W Ttt‘? "

A CRMCAL COMPARISON or THE HISTORY,
BACKGROUND, DRGANIIATIDN AND poucv
OF THE COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICE
DE THE UNITED STATES or AMERICA
AND THE NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL ADVISORY
SERVICE DE ENGLAND AND WALES

Thesis for the 009m of M. 5.

MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

Obed Martin Hosogood
1956

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A CRITICAL COMPARISON OF THE HISTORY, BACKGROUND, ORGANI-
ZATION AND POLICY OF THE COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICE
OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND THE NATIONAL AGRI—

CULTURAL ADVISORY SERVICE OF ENGLAND AND WALES

By

OBED MARTIN HQSEGOOD

A THESIS

Submitted to the College of Agriculture
Michigan State University of Agri-
culture and Applied Science in
Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the

Degree of

MASTER OF SCIENCE
in
Agricultural Extension

1956

THESIS

 

A critical comparison of the history, background and
organization of the Cooperative Extension Service of

the United States of America and the Rational Agricultural

‘Advieory Service of England and.Wales.

by

Chad Martin Hoscgood.

AN ABSTRACT.

Submitted to the School of Agriculture of Michigan State
University of Agriculture and.Apelied Science in partial

fulfillment of the requirementa for the degree of

Master of Science
in
Agricultural Extension.

1956.

Approved.

 

Q - u)
..£5L_fl'“~-’—“°

A study of the historical developments which led up to the
formation of the Cooperative Extension service of the United States
and the National Agricultural Advisory Service of England and Wales.
The organisation of the two services is described as a basis for a
discussion of the modes of operation in their relationships With the

public and internally.

In the United States, particularly in the South, there de-
veloped a limited system of agricultural patronage with large land-
owners taking the lead in farming technology and promoting it's
adoption.anong their tenants. Similar educational programs were pro—
moted by land settlement companies. For every honest promotion there
were many less scrupulous which tended to create a general distrust
of educators who were privately sponsored. The land grant colleges
were nationally instituted but the early development was slow because
of a lack of suitable information to teach. This was remedied by the
Experiment Station.Act. As the consequences of soil exploitation be-
came felt, a pool of information to combat it stagnated in the colleges.
The Extension Service emerged from this situation. The form which
the Smith-Lever.Act eventually took owes much to the personalities of
Seamen.A. Knnop. W.J. Spillman, Kenyon.L, Butterfield and Liberty
Hyde Bailey. The flexibility of the organization is illustrated.by

the swing from local domination by the farm bureaus towards national

control during the 'Eew Deal' and back to a compromise today.

 

 

and

 

In.England farming developed more slowly. From the earliest
it was dominated by a powerful social structure which hindered progress
but at least ensured the maintenance of soil fertility. As the man-
orial system began it's painful decline it was accelerated by a host of
agricultural writers and progressive lendpovners who could see that no
farming improvements were possible until the land was enclosed. Agri-
culturaiprogrcss was almost entirely by patronage to the extent that
the majority of early colleges were privately sponsored. As the inp
dustrial revolution progressed, and foreign food started to come into
the country, British Farming (the Corn Laws having been repealed)
suffered a severe depression and finally relinquished first place in

the national economy to industry.

State technical education in Britain (including agriculture)
developed soon after compulsory education and later research, teaching
and extension in agriculture centered around research institutes,
agricultural colleges and county farm institutes. There were many reasons
why this did not work, but most of them derive from small influence
which farming interests held politically. It was difficult to devise

a coherent and continuous agricultural policy.

In l9fl6 the National Agricultural Advisory Service of England

and Wales was formed as a part of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fish-

 

 

arise. The new advisory officers remained attached to the remodeled
post-war county agricultural executive committees. The specialist
staff was released from colleges where it had become somewhat of an

unwanted orphan.

Local operation of the two services is reviewed against a
background of size of counties and districts, types of farming and
rural social organization. Objectives are compared and though they
overlap in the dissemination of technical agricultural information,
the Extension Service performs many other functions characterized as
”rural social welfare” whereas the Advisory Service is concerned.with

some regulative work.

The author discusses staff training, evaluation of staff com-
petance and the position of the specialist in the extension program and

their relationship to the Advisory Service.

The thesis discusses historical political attitudes towards
rural life and their effects on educational policy. An attempt is
made to account for the great political influence which rural interests

hold in the'United States and future trends are discussed.

The fortunes of the farmers in England are closely linked with
agricultural policy and the world economic situation.and it is suggested
that greater emphasis be put upon policy extension.as it is being devel~

oped in I'Zichigan.

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER ' PAGE
I. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
II. METHOD OF APPROACH . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

III. SOME HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS LEADING TO

THE CONTEMPORARY ORGANIZATION OF THE

COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICE . . . . . . . 6
I. The Early Colonial Era . . . . . . . . . 6
A. Virginia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

New England . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

C. The Dutch Settlement . . . . . . . . 8

II. The Late Colonial Era . . . . . . . . . 9
III. The Post Revolutionary Period . . . . . 11

IV. Agricultural Tuition in Colleges . . . . 1h
V. Agricultural Journalism . . . . . . . . . 15
VI. The Experiment Station . . . . . . . . . 17
VII. Events Leading to the Smith-Lever Act. . 20
A. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
B. The Movement from the South . . . . 21
C. The Movement from the North and West . 26
1. Farmers' Institutes . . . . . . . 26
2. W. S. Spillman . . . . . . . . . 27
The Country Life Commission. . . 29

h. The Land Grant Colleges Ex-

tension Committee . . . . . . . 29

CHAPTER

IV.

VIII. Local Organization . . . . . . . . .
1. The Influence of Farm Bureaus . .
2. The Post-War Period . . . . . . .
IX. The New Deal . . . . . . . . . . . .
X. The Second World War . . . . . . . .
SOME HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS LEADING-TO
THE CONTEMPORARY ORGANIZATION OF THE NA-
TIONAL.AGRICULTURAL ADVISORY SERVICE OF
ENGLAND AND WALES . . . . . . . . . . . .
I. The Pre—Manorial Era . . . . . . . .
II. The Manorial System . . . . . . . .
III. The Break-Up of the Manor . . . . . .
IV. The Early Farming Writers . . . . . .
V. The Eighteenth Century - Jethro Tull
and "Turnip" Townsend . . . . . . .
VI. Agricultural Societies . . . . . . .
VII. Arthur Young — Agricultural Journ-
alist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
VIII. The Post-War Depression 1813-37 . . .
IX. The Golden Age of English Farming . .
A. The Royal Agricultural Society. .
B. Development of Research . . . . .
X. The Great Farming Depression . . . .
XI. Formal Agricultural Education and

the State I O O O I O O O O O I O O I

PAGE

30
32
3h
35
36

38
38
39
#1
uz

#6
#8

w
51
52
52
53
5b

55

CHAPTER PAGE

A. The Early Legislation . . . . . . . 55
B. Whiskey Money . . . . . . . . . . . 56
C. Early County Organization . . . . . 56
D. The Development Commission . . . . 57

E. The National Administration of

Agricultural Education and Ad—

visory Work . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

a. The Specialists . . . . . . . . 59

b. The County Staff . . . . . . . 60-”
F. The 191u-18 War . . . . . . . . . . 61
G. The Second World War. . . . . . . . 62

H. The Luxmoore Committee . . . . . . . 63
Recommendations .,. . . . . . . . . 65
V. THE INFLUENCE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF CERTAIN

HISTORICAL‘TRENDS UPON CONTEMPORARY ORGANI—

ZATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
I. Early Historical Development . . . . . . . 70
II. Agricultural Patronage . . . . . . . . . . 72
A. In England . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
B. In the United States . . . . . . . . . 7h
C. Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

III. Agricultural Education and Research . . . . 77
IV. State Participation in the Growth of Exten-

sion and Research in the United States . . . 78

CHAPTER

VI.

VII.

VIII.

State Participation in Agricul-
tural Advisory Work in England . . .
Trends toward Local Control in

the Cooperative Extension Service. .
The Trend toward Nationalization

in the Cooperative Extension Service
The Effect of Cooperative Organi-

zation on Flexibility . . . . . . .

VI. THE ORGANIZATION OF THE COOPERATIVE

EXTENSION SERVICE IN MICHIGAN . . . . . .

I.

II.

III.

IV.

V.

General Background . . . . .F. . . .
County Organization in Michigan . .
District Organization . . . . . . .

State Organization . . . . . . . . .

A. Organization from the Director

Upward o o o o o o o o o o o c o
B. Organization from the Director
Downward O O O C O O O O O O O I

Staff Associations . . . . . . . . .

VII. THE ORGANIZATION OF THE NATIONAL.AGRICUL-

TURAL.ADVISORY SERVICE IN ENGLAND.AND WALES

I.

II.

III.

The District 0 O O O O O O I O O O O

The County . . . . . . . . . .. . .

The Province . . . . . . . . . . . .

PAGE

80

81

82

81+

9L»
9h /

100 /'

CHAPTER

A. Experimental Work . . . . . .

B. Experimental Husbandry Farms.

C. Advisory Aids . . . . . . . .

D. Farm Management . . . . . . .
IV. Headquarters . . . . . . . . . . .
Publications . . . . . . . . .

VIII. RELATIONSHIP WITH THE PUBLIC . . . . .
I. The Rural Background . . . . . . .

A. Size of U.S. County Compared

with English District . . .

B. Type of Farming . . . . . . .

C. Social Organization . . . . .

II. The Objectives of the Two Organi—
zations . . . . . . . . . . . . .

III. Relationships at the Local Level

IV. Relationships with the State and
Federal Government Functions . . .
IX. RELATIONSHIPS WITHIN THE SERVICE . . .
I. Training . . . . . . . . . . . . .
II. Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . .
III. The Position of the Specialist . .

X. HISTORICAL ATTITUDES TOWARD AGRICULTURE

AND RURAL LIFE AND THEIR EFFECTS ON POLICY

or THE TWO SERVICES TODAY AND FOR THE FUTURE.

PAGE

101
103
10a
10b
106
106
107

107

107
108

109

111

115

119‘
123
123
127

132

~137

CHAPTER PAGE
I. The Cooperative Extension Service . . . . 137 v/
II. The National Agricultural Advisory

SGI‘Vice o c c c o o c c c o c o o c o c o 114‘]. L/f

BIBLIOGRAPHY c c c o o o o c o o c c o o o o o o c o 1h?

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author wishes to acknowledge the help he has
received from his advisory professor, Dr. J. T. Stone,
and also those of the staff of the Cooperative Extension
Service whom he has met and found so willing to answer
questions. Finally he particularly wishes to acknow—
ledge the support of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation which
has so generously sponsored his visit to the United
States and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and
Food which gave him leave from his duties as District

Advisory Officer in Cornwall, England.

East Lansing

July 1956

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

The author is employed as District Advisory Officer
in the National Agricultural Advisory Service of England and
Wales, stationed in the St. Columb District of the County of
Cornwall. He is fortunate to have obtained a fellowship
from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation which has enabled him to
spend a year at Michigan State University to study for an
M. S. degree in Agricultural Extension. He has taken every
opportunity to meet Extension personnel in Michigan. By so
doing, he has attempted to put himself in a position to
make this study.

It is appreciated that such a study is somewhat am-
bitious, considering the time, experience and other facili-
ties available to him. The field is so wide that it has
been necessary to be extremely selective in the matters
discussed. An attempt has been made to highlight what the
author considers to be the more important points of difference
and to discuss their implications.

It may be that the reader will feel that certain
facets of the problem have been dismissed after too super-
ficial a treatment. This may be true. In his defense, the
author would plead that the selection of a few significant

factors, however lightly sketched from a vast field of avail-

It.
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, .
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2
able data, is a more difficult and challenging task than the
exhaustive treatment of a narrow field. He would quote from
the report of the Joint Committee on Extension Programs,
Policies and Goals (Hannah 19U8) when it discusses what the
farm family needs from extension: "They need a competent
interpreter and integrator of usable facts" and ”There is a
need for greater emphasis . . . . on informed 'generalists.'"
The present author responds to this appeal and has attempted —
albeit very inadequately, no doubt - to write what he con—
siders to be a "generalist's' thesis.

He appreciates that his knowledge and experience are
very limited and that many of his ”facts" are not authen-
ticated, perhaps cannot be authenticated. .Nevertheless
life must go on' and one must learn to make the best use of
the resources that are available. If action could be taken
and opinions stated only from the basis of authoritative and
irrefutable fact, nothing would be done and few opinions
would be held, except after the event. It has not been pos—
sible to ignore the home economics and u-H club activities of
extension, because here lies a major difference. As far as
possible, however, the author has attempted to confine the dis-

cussion to agricultural extension activities.

CHAPTER II
METHOD OF APPROACH

While this paper deals at some length with the past,
the author feels that some explanation of his attitude is
appropriate. He is British. The British are a people who
have been popularly caricatured in the United States as
having an obsession for tradition and history, blinding them
to the realities of the present; and who regard the New World
with a supercilious air of patronizing forbearance.

Equally, Europe has caricatured Americans as material-
istic, ingenuous, 'go-getters', lacking in appreciation of
the more subtle and sophisticated satisfactions which grow
from an awareness of one's place on the stepladder of time -
satisfactions which are the fruits of discipline — the dis—
cipline of the past and the discipline of a deep sense of
responsibility for the future.

Like most caricatures, neither of these is very accu-
rate, but they probably have had some justification. Today,
the remaining few who accept them as fair representations will
often, themselves, also fit the descriptions of their counter—
parts. The author believes that between the two extreme at—
titudes there is an acceptable compromise. History is the
study of human behavior in a changing environment. Tradition-

alism is a refusal to accept the fact that environment does

u
change. Materialistic preoccupation with the present is
equally erroneous. If it asserts that the past has no in-
fluence on the present, then logically the present can have
no influence on the future. Thus there can be no relation—
ship between cause and effect, which is absurd.

The environment for any institution is continually
changing, but it is not wholly capricious. A study of the
past, though not wholly predictive, has a predictive value.
This is the attitude held by the author, and it is his jus-
tification for his approach to the problem.

It is true that a Special kind of "Slanted" history
is used as propaganda or is symbolized in traditional pagean-
try to raise morale and create unity, in all societies. In—
sofar as it is effective, even this influences contemporary
attitudes which in turn influence social behavior; both are
units of social and political environment. Not only, there-
fore, is history of importance in itself, so also is the at-
titude of peOple to it.

Chapters III and IV of this thesis are an historical
review of some of the movements, philosophies and personal-
ities which have an influence upon the contemporary structure
and environment of the Cooperative Extension Service and the
National Agricultural Advisory Service.

In Chapter V the influence which history has had upon

5
the present day operation of the two services is compared and
contrasted at some length.

Chapters VI and VII describe the present day organi-
zation as a background for Chapters VIII and IX, which discuss
some of the aspects of extension in its relationship with
its public and within itself.

Chapter X discusses the implications of using exten-
sion as an instrument of national policy as a government re—
lations agency. Finally, looking into the future, some pre-

sent trends are examined in the light of future policy.

CHAPTER III

SOME HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS LEADING TO THE

CONTEMPORARY ORGANIZATION OF THE COOPERATIVE

EXTENSION SERVICE

The Early Colonial Era.

The earliest records of the white North American settlers

reveal the importance which such practical education as

is characterized by "extension" had in the establish-

ment and develOpment of the colonies.

A.

Virginia.

The Virginia settlement is not generally classified

as the first in North America, because it was founded
as a trading post and was not originally intended to
be a settlement at all. From 1607 the post was
staffed with men only and was financed by the London
Company. Although these men had every desire to

make their fortune, it was not through agriculture.
They looked to the company to furnish them with food
and other necessities from England (Carrier 1923).
This food was not forthcoming, however, and had it not
been for the cooperation of the Indians in those first
two years, they would certainly have starved. By

1609 their conceit was sufficiently humbled by their

farming failures to allow them to take instruction

B.

from two Indian prisoners referred to as ”Kemps“
and "Tassore'. The following is quoted by Carrier
from the early records: "Kemps and Tassore were
fettered prisoners and did double tasks and taught
us how to order and plant our fields." For their
services, the prisoners were released but they did
not wish to leave the settlement. Gradually the
agriculture developed with emphasis on the tobacco
crop which was so highly prized in Europe.

Under the administration of a somewhat bene-
volent governor, Sir George Yardley '. . . ninety
young maidens of good character were brought to
Virginia in 1619 and distributed as wives to the
settlers on the payment of 120 pounds of tobacco to
cover the charge of transportation.” The settlement
was complete.

New England.

In New England the pilgrims, delayed in their voyage,
arrived on the Mayflower at the beginning of the
bitter winter of 1620. They were under no illusion
about the country in which they were to make their
home.

In that first winter they had hoped to have
traded with the Indians. It was unfortunate that the

Indians along the coast in the immediate vicinity had

been exterminated the previous year by an epidemic;
very fortunately, though, the settlers discovered a
quantity of corn and beans which had been cached by
the Indians on Cape Cod (Carrier p. 139).

When that first long winter had passed, the
pilgrims settled down to start farming for themselves
in the spring of 1621. They did not make the mis-
takes of the colonists at Jamestown; they welcomed
the advice of an educated Indian called Squanto.
Squanto was a native of that area who had been sold
as a slave to Spain, from whence he had escaped to
England where he became interpreter to an English sea
captain who allowed him to go ashore on the New
England coast the previous year.

Not only did Squanto teach the methods of
Indian agriculture, but he also acted as an ambassa-
dor with a neighboring tribe and was largely responsi-
ble for the friendly attitude of their Chieftain
towards the settlers. Bradford (1621) refers to
Squanto as " . . . a spetiall instrument sent of
God for their good beyond their expectation."

The Dutch Settlement.
When the Dutch settled on the Hudson in 1625, having
purchased Manhattan Island from the natives for a hand-

ful of beads, it became clear that they were from

II.

