SEPTEMBER 13, 1918] 
body of new facts of value to agriculture has 
been accumulated, which the extension service 
carries directly to the farm and farm home. 
The extension, or demonstration, method of 
teaching and inducing farm people to adopt 
improved practises is a distinctly American 
educational development. It was first used 
in a systematic way in 1903 by the late Dr. 
Seaman A. Knapp in his efforts to teach 
southern farmers how to meet the menace of 
the boll weevil. This method of giving prac- 
tical instruction in agriculture and home eco- 
nomies to persons not attending or resident 
in colleges by means of demonstration, that is, 
by doing on the farm or in the home, or better, 
by having the farmer, or the housewife, or 
their children do the thing it is desired to 
teach, has been developed by the United States 
Department of Agriculture and the state 
colleges of agriculture during the past fifteen 
years. It was made a permanent and nation- 
wide system and liberally endowed by the 
cooperative extension act of May 8, 1914, 
which provided that all such work should be 
coordinated and carried on cooperatively by 
the state colleges of agriculture and the sy 
eral Department of Agriculture. 
The department exercises administrative 
and general supervisory control of this work 
through its States Relations Service. It is 
administered in each state through a director 
of extension with headquarters at the state 
college of agriculture, in accordance with 
plans agreed upon by the Federal Department 
and the state colleges. The field work is done 
by (1) men county agents, (2) women county 
or home demonstration agents, (3) boys’ and 
girls’ clubs, and (4) a corps of specialists 
furnished by the Department and the state 
colleges. Through these agencies it reaches 
at first hand and in a very practical way the 
men, women and children of each rural com- 
munity. 
The cooperative extension act will ulti- 
mately (in 1922-23 and thereafter) provide 
$4,580,000 annually for this work, to which 
the states must add $4,100,000 annually in 
order to share in the benefits of the act. Dur- 
ing the fiscal year 1917-18 there was available 
SCIENCE 
261 
for extension work from these sources $3,680,- 
000. Funds from other sources increased this 
amount to $7,600,000. In addition, $4,348,000 
of the special appropriation made to the De- 
partment of Agriculture last year for the 
stimulation of agriculture was deyoted to the 
expansion of the extension work as a war- 
emergency measure. 
That the nation entered the war with well- 
organized and highly efficient agencies work- 
ing for the betterment of agriculture is well 
illustrated by the part they have played in 
dealing with food problems during the pres- 
“ent emergency. In April, 1917, the food situ- 
ation of the nation was not satisfactory. The 
time for action was short. It was necessary 
that nothing be omitted to increase the supply 
of food, feed, live stock and clothing, and to 
grow strong in agriculture, while Europe, and 
especially the central powers, was growing 
weak. The machinery was ready. The farm- 
ers and their organizations were alert. The 
department and its great allies, the land-grant 
colleges, immediately proceeded to redirect 
their activities and to put forth all their ener- 
gies in the most promising directions. In a 
conference of the agricultural leaders of the 
nation in St. Louis, called just before the 
United States entered the war, a program for 
further organization, legislation and action 
with reference to production, conseryation and 
marketing was drawn up, the principal fea- 
tures of which have been enacted into law 
without substantial change or have been put 
into effect. This prompt and effective hand- 
ling of the situation was made possible by 
reason of the fact that the American people, 
generations before, had wisely laid the founda- 
tions of many agricultural institutions and 
had with increasing liberality supported their 
agricultural agencies. 
In due course the Congress enacted the 
food-control bill, conceived at this conference, 
now administered by the Food Administration, 
and the emergency food-production act, ad- 
ministered by the Department of Agriculture. 
With funds made available by the latter act, 
the department increased its activities along 
all essential lines and developed new ones. It 
