THE BEGINNINGS OF COUNTY AGENT WORK 159 



several states, were visiting and observing the practices of 

 the best farmers in several regions, and then by writing 

 these up for publication * and by conducting field excur- 

 sions to visit these best farms, and sometimes by actual 

 demonstrations, they were endeavoring, in an inadequate 

 way, to apply the method so successful in the South to 

 Northern and Western conditions. 



The policy and the tendency in this work was always to 

 localize it by taking on additional men as fast as the funds 

 would permit. In 1908, for example, the writer became an 

 assistant to Lawrence G. Dodge, who had for several years 

 been carrying on this type of work in the New England 

 states and in New York and Pennsylvania. The writer 

 gave practically all his time to New York state. In 1909 

 Mr. George Monroe of Dryden, N. Y., began for the Bureau 

 of Soils some demonstrations on some so-called "abandoned 

 farms" in the hill country of Tompkins County, N. Y., 

 looking toward their rejuvenation with lime and clover. 

 In the summer of 1910 three other practical farmers, Mr. 

 E. C. Gillette in Yates and Steuben Counties, Mr. D. P. 

 Witter in Tioga County, and Mr. George Hinman in 

 Broome County, were employed by the federal government, 

 under the writer's direction, to carry on demonstrations 

 with farmers in this territory. About the same time Mr. 

 A. B. Koss, who was working independently in the farming 

 section near Schnellsburg, Bedford County, Pa., was put on 

 the government payroll for the same purpose. 



None of this work was permanent. Little, if any, local 

 support was enlisted, and while no doubt much good was 

 done in individual cases, its chief value was that it did 

 throw light on the general problem. Similar isolated and 



i For examples, see Bureau Plant Industry Circular No. 64, "Agri- 

 cultural Conditions in Southern New York," and Bulletin No. 32 

 of the same Bureau, "An Example of Successful Farming in South- 

 ern New York." 