9
better farming stock than the English, to whom they
submitted control in 1666. Thereafter the Dutch
communities continued to thrive in the area and in
time spread inland to what is now Pennsylvania.
They left their mark on American agriculture to
this day, where in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania,
they still maintain closed puritan communities,
managing their farms with a fine husbandry. It is
probably no accident that these shrewd, thrifty
farmer settlers should have chosen some of the best
land in eastern America, while many other pioneers
passed it over in their rush to see what was on the
other side of the mountains.

The Late ColonialEra.

L. H. Bailey (1909), writing in his Cyclopedia of Ameri-
can Agriculture, quotes Elmer Ellsworth Brown's ”The
Making of our Middle Schools“ to describe the social
structure that grew up in that first 150 years of
American society. The education was still largely
classical, and great emphasis was placed upon social
status. This, no doubt, was due to influence from the
England of that day. It had the effect of hampering
agricultural education and of Confining much of what
was available to the ”upper" classes, who had the time
to think about the problems and the means to obtain

such information as was available from England.

10
It was during this period that George Washington
and Thomas Jefferson took just such an interest in the
affairs of their estates at Mount Vernon and Monticello
respectively (Dies,l9h9). Hashington did much to pro-
mote a discontinuance of the one-crop tobacco system in

Virginia, among the tenants of his 70,000 acre estate.1

 

1"I am led to reflect how much more delightful to an
undebauched mind is the task of making improvements to
the earth, than all the vainglory which can be acquired
from ravaging it, by the most uninterrupted career of
conquests.” Washington 1788 (Quoted by Dies, p. 13).

 

He also took an interest in mule breeding, having re-
ceived a gift of some superior asses from the king of
Spain. In 1796 he urged Congress, in his state of the
Union message, to create a Board of Agriculture. Little
interest was Shown.

Jefferson also abhorred the Single crop tobacco
growing practices and he himself took sufficient interest
in the practical problems of the land to design a plow
with a mould board cast entirely of iron.

There are reliable records of quite lengthy corres-
pondence between Washington and Arthur Young, an English
agricultural writer of great influence at that time.

The ubiquitous Benjamin Franklin also took an in—
terest in the problem. He is quoted by his biographer

(Van Doren, 1936) from a letter to the parson, Jared

III.

11
Eliot (the author of the first recorded book on American
farming).

"If the farmers in your area” he wrote to Eliot,
"are as unwilling to leave the beaten road of their an-
cestors as they are near me, it will be difficult to per-
suade them to attempt any improvement."

This is the period in which the type of information
available is as characterized by the writings of Hartlib,
Tull, Young and Fitzherbert (Donaldson, 185A) in England
and Jared Eliot (1757) and Samuel Deane (1790) in America.
It was a period of careful observation and imaginative
evaluation. Many of the observations are still of great
pertinence today although the explanations attributed
thereto seem rather incongruous in the light of later re-
search findings. The latter part of the Eighteenth Cen-
tury saw the foundation of the early agricultural so-
cieties, mostly for membership by "gentlemen“. The
Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture was
founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1785. Others followed
in South Carolina 1785, Maine 1787, New Jersey 1790,

New York 1791, Massachusetts l792,and many others (True,
1929).

The Post Revolutionary Period.

The year 1783 is of course marked for a change in American

agriculture. There were two trends contributing to this.

12

In the first place there was quite an understandable
swing away from British influence in many fields of
thought. In agriculture and education this was par-
ticularly so. The adaptation of British methods and
research to American conditions was not necessarily
a sound policy any more than the reverse would be
today. Unfortunately, however, there seems to have
been rather a vacuum for half a century before the
new concept of pragmatic technical education really
became established and put into practice.

A second trend was connected with a tremendous
expansion westward over the Appalachians. British
policy had forbidden any settlement on the western
side of the mountains for fear of antagonizing the
French colonies in the Mississippi valley and the
Indian forces between. This policy could not be en-
forced, however, except insofar as any settlement
which did occur was not given legal status. Conse—
quently, as with many unenforceable laws, the fron-
tier became outside the law and the people there res-
ponded accordingly, with a rugged tradition of law-
lessness. When the.legal restriction was lifted, the
flood gates were opened, and these rugged characters
began to pour over the mountains.

This is the start of the dark ages of American

13
agriculture. A period of almost unrestricted land
grabbing and restless pioneering into the Virgin
lands ensued. During this time, Russell Lord (1939)
identifies a trend in extension work which some might
not include as such. He maintains that much of the
advice handed down by the early settlers to the later
comers was a branch of extension education. Much of
it was just genuine neighborliness which might be
expected in the face of insecurity from nature and
the Indians. The remainder was just exploitation and
high pressure salesmanship of the worst kind. The
early pioneers seem to have had an insatiable appetite
for pressing forward. As soon as they had cleared“
their plot of land and had skimmed off the cream of
the fertility, they wanted to press on. In order to
do this, they went to great lengths to sell their
holdings to the less adventurous spirits who followed
in their wake. The disillusionment of these people
must have done much to emphasize to them how little
they knew about the techniques of continuous agricul-
ture.

During the first surge westward, the problems

were more physical than agricultural. The land was

fertile, and once it had been cleared would yield

adequate crops almost irrespective of the farming

I

IV.

1h
techniques employed. The real farming problems began
to appear later - often when it was too late to prevent
them. Even the "square” surveying method used in the
public land policy served to aggravate the erosion
problem by ignoring natural boundaries.

Until about 1830 agriculture was largely self—
sufficient (Carver, 1909), but gradually farming be—
came more commercial. The development of the railways
enabled more trading in farm produce, while the develop—
ment of machinery (the reaper was invented in 1833)
accelerated the demand for still more land for single
crop exploitation.

In the South, cotton was the major crop. It
also was grown on a one crop "rotation” by the large
slave owning plantations.

Agricultural Tuition in Colleges.

Far-Sighted thinkers - particularly in the east -
were beginning to forsee the problems which were being
accumulated by exploitative agriculture. There was a
movement in several states (led by the agricultural
societies) to found agricultural and technical colleges
which would break away from the cultural nicities of
classical education and tackle some of the more earthy
problems which were so real and pressing.

At first, colleges were founded privately in

V.

15
New York (1824), Connecticut (182“), Massachusetts and
Ohio; later, state financed colleges were founded
after long struggles with various legislatures —
sometimes extending over periods of some twenty years.
Michigan Agricultural College was founded in 1855 and
in the same year there were colleges in Pennsylvania
and New York receiving state aid. Others followed.
(True 1929, p. h5-88).

In 1858 Justin Norrill of Vermont introduced his
first Land Grant College Act which was vetoed by Presi-
dent Buchanan under pressure from the South. In 1861
he introduced it again, and it was signed by Abraham
Lincoln during the Civil War in 1862 when the Southern
interests were not represented in Congress. In the
same year were passed the first Homestead Act and an
act setting up the Federal Department of Agriculture.

The financing of state colleges by federal land
grants and the formation of the Department of Agriculture
gave rise to fears lest the freedom from colonial domina-
tion which had been only recently won, might be replaced
by a domination of State interests by Federal govern-
ment.

Agricultural Journalism.

The earliest agricultural journalism in the

United States is attributed to John Stuart Skinner who

16
founded "The American Farmer" in 1819. It became the
model for many subsequent journals (True, p. 28). It
was Skinner's ambition to conduct his journalism '...
to combine theory and practice in farming, correct-
in the notions of the one by the sober experience
of the other" (Ogilvie, 1927, p. 5).

In 183A Judge Jesse Buel started "The Cultivator”
with the motto:

"To improve the soil and the mind".

This is a motto which might well be adopted by the Cooper-
ative Extension service today.

In 1831"The Gennesee Farmer", a weekly paper de—
voted to ”Agriculture, Horticulture and Rural Economy”,
was first published by Luther Tucker. In 1853 it was
merged with “The Cultivator“ to become "The Country
Gentleman”. It is the oldest farming newspaper still
published.

In 1864 a young Missouri lawyer, Norman J.
Colman, took over a paper called ”The St. Louis Valley
Farmer“ and renamed it "Colman's Rural World” as a gen—
eral paper for southern and western farmers. Colman
became intensely interested in developing the sorghum
industry. In order to promote it, he conducted a cam-
paign with his contemporary, Orange Judd, with his

“Orange Judd Farmer". This campaign was largely res-

VI.

1?
ponsible for the introduction of the sorghum sugar
industry into the United States.

In 1885 Colman went to Washington as Com-
missioner for Agriculture, and he built the depart-
ment to such Significance that it was raised to execu-
tive status with himself as Secretary of Agriculture
with a seat in the cabinet. While in this position
he was a great influence in establishing government
experimental stations. He gathered a force of all
the leading figures at the agricultural colleges
(including Seaman A. Knapp from Iowa), and the Hatch
Bill was formulated (Ogilvie, 1927, p. “2).

“He was one of the staunchest personalities to
bridge and build the agriculture of the nation from
the economy of the pioneer. . . to that of the scien-
tific husbandman. . .' (Ogilvie, 1929, p. b2—h3.)

The Experiment Stations.

The land grant colleges experienced a Slow
start. It was partly due to a lack of interest among
young men with sufficient education to gain an entry;

partly due to a distrust by farmers of book learning;2

 

2Kuhn (1955) reports a popular song from a book called
.Ihg,Wandering Singer gag.§l§ Songs by Frank Hodgman in
1862. At this time the road from Lansing to East
Lansing was made of baulks of timber, and it ran
alongside the newly founded college. It was travelled
frequently by local farmers. The song refers to a
crop of turnips on the college farm which was not

18
conspicuous for its successful management:

"And as it grew each mother's son who went along the
plank

Declared the college must be run by some half-witted
crank.“

 

Nearly all the agricultural research had been
done in Europe. The results of this work constituted
the larger part of the farming curriculum, but the
information was not always applicable to American con—

ditions.3 The remainder of the early curriculum at

 

3Henry L. Colman (18h6), writing of his experiences in
England, stated: ”It may be said that the style of
farming in the United States is so wholly different
from that in Great Britain, that, from the necessi-
ties of the one, we can make no inference as to the
wants of the other."

 

Michigan Agricultural College was still devoted to pure
science with a good sprinkling of the liberal arts,
a legacy from the clasSical education tradition.

The agitation for a program of agricultural re-
search dates back at least to 1871 when the convention
of “Friends of Agricultural Education" met at Chicago.
It was a meeting organized by the land grant colleges
”for the purpose of organizing, Consulting and cooperat-
ing in the great work of advancing the cause of agri-
cultural knowledge and education, especially by experi—

mentation with similar crops under similar conditions

19
at all agricultural colleges" (Illinois 1871).

After many other conventions and two defeated
bills, the Hatch Experiment Station Act was passed in
1887. The Act gave grants-in—aid to state agricul-
tural colleges for carrying on research in scientific
agriculture. The colleges at last had obtained the means
of collecting information with which to build their
curricula. Within twenty years, so great an accumulation
of useful knowledge had taken place that the nature of
the problem changed. The teaching facilities at the
colleges were not reaching sufficient farmers. The
initial flood of prosperity from the exploitation of
the virgin lands had reached its zenith and the problems
of husbandry were becoming more acute. Never had the
need for information been greater.

In the South, the abolition of slavery had con-
tributed to the dissolution of the plantations and the
growth of the sharecropping system to take their place.
The new system was almost as bad as the old for the
emphasis it placed on continuous land hungry cash crop-
ping. .

It was from this situation, North and South, that
a political climate favorable to the formation of the

extension service began to emerge.

20

VII. Events Leading to the Smith-Lever Act.

A.

Introduction.

The development of the cooperative extension serb
vice in the United States is often popularly
linked with the biography of Seaman A. Knapp, to
whom is attributed the conception of the service
in its present form. This opinion is not unani-
mous, however. W. A. Lloyd (Bliss, 1952) casts
doubt as to what extent Knapp actually contributed
to the sponsorship of the Smith—Lever Act, which
was to establish the service in 191b, three years
after Knapp's death. Lloyd maintains that much of
the credit should go to Kenyon L. Butterfield who,
as chairman of the Land Grant College Association,
did much of the less glamorous spade work. He
points out that Knapp never had anything to do with
the Association at all.

One of Knapp's biographers (Bailey, 19h5)
does not deny this, but maintains that indirectly,
by mobilizing political support behind the scenes,
his philosoPhy and personality had the greatest
influence on the final form of the Act. He shows
how the Association of Land Grant Colleges was
distrustful of the cooperative nature of the

organization envisaged, because it was felt it

21
would encroach upon the autonomy of the colleges.
Powerful support for cooperation was mobilized
around the General Education Board, much of whose
thinking was inspired by Knapp. This body proved
too strong for the Association.

There was little disagreement as to whether
there should be some form of education extended

by the land grant colleges to farmers (some had al-

ready started independently). The points at issue

were:

1. Should the enterprise leave any measure of con-
trol with the United States Department of Agri-
culture?

2. Was the system of practical demonstration, as
develOped by Knapp in the South, superior to
the more formal type of rural classroom in-
struction which was favored in the North?

Let us examine the two trends from the South and the

North.

The Movement from the South.

There can be no doubt that Knapp was an important factor

in the develOpment of extension work in the South.

He was a remarkable man; probably one of the most

remarkable the country has produced. Born in New

22
York, he started his career as a teacher, first
in the Collegiate Institute at Fort Edmund and
later at the Female College at Poultney. When
he was crippled by a fall in 1866, he moved to
Iowa and took up farming. After he had gone bank-
rupt through lack of experience and ill health, he
obtained a job as superintendent of the state
college for the blind, in which he was very suc—
cessful. While there, he knocked his knee again
and regained its full use. Having learned his
lesson in farming the hard way, he started again;
but this time he was determined to learn from his
previous mistakes. Seeing the need for improved
livestock, more diversification and better credit
facilities, he founded and led the Iowa Fine Stock
Breeders Association, established a farming news-
paper, and became founder president of the Farmers
Loan and Trust Company, all of which flourished
under an indefatigable leadership born of his en-
thusiasm for weekly local preaching.

In 1879 he became Professor of Agriculture
at Iowa State College, which he completely reorgan-
ized once he attained the presidency. Under his
leadership the college turned out many students who

were to become prominent in the field of agricultural

23
education. He did much of the promotional work
for the Hatch Act, and himself drafted one of
the earlier bins that failed to pass. He was
of great influence in the passage of the final
act.

In 1886, at the age of fifty-three, Knapp
started a third career of even more significance
than the first two. He resigned from the college
to work for a land deve10pment company promoting
the settlement of a million acres of marshland and
one-half million acres of adjacent prairie land in.
Louisiana. It was here that the techniques he had
been develOping in the North began to mature.

With the help of a high-pressure advertising
campaign and a series of demonstration settlements
by midwestern farmers who were given land at special
rates if they would follow Knapp's advice, Knapp
too five years to transform the prairie land
'. . . from a vast cattle range to a thickly
populated region dotted with the best aspects of
a well-settled prairie state" (Bailey, 19h5, p.
122). This was the birth of the demonstration
system. It was fortunate for Knapp that it coin-
cided with the fortuitous discovery of a method of

dry land rice culture so that the crop could be

2L»
handled with wheat machinery, and the discovery
of a huge underground reservoir to supply water
for the project. Knapp became president of the
Rice Growers Association of America and editor of
”The Rice Journal”. He kept up a never slackening
flood of press articles and, in 1898, was sent by
the Department of Agriculture on two tours of the
Orient to investigate and improve rice varieties.

True (1929, p. 59) reports:

”About this time Professor Knapp, working
with B. T. Galloway, Chief of the Bureau of Plant
Industry, established a number of demonstration
farms in the Gulf States in an attempt to Show how
his favorite theory of the advantages of diversified
agriculture could be carried out practically in
that region by adding other crops to the growing
of cotton. Experience in this undertaking cone
firmed his beliefs that farmers generally would
not change their practice by observing what could
be done on farms operated at public expense. There
must, therefore, be demonstrations carried on by
the farmers themselves on their own farms and

under ordinary farm conditions.”
In 1903, when the fame of the Louisiana

project had Spread, a group of Texas potato growers

25
elicited the help of Colonel Green, a colorful
railway magnate, to get Knapp to organize demon-
stration work in Terrell, Texas. Knapp had no
finances for this work from the United States De-
partment of Agriculture, but he agreed to super-
vise the Operations of a Mr. Porter in the town-
ship. Mr. Porter agreed to the arrangements pro—
viding the local business men would indemnify him
against any loss.

This first c00perative educational project
was an immediate success. It was a technique
which was used to great effect when the scourge
of the boll weevil hit the impoverished cotton
lands in the succeeding years. Knapp was placed
in charge of the work to re-educate the Southern
farmer against the weevil. In 1906 he set up his
headquarters at Houston and delegated some twenty—
four agents to help him. In that year over 1,000
meetings were held and 7,000 farmers agreed to de-
monstrate.

When the General Education Board, which was
established by Rockefeller in 1902, todcan interest
in the work, it provided funds for the extension of
it beyond the limits authorized by Congress (con—

fining it to boll weevil control). The extended

26
program started in 1906 when the first county
agent (Knapp's previous agents had served several
counties), W. C. Stallings, was appointed in Smith
County, Texas, with local people paying half his
salary. By 1908 there were county agents in eleven
southern states.

There is little doubt, from reading Bailey
(19b5), that the General Education Board, inspired
by Knapp's philosophy, had an influence on the
form in which the Cooperative Extension Act was
finally passed.

The Movement from the North and West.
1. Farmers' Institutes.

In the north and west farming was more
prosperous, largely because it had not suffered
the ravages of the Civil War nor the disorgani-
zation arising from the abolishment of slavery.
The agricultural societies had become influ-
ential from an early period and did much to
encourage the colleges to extend their facili—
ties beyond the campus.

