152 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



work, — the reaching out of the hand, the glad hand and 

 the helpful hand, to the practical farmer here in Massachu- 

 setts and in New England. He conies from a country where 

 they do great work, and he has helped to do some of it, and 

 I would like to know some of the details of that work. In 

 the west and I think in Rhode Island they send men from 

 house to house in the rural districts. I wish he would tell 

 us some of the experiences of these men, some of the hope- 

 ful things as well as some of the discouraging things which 

 they are running up against. 



President Butterfield. To show the scope of extension 

 work, I may say that Cornell University has spent $50,000 

 a year on extension work, in addition to $20,000 spent 

 by the Commissioner of Agriculture for farmers' institutes. 

 Other institutions are also doing it, as you probably know, 

 — some in one way and some in another. Down in Rhode 

 Island we have organized an extension department because 

 Ave want to have it known that extension work is a legiti- 

 mate function of the college work, and we have a superin- 

 tendent of college extension. He gives demonstrations in 

 spraying and that sort of thing. Then he tries to get in 

 touch with the granges and other organizations by giving 

 lectures himself, and also by arranging for lectures by the 

 faculty. We find that this work is developing quite rap- 

 idly, and they are calling for our men more than they used 

 to. Then the superintendent tries to get into touch with 

 the country schools, and is visiting those schools, getting 

 acquainted with the teachers, with the superintendents ; and 

 is organizing what he calls "nature guards," — little bands 

 of pupils who are doing nature work, or making school gar- 

 dens in the country and city schools. Then we have carried 

 on what we call " a carpet-bag campaign." We were much 

 pleased with it. We had a man from jNlichigan for a month, 

 a practical farmer, thoi'oughly up to date, and we "turned 

 him loose" in northwestern Rhode Island. He went around 

 from farm to farm, simply doing missionary work, trying to 

 find out all he could about conditions, and lending such aid 

 as he could to inquiring farmers. 



At Cornell they not only make agricultural surveys, get 



