264 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE 



Membership campaigns should be based primarily upon 

 the local community and county programs of work and only 

 secondarily upon state and national federation programs. 

 These latter are too far away, their results generally too 

 intangible and too difficult of application to the individual 

 to make them a safe primary appeal for membership. 

 Furthermore, the individual, perhaps, finds it difficult to 

 participate in the work of these organizations. His great- 

 est opportunity lies with the local program, and this should 

 always be held out to him as the main reason for member- 

 ship an opportunity to serve his community and county 

 and as the chief source from which benefit is likely to come 

 to him. 



THE FUTURE 



It is hard for the writer to think of county agent work 

 as apart from that of the county farm bureau. They are 

 and should be almost indissolubly bound up together. The 

 future of the one is the future of the other. County agents 

 are jointly employed by a partnership of public institutions 

 and county associations of farmers. The two partners work 

 hand in hand with the closest cooperation and with prac- 

 tically the same objectives. This is as it should be, and 

 this cooperation between agencies representing science on 

 the one hand and practice on the other, augurs well for 

 the future of the movement. 



The county farm bureau may, of course, if it chooses, 

 undertake other things than simply supporting the work 

 of the county agents. And it is conceivable that this may 

 overshadow the county agent's work, and even lead to its 

 abandonment. In such cases the farm bureau may be ex- 

 pected to develop into a single track agency of some sort 

 possibly political, but more likely commercial. Eventually, 