Farmers' Institutes were organized, and
short courses for farmers were conducted by
traveling lecturers and later by college staff.

Agricultural trains traveled the countryside

27
with educational exhibits and the colleges
organized "Farmers' Weeks" in which the local
farm people were invited to the college to see
and hear a series of lectures, exhibits and
demonstrations for their interest and edifica—
tion. The latter are still held by most
colleges today.

At first this work was (True, 1929 and
Bailey, 1909) arranged between the agricultural
societies and the State Board of Agriculture
but later it was adopted by the colleges. In
1903 it was coordinated by a Farmers' Insti—
tute specialist in the federal office of the
experiment stations (Ture, p. 27).

W. J. Spillman.

A prominent figure in northern exten-
sion development at this time was W. J.
Spillman, who first made his name at Washington
State College. Having done some wheat breeding
there, he was appointed "Agrostologist" to the
Department of Agriculture. His principle con-
tribution, however, was in the field of farm
management. He maintained that education in
agriculture should not be confined to increas-
ing technical efficiency with its consequent

increase in output. His farm management

28
surveys Showed the effect of surplus accumu-
lation on price in the changed condition of
the closed frontiers.

Inside the Department there was per—
sonal antagonism between the followers of
Spillman and Knapp which eventually came to
a head in 191h when Spillman drafted a resolu-
tion condemning the use of Rockefeller money
by the Department for southern extension work.
He achieved his purpose but eventually lost his
job (Lord, 1939, p. 83).

Spillman's technique was not so much
with demonstration farms but was based on the
principle that there is something to be learned
from all farms, however bad. In 1905, though,
he met A. E. Ross, a retired lawyer in Penn-
sylvania who had been trying to promote
better farm management methods by rewriting the
Department's bulletins in popular language.
Spillman hired Ross as a field agent and by
1911 there were 900 farm demonstrations in Penn—
sylvania. In that year Spillman, cooperating
with a local railway company and the Chamber of
Commerce at Binghampton, New York, helped to

establish the first farm bureau. A farm agent,

29
John Barron, was appointed (True, pp. 73-79)
and the project was jointly pioneered by the
Chamber of Commerce, the railroad and the De-
partment of Agriculture. The college helped
with advice and encouragement. The general
structure soon became very popular, and col-
leges in many states established similar Spon—
soring organization for county extension work.
Country Life Commission.

In 1908 President Roosevelt appointed the
Country Life Commission to study the rural
problem in its widest aspects. As chairman he
appointed Liberty Hyde Bailey, an accomplished
botanist and horticulturist.d The subject was
very close to Bailey's heart. Kenyon L.
Butterfield, later to be president of Michigan
State College, was also a member of this Come
mission which collected evidence throughout
the nation. One of the three major recommenda—
tions was that there should be a thorough or-
ganization and nationalization of extension work
through the colleges of agriculture (Country
Life Commission, 1909).

The Land Grant Colleges Extension Committee.

Butterfield, who had sat on the Country

30
Life Commission, was also the chairman of the
Land Grant Colleges Extension Committee.
The Committee reported annually to the Land
Grant College Association for five years from
1906. It envisaged a rather more formal type
of extension pattern. An extension of the
college teaching facilities beyond the campus
was planned. Much of the spade work leading
up to the Smith-Lever Act was done by this
Committee. Eventually, as a result of a truly
cooperative effort, the Act was finally passed
in 191”. It is loosely worded to allow of
flexibility, but it provides for cooperative
administration by the land grant colleges and
the United States Department of Agriculture in
such a way that the states shall match any
money put up by the federal government. The
federal government maintains only a limited
control over the states.
VIII. Local Organization.

It is certain that this type of cooperation was not that

envisaged by Spillman and Knapp. To them the important

feature was the cooperation of the farmers and the ex-

aion agent in the field. Although this is not specific-

ally provided for in the Act, the pressure of the First

32
World War on production and the development of the
Farm Bureau ensured that effective c00peration was
obtained at the local level notwithstanding. Barton
Mortan (1934) quotes from an unpublished report of
supervisory work in 1928 (p. 39):

“A county agent without an organization to back him
is like a lone jack rabbit in front of a pack of hungry
hounds - just a question of which one gets him first."
A. The Influence of Farm Bureaus.

In their first year of operation the farm
bureaus attained a paid-up membership of over
one million families (Howard 1921). The growth of
extension and the farm bureau movement in the North
was truly symbiotic. Each owes much to the other.
Unfortunately, the bureau movement, like a cuckoo
in the nest, outgrew the original conception of
its purpose and became a source of embarrassment
to extension, the colleges and the Department of
Agriculture, each having had much to do with its
foundation (Kile, 1921, p. 213).

Farm Bureaus quickly organized themselves
into state federations, and in 1919 the National
Farm Bureau was formed in Chicago (Kile, p. 113).
This meeting saw the clash of midwestern states

who wished the movement to be largely commercial

33
and political in function, and the other states,
led by the land grant colleges, who envisaged
the movement as largely educational. A compromise
was struck.

After the war a tremendous enrollment drive
was organized, in which county agents were inevitably
involved. Furthermore there was a tendency for
the local bureaus to organize buying and selling
cooperatives into which many unsuspecting agents
became too deeply involved for the good of the

A

service.

 

“There is no implication of dishonesty intended
here.

 

The development of this work in which gov-
ernment employees were spending an increasing
amount of their time furthering sectional, polit-
ical and commercial interests created such an
anomaly that something had to be done. In 1921
the Department of Agriculture and the American
Farm Bureau Federation entered into an agreement
enumerating the policies to govern the relation-
ship between extension and the Farm Bureau, and
defining the proper field of activity for county
agricultural agents. This is known as the True-

Howard Agreement. It stated, briefly, that the

3b
relationship Should be purely educational and that

"County agents should not themselves or-

ganize farm bureaus or similar organizations,

conduct membership campaigns, solicit mem-
berships, receive dues, handle bureau funds,
edit and manage farm bureau publications,
manage or take part in other farm bureau
activities which are outside their duties as
extension agents.”

It would not be true to say that this came
into effect immediately because so many county
agents were receiving salaries supplemented from
farm bureau funds. It was easy for subtle but
irresistible pressure to be brought to bear at the
local level. Only recently both New York and Iowa
conducted a reorganization. In Illinois extension
still operates at the local level under the spon-
sorship of the bureaus.

The Post-War Period.

During the war, production drives for food
had stimulated a rapid development of the service.
The results were quite impressive because, on the
whole, farming techniques were backward.

In the twenties and thirties, during the de-
pression, extension suffered many attacks at both
the county and state level. There was a great deal
of agitation for reduced taxation and some under-

standable jealousy of government servants with

secure income. Baker (1939, p. 57) mentions sev-

35

eral ugly incidents in the counties. Salaries
were cut, and many agents lost what savings they
had accumulated, in local bank failures. The
work became very frustrating because the war-time
food production programs turned very sour as food
surpluses began to accumulate. The service was
largely held together for a time by the home demon-
stration agents who worked with women, teaching
them ways of cheaper living, including how to make
do and mend. It has been held to the credit of the
service (Lord, 1939) that there was a negligible
decline in numbers of personnel, in spite of so
large a cut in appropriations.

The New Deal.

The "New Deal” gave new life to the service.
Extension once again had a usefulness in the eyes of
local people. The work tended to become more adminis—
trative as it became involved in explaining legis-
lation to farmers and helping them to fill in their
forms correctly. Between 1930 and 193” the number of
telephone calls per county agricultural agent rose
from eight hundred to eighteen hundred per year (Wilson
and Gallup, 1955, pp. 3h, 37 & 39); office calls rose
from twelve hundred to sixty-five hundred, and numbers

of farm and home visits dropped from six hundred fifty

36
to four hundred.

In the technical programs, such as they were,
emphasis was put on soil conservation and soil man—
agement practices (Baker, p. 69). The program was
pursued with the same promotional enthusiasm and
vigor that had been characteristic of the boll wee-

vil crisis, the wartime production programs and the
farm bureau enrollment drives.
The Second World War.

With the outbreak of the Second World War and
the stimulation of demand consequent upon it, things
improved for the farmer, indeed, for the national
economy. Once again the county agent found himself
caught up in the glorious Whirligig of another food
production drive.

Agricultural policy determined that this cam—
paign be continued after the war because of the deso-
lation of much of Europe and later, the onset of the
Korea affair. Policy makers were also alarmed by the
increase in domestic population and were perhaps not un—
influenced by the writing of the Food and Agriculture Or-
ganization under the chairmanship of Sir John Boyd Orr
with his Malthusian philosophy. In any event, in the early
fifties the ”Fifth Plate Campaign" was being waged from

extension offices throughout the nation.

The present farm crisis has interesting im—
plications for extension. Overproduction creates an
environment in which it has never thrived. Recently
movements have been instigated to shift the emphasis
from production to farm management and great strides
have been made with extension teaching in marketing,

policy and consumer education.

37

CHAPTER IV

SOME HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS LEADING TO THE
CONTEMPORARY ORGANIZATION OF THE NATIONAL

AGRICULTURAL ADVISORY SERVICE OF ENGLAND AND WALES

The development of agriculture in England has been
slower than in America, because it is spread over a longer
period. A study of its development will reveal some of the
educational influences that helped to bring about the
changes. Where change is slow, the pressure required to
accelerate it is likely to be larger in proportion.

I. The Pre-Manorial Era (Ernle, 1932).

The earliest farming in England was probably
nomadic. When the first primitive people began to tire
of the uncertainties of being dependent upon hunting as
a source of food, a patch of land was tilled on some
upland Site where the soil was easily worked and where
the community could best protect itself from marauding
animals and neighboring tribes. When one patch of land
had become exhausted the community would move on, leaving
the original site to revert to natural vegetation. Gradu—
ally the more easily accessible virgin land became
harder to obtain as the population rose, and it is
thought probable that small settled communities ap—

peared in which the arable land became permanently

II.

39

divided from the meadows and woodland. This system,
which became known as the manorial system, was the
first in which an attempt at fertility maintenance
became an important consideration. Preoccupation with
maintaining fertility has lasted right down to the
present day and is still an important consideration if
a farmer is to be accepted socially by his neighbors.
The Manorial System.

The strength of the manorial system was its rigid
social structure with the interdependence of its peOple.
A prerequisite of any change in farming inevitably in-
volved some description of the social system, so it is
important that the basis of this should be clearly set
down.

When groups of peOple eventually settled, law grew
up by established custom and was administered locally.
At that time communications were so bad that no other
method could have worked. Each community had to be
self sufficient. There was division of function and
each function carried its own "credit rating" which was,
in large measure, hereditary. The people got security
from their lord who, in return for the responsibility,
was entitled to require labor of the villagers on his
farm land and militia for his private army. At first

the army would have been largely protective but later

no
it became a source of power. The more prosperous the
village, the more powerful would be the Lord of the
Manor.

Much of the farming operation was communal to
the extent that the work was done communally and the
produce shared. It was not shared equally, however.
Each man had certain rights by custom - from the
lord at the top who owned the land and administered it
through his reeve, to the serfs at the bottom who
had few rights and were virtually slaves, tied to the
village for life and subject to every whim of their
master. In between were social strata of "freemen" or
villeins who owned no land but often held some on
lease. Their most important perquisite was the right
to graze cattle and sheep.over the communal pastures
(commons) and to keep hogs in the surrounding forest.
The higher the status of the villager, the larger was
his "stint" on the commons and in the communal arable
fields. He might earn such by distinguished service
(perhaps supplying extra oxen for the lord's plow) by
military service, or through some Special craftsman-
ship.

The land in the thirteenth century village was
usually divided into four portions (Ernle, p. 6). The
demesne, reserved for the lord's personal use, was

smallest, but usually the best; then there was the

III.

’41
freehold lands occupied by freemen, holding by service
or some kind of rent; the unfree land, occupied by
the bondmen holding by produce or labor rent; and the
commons and woodlands.

The structure varied between villages but whether
the demesne was separate or intermingled, the lord
had his work done for him by the villagers. In some
cases surplus demesne might be rented to the freemen
for rent or extra service.

Most of the arable land was crOpped on a rigid
three course rotation to help control weeds and main-
tain fertility. The fields (one for each course) were
divided into strips by turf banks. The strips were
allocated among the villagers by lot so that the good
and bad lands were fairly distributed.

The system had an immense stability, as is illus-
trated by its persistence from the departure of the
Romans to, in many cases, the nineteenth century. A
tremendous build-up of social and economic forces was
necessary to bring about its abandonment. While it
persisted technical progress in farming was practically
impossible because no one had the power to force a
change except the lord who derived many advantages
from its continuance.

The Break-up of the Manor.

The break-up of the manorial system was a long and

IV.

L12
painful process. Its start is usually attributed to
the Black Death in 1338 which led to a scarcity of
labor and inflated wage rates and encouraged the
villagers to escape to become wage earners. Other
social and economic forces kept it going at various
periods but the moSt fundamental was the growth of
commercialism and industry, with its demands for more
food from a smaller farm labor force. The enclosure
movement, with all its social hardship and misery, marked
the end of subsistence farming and the beginning of
commercial agriculture. Nevertheless it was a gradual
process spread out over a period of some five hundred
years. This is some measure of the strength of deep-
seated social tradition even in the face of economic
pressure. At the same time the same traditional meth-
ods have protected the nation's soil resources from ex-
ploitation until today the soil of the British Isles has
been continuously farmed at a high level of productivity
longer than any in the world.
The Early Farming Writers.

Before the invention of printing, the church,
which owned considerable land, did what little it could
to translate such Roman writers as Cato, Varro, Columella
and Palladius into English. Such translations form the

basis of a manuscript "Husbandry" by Walter of Henley in

43
the thirteenth century. Little was added, of course,
after the dissolution of the monasteries.

The earliest printed book is dated 1523. It

is Fitzherbert's ”Boke of Husbandrye".5 It is a

 

5"Compyled sometyme by Mayster Fitzherbarde, of
charytie and good zele that he bare to the weale
of this most noble realme, which he did not in his
youth, but after he had exercysed husbandry with

great experience XL vearsL"
minutely practical work written by a man who has ob-
viously had first hand experience of the practical
problems. The book became, and remained for fifiy
years, the standard textbook of English farming. It
was strongly in favor of enclosures as a prerequisite
to the adoption of improved methods.

In 1557 Thomas Tusser wrote his "Hundred Good
Points of Husbandry" which in 1573 he republished "Uni-
ted to as Many Good Points of Huswifery". He also was
in favor of enclosures but his book has not the same
fundamental soundness of Fitzherbert's although his
doggerel rhymes did much to promote an interest and
are frequently quoted by later authors.

Both these writers were important for the in—
terest they promoted but "it is difficult to trace any
important change from the most progressive thirteenth

century methods." (Ernle, 1932, p. 92.) Technical

an
improvements promote labor saving or increases in pro-
duction, but these were not important incentives. The
early writers had to stimulate an interest in farming
as an art; as a pursuit fit for "gentlemen".

Toward the end of the sixteenth century economic
forces began to build up and agriculture was called
upon to feed an increasing non—farm population. The
most important work was "Foure Bookes of Husbandry”
collected by M. Conradus Heresbachius — - "Newely
Englished and increased by Barnabe Googe Esquire, Lon—
don 1577." It is important because it imported German
ideas; in particular it recommends the growing of tur-
nips as a field crop to enable stock to be kept over
winter instead of being slaughtered and salted in the
fall.

Interest was steadily growing as is witnessed
by the number of patents taken out on mowers, plows and
mechanical methods of sowing. The Civil War caused a
check, however; between l6h0 and 1670 only six patents
were applied for in this field.

Sir Richard Weston, who had fled the country
after the war, left a manuscript entitled "A Discourse
of Husbandry Used in Brabant and Flanders". It was

piratically printed by Samuel Hartlib in 1650 as "Samuel

1&5
Hartlib, his legacy of husbandry, etc., etc.”. In a

1655 edition he acknowledged its source.5

 

5The last entry of the table of contents reads ”The
conclusion of the legacy of husbandry, taken out of
Sir Richard Weston, late of Sutton in the County of
Surrey, his legacie to his sons, with a little alter-
gtiog to his words-"

In any event, the introduction of clover and the
use of fertility building rotations are both attributed
to Weston though publicized by Hartlib.

It is perhaps little wonder that book learning
did not always command the highest respect from prac-
tical farmers. A letter in the book (p. 82) advocates
the growing of silk worms and vines and seriously con—
siders the introduction of black foxes, muske cats,
sables, martines, camels and dromedaries. Also, "the
elephant, the greatest and wisest and longest lived of
all beasts - — very serviceable for carriage (fifteen
men usually riding on his back together) they are not
chargeable to keep."

Nevertheless, it was such, albeit ridiculous, sug-
gestions that stimulated the imagination and attracted
general interest which eventually led to more useful
discoveries.

It was Walter Blith in 16u7, "The English Im—
prover.” who first mentioned tenancy as a factor hinder-

ing improvement. Tenants had no security so that if,

46
by their own efforts, they improved their farming,
they would often be unable to reap the benefit of the
improvement except at the price of a rise in rent.
There are many country sayings of this period which
reflect the feeling:

"He that havocs may sit,
He that improves must flit." (Ernle, p. 113).

The Eighteenth Century - Jethro Tull and "Turnip"
Townsend.

The enclosure movement, technology and tenancy
reform continued into the eighteenth century. Jethro
Tull's ”Horse Hoeing Husbandry” in 1733 was probably
the book which has had the greatest influence on English
farming either before or since. It was written in iso—
lation under the handicap of painful ill health and was
at first pilloried by his contemporaries. Later it was
shamelessly plagiarized notwithstanding.

A walkout of his laborers as a protest at his new-
fangled ideas prompted Tull to invent the first workable
grain drill. In addition, he brought originality and
scientific method to the field. "His implements were
speedily superseded, his principles of agriculture re-
main." .(Ernle 1923).

