CHAPTEE XI 



THE FARM BUREAU AND ITS RELATION TO THE 

 COUNTY AGENT 



ANY one who will picture to himself the difficulties which 

 would face a new county agent, a stranger to the county, 

 in undertaking his job without a local organization of farm- 

 ers to sponsor, to introduce him and to work with him, 

 will readily appreciate the reasons for the farm bureau. 

 The practical impossibiltiy of securing and maintaining 

 good contacts with several thousand farmers on an indi- 

 vidual basis, would practically force group organization. 

 How to obtain the necessary information about county con- 

 ditions and individually successful farmers and leaders 

 would be a troublesome problem. And trying to finance 

 and to maintain the work on a sound basis without the help 

 of a local organization would be likely to discourage the 

 most ingenious. 



This proved to be the experience of the early agents who 

 tried it. So that it was not long before local advisory 

 groups or committees were gathered together by the agents 

 in an informal way. These advisory and informal com- 

 mittees later became the nuclei for the more definite county 

 farmers' organizations. 



SINGLENESS OF PURPOSE 



A point in connection with these organizations which, 

 early became clear was that they should be practically 

 single in purpose and that they must be wholly indepen- 



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