DEVELOPMENT OF THE FARM DEMONSTRATION AGENCY 



have had twenty or thirty years of experience in their pro- 

 fessions. 



The colleges could not get very far with farmers' insti- 

 tutes or movable schools because the supply of information 

 and the methods of instruction were neither abundant nor 

 adaptable. In fact, they had little to extend, so the extension 

 work was insignificant, as a general rule, for forty years 

 after Agricultural Colleges began. Likewise it was impossible 

 for the Experiment Stations to inaugurate extension work. 

 They conducted experiments in order to find facts and dis- 

 cover truth. In no sense were these experiment farms con- 

 ducted to make profit and demonstrate best methods. It was 

 contemplated that they might lose money in order to advance 

 science. This idea could not be extended to general farming 

 without disastrous results. So it should not have been ex- 

 pected that an efficient system of extension activity should 

 grow out of the Experiment Stations. 



It has really come to pass that experiment and research 

 call for one type of worker while extension develops quite a 

 different one. Likewise the professor who teaches the students 

 in the college has a profession all his own and may not be 

 suited for either of the other lines. 



Another criticism, which may be fairly brought against 

 the early efforts in extension work, is that they were 

 directed mainly to the most intelligent and the well to do. 

 Because of the lack of logic in their position and because of 

 their incorrect methods of approach there was, of necessity, a 

 waste of money until proper changes and corrections were 

 made. 



It may not be so bad, after all, that there was some waste 

 motion in executing the provisions of all these Acts of Con- 

 gress if progress has been made, and if efficiency has been 



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