Tull's book triggered a great interest among

landowners in the challenge of improving husbandry.

Some of the more progressive men took an active interest

LP?
and by so doing promoted the adoption of improved
practices among their tenants, to their mutual bene—
fit. These landlords also became aware of the influ—
ence of bad tenancy agreements on progressive farming
and gradually these were reformed to give the tenant
more security while protecting the landlord against

exploitive practices by the tenant.6

 

6 "An English farmer, with a lease, is as independent
of his landlord as the landlord is of the farmer and
if he has no lease we may be sure he is favored in the
rent proportionately to such circumstance." Arthur
Young, P itic it ti , 177h.

 

Lord "Turnip” Townsend was one such landlord.
He retired from a successful political career to manage
his estate in Norfolk, where he devised the Norfolk
four-course rotation which was an adaptation of the old
manorial rotation. This rotation was ideally suited to
the economic requirements of that time, and at the same
time it prevented exploitation of the soil. His tenants,
under pressure from their landlord, adopted his inno—
vations and grew fabulously rich by comparison with
their neighbors, but the ideas Spread extrordinarily
slowly. Many landlords and farmers grouped turnips
with rats as "Hanoverian Innovations” (Ernle, p. 175).
At first it seemed as if his work received more atten-

tion in America than in England; the last section of

‘-

VI.

h8
Jared Elliot's "Book of American Husbandry” consists
of a letter from Townsend.

Eventually interest did build up, under no less
a patron than George III who rejoiced in the title of
”Farmer George" and contributed to the literature under
the pen name of his shepherd at Windsor. He carried out
stock breeding experiments and often insisted upon
discussing the technicalities at court. Other land—
lords, including Coke at Holkam, the Duke of Bedford at
Woburn and Lord Egremont at Petworth also took an in-
terest and ran eXperiments on their own estates. Peri-
odically they would hold open days in order to discuss
their work and to spread the information.

Coke of Holkam, in spite of his outstanding suc-
cess with sheep breeding, estimated that his improve—
ments traveled one mile per year.. (His prize Southdowns
suffered local denunciation as "Whiggish sheep" after
his polical party.)

Agricultural Societies.

As might have been eXpected from all this fash-
ionable interest, a series of agricultural societies
sprang up for the showing of new crops and machines
(the threshing machine was invented in 178H) and the
organizing of cattle shows, wool fairs and plowing

matches throughout the countryside. The earliest

VII.

1&9
Societies to remain extant are the Bath and West of
England Society (1777), the Highland Society of Scot-
land (1789) and the Smithfield Club (1798). The period
was one of great prosperity and high prices because of
the Napoleonic Wars. In 1800 the "Farmers Magazine"
appeared and rapidly passed through five editions.
Arthur Young ~ Agricultural Journalist.

An important figure in the history of agricul—
tural education was Arthur Young. He had a great in—
fluence on the spread of technical education on both
sides of the Atlantic (see p. 10 in ms).

Young was born in 17u1, the son of a parson who
owned a small estate in Suffolk. He was not a good
business man (he took three farms in succession and
failed on each), but he made his contribution to the
literature. His output was prolific. In 1767 he made
a number of farming tours in England and France, care—
fully recording and publishing his impressions. He
was a severe critic of much of what he found in general,
but of the Open field system in particular, for he could
see how it was hampering progress. His style of writing
was that of the present day columnist; easy to read and
forcefully presented in a racy prose which scarcely
covered his personal prejudices. He had a wide reader—

ship, however, and was important principally as a pro-

50
moter.

In 1784 he began his "Annals of Agriculture" to
which many prominent land owners contributed, including
George III. He produced forty-six volumes before his
failing eyesight forced him to discontinue its publica—
tion in 1809.

With the foundation of the Board of Agriculture
by Pitt in 1793. Young was appointed secretary. The
primary objective of the Board was to conduct.a survey of
agricultural conditions in each county, using Specially
appointed commissioners. Six of the surveys were done
by Young himself.

His enthusiasm was infectious and he made a great
contribution to the diffusion of information which was
being demanded by the agricultural societies, many of
which he helped to form. It is interesting to read to—
day the following excerpts from his "A Six Weeks Tour
Through the Southern Counties of England and Wales”,
1769:

"It has been more than once remarked, that

there is no county that possesses so bad an

agriculture, but something useful may be learnt

from it, the truth of this observation is ap-
parent in every one of our counties; perhaps

in every hundred.

“Practices which are found highly advantage-

ous in one district are totally unknown in

another; although the soil, exposure, climate,
etc., etc., be exactly the same. The farmers

51

in one place grow rich by methods which
would enrich their brethern in another;

but remain quite unknown. Can it be thought
useless to render all such knowledge general?
To let every cultivator see all the differ-
ent methods that are practiced upon such
land as his own; that he may know from them
his own deficiencies, and learn at the same
time to remedy them; and this not from the
ipse dixit of an author or the Opinion of an
individual, but from the genuine practice of
his brother farmer in another place.

”I would not however be understood to expect
too much from the common farmers' reading this,
or indeed any book. I am sensible that not

one farmer in five thousand reads at all, but

the country abounds in gentlemen farmers, whose

ideas are more enlarged and whose practice is
founded less on prejudice. Such cultivators
may be supposed to read and act accordingly;

it is by their means that the farmers vary, by

slow degrees, the common line of management,

and come into improvements unknown to their
forefathers.”
VIII. The Post-War Depression 1813-37.

Much of the progress which had been achieved in
agricultural reform so far was destroyed or at least
halted by the depression which followed the Napoleonic
Wars. In 1822 the youthful Board of Agriculture was
dissolved as an economy measure. With the lifting of
the continental blockade. the demand for food dropped
and excess labor was thrown onto the market. It is a
period of shameful social suffering and misery. The
new class of landless laborers found themselves to be

a surplus commodity, without land to grow essential

foods or work to earn money to buy it.

 

 

IX.

52
The Golden Age of English Farming.

With the succession of Queen Victoria in 183?
things gradually began to improve. All the technical
deveIOpments about which so much had been written be—
gan to be put into more general practice as the British
farmer struggled to supply the food demands of the
rapidly accelerating industrial revolution. The
period to 1874 with a peak in 1862 was one in which
the prosperity was never exceeded before nor since.

Nor has there ever been a greater area of land under
cultivation. Educationally and commercially the farmer
benefited by improved internal communications and a
tremendous price incentive. Capital poured into the
countryside and,a1though much of it was extravagantly
employed, great advances were made with machinery,
pedigree livestock breeding and improved land drainage
techniques.

A. The Royal Agricultural Society.

The non-political Royal Agricultural Society
was founded in 1840 by the leading agriculturalists,
landowners and scientists of the day. It adOpted as
its motto: ”Practice with Science". It was impor-
tant as a clearing house for ideas and gave prestige

and public recognition to progressive landowners and

53

and farmers at the same time as it linked the
farmer with the scientists. Its annual Journal
reviews the latest scientific advances in lay-
men's language and describes the practical prob-
lems of the farm so that scientists can take
them into account. Ihsshow is held annually to
recognize superior livestock, machines and new
techniques which are all put upon public display.
Today it still travels the country and covers
some two hundred acres.

The Society has done much to promote local
interest and has furthered the formation of a net-
work of county shows throughout the nation.

The Development of Research.

The first time a pure scientists had turned
his attention toward agriculture was in 1803 when
Sir Humphrey Davey, then aged twenty-three, gave a
series of lectures under the sponsorship of Arthur
Young's Board of Agriculture, entitled "The Con-
nection of Chemistry with Vegetable Physiology”.
They were later published in his "Elements of Agri-
culture Chemistry.”

In 1840 the German chemist Liebig wrote his
"Chemistry in its Application to Agriculture and

Physiology” which clearly traced a relationship be-

54
tween the nutrition of plants and the composition
of the soil. English country gentlemen became so
enthusiastic about his work as it was pOpularized
by Johnston and Voelcker that the Royal Chemical
Society was founded in 1845 largely by their
efforts.

At this time Sir John Lawes with his col-
league, Sir Henry Gilbert (who had been a pupil
of Liebig) commenced experiments on his private
estate at Rothampstead. Eventually the estate
was bequeathed to the nation and is, of course,
still an important center of fundamental research.

The Great Farming Depression.

It is unfortunate for the English farmer that
the same forces which led to the golden age of farm-
ing also destroyed it. The Industrial Revolution,
which had created such a demand for food at first,
was the eventual cause of a veritable flood of cheap
food traveling to the British Isles frOm underdeveloped
countries in all parts of the world in payment for
manufactured goods. ImproVed communications at home
had facilitated the spread of knowledge and the move-
ment of food to the market; similar improvements in
North American railroads and shipping refrigeration

made it possible to carry food-to Great Britain for

XI.

55
which, hitherto, the British farmer had held a mono-
poly.

Gradually, painfully, domestic agriculture re-
organized itself for the production of perishables such
as milk and truck creps and top quality beef from im—
ported grain which could not be matched by the imported
article. Millions of acres went out of production,
field drains and buildings were neglected, and the
farmer drew in his horns and cut costs to a minimum.

By the end of the period in 1914, it is probable that
the industry had found its place in the world economy
and was producing the quantity and type of product
which best exploited its natural advantages.

Formal Agricultural Education and the State.

A. The Early Legislation.

In a review of the deve10pment of agri-
cultural education in England and Wales, the
Luxmore Committee (Luxmoore, 1943) outlines its
progress from the Technical Instruction Act, 1889,
which empowered County Councils to give technical
instruction in many subjects, including agriculture.
It followed closely on the heels of compulsory
elementary education.

,At that time there were privately endowed

colleges giving agricultural instruction at

56
Cirencester, Downton, Aspatria and Hollesly Bay.
None of them received government funds. In 1889
also, a grant of five thousand pounds which had
been made the previous year to the Agricultural
Committee of the Privy Council was transferred to
a newly reconstituted Board of Agriculture.
"Whiskey Money".

In the following year, a Special fund known
as "whiskey money” was made available to local edu-
cation authorities (County Councils), of which ten
per cent was earmarked for agricultural education.
This money, together with the Board of.Agriculture
fund, was also made available to universities and
agricultural colleges at Bangor, Leeds, Aberystwyth,
Newcastle-on-the-Tyne, Cambridge, Nottingham, Reading,
Wye and Shropshire, who were expected to use it to
develop programs of research, teaching, extension
teaching and advice for the benefit of the farm
community in their areas.

Early County Organization.

As trained men became available from the
colleges, some County Councils employed their own
technical staff so as to become less dependent on
the college facilities. By 1899, four counties had

already establishedi”Farm Institutes” for giving

57

residential training to local farm boys and girls
in practical farming and elementary science. The
institutes had farms attached and they became a
natural center for a county advisory service. The
principle of the institute was usually the head of
the advisory services for that county.

Other counties did not build institutes, but
employed a staff of lecturers and advisory offi-
cers with offices in the county town. The remain-
ing counties did nothing.

In 1908 the Reay Committee investigated the
whole field and recommended that the appointment
of a county agricultural organizer should be re—
quired in all counties. This proposal was not
adopted. So far all the enabling legislation had
been permissive for the county councils and thus
it remained. Nevertheless, already there were
one hundred twenty-four full time and sixty-seven
part-time instructors employed in the counties.
The DevelOpment Commission.

The Development Commission was appointed in
1909 to administer substantial funds provided by
the Development and Road Improvement Funds Act,
1909. The money was to be used to found a series

of Specialist agricultural research institutes, and

58
to subsidize and reorganize some that were already
in existence. It is the first time in the history
of agricultural research that institutes had been
set up to serve the whole country in a special field
rather than a local area in a general field. Only
one of the institutes (Animal Health Laboratories)
is under state supervision directly, and the others
are controlled by universities or other public
bodies.

The National Administration of Agricultural Educa-
tion and Advisory Work.

Within the civil service there has been con-
siderable antagonism between the Board of Education
and the more recently established Board of Agricul-
ture over the question of which body should adminis-
ter the funds intended for agricultural education
(Ernle, 1923, p. 442). Until 1909, all funds paid
to county councils had been administered by the
Board of Education. In that year an arrangement
was made between the two boards, such that

"Agricultural education in the case of

institutions giving instruction to stu-

dents taking advanced courses in agri-
culture or in some special branch, was

given financial assistance by the Board

of Agriculture” (Luxmoore, p. 12).

The remainder, including farm institutes,

were still to receive their state moneys through the

59

Board of Education, except that the farms of the
farm institutes were to be administered by the
Board of Agriculture. This was most unsatisfac-
tory.
A further joint memorandum issued by the
Boards of Agriculture and Education in 1912 provided
that the whole of the state funds available, in—
cluding those made available by the Development
Commission in 1911 for advanced agricultural edu-
cation, should be administered by the Board of
Agriculture. All that remained with the Board of
Education was the administration of in—school and
school leaving technical education in agricul—
ture on the same basis other technical subjects
were.
Now that this administrative tangle was

partially unravelled, the Board of Agriculture
was able to deve10p its policy for an advisory ser-
vice in two parts: Specialist and general. The
legislation still remained permissive, however.
1. The Specialists.

The country was divided into thirteen provinces,

each containing an agricultural college or de-

partmentcf a university receiving "deve10pment

funds” granted for that purpose. Further funds

60
were made available to employ scientific offi-
cers to deal with Specialist inquiries which
the general county officer was not trained to
answer. These officers were paid from ”Develop—
ment Funds” but were administered and housed by
the colleges.

The County Staff.
Each county was encouraged to employ a staff of
general advisors for routine matters, and a
staff of husbandry officers to be housed at the
county farm institute or at the county council
offices (where no farm institute existed.) The
Board then offered development grants to county
councils to cover seventy-five per cent of the
capital cost of farm institutes, eighty per cent
of the salaries of county organizers, and sixty
per cent of all other approved expenditure. The
work of the county staff included the answering
of farmers' queries, the organization of in—
structional classes, correspondence courses,
lectures, demonstrations, meetings, discussion
groups, and instructional work with Women's
Institutes and YOung Farmers' Clubs (after their
foundation in 1924.)

Much of the capital expenditure envis-

aged was held in abeyance during the 1920's when

61
a freeze was put on government spending. In
1932 the grants were restored again but at a
flat rate of sixty per cent for all types of
expenditures.

The development of this service was
disappointing, largely because of the dis-
ruptions caused by the war and the post-war
depression, but also for other reasons which
will be discussed later.

The 1914-1918 War.

During the latter part of the First World
War, agriculture in Britain took on a signifi-
cance it had not known since the middle of the
nineteenth century. It had been thought that
never again would the farmers be required to
attempt to feed the nation with anything except
high quality perishable products, for it suited
the overall economy to import the major part of
the bulk food requirements.

When it became apparent in the latter
stages of the war that the population was in
danger of starvation because of the activities
of submarines, home food production became of
superlative importance.

With depleted farm labor, inadequate

62
machinery and fertilizers, the farmers were mo—
bilized early in 1917. Drastic powers were given
to a special department (The Food Production De-
partment) of the Board of Agriculture which dele-
gated them locally to ”County War Agricultural
Executive Committees" whose activities it coordin-
ated. The committees comprised unpaid local
farmers and landowners, and they worked through
a series of sub-committees, with the assistance
of such county agricultural technical staff that
then existed. It was the first time that a pro-
duction campaign, with all its educational impli-
cations, had been attempted as national govern-
ment policy.

After the war when the farm economy was
unnaturally confused and artificially boosted,
the policy was peremptorily stopped short by a
piece of panic legislation in 1921. The farmers
have never forgotten, but by 1939 they had again
achieved an equilibrium tolerably in line with
natural economic laws.

The Second World War.

When war broke out in 1939: the advisory

service was again mobilized, but much more prompt—

ly and systematically thanabefore. The advisers

63
either became executive officers of the War
Agricultural Executive Committees that had been
reappointed, or else were seconded to the com—
mittees for the emergency. The new edition of
the W. A. E. C.'s had the same irrevocable and
drastic powers of compulsion to coerce or cajole
their neighbors to increase arable production.

As the emergency passed, so the emphasis shifted
away from compulsion toward the education
approach. The county organizer was, of course,
more at home in this type of work and was able
to call upon the provincial service for help
when it was needed.

The Luxmoore Committee.

In July 1941, when the war situation was
at its most critical, the Minister of Agriculture,
Mr. R. 5. Hudson, appointed a committee under the
chairmanship of Lord Justice Luxmoore " . . . to
examine the present system of agriculture educa-
tion in England and Wales and to make recommenda-
tions for improving and deve10ping it after the
war” (Luxmoore, 1943). The committee reported in
1943. It criticized the pre-war advisory service
on the following grounds: .(p. 54).

1. There was a lack of cooperation between the

64
general and the specialist advisory ser-
vices because of the divided administration
between the colleges and the county councils.
There was a lack of uniformity among the
counties in the facilities provided, due to
the permissive nature of the Development
Fund grant. The rural counties with the
greatest need could not afford the tax bur-
den. (Farmers had been exempted from pay-
ment of a county rate on their farm land
and buildings during the depression.) The
urban counties which could have afforded the
expenditure showed an understandable lack of
interest.

The report pointed out that the size
of the "counties" varied from 1,661,000 acres
(Devonshire) to 52,000 acres (Soke of Peter-
borough), whereas the pOpulation varied from
1,780,000 (Lancashire) to 17,000 (Rutland)
and rateable values from 18,431,000 pounds
(Middlesex) to 165,000 pounds (Merioneth).
The salaries of the county organizers varied
from 1,200 to 400 pounds per annum.

There was a marked lack of promotional incen—

tive for the staff.

65
There was a marked lack of supervision of
county programs by the Ministry of Agricul-
ture. Many counties misused their organizer
in functions for which he was not intended.
The provincial specialists tended to usurp
the functions of the provincial specialists.
There was a lack of cooperation by the col-
leges and universities in providing adequate
accomodation for the specialist staff. They
also tended to use the specialist to ease
their teaching burdens in the regular lec-
tures.
There was a lack of continuity in Ministry
of Agriculture policy toward education.
In some cases there was extravagant expendi-
ture upon the equipment of farm institutes,

particularly on the farms.

