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EXTENSION SERVICE BULLETIN B14

Outline of Extension Work
in Agriculture and Home
Economics in Texas

1'77 "r*“
':¢.-'T7 .
‘ HA1 e\

Clarence Ousley, Director Extension Service,

College, Station, Texas.

Co-opeerative Extension Work in Agriculture
and Home Economies, Agricultural and
Mechanical College of Texas and
U. S. Department of Agri-
culture Co-operating.

NOVEMBER, 1915.

BLANK PAGE IN ORIGINAL

p‘

WHAT EXTENSION IS.

Agricultural Extension is comparatively a
new factor in solving the problem how to make
iarm life more profitable and enjoyable. For
more than a quarter of a century the state and
federal governments have Lao-operated in es-
tablishing and supporting agricultural colleges
and experiment stations, the latter to discover
the best methods of farming and the former
to teach these methods to students, mostly
boys and young men.

In their development agricultural colleges
and experiment stations came to employ large
staffs of specialists in all branches of agricul-
ture and home economics and accumulated a
vast store of information on subjects of vital
interest to every member of the farm home.
While the number of students who have en-
rolled in our agricultural colleges is large and
hundred of thousands of lbulletins have been
circulated annually by the colleges and experi-
ment stations and the federal Department of
Agriculture, the efficiency of these institutions
as agencies of rural betterment was below the
need of the hour. Out of this need grew what
has come to be known as “Extension in Agricul-
ture and Home Economics.”

The growth of this new agency of service
was slow at first. There were no precedent
by which to guide it. The purpose only was
clear and distinct. It was to utilize all exist-
ing agencies of agricultural education and dem-
onstration, and other agencies to be created, to
make life on the farm more profitable and
therefore more enjoyable and attractive.

Within a comparatively brief time there have
been evolved definite and comprehensive
methods of instruction and demonstration in all
branches of agriculture and home economics
and an efficient organization has been formed
for rendering useful service to every member
of the farm household.

In 1913 the federal government gave its en-
dorsement to the principle of agricultural ex-
tension through what is known as the Smith-
Lever act, which appropriated the sum of $10,-
000 to each state unconditionally for each year,
with provision for an annual increase until the
total annual appropriation reaches the sum of

3

$4,580,000. '1 hese conditional sums are appor-
tioned on a basis of rural population and on the
appropriation by each state of an amount equal
to that state's apportionment. Texas’ share of
the Smith-Lever fund for the fiscal year be-
ginning Sept. 1, 1915, is $45,969.67 and the state
of Texas appropriated for extension work the
sum of $35,696.67. Texas’ share of the federal
fund (in addition to the $10,000 unconditional
appropriation) will be $65,945 in 1916-17, and
will increase annually until it reaches a total
of $245,7€5 in 1922, provided the Texas legisla-
ture continues to match the federal appropria-
tion dollar for dollar with state funds.

The Smith-Lever act makes provision for uni-
fying the extension work of the states and the
federal government, with the result that all
these powerful agencies are now co-operating
instead of operating independently and often
at cross-purposes, as- was frequently the case
in the past.

Many phrases and terms have been employed
to express briefly the Work of the Extension
Service, but none is more apt than “The Legs
of the College,” for, in truth, this service car-
ries the stored knowledge of the college to
the people who cannot go to college.

Under the terms of the Smith-Lever act and
the co-operative agreement between the A. &
M. College of Texas and the United States De-
partment of Agriculture the Work of the Ex-
tion Service is definitely outlined in advance in
the form of “projects” which are prepared by
the college authorities and approved by the
United States Department of Agriculture, The
budget for the fiscal year names the following
projects:

1. Office administration.
2. Home demonstration, canning, cooking,
etc.

Movable schools,
Creamery extension.
Dairy extension.

ewes

Boys’ club work"

(a) Pig clubs.

(b) Corn and other clubs.
Rural credits.

8. Negro Work,

9. Publications.

F‘

O~

10.
11.
12.
The extension staff, exclusive of clerks, ste-

Farm demonstration.
Rural organization.
Farm terracing.

nographers, bookkeepers, mailing clerks, etc.,

consists of the director, the state agent in

charge of demonstration work, six district
agents, 84 county demonstration agents, two
men and one woman engaged in work among
the
branches of agriculture and home economics:
Animal husbandry, hog cholera prevention, dai-
rying, creamery, poultry husbandry, horticul-
ture, agronomy, two rural organizers and mar-
ket advisors, advisor in rural economics, farm
reporter, rural credit, rural gardens, terracing,
pig clubs, other boys’ clubs. In the home dem-
onstration division are the state agent, demon-
strator in home economics, 31 women county
agents, organizer of rural women and one as-
sistant. In addition, members of the instruc-
tion staff of the A. and M. College and of the
Experiment Station staff do special work in
extension under the direction of the extension
department.

It is impossible within the proper limits
of this paper to do more than state the bare
outlines o-f the various projects constituting
this year’s program of the Extension Depart-
ment. The Movable Schools are proving to be
popular and useful. Under this project a corps
of specialists give special demonstration to
farmers and their families in livestock, agron-
omy, horticulture, entomology, home economics
and other special topics. More than fifty of
these schools were conducted last year and a
much larger number will -be held this year.
Beginning early in November the specialists en-
gaged in this work will be in the field continu-
ously, holding schools from one day to one
week in rural communities.

negroes, and specialists in following

The specialists in creamery-extension devotes
his time to studies of existing creameries and
advising how they may be strengthened. He
will, also, investigate proposed sites for new
creameries and give advice touching the prac-
ticability of plans and best methods of pro-
cedure. His services are at the disposal of

5

the people of any community interested in de-
veloping the creamery business.

