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. 
