A STUDY OF PUSUC CONCEPTS RELATED TO THE ROLE OF COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICE Thai: for tho Door” of M. S. MECHIGAN STATE UNIVERSE" Elgin M Comet? B958 “..‘-1 ImumHummumum“lummzxumjfluwul * ,, 31293 104 MSU RETURNING MATERIALS: P1ace in book drop to LJBRARJES remove this checkout from W your record. FINES wiH be charged if book is returned after the date stamped be10w. :I’IO - R. - ' I W .1 , r-D‘ H .-. V3.3" ‘L"‘f""‘“"‘i’* "‘ in!) ~‘ ~> ..: A STUDY OF PUBLIC C NCEPTS ELATED TO THE ROLE OF COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICE Elgin M. Cornett A THESIS Submitted to the Institute for Extension Personnel Development in College of Agriculture of Michigan State University of Agriculture and Applied Science in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE Agricultural Extension 1958 Elgin M. Cornett THESIS ABSTRACT 'The extent to which peeple are reached by the Extension Service, their understanding of the program, and their attitudes toward support- ing it were studied in farm and city organizations of a Michigan county. The findings were analyzed and interpreted from the standpoint of im- proving Extension programs and building public support for Extension through understanding. Recent trends in Extension work were compared to public concepts related to the role of Extension as a public tax- supported program. Cooperative Extension work is an educational program supported jointly by the federal, state, and local governments. Its purpose is to increase the well being of the people through the dissemination of information on improved practices in farming and homemaking and by other educational means designed to "help the people help themselves." For the most part, the program has been concerned with rural, and par- ticularly farm, peOple -- though the present trend is toward a broadened concept of the clientele and service, as expressed in the objective of "serving all the people." Assumptions made before this study began were that public under- standing of Extension programs is not good enough to assure permanent support and that the educational programs of the Extension Service do not effectively reach the public in telling them what Extension is doing or has done. A mail questionnaire was sent to 700 people in Jackson county and another one was sent to 100 non-agricultural faculty members at 1 u... Elgin M. Cornett Michigan State University. About half the number mailed was returned and all conclusions are based on those who actually answered. The Jackson survey included both farm and city publics made up of membership of the Artificial Breeders Association and three city service clubs. A high percentage of public awareness and approval was found but there was a lack of evidence to show clear understanding of Exten- sion functions. City Extension work was considered incidental by both farm and urban people and farm assistance was considered the main pur- pose for having Extension. Both farm and city people were in favor of Extension work on community deve10pment in rural areas, but there was no evidence to show that the public eXpects education work on general affairs that interest all people. The technical, social and economic revolution in rural living is not associated with Extension functions and people are not aware of any change in public demands for service. Since Extension leaders find a rapidly changing demand for their work, it seems evident that there is a lag in public concepts of Extension function and the actual need for it. As a leader in adult education, a progressive Extension Service should recognize the lag in public concept and carry out a program to inform people about the developments that are taking place. Public opinion of the function of Extension for farmers has been developed over time and the survey reports show a slow tendency to change to any broader view. There is need for a two~way program in public relations to better inform the public of Extension and to better find out what the public knows and wants. Elgin M. Cornett This study touches some important facts but is not final or com- plete. It is hoped the findings reported here will be helpful to en- courage future studies that may go deeper into the public concept of the role of Cooperative Extension. There is a need, as the next step, for a survey with more depth of opinion to show how and why people react as they do. This would require some type of interview research. of the Crc pol Ja: Psyc at v has I tang} ACKNOWLEDGMENT It was my pleasure and privilege to have as adviser Dr. John T. Stone, Chairman of the Institute for Extension Personnel Development of Michigan State University. The committee agreeing to review the thesis consisted of Dr. Stone: Dr. C. M. Harrison, Professor in Farm Crops; Dr. Jay W. Artie, Assistant Professor in Sociology and Anthro- pology; and Dr. Robert C. Kramer, Professor in Agricultural Economics. I an especially grateful to the county extension staff in the Jackson extension office. I am sure these folks went out of their way to be helpful when they consented to have their program tested by this study. Such bravery deserves recognition for service above and beyond the call of duty. My thanks and appreciation go out to the officers of the Jackson organizations that consented to a survey of membership. They were the Rotary club, Kiwanis club, Business and Professional Women’s club, and the county Artificial Breeders Association. Helpful suggestions were given by Dr. Hans Tech, instructor of psychology; and Dr. Chris Sewer, professor in sociology and anthropology at Michigan State University. The policy of Oregon State College relative to sabbatical leave has made it possible for the writer, an Oregon county agent, to work toward a Master's degree at Michigan State University. