that if
their work was to be of the greatest service to the farmers for whose
benefit they worked, that it should be supported and managed by the
farmers themselves rather than by business interests. The Farm Bureau
Association, composed of farmers throughout a county, soon came to be a
prerequisite to the placing of an agricultural agent in a county, and
with the passage of the Smith-Lever Act and of state legislation
accepting its provisions and appropriating state funds contingent upon
similar appropriations by the counties, this became the usual procedure.
The county farm bureau association cooperates with the state college of
agriculture and the U. S. Department of Agriculture in the employment of
the county agent, and the annual membership fees together with county
appropriations pay the expenses of the work other than salary. The
affairs of the farm bureau association are in the hands of the usual
officers and executive committee, who report to an annual meeting of the
membership. Further than this the method of organization varies in
different states. In most of the northern and western states there is a
local committee in each community which arranges for the demonstrations
and meetings to be held by the county agent, and there is no further
organization of the local membership, but in a few states definite local
organizations or community clubs with officers and regular meetings
have developed. In either case, however, the unit of local organization
and interest in the work of the farm bureau is usually the community,
although its executive administration is on a county basis.

As the extension work came under the local control of these
organizations of farmers, the objectives of the work were more largely
determined by the farmers' point of view. Whereas the original purpose
had been to "extend" to the farmer the better methods of agriculture
discovered by the experiment stations and the federal department of
agriculture, the program of work came to be largely determined by the
particular needs and problems of the local communities in a given
county. The farmers conferred with the agent--their agent--and pointed
out their greatest difficulties. The program of work was then a matter
of determining what demonstrations and instruction could be arranged to
meet these problems, under the direction of the county agent and with
any assistance possible from the state agricultural college. With the
rapid growth of Fa