TEACHING AND INFORMATION GIVING 51 



meetings or institutes and an evident desire to go deeper 

 into local problems indicated. Unless there is such an 

 intention and unless the spirit of cooperation in community 

 affairs of working together to solve common problems 

 is present, such a school will fail to produce the largest 

 possible results. Its purposes and methods should be fully 

 understood and appreciated by farmers beforehand, for 

 only as it is "sold" to them by the county agent and his 

 local committeemen on its merits, and wanted by them for 

 its real value, can it serve the needs of the community. 

 It is expensive in the time of the farmers who attend as 

 well as of the instructors who teach. The most thorough 

 advertising by personal explanation, by letter and through 

 the local papers, is necessary for the best results. Such a 

 short course is peculiarly the type of thing which if worth 

 doing at all is worth doing very well. 



The original and oldest form of agricultural extension 

 is the farmers' institute. Modern forms of extension, and 

 especially the county agent work, owe much to it. It was 

 in the farmers' institutes that the early and hard battles 

 for the recognition of the value of science as applied to 

 farming were fought and won. In these meetings farm 

 practice as represented by experience came to be correctly 

 evaluated, the place and contribution of science recog- 

 nized, and the two first utilized together. Here were first 

 taught and appreciated many of the first principles of 

 good farming; the need of maintaining soil fertility and 

 how to do it ; the composition and true value of feeds and 

 fertilizers; spraying to control insects and diseases; home 

 making as a profession; and scores of similar basic facts. 

 County agents have to considerable extent harvested the 



