EFFECTIVENESS OF EXTENSION IN BEACHING RURAL PEOPLE 
17 
MEMBERSHIP, PARTICIPATION, AND CONTACT 
In Table 19 an attempt is made to bring out the combined influence 
of membership in the extension association and participation in 
extension activities or contact with extension agents. Where the 
farmer or farm woman was affiliated with the extension association 
and also made an effort to get in touch with the representatives of 
the extension service, 93 per cent reported changed practices. TVhere 
only one of these conditions was satisfied, 72 per cent adopted new 
practices. In the case of the remaining farms, where the operators 
had never been members of the extension association or had never 
got in touch with extension workers, 24 per cent reported cnanged 
practices. This would seem to indicate the importance of wide- 
spread membership in the extension association, if such a plan of or- 
ganization is followed, combined with active participation in exten- 
sion activities. That the influence of extension is also being felt on« 
the farms and in the homes not ostensibly interested in the work, is 
evidenced by the fact that of the nonmembers of the extension asso- 
ciation who had never attended an extension meeting or other activity 
and who had never called at the extension office or invited an exten- 
sion agent to the farm, nearly a fourth reported putting into practice 
teachings of the extension service. 
Table 19. — Relationship of membership in extension associations and participation 
in extension activities or contact with extension workers to number of farms 
changing practices * 
Group 
Number 
of farms 
A —Farms satisfying both of the following 
conditions: (1) Membership in farm or 
home bureau— present or past; (2) 
participation in extension activities or 
contact with extension workers... 1,651 
B— Farms satisfying but one of the above 
conditions. 
C— Farms satisfying neither of the above 
conditions 
Percent- 
age of all 
farms 
Percentage of farms changing 
practices 
Agricul- Home Any 
tural economics practice 
Average 
number 
of 
practices 
changed 
1 Data in this table are for three States only, Colorado not being included. 
BOYS' AND GIRLS' CLUB WORK 
Children were reported on 66 per cent of the 3,954 farms. The 
average number of children on these farms was 2.6 (Table 20). No 
account was made of children under 21 years of age who had left the 
farm. In three States, information was obtained relative to the ages 
of all children on farms. A classification of these children according 
to age groups indicates that only 42 per cent cf the farms had boys 
and girls of club age (10 to 20 years), and that the average number of 
boys and girls cf club age on these farms was 2. Thirteen per cent of 
all farms and 29 per cent of the farms with young people of club age 
were represented in club work. In the throe States where the in- 
formation was obtained, 21 per cent of the boys and girls from 10 to 
20 years of age either were carrying on a junior project or had carried 
on one at some previous time. (Fig. 6.) Junior demonstrations 
