THE DEMONSTRATION WORK 



sufficient to describe such occasions as schools, courses or 

 institutes. The nature of the action and the spirit of the 

 assembly are different. It is an unique institution because 

 it is designed solely to meet a specific demand. Out of the 

 desire for definite help for club members have come various 

 encampments which have been organized to promote club 

 work among the members. As a rule, these are called ''4-H" 

 camps. They are held for four days. During that time the 

 club members get valuable experience in conducting their 

 own activities, both for instruction and entertainment. The 

 camps are great recreation centers also. The youngsters get 

 valuable practice, too, in preparing and serving their food. In 

 all this work they bring in such aid as they are able to get from 

 the realm of science. They, too, strive to get material for use 

 throughout the rest of the year. Some of these camps have 

 used the county as a unit ; some represent two or three counties 

 in co-operation, and others have been state- wide and interstate. 

 Camp carries the idea of drill and suits better than scholastic 

 terms. 



Perhaps no meetings of instruction have had such far- 

 reaching influence upon the extension work in general as the 

 conference meetings of the Demonstration Agents. When 

 there were not more than eight or ten agents to the state 

 they held meetings annually and sometimes semi-annually. 

 In the formative days, Dr. Knapp and other representatives 

 from the Department of Agriculture in Washington attended 

 practically all of them. Those few agents caught the spirit 

 of the work and learned the method of it. As a rule, all the 

 agents in a group had the same kind of work in hand. The 

 result was that there was much unity and zeal in their asso- 

 ciation. There was a certain devotion and innovation about 

 it because of the vital interest involved, and because they 



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