14 BULLETIN 83, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



provision for advising experienced farmers on the means to be adopted in applying 

 scientific discoveries to practice. 



He alleges that it is a mistake to suppose that the proper way to introduce the 

 results of scientific research to farmers is to spread information by means of lectures 

 or leaflets; that information can be spread by these means, but not as a rule the 

 results of research as first published by the research institutions; that few of the dis- 

 coveries made by research workers are likely to be immediately applicable to the 

 farm practice of a particular district, but must be modified before they can be utilized. 

 When, however, on a particular farm the success of the new method has been estab- 

 lished, neighbors will learn by imitation and the improvement may with advantage 

 then be brought to the notice of others by lecturers and leaflets. 



For the purpose, therefore, of translating the results of research into successful 

 practice, a highly trained scientific man is required who has special knowledge of 

 some particular branch of science and a sufficient acquaintance with agriculture to 

 command the respect of skillful and enlightened practical farmers. He states further 

 that for the present all that is practicable is to lay the foundation of a system having 

 as its object the bringing into existence of a class of well-qualified specialists who 

 shall devote themselves to the service of agriculture. The first essential is that the 

 specialist to be employed should really be a specialist. The second essential is that 

 the persons who are to be engaged in the work of promoting agriculture should be of 

 the same caliber as those who have advanced arts like medicine and engineering. 



Since no class of agricultural specialists corresponding to the medical specialist 

 exists, it will be necessary to train up men for the work and, therefore, to employ 

 at the outset young and inexperienced persons. For the first few years the work must 

 suffer from this lack of experience, but just as well-trained young medical men quickly 

 acquire experience so will these specialists who are being trained to help agriculturists. 



To be really useful either to the large farmer or the small holder the teacher must be 

 a specialist, and if he is a scientific man his attainments in some branch of science 

 should be high; if a practical man he must be a more skillful practitioner than the 

 majority of those whom he instructs. 



This announcement of the purpose of the grants by the Board of Agriculture and 

 Fisheries for the furtherance of technical instruction in agriculture and horticulture, 

 and of the policy to be pursued in the expenditure of the funds, is of value to those 

 who are in charge of extension work in the United States because of its careful analysis 

 of the methods to be pursued and the qualifications of the individuals who are to 

 disseminate the information. 



The declaration that the discoveries by the experiment stations should, first of all, 

 be placed in the hands of learned scientists who have at the same time practical 

 acquaintance with agriculture, for testing before these truths are given over to ordinary 

 lecturers to promulgate for general adoption is worthy of serious attention. The two 

 classes of extension men are differentiated as to their duties in disseminating in- 

 formation. The observance of the distinction made will help to clear away some of 

 the difficulties that at present embarrass institute and extension directors in this 

 country in organizing their extension work. 



Algeria. — Under the direction of the Algerian Commission of Technical Agri- 

 cultural Instruction, Industry and Commerce, a reorganization of Algerian agriculture 

 is taking place which includes the establishing of demonstration farms in all the 

 agricultural regions of the colony. 



This reorganization is of interest to extension workers in the United States because 

 of its providing a method of teaching advanced agriculture by means of farms attached 

 to the experiment stations for the purpose of exhibiting in a practical way and upon a 

 considerable scale the results of the researches made by the stations. To these demon- 

 stration farms farmers are invited to witness what has been accomplished and to re- 

 ceive instruction respecting the methods employed and the cost incurred in securing 

 the results. 



