THE AGRICULTURAL PHASE 77 



Practical Farm Housekeeping (two lessons), 



Reading in the Farm Home. 

 [Those who desire a history of the farmers' reading- 

 course movement should consult Bull. 72, Office 

 of Experiment Stations, U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture.] 



2. ITINERANT EXPERIMENTING: Endeavoring 

 to solve local agricultural perplexities by experi- 

 ments on the spot, and also to illustrate the 

 application of well-known knowledge. These 

 experiments are of many kinds, conducted in many 

 places. This is necessarily so, because the 

 difficulties of farmers are so many and various. 

 Certain definite series, illustrative experiments, have 

 been planned from the central station, however, 

 and farmers have been asked to cooperate. Chief 

 of these are experiments with fertilizers, sugar 

 beets, spraying orchards, potato and bean culture, 

 cover-cropping, alfalfa-growing, poultry-raising. 

 Experts are sent to investigate outbreaks of insects, 

 fungous attacks on plants, diseases of stock, and other 

 special difficulties. Experiments on various 

 problems intimately associated with the extension 

 work are also made at the University itself. 

 Much of the results of the experimental work 

 connected with the extension enterprise has 

 appeared in bulletins ; but its chief value is not in 

 its publication, but in its educational effect in the 

 communities in which it is conducted. 



All this looks large and complete when seen in 

 type, but it is the merest beginning of what should 



