THE BEGINNINGS OF COUNTY AGENT WORK 179 



demonstration agents increased to twenty-eight. Emer- 

 gency appropriations and war needs raised the number 

 rapidly to eight hundred and three in 1918, but this num- 

 ber soon fell away to six hundred and nine in 1919, and to 

 two hundred and eighty-six in 1920. 



STRONG AND WEAK POINTS 



Home demonstration work in the North has suffered from 

 several circumstances which have seriously limited its de- 

 velopment. Some of these the South has shared. Others 

 it has not. In too many states strong home economics de- 

 partments in the state colleges have been lacking, so that 

 a good base for extension work, which the men agents had 

 in the agricultural subject-matter departments of the col- 

 leges, was absent in the case of the women's work. This has 

 usually resulted in a weak or an unsound program, except 

 where the need has been met in some other way. For this 

 reason many agents have failed to justify themselves to 

 their counties. The girls' club work has probably made it 

 somewhat easier to maintain the work in the South. 



Again home demonstration work in the North suffered, 

 greatly from a forced and superficial development during 

 the war. It was longer and hence better established in the 

 South, but also suffered there, though perhaps to a less de- 

 gree. Poorly trained agents were put in the counties by 

 both state and federal governments, often without a worth- 

 while program, but to promote the general "food will win 

 the war" idea in such detailed ways as were passed down 

 from above by the Department, the colleges and the Food 

 Administration. The counties were not ready for the 

 agents in many cases, did not want them, and in but few 

 cases offered either financial or organized cooperation. So 

 with the close of the war the work of more than half of 



