250 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE 



INFLUENCE OF FEDERATION ON THE COUNTY AGENT 



The county agent has generally welcomed the federa- 

 tions, state and national, and has done much to develop 

 and to strengthen them by his support of the idea with 

 his local farmers. They have put new life into his work. 

 As has been already pointed out, the results of county 

 agent work were bound to be very limited so long as his 

 efforts were individual only and not supplemented by those 

 of the farmers with whom he worked. Self help is the 

 only means of making large and permanent progress. So 

 the county agent was early forced to organize the farming 

 people of his county to help themselves. For the same 

 reasons, although he had little to do with them, he was 

 glad to see the state and the national federations organized, 

 because they meant a larger and more active support for 

 his work at home. 



The federations have tended to give character locally 

 and greater public recognition generally to the work of 

 the county agent. They have called public attention to it, 

 their influence has brought farmers to its support in greater 

 numbers than ever before and with larger fees, the greater 

 part of which are spent at home. So also the federation 

 influence has often meant the retaining of present county 

 appropriations and the securing of larger ones from un- 

 wise or unwilling county appropriating bodies. It also 

 meant better state and national support. 



The federations have brought new duties and greater 

 obligations to the county agent, as they have asked him 

 for information through questionnaires and in other ways, 

 as to the problems and needs of farmers. In turn, farmers 

 have wanted help from the federations and the county 

 agent has been the one to pass on their requests and de- 



