SUPERVISION, INSTRUCTION AND SUPPORT 



sun's rays meet." They agreed upon that name. From the 

 farm and home demonstrations, the rays are reflected and 

 refracted and the light goes out at many angles. 



The farmers who live near a good object lesson will 

 talk about it and ask about it. If it is located on the public 

 road, the radius of its influence will be greatly extended. 

 Logically the first meeting for instruction should be the field 

 meeting. This is a group of farmers who have been called 

 to meet upon the farm of a neighbor, who is conducting a 

 demonstration. Of course the county agent should be pres- 

 ent at least until the work is well established. Later the 

 specialist may be present also. The main instructor, how- 

 ever, will be the man who has grown the crop or produced 

 the live stock which is being exhibited. Before the demon- 

 stration work began, it was thought best to hold farmers' 

 meetings at the court house or perhaps at the high school 

 building. Often these meetings were poorly attended. Some- 

 times there were as many lecturers from the college and 

 Department present as there were people in the audience. 

 Considerable expense was incurred and energy devoted to 

 conducting farmers' institutes, which did not seem to reach 

 the farmers or even appeal to them. Those in charge failed 

 to realize the truth in Gladstone's philosophy when he said: 

 ''One example is better than a thousand arguments," Field 

 meetings, or field schools, as they were sometimes called, had 

 a fine stimulating effect. When a sufficient number of such 

 gatherings has been held in a county they touch every com- 

 munity; then it is much easier to get a larger attendance 

 at some central point. More successful meetings have been 

 held in corn, wheat, bean, clover and alfalfa fields, since the 

 inauguration of the demonstration work, than had ever been 

 held in the interest of agriculture in this country previous 



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