130 THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES 



rural people living on ten thousand farms and in the rural 

 communities of which they are a part. The land embraced 

 in his school room the county may be from a hundred 

 thousand to several million acres, or from a few hundred 

 to many thousand square miles. The investment in the 

 farming industry in a county is seldom less than a million 

 and often runs into many millions of dollars. The annual 

 income and outgo from the farms of the smallest county 

 is very large, while that from the largest and most pros- 

 perous counties would rival the operations of large cor- 

 porations. But it is the rural citizenship of the county 

 that is its greatest asset and whose welfare and prosperity 

 is the county agent's greatest concern. 



If there is such a thing as an " average " county and 

 there is a median between the limits of the extremes just 

 enumerated it will be found to contain about twenty-five 

 hundred farms with approximately twelve thousand per- 

 sons living upon them. It will be about twenty miles wide 

 and thirty miles long and will contain about three hundred 

 thousand acres, about half improved land, and with farm 

 property worth about twenty-five million dollars, with an 

 annual income of approximately five millions and a pur- 

 chasing power of nearly or quite the same amount. These 

 averages vary greatly with the section of the county and the 

 type of country as well as with the individual county. In 

 any case it is a man-sized job, even physically and quan- 

 titatively. 



When in addition one surveys the problems of the county 

 qualitatively, studies its people, its resources and its op- 

 portunities, he will usually be tremendously impressed with 

 the opportuntiies for service and the need of leadership 

 more fully to utilize its possibilities. Of course all prog- 

 ress is not dependent upon the county agent. But he can 

 stimulate local initiative, organize local forces and furnish 



