AGRICULTURE AND HOME ECONOMICS IN UNITED STATES. 27 



aided the teachers to make the instruction more practical. In many 

 schools the children have beeri enrolled in the clubs organized by the 

 extension agents and thus have grown crops or animals under expert 

 supervision, this work serving as a "home project" and being linked 

 with the school instruction. 



Many State normal schools have included agriculture in their teacher- 

 training courses and the agricultural colleges have also aided in this 

 work. A few normal schools have undertaken experiments with new 

 forms of curricula and methods of instruction in an effort to suggest 

 ways by which elementary rural schools may be made better agencies 

 for fitting children to live in the open country and engage successfully 

 in farming. 



EXTENSION WORK IN AGRICULTURE AND HOME ECONOMICS. 



From their beginning the agricultural colleges and the United States 

 Department of Agriculture have sent out members of their staffs to 

 make addresses at farmers' meetings. They have also distributed 

 publications. The popular publications of the department, particularly 

 the Yearbook and the farmers' bulletins, and the bulletins of the experi- 

 ment stations have been freely distributed in very large numbers. An 

 enormous correspondence on agricultural subjects has also been con- 

 ducted by the agricultural institutions. 



About 50 years ago the agricultural colleges and State boards or 

 departments of agriculture began to hold annual series of meetings in 

 different parts of the State, at which addresses were delivered by experts 

 and successful farmers, followed by questions and discussion from 

 the audience. These meetings, lasting from one to three days, have 

 been called farmers' institutes. They proved so popular that State 

 legislatures made special appropriations for their maintenance. Regular 

 staffs of lecturers were employed and special publications were issued. 

 The number of meetings grew up to several thousand annually. The 

 total attendance mounted until it aggregated several million. Special 

 institutes for women and young people were added. Music and other 

 recreational features were introduced and in recent years lantern slides 

 and moving pictures have been increasingly used. 



About 20 years ago, when farmers in the Southern States became 

 alarmed at the spread of the cotton-boll weevil, the Department of 

 Agriculture, under the leadership of Dr. Seaman A. Knapp, undertook 

 to establish demonstrations of improved methods of agriculture on farms 

 in that region. The farmers carried on these demonstrations under the 

 supervision of department agents. Meetings were held at the demon- 

 stration fields. This plan proved so successful that after a time special 

 agents were located in single counties to supervise the demonstrations 

 and further assist the farmers. To benefit farm boys and girls clubs 



