The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1917-07-02
FEDERAL AID FOR COUNTY
AGRICULTURAL WORK
How the United States Department Of
Agriculture Assists in State
and County Work

In presenting the bill to the house
Congressman Lever, of South Caro-
lima, chairman of the agricultural
committee OF the house, made a briei
speech, which should be printed
framed and hung on the office walls
Of every extension director in the
United States, and repreated by every
extension worker nightly, with his
prayers. He said: "Mr. Speaker: We
have accumulated In the agricultural
colleges and in the department of ag-
-riculture sufficient agricultural infor.
nation which If made available to
che farmers Of this country, and used
by them, would work complete and
absolute revolution in the social,
economic, and financial conditions of
our rural population. The great
problem we are up against now Is to
find the machinery by which we can
link up the man on the farm with
the various sources of information.
We have expended in the neighbor-
hood of one hundred million dollars
in the last half century gathering to-
gether valuable agricultural truths.
We have spent so years trying to
find an efficient agency for spreading
this information thruout the coun-
try and putting it into the, hands Of
the people for whom it was collect
ed. We have tried the farmers bull
letin, we have tried the press, we
have tried the lecture and the insti-
tute work. All these agencies have
done good; they have been efficient
In q measure. But there is not an
agricultural student in the country
who does not realize that the greatest
efficiency is not being had from these
agencies. This bill proposes to set
up a system of general demonstra-
ton teaching thruout the country,
and the agent in the field OF the de-
partment and the college is to be the
mouthpiece thru which this informa-
tion will reach the people, the man
and woman, and the boy and girl, on
the farm. You cannot make the
farmer change the methods which
have been sufficient to earn liveli-
hood for himself and his family for
many years, unless you show him
under his own vine and figtree, as
1t were, that you have system bet
ter, than the system which he, him
self, has been following. The plan
proposed in this bill undertakes to
do that by personal contact, not by
writing to man, and saying that
this Is a better plan than he has, or
by standing up and talking to him
and telling that 1t is better plan,
but by going onto his farm, under
his own soil and climatic conditions,
and demonstrating there that you
have a method which surpasses his
in results"
The agricultural extension act of
May 8, 1914, commonly known as
the Smith-Lever act, provides for
cooperative extension
work in agriculture and home econ
omics between the various state agri-
cultural colleges and the U. s. de-
partment of agriculture and appro-
PIRATES 100000 annually to each
state for these purposes; and in ad-
1ition to this initial appropriation,
IN additional amount based on the
alto which the agricultural popula-
ion of the state bears to the whole
'ural population of the United States,
which must be met dollar for dollar
~ appropriations from the state.
The appropriations available under
he act must be expended for extern
ion teaching in the field, and not for
he erection of buildings, purchase of
and, fairs, agricultural trains, or the
conducting of agricultural courses at
he various institutions It's specific
purpose is to carry to the farmers
f the state, thru field demonstrations
What research institutions-na national
nd state--have discovered.