TEACHING AND INFORMATION GIVING 39 



The demonstration method requires material and equip- 

 ment. Sometimes this means land, seed, fertilizers, tools 

 and time, as in the case of most crop demonstrations. In 

 other cases living animals are needed, and they cannot 

 always be brought in to the audience in the local meeting 

 place, or the audience taken to the animals. In still other 

 instances, as in the demonstration of the use of mechanical 

 equipment for labor saving or for increased convenience 

 or efficiency, e.g., power ditching machinery, water supply 

 equipment, home conveniences, etc., it is often imprac- 

 ticable to provide or use the necessary material and equip- 

 ment. Such demonstration material is expensive, heavy, 

 and hard to handle and cannot be made available except 

 under favorable circumstances. Moreover, the demon- 

 stration itself must be practicable and applicable under 

 the local condition or it loses much of its force. Above 

 all it must not cost too much or involve the use of things 

 not readily obtainable. 



The demonstration farm has usually failed chiefly for 

 this reason. The farmer rightly points out that its results 

 are not applicable because usually obtained under the ab- 

 normal conditions of abundant resources without the ne- 

 cessity of counting the cost. The backing either of a 

 wealthy individual or corporation or of the state takes 

 away the force of the evidence, and usually fails to enlist 

 local cooperation. In other words, such farms usually fail 

 to demonstrate. The farm demonstration, on the other 

 hand, is a trial of the thing advocated under the normal 

 conditions on the farm of any reasonably good farmer 

 who has to make his living therefrom. Providing that it 

 is attempting to prove a sound premise, it is more likely 

 to be credited. The actual final result may be no better 

 but it naturally has more weight. 



