PREFACE 



TEe second decade of the twentieth century has been an 

 eventful one for farmers. World economic conditions and 

 especially the great war brought to its culmination the trend 

 of affairs already well under way, which restored the farm- 

 ers' purchasing power and consequent prosperity. But 

 this was attained only to be lost in the greatest slump in the 

 purchasing power of agricultural products ever known in 

 the United States. The reversal of the ratio of rural 

 to urban population in the last half century has focused 

 attention on the problems of marketing and distribution. 

 The problem and a better understanding of its nature and 

 solution together have stimulated a great period of organi- 

 zation among farmers. Prosperity brought with it new 

 and effective means of education. Both in this agricultural 

 organization and in the new means of education the county 

 agent and the farm bureau have had a large part, which 

 should be better understood and appreciated. 



This volume is not intended to be a history of the county 

 agent or of the farm bureau, although most of the essen- 

 tial facts and events of their first ten years of existence 

 are here recorded. It is yet too early in its life to write 

 a history of this movement. We are too close to its origin 

 and early efforts. Whether this history will finally be but 

 a brief sketch of the meteoric rise and fall of a promising 

 ^agricultural effort, or whether it will be an account of the 

 ^working out of a great sane, constructive, forward-looking 

 iidea, is yet to be revealed. The outcome of the play of 



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