CHAPTER IV

AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION WORK

The work of the Cooperative Extension Service of the United States Department of Agriculture and the land-grant colleges has become firmly established as a phase of rural education. From the point of view of numbers reached, it is one of the largest programs of adult education, filling in a field that no other agency apparently could, or would, have filled. The work with children and youth, conducted on club basis, is also vast although perhaps not so distinctive as the work with adults.

The general purpose of cooperative extension work is to promote the educational welfare of rural people by supplementing the work of the public schools and other educational agencies. This is accomplished largely through extension instruction in agriculture and home economics, although cultural and civic activities may be included as related subjects.

Movements Leading

to the Creation of

the Extension Service

Agricultural extension work has its roots in the early history of the country. Washington both advocated and practiced the systematic study of the science and art of agriculture; in his first annual message to Congress in 1790 he urged the establishment of a national university to bring the sciences and arts to the people. This university he believed should have a chair of agriculture and the responsibility "of diffusing information to farmers." Although Congress did not act apon his suggestion, Washington bequeathed a fund in his will toward the endowment of a

1 Benson Y. Landis and John D. Willard, Rural Adult Education (New York: Macmillan, 1933), p. V.

46

national university. He was credited also with being the first person in America to propose agricultural societies and a bureau of agriculture in the Federal Government.3

4

The Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture was formed in 1785 to bring together practical farmers and men of science for the improvement of agricultural practices; both Washington and Franklin were members. Jefferson organized such a society, and Madison later became its president. Agricultural societies were organized in South Carolina, Massachusetts, New York, Virginia, and other places for the purpose of applying science to the problems of agriculture and of extending agricultural information to farmers of the vicinity who were invited to their discussions or informed of the societies' discourses by letter or reports. Soon requests came from early farmers' clubs for the agricultural societies to send them speakers; this practice spread. Some of the agricultural societies sponsored fairs which evolved into county fairs. These fairs became numerous by the middle of the nineteenth century. About this same time State boards of agriculture were formed and these boards undertook the sponsorship of district and State fairs, published reports, and otherwise disseminated information to farmers.

As early as 1843 the New York Assembly authorized the State Agricultural Society "to employ a practical and scientific farmer to give public lectures throughout the State." This work proved so successful that other States followed the precedent of State sponsorship and support of such extension services. During this time physicians and teachers were assembling periodically for institutes at which they received instruction on new developments in their fields. Farmers' institutes, with similar purposes for farmers, were therefore a logical demand and the States responded;

2 History of the George Washington Bicentennial Celebration (Washington: U. S. George Washington Bicentennial Celebration, 1932), vol. I, p. 555.

3 Charles W. Dabney, Washington, Educationist (Cincinnati: The Cincinnati Society of the George Washington Memorial Association, 1911), p. 12.

See Alfred C. True, A History of Agricultural Education in the United States . . . pp. 7-18, for a more detailed account of early societies, fairs, and institutes.

Alfred C. True, A History of Agricultural Extension Work in the United States: 17851923, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Miscellaneous Publication No. 15 (Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1928), p. 4.

the State of Massachusetts lead by sponsoring an institute for farmers in 1853.6 By 1890 such institutes had become established in 26 States. By 1902 the United States Department of Agriculture had secured funds to aid the farmers' institute movement.

As research in agriculture developed in the United States as a result of the provisions of the Hatch and Adams Acts, the extension program grew in importance as a means of carrying the findings of research to the people. It was natural that from the first the farmers' institutes should have been used for this purpose. With both State and Federal agencies active in farmers' institute work these institutes enjoyed a period of rapid development between 1902 and 1914 (see Table 6). Following 1914, however, farmers' institutes declined as a result of the growth of cooperative demonstration work and the passage of the Smith-Lever Act, which changed the methods used in extension work.

TABLE 6.-Number, attendance, and expenditures of farmers' institutes in the United States in selected years, 1902 to 19141

1 Adapted from A. C. True, A History of Agricultural Extension Work, p. 32. 2 The aggregate number of persons at the several sessions of each institute.

