11 



of the Division of Farm Management of the United States 

 Department, and the creator of the idea of the countj^ agency, 

 proved most enthusiastic in laying before us the principles 

 which had already crystallized in his mind, and upon which the 

 county farm bureau of to-day is founded. Professor Spillman's 

 experience with county agents in the south, where they had 

 originally been sent to exterminate the boll weevil, and had 

 gradually developed into general agricultural advisers and had 

 led to the introduction in that section of diversified farming, 

 inspired him with the thought that the ideal unit of scientific, 

 agricultural instruction was the county. He saw that the 

 opportunities which an agricultural expert had in working in 

 a restricted area gave him an advantage over any other pos- 

 sible method, by reason of the fact that it enabled him to get 

 into personal relationships with each farmer, and to add to the 

 mere cold, hard, scientific instruction the persuasive power of 

 personal contact, and, by persistent application upon the indi- 

 vidual farmer, to induce him to try the methods which science 

 had proven were good and practicable. 



Up to this time there were no county agents in the north, 

 and I believe the term "farm bureau" was entirely unknown. 

 Certainly there was no co-operative county association under 

 the leadership of what are now known as farm bureau agents 

 anywhere in the country. Professor Spillman welcomed the 

 opportunity to experiment in a section such as that of the 

 southern tier of New York, where he believed the conditions 

 ideal to demonstrate the practicability of his plan, and when 

 he found the Lackawanna Railroad ready to contribute the 

 funds necessary for at least one-half of the support of the 

 bureau the first year, and the Binghamton Chamber of Com- 

 merce one-fourth, he found funds available in the United States 

 Department for the remainder, and in March, 1911, the Broome 

 County Farm Bureau was organized. This Bureau is the pro- 

 totype of the farm bureaus in the United States, and the 

 Lackawanna Railroad Company takes a great deal of pride, 

 which we hope you will regard as pardonable, in having been 

 a co-author of that work. 



The first year or two of the Broome County Farm Bureau 

 w^as a very trying one, owing to a variety of causes, such as 