Recommendations.

The Committee recommended the setting up

of a central body which it called the National

Council for Agriculture Education,
of all government funds for agricultural education
except those for universities,

quired to relinquish their control of the advisory

which would be re-

specialist.

The advisory service would be a national

to be in charge

66
one with the specialists in six provinces in
close contact with the research institutes. The
county staff would maintain contact with the
farmers through an advisory committee with some
representation from the county councils.

The county organizer would have the res-
ponsibility of maintaining a series of local in-
struction classes for school learning in addi-
tion to an efficient advisory service for far-
mers. District advisory officers would be
used for this latter function such that each
district should contain about one hundred thou-
sand acres or onethousand farmers, whichever was
the larger.

The eventual organization of the National
Agricultural Advisory Service, which was set up
in 1946, was obviously influenced by this report,
but it differs in the following respects:

a) AS was recommended in a minority report by
Hon. Mrs. R. J. Youard, the national organ—
ization did not include vocational agricul-
ture which was left with the county councils
under the control of the Ministry of Educa-
tion. Local education authorities maintained

control of regular courses of instruction

b)

C)

d)

67
(Education Act 1944) and for the giving of
advice to domestic producers. The N.A.A.S.
was left a clear field for the advising of
commercial producers.
The new service is a part of the Ministry of
Agriculture and not an intermediate body
which might have given it a little more
autonomy in the eyes of the public.
It was decided, for economy reasons, that the
organization in the counties should remain
attached to the W.A.E. Committees which had
become the County Agricultural Executive Com-
mittees with largely the same personnel. The
purpose of the new committees was to adminis—
ter government schemes and orders and to apply
such supervision to agriculture as was required
by the Agriculture Act. The county agricul-
tural officer of the National Agricultural
Advisory Service became the chief officer of
the County Agricultural Executive Committee.
Because of scarcity of technical staff, it was
also decided to include regulatory duties in
connection with livestock, poultry and horti-
culture within the purview of the service. In

these fields the advisory and statutory duties

68
were combined in the one organization.
The agricultural economists that had been
doing advisory work with farmers were exclu-
ded from the national service and remained
under the control of the universities and
colleges. The reason for this was that the
Agricultural Act of 1947 provided for an
annual review of farm prices between farmers
and the government. The basis of these nego—
tiations was to be the cost figures determined
from surveys made by the agricultural econo-

mists whom, it was thought, Should be com—

pletely independent of either of the negoti-

ating parties.

CHAPTER V

THE INFLUENCE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF CERTAIN HISTORICAL TRENDS

UPON CONTEMPORARY ORGANIZATION

Early Historical Developments.

The dissemination of agricultural technology in
the earliest North American history was closely linked
with the cooperation of the Indians. The Virginia
settlers (arrogant colonialists) did not intend to pro-
duce their own food. When they had to, they discovered
that they could not do it without the help of the In-
dians whose "backwardness" they despised. The same
factor was more humbly acknowledged by the Pilgrim
Fathers.

This is surely one of the fundamental lessons for

, advisory work (extension). If the information available

for a given environment has not been tested there, it

is wise to heed local tradition until it can be §hown

to be outdated. Under Virginian conditions, European
methods, though much more advanced technically, were
ineffective in comparison with the primitive farming
which the Indians had developed traditionally for that
environment. This illustrates rather vividly what every
extension worker knows to be true: Modern methods may

not always be the most immediately effective in any given

71
set of local circumstances. Often it is the climate
and soil conditions that make this so, but quite as
often it is sociological or even psychological factors
which Operate among the farming community. It soon
becomes apparent that every farm and every farmer are
to some extent unique. Generalization is a useful at-
tention getter, but ultimately each operator must make
his own decision in the light of his own analysis of
his own situation.

In England this fact has tended to be emphasized,
sometimes to the extent that it has become a fetish of

traditionalism7 in which the farmers refuse to accept

 

7It is true that types of farming vary more in a given
area than they do in the United States. This tends to

make fgrmer§' problem§ le§§ uniform.
the fact that circumstances change until the very last

 

minute. On the other hand, the same attitude held moder—
ately generates healthy circumspection by which new
practices are approved before they are adapted, not be—
cause they are new but because they have value.

The persistence of the manorial system for some
five thousand years must surely have a bearing on this
attitude. It might be an interesting (but rather fruit-
less) conjecture to determine whether it grew from the
inertia (or stability) of the social system or whether
the system perpetuated the attitude. In any event, the

fact remains that as long as farming methods remained

II.

72
unchanged, social change was practically impossible.
Equally, as long as the feudal society persisted, agri—
cultural improvement was impossible.

If English farming and rural society has shown
some of the symptoms of pathological inertia, American
farming has exhibited many of the evils of over-
indulgence. Nevertheless, although it is fashionable
to condemn the system which undoubtedly contributed to
much soil erosion, it might have been allowed to get
much worse. It could even be argued that it was through
cashing its natural soil and timber resources (using
relatively little capital) that the nation was eventu—
ally able to muster enough capital to deve10p its other,
more important, mineral resources.

Agricultural Patronage.

A. In England.

With the gradual break-up of the manor in

England came a change in social values. The lord
of the manor, whose power was based largely on his
military strength, found that this became of less
Significance as communication improved and the
central government became more effective in local
administration. Gradually social prestige came to
be measured more on the basis of land ownership

and wealth derived from it and less on the number

73
of men who could be mobilized into a private army.
The population of the village became unimportant,
and land owners tended to divide their land up into
units that could be farmed most economically so
that his tenants would be able to pay him remuner-
ative rents. The landlord then began to see that
it was in his own interests (as well as that of his
tenants) to encourage new methods as long as they

8

did not deteriorate his property. He also became

 

8Probably the nearest equivalent to education by pri-
vate patronage in England today is to be found in the
small but efficient commercial advisory services or-
ganized by the more reputable fertilizer and feeding
stuff manufacturers to encourage the more efficient
use of their products to the mutual benefit of the

figrmers and themselves.

aware that to achieve his ends it was neCessary to
give his tenants greater security of tenure. It
would almost seem as if a conspiracy developed be-
tween the landlord and the tenant against the farm
worker who, having no property and little wealth,
was hardly able to exert his interests. On the
whole, however, having accepted this position, the
worker undoubtedly derived considerable content-
ment from life notwithstanding.

The relevance of this process to extension,
it seems to the author, is that the lord (or the
Squire as he came to be called) was undoubtedly a

social leader in rural affairs; albeit not always

74
a popular leader, but a leader nevertheless. The
early farm writers recognized this fact. With an
attitude that is characterized in the quotation
from Arthur Young (p. 51), they could see that if
changes had to be made they had to be led by the
landowners themselves and the tenants would eventu-
ally follow in due course.

The author suggests that a modification of
this philosophy had its influence on the conception
of the pre-war county advisory service. Little em—
phasis was placed upon educating the masses directly;
it was tacitly assumed that those progressive far-
mers who came forth for advice were the community
leaders. If the advisory service was available to
them, they themselves would lead their communities
along progressive lines in due course.

In the United States.

In the history of American farming, patron-
age as such was of lesser Significance and rural
society became more fluid with less coordination.
In the colonial era, however (even up to the Civil
War) there was a trend toward the estate system in
parts of the South. Both Washington and Jefferson
showed concern for their estates in much the same
way as did Coke and Townsend. This system was not

allowed to develop,~however, because it perpetuated

75

the very social situation which had prompted many
of the immigrants to leave their homeland. Dis-
tribution of land among the people became one of
the fundamental concepts of the ”American Dream”
for at that time land ownership represented power
and independence.

In modern times the importance of land owner-
ship is not so fundamental in the social structure;
Nevertheless by tradition it is still a most power-
ful emotional factor in popular political thinking.
Land is no longer a social necessity but an econ—
omic resource.

The nearest that the United States has come
to education by patronage is illustrated by the
work of Knapp in Louisiana which was to the mutual
benefit of both the land company and the settlers.
Unfortunately, for every honest case of this sort
there were many fraudulent schemes which did not
educate but exploited ignorance.

Summary.

To summarize so far, this period of history
seems to exhibit the following three lessons:

1. Education is effective only when it is linked
with a clearly apparent incentive. This is not

necessarily an economic incentive, for economic

76
values are not always the most important in a
value system. Unless education is keyed to the
value systems of the people towards whom it is
directed, it is unrealistic and ineffective.
Changes in behavior can best be achieved through
accepted community leaders, but the interests of
the leaders must be the same as those of the
people. The early English farm writers wrote
for landlords, the only section of the commu-
nity through whom desirable changes could be
made. Little was achieved until it became in
the landlord's interests to make a move.
Promotion is a necessary part of any effective
educational program insofar as it emphasizes
the incentives which must be stirred up to over-
come the inertia of ignorance. Promotion is,
however, a potent weapon, for it appeals to the
heart rather than the head and can be misused
for exploitation if it is not firmly anchored
in fact and good faith. The works of Knapp and
Arthur Young are examples of promotion honestly
used. The early settlers in the west came
across more instances where it was prostituted
to graft and dishonesty.

One hollow promotion by an educational

77

body, whether through ignorance or dishonesty,
can destroy confidence in its other programs,
however genuine they may be.

III. Agricultural Education and Research.

The increasing demand for technical education in
agriculture saw the growth of agricultural colleges and
research stations to supply people trained in scien-
tific agriculture together with the information they
would require. There is a difference in the way that
this took place in the two countries.

In England, where the patronage system proved
effective, it developed through private enterprise. This
was largely due to the huge accumulation of capital which
many English land owners had available.

In the United States the "state" came into the
picture at a much earlier date because there were virtu-
ally no private interests able and willing to finance it

themselves.9 Furthermore, American agriculture was

 

9The Rockefeller-financed General Education Board is a
pgggible exgeptign. _

less material, to the extent that there grew up a power-

Is‘x' fl ‘-'

ful public concern for the way in which land resources
were being destroyed by exploitation. In addition, agri-
culture was the dominant national industry and had con-
siderably more political power.

The state was slow to enter the field in England

because agriculture (although the largest single industry)

IV.

78
did not have the same relative importance in the econ-
omy nor in the political system. The cheap food era
which destroyed the farming prosperity of the "Golden
Age” in the 1870's was of great benefit to the manu-
facturing industries whose economic and political
power increased with their participation in world
trade.

Much of the success of the land grant college
system must be attributed to the foresight of Abraham
Lincoln who pushed the bill through Congress during the
Civil War when most of the opposition was absent. The
opposition from the South was partly a political maneu-
ver, but their attitude is typical of an important
trend that from time to time is highly significant in
the United States politics. It is an extreme distrust
of the power of central government in what are regarded
as local affairs, particularly in the realm of education.
It is shown to good effect in the way in which the Smith-
Lever Act leaves the lion's share of the control of
the Cooperative Extension Service in state and county
hands although about forty per cent of the funds ori—
ginate at the federal level.

State Participation in the Growth of Extension in the
United States.

That the federal government took even so great

a part in the administration of agriculture extension

79

is in itself symbolic of a change in values. After the
scourge of the boll weevil in the South, people began
to accept the fact that the government had a responsi-
bility toward improving rural living conditions through
improved technology. This attitude is shown in the
report of the Country Life Commission. College ex-
periment stations had accumulated information and an
organization was needed to disseminate this informa-
tion where it would do the most good. The social

value attached to family farm units was still impor-
tant and it was freely acknowledged that while far-
mers Operated this size of unit, agriculture could

not be expected to do its own research, nor could it
reasonably be expected to take proper advantage of re-
search done by other bodies.

That there was a difference of opinion between
southern interests represented by Knapp and northern
interests represented by the land grant colleges
would seem to be partly due to habit. It was strange
that the South, which hitherto had been loath to accept
federal supervision in state affairs, should object less
to such federal intervention in extension. This would
seem to be largely due to the personality of Knapp who
(though financed by the United States Department of

Agriculture) had shown such a penetrating understanding

80
of extension methods at the local level. In addition,
the great social and economic disorganization which
followed the Civil War made the need in the South pro—
portionately so much greater.

That the organization adopted for the Coopera-
tive Extension Service has been such a success in spite
of forebodings at its inception, is surely a great
tribute to the foresight of its founders, the tact of
the federal administration and the cooperative spirit
of the land grant colleges.

State Participation in Agricultural Advisory Work in
England.

It is interesting to conjecture the reason that
a similar success was not met with in England. In 1912,
when the administration of all educational funds per-
taining to agricultural advisory work was passed to
the Board of Agriculture, the position was parallel
with that in America after the passing of the Smith-
Lever Act. In fact, it would seem that conditions
were even more favorable for the building of an effec-
tive service, because the Board offered greater assis-
tance to the county councils than ever did the federal
government to the state. The Board had envisioned a
network of some fifty or Sixty farm institutes throngh-

out the country as the basis for a sound extension or-

VI.

81
ganization.

Some of the reasons that the service failed
to materialize successfully have already been listed
(p. 63) as given in the Luxmoore Committee report.
Fundamentally, however, the author is of the Opinion
that it would have had more chance of success if it
could have become more localized in nature with some
support from, say, the rural district councils (which
are roughly equivalent to the county boards of super-
visors in the United States).

The lack of local interest in the service was
greatly aggravated by the wartime mobilization of the
advisory personnel for duties invoking considerable
arbitrary authority. If the advisory service had
trouble through becoming too closely identified with
the government and divorced from local support, how—
ever, the other extreme has been equally problematical
in the United States.

The Trend Toward Local Control in the Cooperative Ex-
tension Service.

The early days of the Cooperative Extension
Service were not without their difficulties and em-
barrassments. That the farm bureau movement was clever-
ly conceived for promoting local interest and discus-
sion as an educational incentive is unquestionable.

The same organization has worked extremely well with the

VII.

82
4-H clubs and the home demonstration clubs. It should
perhaps have been forseen that there was a danger of
the bureaus being transformed into a political forum
and lobby group, but no one could have predicted the
tremendous speed with which the movement swept the
country. No sooner had it been proudly conceived by
the young service than it dominated the midwestern
scene with its potential local stranglehold over
county agents' salary and local cooperation.

The separation of the political and commercial
functions of the farm bureaus from the Cooperative Ex-
tension Service has been a delicate Operation, especi-
ally in the midwest. The bureaus became important
Sponsors of extension politically but yet, as a par-
tially civil service organization, extension could not
hope to keep its independent status if it became the
pawn of a powerful pressure group. In spite of the
True-Howard Agreement (issued jointly by the Depart-
ment of Agriculture and the National Farm Bureau Feder-
ation in 1921) the complete break has only recently
been achieved in New York and Iowa and has yet to be
attained in Illinois.

The Trend Toward Nationalization in the Cooperative
Extension Service.

The Cooperative Extension Service has also had

problems in another direction during the great farm

83
depression. Impoverished rural counties grasped at
any opportunity to relieve their tax burdens, and the
county agent's office was a vulnerable target. During
the war the service had done its part to encourage an
increase in production through improved technology.
Farmers were only too well aware that one of their
biggest problems was that of surplus production de—
pressing price. Some ugly incidents have been recor-
ded but it is a great credit to the workers that the
reduction in staff was negligible in spite of wide—
spread salary cuts and local bank failures. It is
perhaps realistic not to get too emotional over this
loyalty, however, because undoubtedly in spite of sal-
ary cuts at the local level, the state and federal
contributions toward their salaries gave extension
workers a security that was rare in such troubled
times; and then there were few other jobs for the
agents to transfer into in any case.

During this period the home demonstration pro-
gram was the most realistic and probably did most to
keep together what little local support was maintained.
If the agricultural agents could not help the menfolk
make any money, at least the home demonstration agents

could Show their wives how best to make do with what

84
they had.

The situation was relieved considerably for the
agricultural agents with the start of the New Deal and
its Agricultural Adjustment program. Requests for as-
sistance in form filling flooded in. If he did not
actually help to administer the schemes, the agent had
an important function explaining them to the people,
which at least justified his existence in their eyes.

This was a period in which extension could per-
haps have become an instrument of national farm pol-
icy had it not been that its constitution at the local
level was sufficient to keep it in equilibrium.

VIII. The Effect of Cooperative Organization on Flexibility.

Thus we have seen a trend toward local domina-
tion counteracted by federal control and a trend to-
ward nationalization counteracted by local ties. It
well illustrates the soundness of the organization
for its environment.

By contrast, the advisory service in England
and Wales, confined as it is to technical agriculture,
is much less flexible because its functions would seem
to the farmers to be more closely linked to national
economic policy which they realize does not always
coincide with their own best interests. Although the
more enlightened farmers take a less parochial view

than this, the others tend to regard the advisory

85
officer as a "government man" rather than "our
county agent".

The farmer tends to feel that he is made very
conscious of his national respnnsibilities when his
services are required in an emergency, but when the
emergency has passed, he is left to readjust back
again without help, either technical or financial.
This attitude has grown from his experience after the
First World War when it was undoubtedly justified, al-
though in fact the government was subject to world
trends outside its control.

On this basis, therefore, it might have been
expected that the grafting of the National Agricul-
tural Advisory Service onto the Agricultural Executive
Committees was not the shrewdest psychological move
for creating a favorable atmosphere for cooperation
between the service and the farmer. That it has not
been serious is a credit to the broadmindedness of the
farmers and the fairness with which the committees per-
formed their unpopular duties. It is also surely a
compliment to the advisory officers that they have
overcome such a potentially unfavorable attitude in
spite of the fact that they still have to administer

certain government schemes.

CHAPTER VI

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE COOPERATIVE EXTENSION

SERVICE IN MICHIGAN

Because there is considerable variation in the organ-
ization of the Cooperative Extension Service between states,
it is prOposed to describe the organization in Michigan and
to comment on variations which may be found in other states
in passing.

