THE DEMONSTRATION WORK 



their desire for it, the printed page has some power, but the 

 miscellaneous distribution of Government publications has 

 been a great waste of the peoples money. The distribution 

 of tracts by a colporter is a more direct method of approach 

 than the ordinary use of mailing lists. This same method of 

 finding points of contact by the itinerant agent has given a 

 personal hold and established a kind of leadership that is 

 human and powerful. Thousands of instances are reported in 

 which the girls and their mothers look to the agent for guid- 

 ance in other matters than gardening, canning and preserv- 

 ing. Not long since an agent reported a case of a crippled 

 girl who had earned enough money, through her garden, to have 

 an important operation performed, so that she might be able 

 to walk like the other girls during the rest of her life. The 

 county agent went with her to the hospital, held her hand 

 when she passed into sleep and was the first person into whose 

 face the little club member looked when the trying ordeal 

 was over. Surely an affectionate devotion was enhanced 

 here and a relation was established, in that community, which 

 caused the agent to become a social and moral factor of a high 

 order. 



As this work develops and expands, the woman county 

 agent gets more and more opportunities for service. At the 

 same time, with the experience and study, the standards of 

 her qualifications will become higher and higher. By and by 

 she will be a florist, an architect and an artist. Already a 

 great many of them, with their knowledge of plants and their 

 skill in the growing of them, have started girls on the way to 

 become successful florists. A few years ago practically none 

 of them knew that there are hundreds of opportunities in this 

 country to make a good livelihood selling flowers. As a result 

 of the training being given by the agents, many of these 



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