CHAPTER XXVI 

 THE COUNTY AGRICULTURAL AGENT 



TWO new agencies have recently entered the field of ag- 

 ricultural education and rural development: These are 

 (1) the county agricultural agent, and (2) the county farm 

 bureau. The latter consists of an organization of the farm- 

 ers of a county for the purpose of furnishing a kind of 

 clearing house for agricultural information. The county 

 agent is an agricultural leader whose business is to organ- 

 ize, lead, instruct and give expert advice to the farmers 

 or to pupils and teachers of agriculture in the schools of 

 the county. 



1. The Work of the County Agent 



First work in the South. The advent of the boll- 

 weevil in the cotton-fields of Texas was responsible for 

 the beginning of this work. So great were its ravages that 

 in 1906 the United States Department of Agriculture put 

 Doctor S. A. Knapp in charge of demonstration work show- 

 ing how the pest could be exterminated. From this begin- 

 ning there has been a very rapid growth of this type of 

 work, until at the present time county agricultural agents 

 are scattered all over the United States. 



The county workers. Men employed as county agri- 

 cultural agents are required to be possessed of scientific 

 information on the problems of agriculture. They are ex- 

 pected also to have had practical farming experience. Plans 

 have already been made by which the county agent is 

 assisted by a woman agent who will be thoroughly trained 



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