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . II. PUBLIC RELATIONS DEFIKED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . III. RESEARCH METHOD TO GATHER INFORMATION . . . . . . . . . IV. SURVEY PROCEDURE IN JACKSON COUNTY . . . . . . . . . . . V. OPINIORS - ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . VI. SURVEY OF OPINIONS OF MICHIGAN STATE UKIVERSITY FACULTY. VII. CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Extension Service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Awareness and Use of Extension Service . . . . . . . Some Changes in Extension. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Extension Support. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BIBLIOGRAPHY O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O APPENDIXQ‘QOQQOOQooooooeoeoee 15 19 26 6O 66 66 67 73 78 80 10. 11. 12. 15. 14. 150 16. 17. LIST OF TABLES Numbers and Percent of Questionnaires Mailed and Returned 0 o o o o o o e e o o s o o e s o o s e 0 An Indication of Awareness of Extension. . . . . . . . Indication of Who Has Used Extension Information . . . Methods Recalled by Which Extension Information Was Received 0 s e e e e e e e o o o e e e o e e o o o A Measure of How Extensively Jackson County Extension Agents Are Kncwn e o o o o o o o e o o o e o o o o o 0 Opinions About Indirect City Benefits From Farm Education. 0 o e o e e o o o e e o o o o e e o s e o 0 Opinions About What Information is Most Useful to Farmers o o e o o o o o o o o o o e e o e o s o o o Preportion of Families with 4-H Experience . . . . . . Opinions of Farm and City People About the Purpose Of 4-H ClUb Work 0 o s o o e e e e e o o o o o o o e 0 Proportion of Families Where a Member has Attended Home Demonstration Meetings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Proportion of Families Who Have Used Assistance From Home Demonstration Agent. 0 e s o o o o o o o o 0 Rural and Urban Opinions on the Most Useful Help Received From the Home Demonstration Agent . . . . . . Ratio of Rural or Urban Emphasis for Extension Agent Work-Load. e o e e e o e e o o e o e e o o o o 0 Opinions About Responsibilities of Extension on Community Wide PrOblemSQ o o e o o o o o o o o o o o 0 Opinions Showing How Helpful Extension Education is Felt to Be. 0 o e e o o o o e e o e o e o e e o e 0 Correlation of Extension Information Users and the Feeling that Extension Service is Definitely Helpful . A Comparison of the Number of People Answering the Questionnaire Who Know an Extension Agent and Who DO NOt Know Any. 0 o o o o e o o o o o o o o o o o o o 51 5h 46 1+7 48 49 55 55 57 TABLE 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 25. 24. Comparison Between Opinions of PeOple Who Know at Least One Extension Agent and Who Do Not Know Any . . . Rural and Urban Answers Suggesting Subjects for EXtenBion Program. 0 o o o o o o o o o o o o oo o o o 0 Proportion of Non Agriculture Faculty of Michigan State University Who Are Familiar with Extension Work . Michigan State University Staff Impression of Extension as an Off-Campus Program. 0 o o o o o o o o o o o o o 0 Michigan State University Staff Rating of Extension SUbjeCtS Of Responsibility. 0 o o o o o o o o o o o o 0 Extension Program's Influence on College Attendance StimUIation o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o 0 Suggestions for Improving Extension Relations With Michigan State University Faculty. . . . . . . . . 61 61 62 65 614 CHART 4A. 7A. 15A LIST OF CHARTS Comparison Between Rural and Urban Answers on How Information Was Received from Extension Agents . . Comparison Between Rural and Urban Answers on How Extensively County Extension Agents are KnomlndifidUEIIYQQOOOso...oooooo Comparison Between Rural and Urban Answers on What Information is Most Useful to Farmers . . . . Comparison Between Rural and Urban Returns That Show How Helpful Extension Education is Felt to be 55 55 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Cooperative Extension work is an educational program supported jointly by the federal, state, and local governments. While it is a cooperative program, it is part of the Land Grant college in each state and is administered by the college of Agriculture in Michigan. The major function of the Cooperative Extension Service as stated in the Smith-Lever Act is: h To aid in diffusing among the people of the United States useful and practical information on subjects relating to agri- culture and home economics, and to encourage the application of the same.‘ Through the educational and service approach, people are stimu- lated to make changes that result in more efficient production and marketing of farm products, conservation of natural resources, more comfortable homes, improved health, and more satisfying family and com- munity life. The intent of the Cooperative Extension program is to ”help people help themselves." In beginning this study, it was felt the Extension program might not be as well known or used as generally assumed, and for that reason support might be weakened by the changing farm picture. Interest developed in finding out what studies had been made to discover knowledge, uses, and objectives of Extension from the point of view of the general public. 