THE BEGINNINGS OF COUNTY AGENT WORK 175 



It was from this early work that Doctor Knapp got his 

 suggestion for similar work in the South. 



It was not until after the passage of the Smith-Lever Act 

 that club work in the Northern and Western states was 

 really begun extensively throughout the territory. Three 

 states were cooperating in 1911-12, and only six during 

 the following year. The Lever Act, together with the emer- 

 gency appropriations during the war, gave the club work 

 its greatest impetus. Beginning with eight county leaders 

 in 1913-14, the number rose slowly to one hundred and 

 eighty in 1917, at the time of the United States' entrance 

 into the war, to the high point of nine hundred and thirty- 

 five on July 1, 1918. Since then the number has fallen 

 away to one hundred and forty-eight county leaders in 

 1920, largely because of its emergency character and the 

 fact that it was supported chiefly by federal appropriations 

 and not made a part of the local county extension program. 



The total enrolment of boys and girls in the club work 

 in these thirty-three states in 1920 was 216,479 in 13,897 

 organized clubs. Only 31.8 per cent of this enrolment was 

 secured by paid county club leaders, however. Two-thirds 

 of it was enrolled by county agricultural and home demon- 

 stration agents and by voluntary local leaders. In all there 

 were 1,403 of these voluntary local club project leaders, 48.5 

 per cent were in counties having paid county club leader- 

 ship. Although such a large proportion of the enrolment 

 was outside of the counties with regular club leaders, much 

 more work was accomplished in counties with leaders. 



THE PROGRAM 



The program of work in the Northern and Western group 

 of states is not unlike that in the South, with organized club 

 demonstrations with crops such as corn, sugar beets, pota- 



