386 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



agreed on the details and method under which he was to carry 

 the. work along. This plan proved an immediate success and 

 was copied in Texas in 1912 and in Georgia in 1913. Florida 

 fell in line in the early spring of 1914. 



In 1911 some experiments in reaching farmers directly through 

 a resident instructor were tried in the northern states under the 

 direction of the Office of Farm Management of the Federal De- 

 partment of Agriculture. In the early part of the year 1912 

 the same office was authorized to begin a systematic effort to 

 extend this practical direct work among farmers into the south- 

 ern states. The problems to be met were different and it re- 

 quired time and experience to enable the workers to adapt the 

 fundamental principles involved in the demonstration work to 

 the new field. North Dakota began an independent demonstra- 

 tion work early in 1912, afterward uniting with the department's 

 general work of the same character. In addition to North Da- 

 kota, New York and Indiana were among the first to develop the 

 work in the northern states. In all the northern and western 

 work the well trained county agent was the necessary part of 

 the plan as in the South. 



Beginning in 1862 with the Morrill Act for the endowment 

 of the state colleges of agriculture, the Congress of the United 

 States had passed a series of acts to assist the states in agricul- 

 tural education and research. The Nelson Act increased the 

 funds for teaching agriculture in the colleges, and the Hatch 

 and Adams Acts created and supported the state experiment 

 stations. 



It would be impossible to say just when the colleges had first 

 begun to think about some act to assist them with the extension 

 work or direct work with farmers, but certainly a number of 

 years before the passage of the Smith-Lever Act the Association 

 of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations had 

 been interested and active in that direction. Many of the lead- 

 ing agricultural colleges of the northern states, and especially 

 of the middle western states, had established extension depart- 

 ments of considerable proportions. Their work consisted mainly 

 of the sending out of specialists, the conducting of institutes, 

 movable schools of agriculture and home economics, short courses 

 at the colleges, and boys' and girls' club work. Some plot work 



