NOVEMBEB 27, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



759 



partment and the experiment stations, as wel] 

 as tlie teachings of the agricultural colleges, 

 will hereafter be put to a much more thorough 

 practical test. When the county agent system 

 is well established in any region it will natu- 

 rally be expected that after a reasonable lapse 

 of time the agriculture of that region will 

 show definite improvement. Not only should 

 there be better crops and animals but they 

 should be so handled and marketed that the 

 farmers will receive more satisfactory returns 

 for their labor. Moreover the affairs of the 

 farm homes and of the rural community should 

 be more efiiciently managed. It wiU no longer 

 answer to state the agricultural progress of 

 this region in general terms, however glitter- 

 ing. There must be definite facts and figures 

 to prove every statement. And these should 

 emanate not from the institutions and their 

 agents who have been working there, but from 

 the people for whose benefit the work has been 

 done. It may be that the county agent wiU 

 be directly responsible for the condition of 

 affairs in his own county but everybody will 

 know that he has had the backing of the agri- 

 cultural college and the Department of Agri- 

 culture. These institutions will be held chiefly 

 responsible for the success of their agents. No 

 other educational system has had such severe 

 tests of its practical value. Here are stand- 

 ards of judgment from which there can be no 

 appeal. If this system was to be applied only 

 here and there, failure might be attributed 

 to some peculiar local conditions. But this 

 is to be a national system whose failure, if 

 there is failure, vnll be due to imperfect or 

 false teachings and wrong methods of admin- 

 istration. 



This new system, then, is not merely an 

 important addition to the business of the agri- 

 cultural colleges and Department of Agricul- 

 ture for which they must make proper arrange- 

 ments by appointing competent agents and 

 securing the economical expenditure of public 

 funds. It is of course to be expected that 

 these institutions will put aside all political or 

 other improper motives in the organization 

 and work of the extension force. To gather 

 about them and to send into the field a body 



of the most experienced and best trained men 

 and women in thorough sympathy with the 

 men, women and children on our farms, that 

 existing conditions will permit, wiU indeed be 

 a great achievement. To operate this force 

 harmoniously and successfully under a co- 

 operative system which involves the close 

 alliance of national, state, county and local 

 organizations, will be a most wonderful thing. 

 But we may have the most competent exten- 

 sion force we can get throughout the nation 

 and the most cordial relations among the co- 

 operating agencies and yet our extension sys- 

 tem may prove a comparative failure. And 

 it will be this unless the colleges and the de- 

 partment look upon the extension work as a 

 vital part of their organism, even as the feet 

 and hands are parts of our human bodies. The 

 blood that flows in this body must be rich and 

 pure, the nervous force that propels it must 

 be strong and active, the wiU. that controls it 

 and the spirit which emanates from it must be 

 infused with the highest ideals of public serv- 

 ice. Not only the administrative officers of 

 the colleges and the department must work 

 for the best development of the extension sys- 

 tem as an organic part of their institutions, 

 but the investigators and the teachers must 

 feel and act toward the extension workers in 

 the most sympathetic and helpful spirit. And 

 on the other hand, the extension workers, 

 whatever the distance that separates them 

 from headquarters, must fully realize that they 

 are essential parts of the institutions they 

 locally represent and must be thoroughly im- 

 bued with a spirit of loyalty to these institu- 

 tions and an attitude of broad and intelligent 

 appreciation of the functions of adminis- 

 trators, teachers and investigators at the col- 

 leges and the department. There must be no 

 carping criticism of the theoretical vs. the 

 practical as if these are inevitably to be set 

 one over against the other, but a generous 

 recognition that in order to do our best work 

 for the advancement of agriculture and home 

 economics, we must know both the real facts 

 as determined by observation and experience 

 and also the principles on which these facts 



