216 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE 



extension work in agriculture and home economics ' ' is made 

 by nearly all the states. 



In the South the county association or council was at first 

 apparently almost exclusively an advisory organization with 

 few if any administrative functions. It was " usually con- 

 sulted in making up programs and budgets/' but has had 

 little real power to administer funds or initiate a program 

 in the past. This is changing rapidly, however. 



COOPERATIVE FINANCING 



In twenty-one states in the North and West in which 

 the figures were gathered in 1919, the average total cost of 

 a county farm bureau was four thousand and thirty-one 

 dollars. The income, which was somewhat greater than 

 this, was derived as follows : 



Total Per Cent 



United States Government funds (including 



S.R.S. and Federal Lever ) $938 18.8 



State Lever and state free funds 893 18.0 



Appropriations of county boards of commission- 

 ers or supervisors 1,945 39.0 



Membership fees in county association 665 13.3 



Other local sources and miscellaneous 544 10.9 



Assuming that the few items mentioned under " Miscel- 

 laneous " are all local, it appears that on an average the 

 counties in the Northern and Western states in 1919 were 

 paying 63.2 per cent of the cost of the work, of which nearly 

 two-thirds was derived from county tax money, and about 

 one-fifth from membership fees. In general the cost of the 

 bureaus was highest in the East and lowest in the West. 

 Counties in the Eastern states derive their largest support 

 from county appropriations, and counties in the Western 

 states from state and federal aid. High membership fees 

 and increasing numbers of members had in 1921 greatly in- 

 creased the income from this source. 



