Satterthwait] NATURE-STUDY extension 75 



extension work shall consist of the giving of instruction and practi- 

 cal demonstrations in agriculture and home economics to persons 

 not attending or resident in the agricultural and mechanical col- 

 leges in the several communities, and imparting to such persons 

 information on said subjects through field demonstrations, publica- 

 tions, and otherwise. The three greatest claimable appropriations 

 under this act for the year ending June 30, 1920, were: Pennsyl- 

 vania, $169,722.91 ; Texas, $165,868.55; Illinois, $123,889.52. 



The Vocational Training act, which passed February 23, 1917, 

 appropriated a maximum sum of $1,000,000 for 1920. This act 

 provides for teachers of agriculture, trades, industry and home 

 economics. 



Cooperative extension work in agriculture and home economics 

 is divided between the South, consisting of Delaware, Maryland, 

 West Virginia, Kentucky, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas and the 

 States south of these, and the North and West, consisting of the 

 remaining states. 



The chief lines of activity of the extension work are represented 

 by the county agent, the home economics agent and the boys' and 

 girls' club agent. A banker of central New York said that "within 

 three years after the Smith-Lever act went into force, their county 

 agent had done more for the fanners of that county than the entire 

 Department of Agriculture and the state agricultural colleges had 

 done for them during the fifty years preceding." This expresses 

 the appreciation of extension work felt in counties which have 

 entered into the spirit of improved agriculture and of cooperation. 



From its beginning in 1862, the Department of Agriculture has 

 been amassing a tremendous volume of information from its many 

 contacts with agriculture and has dispensed its information freely 

 through its central outlets and through the experiment stations. 

 To such extent as the information was used by farmers, stock 

 raisers, fruit growers and others, they profitted. The difficulty has 

 been in the failure of the farmer to assimilate the information. 

 Having had none of the advantages of nature-study or elementary 

 agriculture in childhood, he grew to depend upon his personal 

 experience almost to the exclusion of all other information. An 

 extreme type is represented in the story of the farmer answering a 

 county agent with the self exposing assertion that "I've nm 

 through three farms, and I know. You can't tell me anything 

 about farming." 



