Estancia news-herald. [volume] (Estancia, Torrance County, N.M.) 1912-19??, 1914-01-01
COUNTY EXPERTS
IN KANSAS

I
: bourn, who was appointed by tn
Development Association tt
correspond with the Kansas au
thorities in regard to their plan
has received the following lettel
(which is self explanatory:
+ Manhattan, Kan,
Nov, %, 1913.
Mr.. G. M. Milbourn,
Estancia, New Mexico.
| My dear Sir:
Your letter of November IA tc
4 President Waters in regard tc
Kansas Farmer County Expert
plans has been referred to me.
| will say at the start that this
State furnishes no funds for
county demonstration work. The
funds used for this work in Kan
sas are secured from the U. 5.
Department of Agriculture, the
Sears Roebuck fund and local
subscriptions by private individ-
! uals in the counties in which
agents are located.
When county wishes to OBJ
tain an agent the first thing it
does is to organize a temporary
committee to get subscriptions
for funds. This committee is
composed of business men and
sometimes one or more farmers
belong to it. This committee
then canvasses the situation both
among the business men and the
farmers to see how much money
can be secured. The work in
each case is guaranteed to con-
tinue for at least two years and
funds, therefore, must be Sc
cured to cover the expenses for
two years For each county ia
the state thus far organized the
Department of Agriculture has
furnished $500 per year towards
the salary of the agent and the
Sears-Roebuck fund Of $1,000 is
administered by the Crop I'm
provement Committee of Chica-
go for each county to be used
over period of two years. Thus
the Government fund together
with the Sears-Roebuck fund
makes total of $1,000 per year
from outside sources. The other
funds necessary, which are be-
tween $1,000 and $1,000 per year
have been guaranteed by the To-
cal people.
In many instances the business
men in the cities are entirely
willing to subscribe for this en-
tire fund but this is not allowed
as a requirement is made that at
least seventy five to one hundred
farmers must subscribe two dol
lars or more year towards this
fund if an agent is to be located
in the county. This is done so
as to insure proper reception of
the agent when he arrives and
to make his work more effective.
The Department of Agricul-
ture at Washington does not put
any funds into any county in the
state unless there is a coopera-
tive agreement between the De-
partment of Agriculture and the
Agriculture College of the state
and the county in which the
work is to be done. AS conse-
quence the state appoints a state
leader, who is also a representa-
tive of the agriculture College
and who has direct charge of the
work. :
The finances are handled en-
tirely by the local organization
known as a County Bureau. The
county agent is selected by the
Agricultural College and is ap-
proved by the County Bureau,
but no agent is selected that is
not approved by the College. A
committee on Eligibility acts up
on each application. This COM
mittee consists of the heads of
departments in the Division of
Agriculture and after they have
acted upon a name, harmony be-
tween the county agent work
and the work of the Agricultural
College is assured.
In the matter of carrying on
the work in the various counties
the agent is left very largely to
his own resources and the kind
of work he is to do is determined
by himself and by the state lea
der. The county Bureau does