PREFACE xi 



this experience and contact has been both from the giving 

 and receiving end. As a field agent of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture, and later as the editor of an 

 agricultural paper, he studied the problems of the territory 

 where the first county agent in the North was installed 

 and, indeed, had some part in the setting up of this first 

 county organization. Four years as a supervisor of county 

 agents and four more as an extension director has kept him 

 in a constant and live touch with hundreds of county agents 

 and their work. He was also present and had some small 

 part in the organization of both his State and the National 

 Farm Bureau Federations. And lastly, but not least in 

 importance, he has been a member of one of the first county 

 farm bureau associations (Monroe County, N. Y.) from 

 its beginning and has profited much in his farming through 

 the help of the local county agent, and been able to appre- 

 ciate the limitations and shortcomings of both county 

 agent and farm bureau. 



The thanks of the author are due to H. E. Babcock, Jay 

 Coryell, L. K. Simons, and to Professors D. J. Crosby, 

 Dwight Sanderson, and M. Kobinson for reading and 

 making suggestions on parts of the manuscript. He also 

 acknowledges the cuts kindly loaned by the U. S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture and the New York State College of 

 Agriculture. He is especially indebted to M. C. Wilson 

 of the Department for selecting many of the cuts and 

 obtaining permission to use them. 



M. C. BURRITT. 

 ITHACA, N. Y. 



April 1, 1922. 



