THE BEGINNINGS OF COUNTY AGENT WORK 157 



boys and girls, and it was not differentiated into separate 

 lines with special agents in charge until 1914. This part 

 of the story is left for later consideration. 



Teaching by showing and with local cooperation proved 

 to be so successful that by 1914, when the Smith-Lever Ex- 

 tension Act was passed and county agent work inaugurated 

 throughout the whole country, the farm demonstration 

 movement had spread to all the thirteen Southern states. 

 To this southern group the states of West Virginia and 

 Kentucky were later added, and this made the Division of 

 Extension Work, South. 1 Because the county was recog- 

 nized as a local political unit with a local appropriating 

 body, the demonstration work was soon organized on a 

 county basis and the agents were called " county agents." 



Financial cooperation on the part of the counties was 

 begun in 1909 when Mississippi passed a law authorizing 

 its county commissioners to appropriate funds for the sup- 

 port of county agents. Up to this time the greater part 

 of the cash cost of the work had been paid from Congres- 

 sional appropriations supplemented by gifts from the Gen- 

 eral Education Board and by some local contributions from 

 Chambers of Commerce, banks and individuals. 



In 1911 the first cooperative relations were established 

 in the states. In this year the federal Department made 

 an agreement with the South Carolina and this marked the 

 beginning of the influence of the colleges of agriculture 

 in the South upon the county agent movement. From this 

 time on with increasing county and state financial aid 

 and under the Smith-Lever Act, the localities came to have 

 a larger part in the organization, conduct and control of 

 the county agent work in the South. 



i Combined with "North & West" in 1922. 