I. General Background.

The essence of extension organization is its cooper-
ative nature. This means that as far as possible the
administration is decentralized so that at each level the
COOperating authorities feel (at least) that they have a
great deal of autonomy and can direct their own policy at
that level. This in itself has an invigorating effect
both within the service and on the impact which the pro-
grams have on the public. The system is closely related
to that of ”checks and balances" which can be found per-
meating throughout the United States government. Each
level of government has its own rights which it jeal-
ously guards against intrusion both from above and from
below. In particular, the rights of the federal govern—
ment are severely restricted in state domestic affairs.

The Smith-Lever Act is of great interest histor-

87
ically because it developed a formula whereby the fed-
eral government, through grants in aid, can exercise
general control over state functions and yet can avoid
the dangers of remote control and remain within the Con—
stitution.

The Smith-Lever Act provided funds of two types.
First, a sum to be equally divided among the states and
a second sum to be divided in the prOportion that the
rural population of each state holds to the total rural
population. (In a later act this was amended to farm
population.) The latter sum is not payable until the
state government has apprOpriated a similar sum to put
with it.

"Plans for the work to be carried out under the
Act Shall be submitted by the proper official of each
college and approved by the Secretary of Agriculture."

Later acts extending the payments made available
were constructed on very similar lines. The Capper-
Ketchum Act of 1928 as generally interpreted provided
for further deve10pment of 4-H club work and home demon—
stration work. The Bankhead-Jones Act of 1935 did not
require offset. It was brought in with an increase in
demand on extension agents for assistance with govern-
ment programs in the thirties.

The Bankhead-Flannagan Amendment (1945) of the

II.

88

Bankhead-Jones Act provides a reserve fund to be allo—
cated for Special problems due to population character-
istics. It emphasized better marketing and distribu—
tion, work with 4-H clubs and farm and home planning.
In 1953 all these Acts were consolidated by Public Law
83. The amount appropriated is voted annually. By
1956 the funds available had risen by twelve million
dollars to increase the personal service to American
farmers, mostly through farm and home planning on a
farm unit basis, to expand work in consumer education
and in public policy. Eighty-five per cent of the in-
crease is to be used for additional personnel in the
counties.

County Organization in Michigan.

There are seventy—five county extension offices
in Michigan, all housing an agricultural agent, usually
a home economics agent, and sometimes one or more spec-
ial agents. The latter may deal with farm and home de-
velopment, marketing and consumer information, urban
extension work or township extension development under
the W. K. Kellogg experimental township extension pro-
gram. One member of the county staff (usually the
agricultural agent) is designated ”county chairman" and
is administratively responsible to a district extension

supervisor in one each of four districts in the state.

89

In Michigan the cost of running the county
office, including county travel, is borne by the coun-
ty government or Board of Supervisors. and is admin-
istered through an Agricultural Committee. In some
states this body also contributes toward the salary
of the agents. This enables the counties to compete
with each other for the better agents. In Michigan,
salaries are wholly controlled at the state level with
federal and state funds. The county government may
choose their agent from a selection submitted by the
college, but may not make an independent selection.

In their educational activities agents work
in cooperation with advisory councils in agriculture,
4-H club activities and home economics. Representa-
tion on these councils varies between counties but is
usually a combination of appointments by the agent
and elections by various commodity and other special
interest groups in the community.

Each advisory council selects representatives to
sit on a County Advisory Board whose function is to
coordinate the work of the Advisory Councils into a
balanced, coherent program. The organization of Ad-
visory Councils is repeated at the district and state
level.

Home economics and 4-H activities in the county

9O
utilize the "club" structure of operation. Boys and
girls (8-14) and womenfolk are organized into 4-H and
home demonstration clubs, each with a club leader.
Much of the educational work is done by the agent
through the club leaders. Clubs are offered a selec-
tion of "projects" from which to choose in building
their program. The agent then arranges that the club
leaders shall have the proper instruction for carrying
out the project from either the county or the state
specialist staff. The leaders return to their clubs
and demonstrate what they have been taught to the club
members, who then do it themselves. The Size of clubs
is usually less than twenty so that they are able to
meet informally in members' homes. With good leaders,
the system is an excellent one because the instruction
can always be practical and intimate; but the main-
tenance of vigorous leadership throughout the county
is a perennial headache for all 4-H and home demonstra—
tion agents.

Although most agricultural agents recognize the
importance of working with and through the natural
social leaders of a community if and when they can be
found, there is no formal organization of clubs and
leadership in this branch of extension.

III. District Organization.

The state is divided into four districts for

IV.

91

the purposes of extension administration. The dis-
trict supervisor is in charge, and he is housed with
his staff at the state office at the land grant col—
lege (Michigan State University). The supervisor is
in line of authority between the director of exten-
sion and the county staff, and is responsible for
all staffing and personnel administration as well

as for overall program coordination in his district.
To assist him in the latter part of his job he has
three associate district supervisors (in Agriculture,
4-H club work and Home Economics).

The district supervisory staff are guided in
their program planning activities by three District
Advisory Councils and a District Advisory Board
with representation from the county organizations.
State Organization.

At the state level, extension is in the charge
of a director of extension who is advised by a State
Advisory Board elected by the District Advisory
Boards.

A. Organization from the Director upward.
The director is himself under the direction
of the Dean of the College of Agriculture in Michi-
gan State University. The college is divided into

three units: research, teaching and extension,

92
each with a director, but the staff in these units
are housed in subject matter departments so that
each can influence and benefit from the other.

The Dean works under the President of Mich-
igan State University who is advised in extension
matters by a Vice-President in charge of off—campus
activities.

The President is ex—officio chairman of an
elected body, the Michigan State Board of Agricul-
ture,which negotiates with the federal office of
extension in the United States Department of Agri-
culture. All appointments, although in practice
made at lower levels, have to be formally approved
at all levels up to the Secretary of Agriculture.
Organization from the Director Downward.

The director of extension has four assis-
tants, one in charge of administration and finance,
and one each in charge of Agriculture, Home Econom-
ics and 4-H club work programs for the state. The
administrative assistant is direct in line of auth-
ority with the district supervisors; the other
assistants have a largely "staff" function,coor-
dinating the technical specialist staff housed at
the college with the advice of the State Advisory

Councils in their field. A small group of special-

93

ists is housed at a substation in the Upper Pen-
insula north of Lake Michigan.

The specialist staff give a comprehensive
coverage of all subject matter fields involved in
extension, including all aspects of agricultural
economics, sociology, tourist and resort develop-
ment, forestry and urban extension work. It is
often the case that staff members divide their
time between extension, research or college teach—
ing, or among all three. The specialists in each
teaching department are coordinated by a project
leader.

Staff Associations.

There are state and national associations
for most staff groups in extension. These are
semi-fraternal organizations, but considerable
time is spent in devising means of improving the
service. They have considerable influence in
building a team spirit among extension workers
which contributes to the infectious enthusiasm
which is found throughout the service. They are
not trade unions for consolidating grievances and
negotiating staff complaints. Staff relationships

are sufficiently informal to make this unnecessary.

CHAPTER VII

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL

ADVISORY SERVICE IN ENGLAND AND WALES

The National Agricultural Advisory Service is organ- '

ized at four levels from the district through the county

and province up to National Headquarters in London. AlthOUgh

the organization is a direct line of authority and compe~

tence,

there are somewhat complex relationships at each

level with other organizations, both governmental and private.'

I.

The District.

In most cases the district is built upon the
County Agricultural Committee district. The Luxmoore
Committee recommended that it should contain one hun-
dred thousand acres of farm land or one thousand farms,
whichever was the greater. In general it has been
possible to keep between these limits except when the
farms are very large or very small.

The district is staffed by a district advisory
officer who is responsible for the conduct of advisory!
work there. He is also seconded to the District Sub-
Committee of the County Agricultural Executive Com- (_
mittee (whose function includes the promotion of the \

government's agricultural policy in the district) and \

the giving of advice to the county committee in the

95

performance of the latter's statutory duties of

supervision under the Agricultural Act of 1947. The

10

District Committee has recently been reoriented with

 

10This reorientation was in the process of being exe-

cuted when the author left England. It was not there-
tgre possible to assess the resultl,

less emphasis on regulation and administration and

more on the educational and advisory approach thrOUgh
its district advisory officer. It is envisioned that
it shall perform much the same function as is ful-
filled by the Agricultural Advisory Board in a Michigan
county.

An opportunity is being given the district ad-
visory officer to release himself from much of his
government administrative work and devote more of
his time to advisory work with the emphasis on farm
management. He should benefit by deriving and working
his program through the advice of local leaders on his
committee.

The operation of the service at the district
level is undoubtedly influenced by the fact that the
committee which now exercises this benevolent oversight
of the district for the Minister of Agriculture often
contains the same personnel and meets at the same
time in the same office as the war time and immedi-

ately post-war committee which had a somewhat arbitrary (

——‘

96
authority over those who were not considered to be car-
rying a fair burden in the emergency production drive.
This fact does not affect the progressive farmers, but
the more backward men, who are difficult to reach in
any case, are still a little suspicious. They have
seen their advisory officer appointed to follow a
technically untrained executive officer who had exe-
cuted considerable power over them. The shortage of
manpower at the time when the first district officers
were appointed sometimes meant that it was necessary to
employ a man who had previously attempted to farm in the
area and had failed. Although these men generally
carried out their duties conscientiously and efficient-
ly, the shadow of their past hung, not only over them,
but also over the title they carried even after they
had vacated it.

A further recent change in organization has
been that, whereas the district advisory officer was
maintained in his office in the district with a small
staff under him to attend to the needs of both the
committee and the advisory service, he now operates
from his home in the district, using an area office
set up to serve several districts with a senior district
advisory officer in charge. Under the old system, the

district maintained a certain autonomy and was able to

97

coordinate the two types of work. This is not alto-

gether lost because the office is still a separate

unit within the area office, but is now outside the

district.

The purpose of the reorganization was twofold:
To make for more economic use of office and field
inspection staff. -(The small offices tended to
create a duplication of staff.)
To Sever as far as is possible the purely adminis-
trative functions of the committee from the educa—
tional functions of the advisory officer so that
he has more time for advisory work. He usually
resides in his district where his committee meets,
but has to travel to his own office for office
facilities. He is still nominally responsible for
all the work done through his committee and has the
responsibility of advising the committee and the
non-technical field staff in the branches of their
work, needing technical guidance.

Although the closing of the district office
leads to an economy of administrative costs, there
is no doubt that something is lost by closing the
office where local farmers can visit to obtain
help and advice. In all cases, however, arrange-

ments are made whereby farmers can make telephone

II.

98

contact with their advisory officer, either
through his home or through some local govern-
ment office.

The County.

The "county" is, in nearly all cases, the adminis-

trative county within the boundaries administered A

by the local government County Council.11 It contains

 

11Sometimes this is smaller than the geographic
countvai

a variable number of districts.

The head of the advisory service at the county
level is the county agricultural officer who is also
the chief executive officer for the County Agricul-
tural Executive Committee in which the Minister of
Agriculture has vested statutory powers. The county
agricultural officer is in control of all the staff
working for and with the Executive Committee and its
various special purpose sub—committees.

The advisory staff under him varies a little,
depending on the emphasis of local farming types. \
In every case, however, there is an assistant county \
agricultural officer (advisory) who deals almost en-
tirely with advisory matters and is the officer of
the Technical DevelOpment Sub-Committee of the Exec-
utive Committee. \

This committee,’in common with the Executive

99

Committee, appoints one of its members to attend
each meeting of the district committees to effect a
liaison. To achieve a similar coordination, the
district advisory officers work with the A.C.A.O.
(Advisory), who exercises a general coordination of
the advisory activities in the county and supervises
the conduct of field experiments and demonstrations
by district advisory officers on private farms.
County Specialists:

Also stationed at the county headquarters are
a number of county specialists which may include any ‘
or all of the following,depending on local farming:
livestock husbandry officers, machinery officers, milk.
production officers, poultry officers, horticultural
officers and bee—keeping officers. All of these
officers, except the machinery officer, devote some
of their time to statutory duties, many of which re-
quire a balanced technical knowledge if they are to
be performed effectively. Much of the county staff
was in the first instance drafted into the service
from the ministry inspectorates concerned.

Livestock officers work with the licensing of
male breeding stock, the selection of artificial in-
semination stock and other schemes for the production

and encouragement of better livestock types. Milk

—'

III.

100
production officers not only advise farmers in
better methods of clean milk production, but also
administer the licensing of producers and of desig—
nated tuberculin tested milk which involves the in—
spection of methods and premises. Poultry officers
administer the Poultry Stock Improvement Plan in
addition to their advisory work. Horticultural of-
ficers work with plant certification schemes and do
inspection under the Destructive Insects and Pests
Act, the Sale of Diseased Plants Orders and the
Importation of Plants Orders.

All these specialists are available to help
the district advisory officer in the field. They
also make their own contacts through their statu—
tory work.

The Province.

There are eight provinces in England and Wales,
containing from four to thirteen counties. Provincial
Headquarters is housed within easy reach of an agri—
cultural college or university but is not attached
thereto. In those provinces where communication is
difficult for geographical reasons, sub-provincial
centers have been established.

The provincial advisory staff is under the control
of a provincial director who is helped by a deputy.

Where there is a sub-station, the deputy is in charge

101
of it. The director is the public exponent of agri-
cultural policy in his province as well as being
responsible for the advisory service. He maintains
contact with national headquarters and interprets
programs for local conditions. He serves on recruit—
ing and promotion boards and is the vice-chairman of
the advisory committee for the experimental husbandry
farms in the province. It is in the provincial
office that the majority of specialists are housed.

In addition to the senior officers in each of the
specialist fields represented in the county, there
are other husbandry specialists in crops, grassland,
who are responsible for no statutory work.

There are also "scientific" Specialists in soil
chemistry, nutrition chemistry, plant pathology, entom- I
ology, and bacteriology, each with sufficient labor- I
atory facilities for soil testing, feed analysis and
the like. The whole of this staff is available to the
district officer for help with special problems.

They maintain close contact with the agricultural col-
leges, universities and research institutes.
A. Experimental Work.
Although much of the fundamental scientific
research in the country is done by the research

institutes, the scientific Specialists are given

102

both the encouragement and the facilities to do
work on their own at the provincial center to en-
sure that they maintain a vigorous interest in
their field.

' Husbandry research is a somewhat different
proposition. It is necessarily more local in its
application and requires relatively larger quan-
tities of land and equipment. EXperiments and
observation studies are carried out throughout
the county on the land of cooperating farmers.

The work is often done at several centers simul-
taneously. It is done c00peratively by the county
and provincial staff and is directed and coordin-
ated by a provincial experiments committee with
representation from each county in the province
and each group of specialists. The work is at
three levels: the "experiment" which is capable
of reliable statistical treatment; the "observa-
tion study" (a single-plot comparison to give
leads for a possible experiment or for the treat-
ment of such problems as do not lend themselves

to statistical treatment, e.g. grazing studies);
and "the demonstration" which is strictly education-
al, being directed toward the promotion of a piece

of information previously determined by careful

103
experiments. Suggestions for work to be done
originate both within the service at all levels
and in other bodies (both public and private)
which request cooperation.

Experimental Husbandry Farms.

There are many husbandry problems which
for reasons of duration,expense or even risk, do
not lend themselves for experimentation on pri-
vate farms. It is to study these that a chain of
eXperimental husbandry farms has been established
throughout the country. These are not to be con-
fused with the pilot farms which are run by pri-
vate farmers and are "adopted" for demonstration
purposes by district advisory officers as a means
of propagating improved techniques in a backward
area.

The primary purpose of the experimental
husbandry farm is to conduct experiments, but
it is considered essential that in their overall
management they should be respected by neighboring
farmers. Ten of them have so far been established
in agriculture on widely different soil types and
rainfall zones. There are also six experimental
horticultural stations fulfilling the same purpose
in horticulture. They serve as a link between the

Research Institute and application on the farm.

104
Advisory Aids.

There is an advisory aids officer at each
provincial headquarters whose job it is to service
all of the workers in the province with equipment
and advice for effective communication with far—
mers. A collection of visual materials is main-
tained for the use of all officers. Cameras are
made available to all staff who are encouraged to
take colored photographs for use in lectures and
discussion groups. A film library is maintained
and help is given with Show exhibits, press writ-
ing and radio work.

Farm Management.
Farm management and agricultural economics

are not included in the advisory service.12 Workers

 

leep DL39.

in this field have remained with the universities
and agricultural colleges.

When the emergency conditions of the war
came to an end and farming once more had to settle
back into the economy to some extent, problems of
farm management began to occur with increasing
frequency. Previously, farm prices had been fixed
at such a level that, provided the farmer hit his

production target, he was assured a reasonable

-

105
living.

The National Agricultural Advisory Ser-
vice has solved its problem by appointingjin
each province,a liaison officer to link the
university economists with the advisory offi-
cers. His main job was to train the advisory
officers in their new work and make available
to them the local information they would need.

At first the problem was approached with
great circumspection, emphasis being placed on
the quality of the advice rather than the number
of cases tackled. As more data is collected
locally, and the district officers gain in
confidence, it is now becoming possible to edu-
cate farmers in some of the basic principles
by means of pilot farms and evening discussion
meetings. The consultant approach is not being
abandoned, because it is an excellent method of
keeping the officers in the most intimate con-
tact with the daily problems the farmers have
to face. Without this contact, the advice offer—
ed in all fields could soon become remote from
practical expediency and the effectiveness of

the service would suffer.

IV.

106
Headquarters.

The fourth level of the Advisory Service 1
is at national headquarters in London. It con- :
sists of the director, three senior advisory and \
education officers (reSponsible for the science,
husbandry and horticulture sections respectively)
and other technical officers including a chief
livestock husbandry officer, chief poultry advis-
ory officer, chief milk production officer, and a
chief farm management adviser. A chief machinery
officer is stationed at the National Institute of
Agricultural Engineering.