The dairy division is closely allied with the
creamery division and by advice, suggestions
and demonstration endeavors to promote dairy-
ing on Texas farms. It is prepared to ‘give ad-
vice on the selection, management, feeding
and breeding of dairy herds, the handling of
milk, butter makingand other subjects relat-
ing to dairying.

There are two men in charge of boys’ club
work. The assistant state agent handles corn,
cotton, kafir, maize, feterita and kindred clubs,
and a specialist in pig club work has charge of
the boys’ pig clubs organizations. Many thou-
sands of Texas Iboys are enrolled in these clubs
and receive systematic instruction in the grow-
ing of crops and the breeding and feeding of
livestock.

The rural credit division will give instruction
and advic_e to groups of farmers in farm man-
agement based upon the experience of the
best farmers in the community and will assist
county agents in establishing and supervising
definite farm management demonstrations and
will also give advice and information to bank-
ers and merchants in working out a safe basis
of farm credit. The “Plan of Safe Farming
as a Basis of Bank Credit” devised by Mr. R.
L. Bennett of this department is a notable
achievement in farm economics and has re-
ceived the endorsement of the bankers’ associa-
tion of Texas and of leading financiers and busi-
ness men in other states. This plan calls for
the production on the farm of all the food and
feed crops necessary for the farmer’s family
and livestock and embraces a definite rule
whereby such a system of farming becomes the
basis of credit at the bank and with the mer-
chant. w

A corps of organizers experienced in co-opera-
tive farm organization and marketing of farm
products is constantly in the field organizing
diversification and marketing clubs. To date
210 such organizations have been formed and
the members receive semi-monthly special bul-
lletins containing information and advice on
their several lines of work.

A specialist in farm terracing is in charge of
the work of conserving the fertility of Texas

6

F

 

soils by giving instruction how to save farm

(land from erosion by rain. When the farmers
of any community in the state so desire the ter-
racer will visit them and give instruction in
farm terracing. The 84 county agents also ren-
der this service.

The home demonstration and girls’ canning‘

club work, under charge of a state agent, is
engaged in organizing women and ‘girls in rural
communities for the study and demonstration
of home economics and labor saving devices.
This division, also, organizes girls into can-
ning clubs for the purpose of interesting and
instructing them in the principles of successful
home gardening, canning and poultry raising,
securing prizes for competition in these lines of
work and organizes and carries on work of in-
stru-ction in home economics and allied subjects
in the homes and rural districts by directing
the work of county home economic agents, of
whom there are now 31 at work in the same
number of counties.

Closely related to the women’s work just out-
lined is the division in charge of the Work of

i home economics which seeks to reach the re-
mote rural home and take to the Women of the
farm demonstrations in the most practical
phases of modern domestic science. This di-
vision aims to teach the how and not the why
to those who need immediate, every-day help
Farm women are organized into Bands of Good
Neighbors and furnished with a reading course
in farm home topics and follow-up work is done
iby sending to each group a demonstrator who
“gives practical demonstration in bread-making,
canning, sanitation, hygiene and other phases
of farm life.

The educational and demonstrational work in
hog cholera prevention of the Bureau of Animal
Husbandry of the United States Department of
Agriculture is carried on in Texas in co-opera-
tion with the Extension Service of the Agricul-
tural and Mechanical Colleg and an expert vete-
rinarian devotes his entire time to lectures and
demonstrations to farmers on how to combat
the ravages of this dread swine plague. ‘Tihe
work of the specialist is of untold value to the
swine industry of Texas.

d" The members of the Extension staff answer
' scores ‘of letters daily from farmers asking for

7

information on specific subjects and in addi-
tion thounsands of leaflets and circular letterfi- -
are sent out monthly relating to matters of cur-v
rent interest. From time to time printed bul-
letins are issued for free distribution. Collies

of any 0f the following bulletins may be had

by writing to the Director of Extension, College
Station, Texas:

No. 2 Money Crops in Place of Cotton.
No. E S 3 Peas and Peanuts.

N0. E S 4 Cotton Crop Mortgage Credit.
No B 4 The Dairy Cow.

No. B 5 Sucessful Marketing——East Texas

Fruit and Truck Experience.
No. B 5 Sweet Potatoes for Profit.
No B 8 Homemade Household Conveni-

ences. _
No. B 9 Rations for Fattening Cattle for
Market in Texas.
No. B 10 Poultry in Texas (Ready Dec. l,
1915).
No. B 11 Land Bedding as a Method of
Drainage in the Gulf Coast Region
. of Texas.
No. B 12 Boys’ Club Work in Texas. 
N0. B 13 Suggestions for the Better Care of

Texas Peach Orchards.

The forgeoing is but a brief outline of the
more important proje-cts being carried on by
the Extension Department of the Agricultural
and Mechanical College and the United States
Department of Agriculture in Texas. No at-
tempt has ibeen made to even epitomize the
results accomplished or to calculate the influ-
ence of these agencies upon the social and eco-
nomic life of the farm population of Texas.
These will appear to even the ‘casual observer
in due time. In tihe meantime it is the earnest
desire of the Extension Department to render
a larger measure of service and to this end it
tenders all its facilities and inviteslthe farmers
of Texas and their families to make free use
of them. '