The beginning of modern extension methods in agricultural education has been attributed to Seaman A. Knapp's campaign to restore cotton production. In 1903, Dr. Knapp was assigned the task of teaching Southern farmers how to grow cotton in areas infested by the boll weevil; he immediately proceeded to organize the work by means of demonstrations, a method that proved highly successful. In 1906, Dr. Knapp's work attracted the attention of the General Education Board, which financed an expansion of the

6 Clarence B. Smith and Meredith C. Wilson, The Agricultural Extension System of the United States (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1930), p. 28.

7 Ibid., p. 29.

demonstration work into other Southern States as an educational activity.8

The first county extension agent was appointed in 1906 in Smith County, Texas, to conduct demonstrations on a larger scale than the United States Department of Agriculture had carried on in the county.

This movement expanded until in 1914, prior to the enactment of the Smith-Lever Act, 240 counties in 27 Northern and Western States had county agricultural agents, and 42 of the 48 States had approximately 1,350 men and women employed in county extension work."

It was the general plan of the cooperative demonstration work to find a local farmer who would raise his crop according to the methods suggested by the extension agent. If greater success attended this farmer's efforts than those of his neighbors, his results served as a demonstration that the new methods were superior; further, since the methods were employed on a local farm, they constituted demonstrations of what could be applied in that particular community. By imitation of the successful demonstrator, the improved methods spread through the community.10 These methods of showing had greater appeal than the farmers' institute method of telling, and set a precedent for the United States Department of Agriculture for extension work with groups of farmers in the various States.

Federal Legislation

Smith-Lever Act.-In 1908 a committee of the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations requested legislation to foster extension work. In response to its recommendations a bill was drafted and introduced by Representative McLaughlin of Michigan in December 1909, and by Senator Dolliver of Iowa in January 1910,11 but the measure was not passed. Meantime, strong backing for Federal aid for vocational education had developed; the chief proponent for this action was Senator Page of Vermont.

8 Landis and Willard, op. cit., pp. 66-8.

• Smith and Wilson, op. cit., p. 40.

10 True, A History of Agricultural Extension Work, pp. 60-4.

11 Ibid., p. 103.

After the election of 1912 committee reorganization placed Senator Hoke Smith of Georgia in the chairmanship of the Committee on Education and Labor. He was also retained on the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry. Senator Page of Vermont was also on both committees. In the House, Representative Lever of South Carolina was the chairman of the Committee on Agriculture and Representative Hughes of Georgia was chairman of the Committee on Education. By agreement of the several committees it was decided to push the extension and the vocational education bills simultaneously, but to keep them separate so as not to confuse the issues. After several changes in Senate and House, the final draft of the Smith-Lever Act passed these two bodies and was approved by President Wilson on May 8, 1914.12 It should be noted that both the extension (SmithLever) and the vocational education (Smith-Hughes)13 acts had the sponsorship of Senator Smith, who intended that each should supplement the other. This is important in view of some of the developments since the passage of these two acts.

The Smith-Lever Act was intended to foster agricultural extension in the States and to coordinate the extension work of land-grant colleges and the United States Department of Agriculture, both of which had been active in certain parts of the country. The Act provided:

1. That extension work in agriculture and home economies should be carried on by the land-grant colleges in cooperation with the United States Department of Agriculture.14

2. That extension work should consist of giving instruction and practical demonstrations to persons not attending or resident in a land-grant college.15

3. That each State was to receive $10,000 annually from Federal funds, and the following year additional amounts prorated on the basis of rural population from a Federal fund of $600,000, which should increase by $500,000 an

12 For text of Act see appendix A.

13 Passed in 1917. For a study of vocational education see John Dale Russell and associates, Vocational Education, The Advisory Committee on Education, Staff Study No. 8 (Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1938).

14 Sec. 1.

15 Sec. 2.