Publications:

Also at headquarters is stationed a chief
advisory aids officer who works with the Ministry
of Agriculture Information Division to produce
advisory leaflets, bulletins, reports and other
publications. This material is prepared by the
Specialist staff, is edited by the advisory aids

staff and is published by the Information Division.

CHAPTER VIII
RELATIONSHIP WITH THE PUBLIC

The Rural Background.

It is difficult to draw comparisons between
the types of farming and the rural social organi—
zation in the two countries insofar as they affect
the operation of extension work. In spite of
this, the author has nevertheless-formed some
impressions from his limited knowledge of the two
countries, which are stated below.

A. Size of United States COunty Compared with
English District.

It would seem that the county agent

has a larger number of farms (average 2,100)
in his county than has the district advisory
officer (average 1,500). Road communications
are generally easier in Michigan, in spite of
the high proportion of earth and gravel roads.
The roads are straighter, and it would be more
feasible to cover a wider territory in the

United States than it would be in England.

108
Type of Farming.

Although it is less true in Michigan
than most other states, the types of farming
areas tend to be larger in the United States
than in England. Even outside the belts of
production it is more usual for a county agent
to have more homogeneity among the farms in
his county than has the advisory officer.

The farms also tend to be organized on less
complex patterns with a smaller number of
interlocking enterprises. This again sim—
plifies the problem of extension somewhat
because the situation lends itself to a more
generalized approach with an emphasis on mass
communication.

A further major difference in farming .
is a difference in attitude toward farming by)
the farmers themselves. In America where ’
land has been plentiful and labor scarce, the
emphasis has (rightly) been placed on produc-
tion per man, even if sometimes this has ten-
ded toward soil exploitation. In Britain the (

emphasis has been on production per acre, be-

-cause land has been the limiting factor. This

attitude has generated an inborn, deep-seated

109
mystic "respect for the land" among farmers
which often hinders the adoption of improved prac-
tices which though demonstrably more economical
do not'always conform to the strict tenets of
husbandry laid down for them by their fore-
fathers. In some areas a farmer can definitely
lose social prestige if his farming methods are
considered to be exploitive.
Social Organization.

Disregarding the earliest settled areas,
American rural society is scattered and does not
fall into the village groupings that are found in
Europe. For one thing, the population is more
fluid and for another the land was originally
settled in farm units with the house and buildings
conveniently situated in the middle. This has
tended to make country life rather isolated. If
it has caused farmers to be excellent improvis-
ors, they have lacked the social amenities of
the urban dwellers. This is one reason why it
has been necessary for the extension service to
concern itself with social factors which, though
not having a direct influence on technical agri-
culture, have a most significant indirect in-

fluence through the general welfare of rural

110
societies. Perhaps because they are without
an accumulation of traditional experience,
American farmers seem keener for the latest
technical advice. Newness is often held in
high esteem for its own sake, whereas in Brit-
ain the tendency has been to distrust what is
new until it can be demonstrated to be better
than what is currently in use. Both these ex-
tremes are found to some extent in both coun-
tries, but the tendency is for the British far-
mer to be more cautious, while his American coun-
terpart tends to be a little brash.

Finally, there is a problem in America
which is not encountered in Britain. The rural
peOple have been the slowest to intermingle
nationality groups, and today there are a series
of national groups scattered throughout the
countryside, each tending to isolate itself
from its neighbors to some extent. The county
agent must take this into account when planning
his program, because each group tends to adhere
to its own set of social values with the result
that a method of approach which might appeal to

one group might even be offensive to another.

111
II. The Objectives of the Two Organizations.

One of the most difficult problems in any
study involving the Cooperative Extension Service
is to attempt to define its purpose. Upon inquiry
and investigation there appear to be so many vari-
ations on a common theme that one is tempted to
arrive at the conclusion that there are as many
general objectives as there are people defining
them.

The Smith—Lever Act sets out the basic ob-
jectives of extension as follows; later acts have
emphasized different feature:

"Cooperative Agricultural Extension work

shall consist of the giving of instructions

and practical demonstrations in agriculture
and home economics and subjects relating
thereto to persons not attending or resi-
dent in the said colleges in the several
communities and imparting information on
said subjects through demonstrations, pub-
locations and otherwise."

That this definition is vague is probably
intentional so that the development of the service
could respond to local needs and thus create local
interest. It also accounts for the many interpre-
tations to be found throughout the literature.

Some indication of what has developed can be

obtained from the following list of twelve contribu-

tions which extension makes toward the improvement

112
of the farm, the home’and farm living. They are
listed by a joint committee of the Department of
Agriculture and land grant college personnel under
the chairmanship of Dr. John Hannah, President of
Michigan State University (Hannah, l9h8):

"1. Applying the findings of research.

2. Solving problems through group action.

3. Understanding economic and social facto .
h. Improving family diets.

5. Improving other functions of the home
maker.

6. Working with rural youth.
7. Counselling on farm problems.
8. Mobilizing farm people to meet emergencies.

9. Contributing to the science of government
and education.

10. Aiding the aesthetic and cultural growth
of farm people.

11. Contributing to urban life.

12. Developing rural leadership."

It is interesting to contrast this list of ob- /

I

jectives with the duties of the National Agricultural!
Advisory Service as described in a report "The First
Eight Years - 19u6-5u" (M.A.F. & F. 1955):

"1. To disseminate among food producers scien-

tific and technical knowledge, including
such new knowledge as can usefully be

113

applied in the field.

2. To provide advice to individual farmers
on technical matters related to food pro-
duction.

3. To carry out such experiments and inves-

tigations as may be required to solve
problems and to determine the local ap-
plicability of new discoveries and in-
ventions, and to be the means of bring-
ing to the attention of research workers
problems that seem to call for funda-
mental investigation.

h. To provide technical guidance to County
Agricultural Executive Committees who
act as agents of the Minister in pro-
moting agricultural deve10pment and
efficiency.

5. To operate various statutory and depart-
mental schemes for the improvement of the
standards of agricultural production,
the most important being:

a. The inspection and licensing of bulls,
boars and stallions with the object
of preventing the use, for breeding,
of inferior animals.

b. The inspection of dairy farms in
connection with the administration
of milk regulations.

0. The inspection and accreditation of
breeding flocks of poultry.

d. The inspection and certification of
growing crops of potatoes, herbage
plants and vegetables from which
seed is to be harvested, and of
fruit bushes and root stocks which
are to be sold for planting.

e. The inspection of crops and plants
under plant health regulations."

From these two definitions and from his eXperi-

ma... .

\

11h
ence it seems clear to the author that although the
two services have a substantial area of overlapping
function, they each extend out of that field in
different directions. The field common to both
is the dissemination of information and the pro-
motion of technology in agriculture. The Nation-
al Agricultural Advisory Service extends into the
field of government administration and regulation,
while the COOperative Extension Service is at great
pains to keep clear of compulsion, inspection, regu-
lation and financial inducements. It extends into
the field of what shall be called "social welfare"
which in England is largely done independently,
albeit less comprehensively, by such organizations
as the Womens' Institutes, Young Farmers' Clubs,
Boy Scouts, Girl Guides, the Boys' Brigade and a

multitude of semi-social farmers' organizations.13

 

13In the village (pop. 3,000) where the author
operates, there are the following organizations,

all completely independent of, though serviced by,
the advisory service as requested: "The St. Columb
Fat Stock Society", "The St. Columb Farmers Club",
"The St. Columb Young Farmers Club", "The St. Columb
Horse Society" and "The St. Columb Womens Insti-
tute", in addition to the usual religious and po—
litical societies and the British Legion, all self—
governing at the local level.

The difference is unfortunately by no means as

straightforward as this would make it seem, but it

115
is hoped that the discussion in the remainder of
this paper will qualify the distinction and bring
out some of the subtleties which are not at first
apparent. It is proposed to discuss first the re-
lationship with the public at the local level and
then at the higher political levels.

III. Relationships at the Local Level.

The county agent is undoubtedly much more
closely linked with the community in which he
operates than is the advisory officer, for he car-
ries no authority except that which he commands from E
personal respect. He is freer to participate in /
the life of the community than is the advisory of—
ficer and is not even prevented from Operating his
own farm in the county.

One reason for this is that the extension
program is more comprehensive in educational sc0pe,
and it requires that he shall be thoroughly acquain-
ted with the social values of the community. Sec-
ondly, he is dependent upon the good will and cooper-
ation of the local government for his local facili-
ties and gxpenses and must always keep his eye on
local politics if he is to remain in a position to

be effective.

V!
J
\.A
\‘ .
, I

I
'.'l
.3
.

).‘Iu~’

. .

7 .

‘

‘ 4|
0

'4

116

This is a challenging situation for any
man, and its supporters will claim for it that it
results in a program which is keyed to the needs
of the people for whom it is intended.

The big disadvantage is that it is easy for
the agent to become the general factotum for a host
of societies and interest groups if he believes he
needs their political support. Most of the agents
the author has met have quickly acknowledged that
this danger is very real and have expressed the
opinion that they can soon become promoters, coor—
dinators and local organizers rather than educators

14

and technical consultants.

 

14A survey conducted by Stone (1954) among the coun-
ty agents in Michigan shows that they estimate only
ten per cent of their time was spent actually in
personal face to face contact with individuals at
their farms but there will be a proportion of local
business men as well. The visits will include the
conduct of other business than the giving of tech-
nical advice. Yet in 1954-55 the eighty-three
county agents reported 49,494 farm and home visits
which is an average of 596 per agent with an aver—

ggg duratigg of under thirty minutes pgr visit,

In 1952 an experiment was launched with sup-
port from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation to test the
effectiveness of the orthodox system against a more
intensive one in which the agent works within a
smaller (township) area so that he can give more per-

sonal attention to his clients. In 1953 Congress

117
anticipated the outcome of the experiment by pass-
ing Public Law 83 which made additional funds avail-
able for the appointment of agents to conduct farm
. and home planning on a farm unit basis to increase
the personal service to American farmers.

It seems to the present author that the vital
factor to be recognized is that the long and short
term interests of the farm people are not always com-
patible. Political considerations more usually em-
phasize short term consequences. Important though
it is for the agent to serve the peOple with what
they want, he can become ineffective if he responds
to every pressure that is exerted on him. By trying
to please everyone he eventually finds he has pleased
no one.

He must exercise considerable judgment, in—
tegrity and strength of character if he is to avoid
becoming a will-o'-the-wisp at the one extreme or
an autocrat at the other.

In the advisory service the same forces op-
erate. Although the district advisory officer soon
realizes that he must obtain the support and respect
of his people if he is to be effective, it is easier
for him to become out of touch with local needs and

yet still keep his job. The policy of the service

118
is to avoid keeping an officer in one place for
long enough for his outlook to become narrowed into
a parochial rut, but he is not dependent upon local
support for any of his funds. Having responsibil-
ities in the administration of national policy and
the payment of subsidies, etc., he has to maintain
a certain authority independent of his people which
will enable him to act fairly in such a way that
the schemes are administered uniformly throughout
the nation.

. It would seem, therefore, that the county
agent is more likely to become a pawn in local pol-
itics currying to pOpular favor; the district offi-
cer to become an arbiter of public tastes, giving
the people what is "good" for them whether they
want it or not.

The methods used by county agents reflect
this situation. There is much more emphasis on
mass communication (which could be used to greater
advantage by the advisory service) and the project
system in which extension programs are divided into
uncoordinated projects, each having little relation-
ship with the next.

The farm and home development approach is

IV.

119
an effort to counteract this tendency, but the
majority of the work tends to be organized in
projects yet. The agent finds he is in the grip
of something stronger than himself, however much he
may try to change. He will find that the local
people look to him to continue as has always been
done, and he will also find that the college sub-
ject specialists will continue to think in terms of
projects to the extent that he will take the easy
way out, accept the meetings offered him by the
specialists, keep the local people content, and
submit an impressive statistical report at the end
of the year.

Relationship with the State and Federal Governments'
Functions.

The cooperative administration of the exten—
sion service is probably the most significant factor
accounting for its success. It is difficult to con-
ceive a better method of organizing a purely educa-
tional service once the function of each level of
administration is clearly defined and accepted.

If the impact of government upon agriculture were
confined to education, there would be little doubt

that the organization would be ideal.

120

Unfortunately, however, there are other
functions which the government is increasingly
called upon to perform which are not so popular
because they require the exercise of authority
which cannot always take local conditions into
account.

In the United States the two functions are
separated; in England they are, to some extent, com-
bined. It has been shown (p. 56) that in England
a system similar to that in America has failed.

It is the opinion of the author that one of the
reasons for this lies in the different status
which agriculture holds in the national economy,
and the public sentiment and the influence which
rural interest has in the political system.

The conception of the extension service
grew up in America at a time when agricultural in-
terests were a potent political force. This is
partly due to the relative size of the rural elec-
torate (which has since dwindled)but is also due to
the constitution of federal and state senates where
sparesely pOpulated rural states and counties are
represented equally with those having a dense urban

population. The consequence was that the land grant

121
colleges and extension grew out of a demand by
rural interests for educational facilities both in
agriculture and rural living generally. At that
time rural enlightenment was more synonymous with
national enlightenment; there is little doubt that
it contributed to national development to the ex—
tent that it was a basis of a new educational philo-
sophy placing a high value on technology. That it
was at first mainly confined to agriculture was not
important; it showed what could be done in a lim-
ited field and thus led people to respect tech-
nology as a means to progress in all fields. To
the extent that this agreement is valid, therefore,
the sectional interests of the rural people ul—
timately became of benefit to the whole nation.

In Britain it is probable that until re-

L,

centlyl the farmer never had the national polit-

 

1”The author suspects that the National Farmers
Ugiog is becomigg a pglitical fogce.

ical power of his American counterpart. Farm

 

programs have not been conceived by farmers oper-
ating as a pressure group, but rather to achieve
econbmic balance desirable for the national econ-
omy (largely industrial). The net result has
been that, whereas in America the farmer has been

a political power to be reckoned with, in England

122
he has tended to become a pawn of the more powerful
political groups. Today there are signs that this
situation is becoming reversed.

In the United States the trend since the
"New Deal" has been toward increasing government
intervention in agriculture in the interests of the
national economy and defense. The extension ser-
vice with its local control is neither able nor wil—
ling to administer government schemes, and the con—
sequence is that there is a hoSt of local officers
who have been appointed to do the work. If this
work were unrelated to extension, this might not
matter, but most of the work requires a good work-
ing knowledge of farming, and two schemes in particu—
lar require the giving of technical advice (viz.,
the Farm and Home Administration and the Soil Con-
servation Service). As the Hoover CommisSion re-
vealed, it can be very bewildering for a farmer when
there are so many different agencies all working
independently in a locality.

At the foundation of the National Agricul-
tural Advisory Service, it was considered that a
separate educational service for farmers (although
desirable) could not be justified in view of the

staff already necessary to administer government

123
schemes. Since the latter were considered essen-
tial, it was felt that it would be better to have
an advisory service with some administrative
duties than no advisory service at all. The
county office became the single agency to whom
the farmer could turn, either for government help
or for advice. In many cases it has been possible
to back up advice to the farmer with financial
help toward the capital expenditure necessary to
carry it out.

Now that a move has been made to turn the
district committee into an advisory committee,
the district advisory officer will be released to
spend the greater part of his time on advisory ac-
tivities. As far as possible the regulatory work
will (it is hoped) be confined to the county com-

mittee and county staff.

CHAPTER IX

RELATIONSHIPS WITHIN THE SERVICE

Training.

It is pointless to discuss at length the rel—
ative standard of technical education required of
the county agent and district advisory officer upon
entry into the service. It is the author's opinion
that the B. S. standard in Agriculture at Michigan
State University does not require so much competence
as the B. Sc. standard at British universities. It
does seem, however, that the Michigan training sys-
tem for extension agents puts a greater emphasis
on educational techniques; more attention is given
to the basic problem of communicating ideas among
the people, largely because more research is done
in this field. It would be dangerous to assume,
however, that the methods that work well in America
would also work in England. Research to find the
most effective combination of methods should be
done there.

Most of the recruiting for the extension
service is done without public competition or ad-
vertising. It is often the case that the graduat-

ing students are first employed as 4-H club agents

125
and later are transferred to agriculture. There
is also a considerable entry from the ranks of the
vocational agriculture teachers in the public
schools.

At first sight the training programs in the
extension service do not seem to differ greatly
from the Advisory Service. There are orientation
courses for beginners and periodic refresher
courses and conferences for the whole staff at
the state, district and county level. One major
difference lies in the opportunity afforded to
county agents to take regular university courses
off campus in the evenings, thereby accumulating
"credits" for an advanced degree, which may soon
be obligatory for all agents if they are to main-
tain their status. Before the degree can be
granted, the applicant must reside at the college
for at least one term. After six years' seniority,
applicants are not usually denied the privilege of
taking sabbatical leave with either half pay or
even full pay. Agents are also eligible to attend
either a six week or a three week regional summer
school not oftener than every three years.

There is no program equivalent to this gener-

ally available in the National Agricultural Advis-

126
ory Service, and it may well be that the Service
would benefit more from this type of training than
it does from the one to four day courses which
are now used.

There is one quality found throughout the ex-
tension service which is hard to define and even
harder to account for. Whether it be a product of
the organization or of the in-service training
programs, it is a tremendous asset to any organi—
zation. Briefly it is the team spirit; the spirit
of extension; the infectious enthusiasm for the
work and all it stands for; that is the most im-
pressive thing of all about the service, and it
is to be found throughout. All the members of the
staff whom the author has met have been able and
willing to talk freely and critically about their
service without ill-will and without rancor. It
is a constructive criticism, a striving to improve
that perhaps is characteristic of America.

