FARM BUREAU: RELATION TO COUNTY AGENT 213 



states, would have been more pleasing to the ear and much 

 more significant. It was unforunate, too, that the word 

 " association " was dropped because of its significance of an 

 organization. This was partly because the name "farm 

 bureau" was shorter and therefore snappier than with the 

 word "association" attached, and partly because in 1916 

 a national convention of state leaders in Washington, after 

 a long discussion and vigorous opposition, voted to adopt 

 the name. 



It seems to the writer that the true significance of the 

 name 1 1 farm bureau ' ' is as the combination of the cooperat- 

 ing agencies taking part in the work, of which the county 

 association the farm bureau association is one, and the 

 public institutions the Department of Agriculture and the 

 state college the others. This conception which properly 

 differentiates all parties and which has avoided the antici- 

 pated confusions in the public mind which have since 

 arisen elsewhere, is written into the New York law and 

 observed in that state. 



The definition of the county association officially known 

 as the farm bureau that is now generally accepted in prac- 

 tically all of the states is as follows : 



"A county farm bureau is an association of people interested 

 in rural affairs, which has for its object the development in a 

 county of the most profitable and permanent system of agricul- 

 ture, the establishment of community ideals, and the furtherance 

 of the well-being, prosperity, and happiness of the rural people, 

 through cooperation with local, state, and national agencies in the 

 development and execution of a program of extension work in 

 agriculture and home economics." 



This definition characterizes a farm bureau in three es- 

 sential ways: (1) as a local association of rural people; 

 (2) as offering a broad program for the improvement of 



