ffHE BEGINNINGS OF COUNTY AGENT WORK 171 



and management of the work of county agents. At this 

 time this idea of cooperation or partnership with farmers, 

 in the management of county agent work, received little or 

 no support in most of the other states, or at the federal 

 headquarters' office at Washington, indeed, little attention 

 was paid to it. But gradually, as it proved itself and as 

 considerable numbers of farmers came to have a definite 

 interest in and to give definite support to county agent 

 work through their associations, the interest in the idea in- 

 creased, and it spread rapidly to many other states in the 

 North and West. 



Thereafter, county associations of farmers multiplied, 

 and some states even required their organization in new 

 counties before they would cooperate in the employment of 

 a county agent. This plan developed some of the strongest 

 county associations and programs of work. These county 

 associations soon came to be known as "farm bureaus," 

 and were officially recognized as "the county group of 

 farmers cooperating with the college and the Department 

 of Agriculture in carrying on county agent work." In 

 some of the states these organizations and their functions 

 were formally recognized by law as "public county asso- 

 ciations. ' ' 



Not until these cooperating county organizations were 

 well established, and generally accepted officially as local 

 cooperating institutions, could it be said that the county 

 agent system was successfully and permanently inaugurated 

 in the Northern and the Western states. Its future was then 

 guaranteed by farmers as well as by government legislation. 



BOYS' AND GIRLS' CLUB WORK IN THE SOUTH 



No sooner was the farm demonstration work well started 

 in the South than Doctor Knapp saw the possibilities of 



