THE DEMONSTRATION WORK 



agents were getting more money than the professors. We said to 

 him, 'Yes, and rightly, too; for it requires a higher grade of ability 

 to do this work successfully.' Students in the college are obliged to 

 attend the professor's classes and submit to whatever markings he 

 gives them; but the farmer is not obliged to seek the advice of the 

 county agent, nor to follow his suggestions. The county agent must 

 be able to win men, and winning men is a far different proposition 

 from pouring information into ears more or less willing, information 

 which they are there to gain.' " 



"All success to the county agent. May there be more of his 

 kind, more and better and best. It will not be long before the 

 farm women will want a county agent of their own. In fact, we have 

 some of them now. They have a work even more difficult than the 

 farmer's county agent." 



Even at that time Home Demonstration Agents were al- 

 ready at work in large numbers, in the states where the Farm 

 Demonstration Work was first established. 



It does a serious injustice to a young man to send him 

 into a county with the title of farm adviser. It involves a 

 certain amount of assumption and egotism for him to go to 

 the farmers and say : * ' I am your adviser. " It is a common 

 saying that advice is cheap. Anybody can give it. Further- 

 more, the farmer may have some self assertion in the pre- 

 mises and declare that advice from such source is not wanted 

 or needed. How different the attitude and the approach if the 

 young man goes to the farmer and says : * ' On behalf of the 

 constituted agricultural authorities of our county, state and 

 nation, I want you to make an object lesson in crops or live 

 stock for the benefit of your community and the common- 

 wealth. Then I wish to be the general representative in 

 spreading the news of your success wherever it will help 

 others.'' The appeal is different. The urge is different. It 

 can be used with rich or poor, educated or uneducated. After 

 a few years of successful work of this kind he can well be con- 



["4] 



