April, ’ 20 ] 
CROSBY AND PALMER: SPECIAL SPRAY SERVICE 
213 
ments of Plant Pathology and Entomology cooperated in stationing 
special field assistants in certain counties to cooperate with the Farm 
Bureau Associations. 
The plan of doing this work by means of field assistants was adopted 
because our experiences with industrial fellowships financed by associa¬ 
tions of farmers had shown that the greatest good can be accomplished 
in the control of insect pests and plant diseases by having a trained 
man located in a definite territory where he can become thoroughly 
acquainted with the local problems, can watch the crops throughout 
the growing season and by his intimate knowledge of conditions be 
able to anticipate and prevent destructive outbreaks. He also is 
able to win the respect and confidence of the farmers as they become 
familiar with his aims and methods of work. 
For field assistants, young men were selected who had had technical 
training in plant pathology and entomology and who, as far as pos¬ 
sible, had had practical experience in the kind of agriculture with 
which they had to deal. They were placed only in counties where the 
local demand for their services was great enough so that the local 
farmers’ organization was willing to furnish some means of transpor¬ 
tation within the county—a motorcycle or automobile. These field 
assistants worked in close cooperation with the Farm Bureau manager 
and thus avoided duplication of effort and utilized the Farm Bureau 
organization for learning the needs of the county, for arranging demon¬ 
strations, and for assistance in reaching the individual farmers in each 
community. 
The field assistants were under the constant supervision of experts 
thoroughly trained and of wide experience in demonstration work. 
These experts not only made sure that the advice given out was sound 
but also that the most efficient methods of disseminating such informa¬ 
tion were followed. The field assistant was in the field practically 
all the time, visiting the farmers and examining the crops and was 
thus often able to detect the presence of injurious insects while there 
was still time to fight them effectively. In the case of many of our 
pests it is impossible to control them after the injury becomes appar¬ 
ent. The development of many plant diseases is dependent on weather 
conditions; the field assistant was able to tell when infections were 
likely to take place and thus advise the proper preventive treatments. 
In the season of 1917 field assistants were stationed in twelve coun¬ 
ties. On the whole this work was so successful that in the season of 
1918 the New York State Food Commission, successor of the New 
York State Food Supply Commission, set aside ten thousand dollars 
for the continuation of the work. Owing to war conditions it was im¬ 
possible to obtain a sufficient number of competent field assistants and 
