32 AGRICULTURE AND HOME ECONOMICS IN UNITED STATES. 



economics who assist the county workers and supplement their work 

 throughout the State. They also prepare publications and illustrative 

 material. 



In 2,100 counties out of about 2,650 agricultural counties there is an 

 agricultural agent, in 800 counties a home demonstration agent, and in 

 200 counties a special agent for boys' and girls' club work. These agents 

 supervise and conduct demonstrations on the farms and in the homes, 

 hold meetings, and give advice and assistance by personal visits, corre- 

 spondence, telephone messages, articles in the local press, etc. 



To support and aid the county workers, groups of farm men and women 

 have been organized. In about 1,500 counties this organization is called 

 a farm bureau. It has a president, secretary, nd treasurer, and commit- 

 tees whose members represent different communities in the county. 

 About a million persons are members of far>m bureaus. While originally 

 formed to cooperate in extension work, the farm bureaus have enlarged 

 the scope of their work to include the formation of marketing organiza- 

 tions, publishing of papers, and matters relating to business, legislation, 

 and the social concerns of farming communities. The extension workers 

 are not responsible for the conduct of these activities, though they may 

 give advice and information regarding them. The farm bureaus often 

 use part funds as contributions to the support of the county extension 

 workers. For their larger enterprises State and American federations of 

 farm bureaus have been formed. 



In about 600 counties the place of the farm bureau is filled by a county 

 council of agriculture or some other organization of farmers. Through- 

 out the country the extension workers also have helpful relations with 

 many kinds of farm organizations. 



In making the annual plans for extension work it is now a common 

 practice for community committees of farming people to meet together 

 with the extension agents and work out a community program. These 

 community programs may then be combined into a county program. 

 Certain features of the county programs may then be taken to form a 

 State program, and this may have certain elements of regional or national 

 significance. 



The character of the cooperative extension work is defined in the Smith - 

 Lever Act as follows : 



That cooperative agricultural extension work shall consist of the giving of instruc- 

 tion and practical demonstrations in agriculture and home economics to persons not 

 attending or resident in said colleges in the several communities, and imparting 

 to such persons information on said subjects through field demonstrations, publica- 

 tions, and otherwise. 



In subject matter this work covers the whole range of problems re- 

 lating to agricultural production and economics, as well as the home and 

 community life of farming people. In recent years the agricultural 

 agents have given much attention to standardization and marketing 



