214 
JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 
[Vol. 13 
the work was confined to a single county where highly satisfactory 
results were obtained. 
In 1919 the Extension Department of the College of Agriculture 
adopted the policy of conducting the work of the field assistants on a 
more permanent basis. The college proposed to enter into a cooperative 
agreement with any county farm bureau association to station in the 
county a field assistant during the growing season, usually a period 
of six months. The college paid one hundred dollars a month towards 
the salary, additional salary to be furnished by the local association. 
The Farm Bureau furnished an automobile for the use of the assistant 
and paid his traveling expenses while in the county and away from* 
headquarters. The assistant functioned as an assistant to the county 
agricultural agent but his activities were restricted to insect pest and 
plant disease control work and he was under the supervision of the 
college. Under this agreement field assistants were placed in six 
counties. 
For field assistants, graduate students are selected. Our experi¬ 
ences, both with industrial fellowships and in the work with the Food 
Commissions, has shown that, in general, graduate students, prefer¬ 
ably the younger ones, are more efficient and successful in this line of 
work than are older persons who have become more or less settled in 
life and consequently opinionated. It has been generally supposed 
that for this kind of work, mature men would be more desirable but 
as a matter of fact such is not the case. Where we have been compelled 
to use older men not actively interested in science or where we have 
used graduate students who were past the optimum age for study, 
we have had more misfits and failures than where younger men with 
more active interest have been employed. This may seem paradoxical. 
The explanation is that the salary available is not sufficient to attract 
mature men of sufficient ability. It is much better for the work to 
employ young men of special ability in their apprenticeship stage than * 
men of mediocre ability who have nothing better in prospect. A 
young man who in the course of the next ten years is likely to be oc¬ 
cupying a five to ten thousand dollar position is much more valuable 
for this work than an older man who would be satisfied to take a short 
term appointment at one hundred and fifty dollars a month. The 
younger men look on this work as an opportunity to obtain first¬ 
hand knowledge of field conditions and methods and are, therefore, 
willing to spend the summer season for two or three years in this way, 
since it is a part of their training and of direct advantage to them in 
their life work. Furthermore, they have an incentive to do their 
best since if they make good as field assistants they have a better 
chance to obtain a good position on receiving the advanced degree; 
