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utilizing teachers in schools throughout as wide a territory as 

 possible, who in turn will act as extension teachers in the areas 

 in which they are located. 



Illiteracy is a serious bar to the best extension work, and 

 suggests the great need of extension work to combat illiteracy 

 itself. It is strongly recommended that efforts be made to 

 render certain whole villages literate, by teaching the people to 

 read about the things that affect their daily lives and matters 

 that are distinctly improvable. 



The demonstration must be relied upon chiefly as a method 

 of securing change of practice; demonstration by the farmer 

 himself, if at all possible to induce him to try the new plan; by 

 the gentry, who have larger holdings and presumably a 

 substantial measure of intelligence; and by the local school, on 

 its own land or on rented land. 



The plan already being used, of sending out survey parties, 

 to make inventories of farm conditions in given areas, and at the 

 same time to talk to farmers about better methods, has every- 

 thing to commend it. In this way the central staff discovers at 

 first hand the conditions under which the farmers work, gains a 

 multitude of suggestions for investigation and learns how to 

 reach the ear of the farmer. The farmers, on the other hand, 

 learn that there is someone who can help them and is willing to 

 aid, that there is room for improvement, and that a new hope 

 for better things is not a mere dream. 



This paper cannot possibly go into detail with respect to 

 extension method. Both European and American experience 

 should be fully drawn upon as bases for experiments in methods 

 that will "work" in China. As already stated, the Christian 

 agricultural colleges can hardly hope to reach the great masses 

 of Chinese farmers; but they have no better service to render 

 than to demonstrate successfully how the working farmer, with 

 his tiny farm, his utter lack of education, his narrow horizons, 

 his reliance upon superstitions, can be inspired to faith in applied 

 science and to hope for a fuller life, economically and socially. 



2. The Middle School of Agriculture. Only one school of 

 this type is recommended for each region, for two reasons; the 

 first being that of cost, the second that of uncertainty as to 

 whether the graduates of many such schools can find positions 

 just at present. Except in cases where graduates might be 

 employed by rather large landholders, it can hardly be expected 



