The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1914-01-28
HOUSE PASSES IT
SMITH.LEVfR BILL PROVIDESFOR
FARM EXTENSION
To TEACH THE FARMER

III ltAuH lHE FAKMEk
Under its Provisions Federal Govern
ment Will Give $4,000 a Year to
Each State for the Demonstration
Work, Increasing the Amount An
nually for Ten Years.
The Smith-Lever agricultural ex-
tension bill providing for cooperative
agricultural extension work between
the agricultural colleges in the sew
eral States, passed the house Mon
day afternoon under the suspension
of the rules. The bill now goes to
the Senate.
AS it passed the House the bill
would provide for. an immediate ap-
preparation of s4SO,oO0, Of which
$4,000 would go to each State COM
plying with the requirements of the
law. This appropriation would be
increased by 100000 each year for
nine years, and after ten-year per
icd would become permanent an
lal appropriation of 100000.
Just what the bill plans is best
shown in a report from the House
committee on agriculture by Con-
gressman Lever, its chairman, re-
Gently made. 1t provides for the in
auguration of cooperative agricultur-
al extension work through field
demonstrations, publications and 9TH
erwise" to be carried on in accord
ance with plans mutually agreed up
on by the secretary of agriculture
and the land grant colleges receiving
the benefits Of the first Morrill, act.
In practical effect it undertakes to
provide such machinery as will bring
to the attention Of the farmer, the
farmers wife and children, in the
most striking manner such demon
strated truths and practices Of sue
cessful agriculture which rightly fol-
lowed, makes rural living desirable
and profitable as an occupation.
1t provides the connecting link be-
tween the sources of information in
matters relating to agricultural life
and the people sought to be reached
with such information, and furnishes
an added agency to the system Of ag-
ricultural teaching. It carries out
to the farm the approved methods
and practices Of the agricultural col
leges, experiment stations, the de-
partment Of agriculture, and the best
| farmers, and demonstrates their val
ue under the immediate environment
of the farm itself, thus providing the
means by which the organized agri-
cultural institutions of the country
may be made to serve all the peo-
pie, as should be the case, rather
than limited and privileged few.
Under the plan provided in this bill
the information which has been ac-
cumulating for more than half a
century and reservoiring in colleges
and other institutions organized in
the interest of agriculture is to be
made available to the mass of the
people in such way as will bring the
best results in the matter Of improv-
ed rural conditions and rural living.
There is no more important work
for the agricultural institutions OF
the country than that of strengthen
| ing field service, demonstration and
instruction, to the end that the pro-
motion and development side Of agri-
culture shall balance its investiga-
tional and research activities.
To provide adequate facilities for
the Utilization by the farmer of the
efficient work Of the scientists in the
| department of agriculture and in the
various colleges and experiment sta
tions Of the several States is one OF
the very important problems with
which agricultural thought must
deal. Earnest scientists every day
are discovering useful truths, meth
DDS and processes which if known by
the farmer and applied by him would
mean financial independence and So
cial progress; but the farmer does
not know what the scietist is doing
and has no way of learning.
Sufficient information has been
gathered and is awaiting distribution
to revolutionize rural conditions in
this country in the next ten years,
but it is dead information until 1t
becomes vitalized by the service to
which the farmer puts it. The logic
of the situation forces the necessity
for providing adequate machinery by
which the storehouse Of information
may be opened to those who stand
upon the outside. Congress itself
has committed the country to pol
| icy Of encouraging, promoting and
developing agriculture which makes
the legislation proposed in this bill
an imperative duty that the fruits OF
it's former action may be realized in
actual results.
BOIL WEEVIL LOST.