community or county group 

 in analyzing its problems and in determining upon the 

 remedies. 



In practice if such specialists can meet with county 

 project committees, each in his special field, in planning 



iThe machinery of program making is also discussed in Chapter 

 X, page 2Q5, and Chapter XI, page 220. 



