STATE AND NATIONAL FEDERATIONS 233 



THE MOVEMENT TOWARD FEDERATION AND SOME OF ITS 



CAUSES 



By the middle of the year 1916 county agents were being 

 employed in more than twelve hundred counties in the 

 United States. In perhaps one-half of these counties, 

 county associations of farmers were cooperating in the 

 support of these agents. In several of the states one-half 

 or more of the counties were thus organized. 



As yet, however, there were only one or two state organi- 

 zations or federations of these county associations, although 

 informal conferences of their officers had been held in 

 several states as early as the winter of 1915-16. This num- 

 ber included Vermont (October, 1915), New York, Illinois 

 and Missouri. Out of these conferences grew a desire on 

 the part of the county officers for more definite and formal 

 Btate associations. Missouri was the first to form a state 

 organization of its county bureaus, which it did on March 

 24-25, 1915, at Slater. Massachusetts organized its state 

 federation at Worcester about a month later, or on May 

 11, 1915. Illinois formed the Illinois Agricultural Asso- 

 ciation in January, 1916. It was made up of individual 

 members of the county associations. In February, 1917, 

 during Farmers' Week at the State College, the New York 

 State Federation of County Farm Bureau Associations was 

 formed. In several other states similar groups were organ- 

 ized about the same time or soon after, so that by the fall 

 of 1918 ten or twelve states had federations composed of 

 county farm bureau units. 



The primary purpose of these state federations was to 

 promote, protect and unify the work of the associations in 

 the counties and the idea in the state. The men in the 

 counties expected that by getting together they could profit 

 by each other's experiences and get ideas that would be 



