CHAPTER IX 

 THE EVOLUTION OF THE MOVEMENT 



IT was inevitable that the permanent objectives of the 

 county agent movement should be the result of an evolution 

 of ideas and ideals. Even though it might have been given 

 to a single individual in the beginning to see all its possi- 

 bilities or even its probable development, he would hardly 

 have had the temerity to have proclaimed them then. 



DIFFERENT IDEALS AND POINTS OF VIEW 



Certain it is that those who in its beginning thought that 

 they saw the future of county agent work did not agree 

 as to what this future was to be. Particularly, during the 

 period from 1910 to 1915 ideals and viewpoints were ex- 

 ceedingly diverse. Farmers themselves hardly realized at 

 all what this new idea had in store for them, and were at 

 first quite inclined to be critical. Educators were afraid of 

 its future as an educational movement. Its own sponsors 

 were not at all agreed as to what it ought to do. Indeed, 

 the evolution of the ideals of the movement has not yet 

 ceased and ten years from now it may have probably will 

 have taken on quite a different character than it now 

 possesses. 



To federal authorities and employees, the county agent 

 was a government representative. To most college adminis- 

 trators and professors, he was the field agent and itinerant 

 teacher of the college. To others he was a ' ' farm adviser, ' ' 



a rural agricultural leader, an organizer of farmers, accord- 



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