THE BEGINNINGS OF COUNTY AGENT WORK 163 



the Kentucky College of Agriculture as secretary. M. B. 

 Johnson was selected as county agent. This was before 

 federal funds were available. Later, Mr. Johnson was ap- 

 pointed a county agent by the U. S. Department of Agri- 

 culture and is said to be the third agent so appointed in 

 the Northern and Western states. Since the first two, John 

 Barron of Broome County, New York, and A. B. Ross of 

 Bedford County, Pennsylvania, have resigned to accept 

 other positions, and since Mr. M. B. Johnson is still em- 

 ployed as a county agent, though now in McKenzie County, 

 North Dakota, it is claimed that he is really the " senior 

 county agent in the United States" in point of service. In 

 Illinois two county agents were appointed on June 1, 1912 : 

 Mr. W. G. Eckhardt in DeKalb County, and Mr. John 

 Collier in Kankakee County. 



During 1912 and 1913, agents were also appointed in 

 counties in several other states, including Vermont, New 

 Jersey, Minnesota, and Indiana. In August, 1912, the first 

 specific appropriation by the federal government was made 

 available for county agent work in the North and West. 

 During the year ending June 30, 1913, about one hundred 

 agents were appointed in as many counties in the thirty- 

 three Northern and Western states. These appointments 

 fully launched the movement in this section of the United 

 States. 



PUBLIC RECOGNITION 



The state legislature in several states now recognized the 

 movement by authorizing their county Boards of Super- 

 visors, County Courts, or County Commissioners, as they 

 are variously called, to levy money for "farm develop- 

 ment" and for the tc support and maintenance of county 

 farm bureaus." North Dakota and New York were among 

 the first of states to pass such laws, which they did in 1912. 