It must be agreed that one characteristic
of the American national character (if there be
such a thing) is a tremendous capacity for enthusi—
asm. Occasionally it would perhaps seem that
this can be perverted into brashness but when it

can be harnessed, as it is in the extension service,

127
the result is impressive.
II. Evaluation.

The design of a good training program re-

quires a sound system of evaluation ipso facto.

In Spite of the many difficulties involved in

this work, it seems that more attention has been
given to research into the problem in the United
States than in England and Wales. There is a
special department of the federal extension ser-
vice charged with conducting evaluation and train—
ing studies, and many states in addition run

their own studies.

The social sciences in general have a great
deal of difficulty establishing two sine qua nons
in their experiments: validity and reliability.

In extension studies. validity is harder to deter-
mine than reliability.

The reliability of a study is not difficult
to establish. In spite of many superficial differ—
ences in the personalities and capabilities of
county agents and their clientele, it is accep-
table that there is a high degree of uniformity
in the occurrence of basic problems met with by
agents throughout the nation. Indeed it is remark-

able how little some of the problems found by

‘ 128
county agents differ from those faced by the author
and his colleagues working in a completely different
environment.

Validity seems almost impossible to estab—
lish in work of this nature, however. It is rela-
tively easy to design an experiment and collect
information which might seem to prove an hypothesis,
but in nearly every case the logic in the drawing
of the hypothesis, if not faulty, is Open to ques-
tion and the whole of the work hinges on the vali-

' dity Of the method. Validity is still largely a
value judgment and thus, having conceived an ex-
periment and carried it out carefully, the conclu-
sion is just as much a matter of Opinion as would
have been a carefully considered judgment in the
first place. The frank recognition of this situ-
ation and a vigorous determination to solve it can
go a long way toward finding a solution.

A second facet of evaluation is that of per—
sonnel for purposes of promotion or disciplinary
action. All extension personnel are required to
submit monthly reports on their work and a most

comprehensive annual report in much greater detail

than is required of district advisory Officers.

129

The annual report is in two parts: statis-
tical and narrative. The statistical report form
contains some thirty—two pages and covers the
activities in the minutest detail. Until this
year (report submitted 1954—55) the narrative re—
port has been exhaustive, containing photographs,
etc., and Often extending to one hundred and fifty
pages of single-spaced typing. Recently instruc-
tions have been issued to limit the scope of the
narrative.

In favor of the reports it has been argued
that the statistics are required by law, for no state
can continue to receive federal funds unless reports
are properly kept. Secondly, it is argued that
there is a responsibility to the taXpayer which
should not be treated lightly. Thirdly, it is
said that the reports provide some sort of Objec—
tive basis for evaluating the performance of staff.
Finally, it is argued (with some truth) that the
writing of the narrative is a good mental discip—
line for the agent and that it keeps his program
realistic by helping him to plan for the future.

The danger of the reports is that the agents
have felt that their capabilities are measured more

by the size and impressiveness of their report than

130
their effectiveness in the job. Time and again
the author has heard it said by county agents
that they tend to become a slave to their own stat-
istics and must give a good showing on paper if
they are to be recognized.

The author does not believe that there is any
truth in this contention, but that is not important.
If the agent believes it to be true, the damage
will have been done, and he will strive for more
meetings with larger audiences, more visits and
telephone calls, paying scant regard to the educa-
tional effectiveness of the way he conducts them.
His time becomes absorbed with "busy work" and there
is little left over for the creative thinking and
planning essential to a sound educational program,
Of the kind required in the farm and home develop—
ment approach,which is being sought after so assidu-
ously by the policy makers.

The rebuttal to this argument is (not without
foundation) that time left for creative thinking is
not always used for this purpose and can be an ef-
fective cover for inefficiency.

It seems to the author that reports are re-
quired for two distinct purposes: to show what the

workers are trying to do, and to show to what extent

131
they are achieving their Objectives. It does not
seem possible to measure both with the same instru-
ment; in fact, if this is attempted the measurement
becomes invalid for either purpose. The reporter
will tend to sell himself by representing what he
has done as what he intendedtn do and he will ar-
rive at a common status quo with all the workers
attempting to fit themselves into a common mould.

It seems to the author that reporting, as
a system of evaluation, is significant only if it
is used in conjunction with an advanced plan which
can be used as a yardstick. Though much is made Of
program planning in the extension text books, it
does not appear to be carried on to any great ex-
tent among the agents in Michigan. .At any rate,
no formal plans are submitted. If they were to
be required (and there is a move in this direction)
it will seem to encourage the county agents to
emerge from the common mould confident in the know-
ledge that what they are attempting has the ap—
proval of their seniors and will be judged on
that basis.

In the advisory service reporting is kept
to a minimum by comparison. In the author's opin-

ion this has many advantages, but he feels that

III.

132
perhaps more attention should be paid to planning
a program to encourage the officers to think
things through for themselves and to give them
some long and short term objectives toward which
they can direct their efforts conscientiously
and systematically. In his experience, many dis-
trict Officers are somewhat frustrated because it
is not altogether clear to them what exactly they
are trying to do.

The Position of the Specialist.

The Joint Committee on Extension Programs,
Policies and Goals (Hannah, 1948) in discussing the
methods used by extension has this to say:

"This committee would point out that
farm life itself is not lived in segments
and projects. It is lived as a whole.

The Operator faces a multitude of problems
Of which production is one, machinery an-
other, conservation Of soil resources an-
other, and so on. The end Objective of
solving all these problems is a better
life for the farm family and the insur-
ance of an adequate supply of agricul-
tural products for the general public.”

Then in dark italics it states:

"This committee believes that with
the varied expansion of scientific know-
ledge and the desirability in many areas
of some diversification, the average farm
family needs the help of more generalists
rather than more specialists. They need
a competent interpreter and integrator of
usable facts."

133

In the view of the present author, the
specialist should be to the county agent what the
county agent is expected to be to the farmer. Spec-
ialization should be confined to the research wor-
kers and there should be senior agents with a scien—
tific background who can be freed from routine in
order to be able to report on and interpret the
work carried out in research to communicate it to
the local staff in an acceptable and usable form.
They might perhaps spend a week at a time in the
county getting acquainted with the agent's problems.

At present, allowing for the fact that many
Of the specialists in the National Agricultural Ad—
visory Service have considerable regulative duties
in addition to their advisory functions (more than
is envisaged for the district Officers), the prob-
lem of the specialists is prominent in both ser—
vices.

There seem to be three concepts of their
function held by the specialists themselves:

1. Firstly, there is the "research worker" type;
wholly occupied with his subject matter field,
he pays little attention to the dissemination
of the material he accumulates.

2. Secondly, there is the "academic" type, also

134
preoccupied with his field, he attempts to
instruct county staff and farmers much as a
lecturer would his students, paying little
attention to the relationship Of his field
with others that impinge upon it. He shows
little understanding of the field officers'
or the farmers' positions as a coordinator
of many fields Of knowledge, for his mind runs
on projects.

3. Finally, there is the "county agent at large"
type who travels the countryside extensively
and builds himself a state-wide or province-
wide clientele Of favored farmers and county
Officers whom he likes to visit. The remainder
are largely ignored - "because they don't come
to me."

It is unfortunate that the true purpose of
the specialist in practice is not at all clear in
either service and thus as a group they give the
author the impression that they find it difficult
to adjust themselves to their position of liaison
between fundamental research and the farmer.

The research worker has his own satisfactions
and social prestige in the university community.

The field officer also has a place in his social com-

135
munity and can Obtain real satisfaction from serv-
ing the needs of the people with whom he lives.

The specialist has neither of these social com—
pensations and therefore tends toward one extreme
or the other. Alternatively, he adopts a position
of embittered authority which does not endear him
to either the research worker or the field Officer.
This does little to facilitate effective liaison
between them.

It is the author's contention that the major
challenge to the specialist is to become a two-way
public relations officer. At present they have
both the technical training and the intelligence
to enable them to understand both the farmer and
the research worker, given the facilities. What
is lacking is a knowledge of public relations tech—
niques. Public relations is a highly skilled pro-
fession requiring a comprehensive understanding of
both the theory and the practice of "communications".
Hitherto, teaching methods and communications tech-
niques have been acknowledged to be Of great impor-
tance to the district advisory Officer and the county
agent; this writer believes that they are of equal

(if not greater) importance in the training Of

136
specialists.

The county agent is encouraged to embark
upon an advanced educational program tailored to
meet his needs, whereas the specialist, if he is
to gain further recognition, can only enter a spec—
ialized research program which emphasizes a field
where he should be able to obtain what information
he needs from the full-time bona fide research
workers. It is not necessary to be able to build
a watch before one can learn to tell the time.

In the advisory service the problem is also
aggravated because agricultural economics is ex-
cluded from the service. The problem has been
temporarily solved by the appointment of the liai-
son officers at the universities and colleges but
in spite of the excellent job which these officers
do in difficult circumstances, the service would
benefit immensely if it had available to it some of
the data Michigan extension service can get from the
agricultural economics department at Michigan State

University.

CHAPTER X

HISTORICAL ATTITUDES TOWARD AGRICULTURE AND
RURAL LIFE AND THEIR EFFECTS ON POLICY OF
THE TWO SERVICES TODAY

. AND FOR THE FUTURE

If the difference between the Cooperative Extension
Service and the National Agricultural Advisory Service is
to be clearly understood, it must be through a fundamental
understanding of the history of political philOSOphy in
the two countries and its effect on contemporary attitudes
toward agriculture.

I. The Cooperative Extension Service.

At its outset in the Declaration of Independence
American democracy was influenced by the agrarian sen-
timents of its author (Thomas Jefferson) which were
undoubtedly a reflection Of the then current popular
sentiment. Democracy, to Jefferson at that time,
was based upon the ideal of universal land ownership
as the symbol of political independence and liberty.

The country at that time was so deeply impli-
cated in agriculture, depending as it did on Europe
for its supplies of industrial goods, that farming held
high prestige as a noble profession, a superior way

Of life or as Jefferson put it:

138
"Those who labour in the earth are the
chosen peOple of God, if ever He had chosen
peOple, whose breasts He has made His peculiar
deposit for substantial and genuine virtue.

It is the focus in which He keeps alive that

sacred fire, which otherwise might escape from

the face of the earth. . . . Dependence begets
subservience and venality, suffocates the germ
of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the de—
signs of ambition. . . . generally speaking
the proportion which other classes of citizens
bear in any state to that of its husbandmen,
is the proportion of its unsound to its heal-
thy parts, and is a good enough barometer
whereby to measure its degree Of corruption."

(Jefferson, 1804).

Later the country discovered that dependency on
Europe for manufactured goods was too chancy, and
Jefferson,in spite Of his philosophy helped to begin
to build up the tremendous industrial potential which
it has today.

The anomaly which is difficult for a European
to understand is that, in spite Of the fact that the
farm population is now down to twelve per cent of the
total and even so is not declining fast enough for
economic efficiency; that the industrial revolution
in America is upheld as an example to the world in
spite Of Jefferson's prOphecies; that in 1950 forty
per cent of the farms produced ninety per cent of the
nation's food supply; in spite of all these things it
is still politically eXpedient for a Representative to

say in the House: ". . .I have always considered the

139

farmers of this country as the backbone of American
democracy," (Andresen, 1947), and the farm bloc is
still considered the most powerful lobby group in
Washington. The sentiment of the electorate is still
very much in sympathy with the basic ideals of
Jefferson in spite of the fact that the country owes
its place in the world to an economic structure which
is the very antithesis of those ideals.

The position Of the extension service in this
situation tends in the view of the author to be equally
anomalous. Half Of its Objectives are aimed toward
making the countryside a more satisfying and com—
fortable place to live, the other half toward in-
creasing the efficiency (measured in output per man)
of agriculture. The latter Objective inevitably
entails that the food supplies of the nation are
capable Of being supplied by a smaller and smaller
section of the community. In other words, while so-
cially it makes country life more attractive, econom-
ically it tends to make it increasingly impossible
without migration.

That this danger exists is recognized, both by
economists and by the members Of the service, and their
policy is going through a gradual transition. For a

tax-supported organization, the service is itself in

140
a rather unique position in its relation to politics
and public opinion.

Firstly its policy is extrordinarily broadly
defined by statute and administrative directive, and
this enables it to mould and remould itself within
this broad framework in response to_long term trends
in public thinking. Its survivaL so fan will demon—
strate this. Secondly, being an educational organi-
zation, it has the means of influencing people's
values and by subtle methods can mould political sup—
port for itself among certain sections of the elec-
torate. It is regarded as essential, therefore, that
the policy makers (and this to some extent includes
every member of the service) shall stand firm in the
hurly-burly of party political maneuvering and yet
remain sensitive to swings in public Opinion. As one
bathing in the sea may withstand the buffeting of the
waves and be invigorated (if he doesn't mind a duck-
ing) but must retreat (like King Canute) before the
incoming tide, so the Extension Service can withstand
the buffeting of the politicians (using its public re-
lations facilities) but must always be prepared to
retreat before the tide Of public Opinion and retrench
itself on firmer ground.

The morality of such apparent expediency is an

141
interesting study in ethics. One of the most common
social diseases among government bureaucracies is an
obsession for self-perpetuation; one of the symptoms
is a creeping paralysis which can be cured only by
drastic political surgery. In the case of the Exten-
sion Service, however, it would seem that had the
founders of the organization and those who have since
supported it been concerned that this might happen,
they would surely have defined policy more clearly
and would have hedged it about with numerous restric—
tive clauses. This has not been the case.

The author believes that the COOperative Ex—
tension Service remains vital because it is more than
an organization; it is an idea, a democratic philoso-
phy Of "helping the people to help themselves" with an
immense social value of its own. Like all philOSOphies
however, it cannot be transmitted in a vacuum but
must have a vehicle to carry it into peOple's minds.

It so happens that originally this vehicle was
"the giving of instructions and practical demonstra-
tions in agriculture and home economics and subjects
relating thereto to persons not attending or resi-
dent in colleges.” If the ideal were allowed to es-
cape because of a change in the political situation,

it would be equivalent to throwing the baby out with

142

the bath water. It is the view of the author that
extension will continue to remould the scope of its
subject matter and its method of approach in a
changing environment because the philosophy it
carries will always be needed in town and country

if democracy is to remain personal and vigorous in
the atmosphere of massive vituperation that now per-
vades it.

Of course the providing of technical advice in
agricultural technology (including economic advice)
will never be discarded, but with their eyes on the
future the policy makers seem already to be laying
the foundations ofla bridge into a new era. Already
they maybe can forsee the eventual collapse of the
popular political appeal for the doctrine of "agricul-
tural fundamentalism” which most political scientists
and economists have long since abandoned. Can they
also forsee the farm vote dwindling to a size which,
if it is left to stand on its own,unsupported by the
urban romanticists would not enable it to command any
appreciable political power? That twelve per cent Of
the population should wield so much power today is
partly due to the rural constitution of the legisla-

tures.

As evidence of this change, the author would

143
point to the growth of urban home demonstration
work, the appointment of urban agents, the movement
toward urban 4-H clubs and the appointment of con-
sumer agents. If there is any political group which
is likely to "adOpt" this new work and nurture it in
the political arena, it is the labor unions which
are fast gaining a power to match that of the farm
bloc. Already there is some concern about the tre-
mendous increase in leisure time which will result
from a thirty hour work week for labor. Might not
extension have a method for helping to solve a prob-
lem of this nature?

If any such change as is envisaged should

come about, the farmers will not be the losers. It
will be recognized that in the long run an efficient
agriculture will tend to reduce food prices and taxa-
tion. In fact, should the political power of the
farmers be reduced to scale, they are likely to re—
tain a better advisory service than they could muster
support for on their own. The extension service is
after all a great and very successful social experi-
ment and eventually most social advances in an indus—
trial economy tend to rely upon organized labor for
their political support. That this experiment has

maintained such a consistently high reSpect in a po-

II.

144

litical environment where the word "socialism" is
anathema,is the highest compliment to the organizers
of the service and its policy makers throughout its
life.

The National Agricultural Advisory Service.

In England since the repeal of the Corn
Law, pOpular political thinking has generally been
dominated by commerce and economics. This is par-
ticularly true Of right wing thinking though the
farmers traditionally are conservative. The Labour
Party are more concerned about the interests of the
urban workers than that Of the farmers. Even the far—
mers themselves prefer to be considered more as econ-
omic units than as social units or even as the back-bone
d‘democracy.

Farm policy has been determined more by national
and international circumstances than by the interest
of the farmers acting through their organizations.

It is generally acknowledged that this must be so, but
all the farmers ask is that they shall be able to for-
see what will be required of them in advance and have
such information uncolored by the political eXpedi-
ency of the moment. They need information about their
relationship to the national economy and the world

situation so that they are better able to understand

145
agricultural policy and take it into account as
they plan the future management of their business.

The National Agricultural Advisory Service
could do this work and could do it convincingly, un-
shackled by political ties. The farmers would soon
be able to detect whether this was so. It may, how-
ever, be interpolated that such an excursion into the
borders Of politics would be inappropriate for a
minstry department. In this case the work could be
done by the agricultural economics departments of
universities and agricultural colleges. That such
an excursion into the field of policy is feasible has
already been demonstrated in the COOperative Exten-
sion Service where the political situation is quite
as "lively" as in England. It is true that great care
would be necessary, but no more than is already exer—
cised by the B.B.C. in a wider field. It would, how-
ever, be a departure requiring both courage and im-
agination from its inception.

Even outside the field of farming there is
equal need. In vain do the government leaders try
to acquaint the people with the economic "facts of
life" by exhortation to work harder and spend less,
because the people have very little conception of what

"inflation" is. They are more inclined to regard it

146
as an attribute Of politicians than something real

and vital. If the economic education of the public

as a whole could be raised, it would be far more

responsive to the situation and would react accord-

ingly. Ignorance breeds distrust and distrust

breeds apathy.

 

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