AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES AND EXTENSION WORK 41 



college, were personal answers given to each letter. A regular 

 publication is necessary to outline and suggest work to be re- 

 ported upon. The correspondence is really one-sided, for answers 

 to individual letters may be given in the next publication or in cir- 

 cular letters. Only a small percentage requires personal answers. 

 The office work is thus reduced to filing and checking reports and 

 preparing mailing-lists. The most extensive work of this kind 

 has been carried on by Cornell University. "Uncle John," who 

 is supposed to read the letters, is more widely known and is more 

 popular among the young people of New York rural communities 

 than any other member of the university. This method is also 

 used by the agricultural colleges of Ohio and Rhode Island. The 

 agricultural colleges of Florida, Kansas, and Pennsylvania (59) 

 conduct correspondence courses in agriculture for teachers. 



The most successful form of agricultural extension among 

 public-school children has been agricultural clubs (60, 6i). 2 

 They are now organized in nearly every state and are not only a 

 means of imparting a knowledge of agriculture to their members, 

 but have a wholesome reaction on the communities in which 

 they are organized. The following is a statement of the work of 

 boys' clubs of Louisiana: 



This year, 1909, we have about 2,000 boys in our agricultural clubs. 

 Next year we expect to have 10,000. I shall devote all of December, Jan- 

 uary, and February to the organization of these clubs in every parish in 

 Louisiana. The corn crop in Louisiana this year exceeds in yield by 50 

 per cent the crop of 1908, and it is generally admitted that a large part of 

 the increase is due to the interest created in corn during the last two years 

 by the boys that are in the boys' clubs. The best corn show ever held in 

 Louisiana was that of the boys' clubs at the State Fair at Shreveport the 

 first days of this month. 3 



The agricultural colleges of all the southern states are active 

 in their co-operation with the government demonstration work 

 among boys. The most complete state organization of boys' and 

 girls' clubs is in Nebraska (60). Here the State Agricultural 



'Boys' agricultural dubs are fully discussed in chap. xii. 



'From a letter of Professor V. L. Roy, Department of Agricultural Education, State 

 Agricultural College of Louisiana. 



