SOME DIFFICULTIES AHEAD 333 



On the last date named above 29 of the 33 northern and western 

 States were organized on the Farm Bureau Plan. 



Home Bureaus. The extension work in home economics has 

 taken on such importance that it has gained recognition as being 

 coordinate with the Farm Bureau. The situation is met by expand- 

 ing the Farm Bureau to include home demonstration work, the 

 representatives of the home economics work being added to the 

 executive committee of the bureau. These representatives are 

 influential farm women of the country, qualified for the work by 

 their education, experience, and personality. 



Boys' and Girls' Club Work. A prominent place is now uni- 

 versally given to the work of boys' clubs and girls' clubs. A county 

 representative of this club work, qualified by capacity for leader- 

 ship, now has a place in r the organization of the Farm Bureau 

 in many States. In other words, the Farm Bureau program is 

 easily expanded beyond the purely agricultural phases of the 

 subject, so as to include home demonstration and boys' and girls' 

 club work. 



Some Difficulties Ahead. The County Agent movement, in 

 striving for "better farming" that is, a greater production will < 

 have the hearty cooperation of the various interests of the county 

 mercantile, banking, transportation, etc. The same is true of 

 work for better roads, better schools, better rural life conditions. 

 However, in the field of buying and selling, the County Agent is 

 likely to come into direct competition with certain interests 

 already more or less well established. The pressure is so great on 

 the County Agent to "do something" for the farmer in the field 

 now occupied by the over-berated "middleman," that many 

 County Agents are driven to their wits' end. Cooperative buying 

 and selling enterprises form a legitimate and desirable field for 

 farm activity, and in many instances have achieved conspicuous 

 success. However, the death-rate of these enterprises is so 

 high that the County Agent should proceed with caution in 

 starting new ones. He ought to be reasonably assured in ad- 

 vance of the real need of the new undertaking, that the enter- 

 prise will have a large enough volume of business to make 

 it worth while, that ample capital will be forthcoming to finance 

 it in a purely business-like way, and that an able and honest mana- 

 ger is in sight to conduct the business through all the severe 

 trials ahead of it (Fig. 68). 



Pressure is also brought to bear on the County Agent to give 

 marketing advice which is, in fact, the forecasting of prices. Since 



