184 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE 



view which only experiences that we have not yet had can 

 confirm. 



There is a real need for a more sympathetic understand- 

 ing between the farmer and representatives of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture at Washington, whose primary 

 job it is to aid him in meeting his problems. Farmers have 

 often failed to visualize and therefore to appreciate what 

 this great public agency has in the way of information that 

 is helpful and useful. They need contact with the workers 

 in the Department in order to know their qualifications and 

 the service that they can render. In the majority of cases 

 when he comes really to know these men, the farmer finds 

 that they are farm reared, sincerely interested in the prob- 

 lems of the farmers, and earnestly desirous of being helpful. 



On the other hand, these government representatives are 

 often under the handicap of having spent so much time in 

 their offices and in hotels in the big cities, while on their 

 travels, that they have failed to understand all the farmer's 

 problems and the limitations under which he labors, and 

 consequently fail to appreciate his point of view. Too 

 often their observation of farm conditions is from Pullman 

 car windows and from automobiles on the state road, rather 

 than in the barnyard and the back lot. They need a closer 

 and more sympathetic contact with farmers. The county 

 agent may well be the one to bring the farmer and the 

 government's agricultural employees closer together on the 

 common meeting ground of the farm bureau office, the com- 

 munity meeting and the field demonstration, to their mutual 

 advantage. 



THE VIEWPOINT OF THE STATE COLLEGE 



At least two objects seem to have been prominently in 

 the minds of those who drew the state legislation and for- 