1Amended Smith—Lever Act, Public Law 85, 85rd Congress, Chapter 157 - 1st Session. S1675. Very little research could be found relating to the opinion of general publics on this subject. It was decided on a study to find some reactions and concepts of people related to the role of Cooperative Extension work. A mail survey was conducted to test public understanding of the Cooperative Extension Service with several groups in Jackson county, Michigan, and a sample of the non-agricultural faculty at Michigan State University. Objectives of the survey were (1) to determine how well Extension is known and used by urban leaders and farm people; (2) to determine some of the things people think the Extension Service should be doing; (5) to test the attitude of the available publics on how well they ap- preciate and support Extension work; (A) and to get some pointers for improving extension program planning. The following assumptions are given as a basis for this study in public concepts of the function of the Cooperative Extension Service: The activities of the Agriculture and Home Economics Exten- sion Service have been helpful to many people. A store of good will has been accumlated over a period of time, but public good will toward extension does not necessarily mean its functions are clearly understood. Agriculture is changing rapidly and the Extension Service will fill a different role in the future. Farm people are approaching a point of information satura- tion from both government and commercial sources. This could tend to reduce the felt need for Extension Service and it may become increasingly difficult to maintain strong support for it in competition for tax dollars. If extension programs continue to serve additional public needs, the agricultural leaders who have traditionally supported tax appropriations may be unwilling or unable to maintain support in the future. While Extension work is popular, the staff is not effectively telling the public what the program is doing and what has been accomplished. A rural revolution creates the challenge of change Cooperative Extension service lives first for rural people. In Michigan and in the nation, rural living and farm business are going through a period of change so fast that students of change are out-of- date. With all the new adjustments in rural life, Cooperative Extension may not serve the same purpose it was organized for. Michigan farms numbered 187,000 in 1940, and the number had de- clined to 158,000 by 1955. This trend is continuing downward due to economic troubles of small farms and the movement of farm workers into industrial employment. The present population of Michigan is three times what it was when Cooperative Extension Service was started. During that period, the industrial counties have constantly increased in pepulation and the non-industrial counties have lost population. In most Michigan counties, the rural non-farm population exceeds the rural farm population. Urban-employed people are seeking residence and recreation in the country. Current estimates are that only 5 percent of the state's labor force are farmers, but the 1950 census lists two-thirds (64.5 percent) as urban dwellers and one-third (55.7 percent) as rural dwellers. The rural dwellers were divided to show 24.7 percent non-farm and 10.9 percent farm out of the total of 6.5 million people in the state. Total population is continuing to increase, farms to decrease, and more and more city folks are moving to the country to live. The proportion of farmer to other occupations in Michigan marks a pattern that is being followed nationwide. Agriculture in the United States has experienced a technological revolution since 1940. Total production from farms has increased steadily and, at the same time, farm population dropped one-third. Production on farms is 40 percent higher than it was before World War II. Thirty million was the farm population in 1940 and twenty-two million in 1955. With increasing total population, the proportion of farmers sank from one-fourth to one-tenth. In an earlier, simpler day, farm people lived somewhat in economic isolation from.urban centers. With the changed picture today, the eco- nomic affairs of the farmer are related more intimately to the economic lives of urban dwellers. Since public support for COOperative Extension has traditionally been farmer oriented, it follows that a shrinking farm population could mean a diminishing public understanding of the place Extension fills in the community. It also could mean a shift in demand for education ser- vice to satisfy changing public needs. Since Cooperative Extension Service started, communication, trans- portation and technical facilities have revolutionized rural life. Co- operative Extension has been riding the crest of this revolution in making effective use of new methods in educational activities for rural areas. As a result, the Extension program has earned an enormous store of good will. This popularity comes from satisfaction received by indi- viduals benefited. In general, every activity of Extension is helpful to someone. There has been no place for pressure, policing, or any activity to reduce the constant increase in the amount of good will carried by the program. Education and other tax-supported public services have increased again and again. But now we find there are many competitors sharing the clientele served by Extension. Keen competition for best use of tax dollars is increasing and public acceptance of any tax-supported program.is an important factor which is dependent on the influence of wide understanding. It is easy to overlook the possibility that more and more tax- payers may not understand the direct and indirect values that have made Extension popular. In the past, farm leaders have been influential enough to maintain support. Another factor which makes public opinion increasingly important to the continuation of strong support for the Extension program is the attitude of urban people toward farm aid programs. Government help of several kinds has been aimed toward farmers and there is evidence of a feeling that unearned benefits have gone to rural aid. Facts of the situation have little or no influence on the attitude of many taxpayers. This development may have changed large numbers of uninformed voters from a sympathetic to a skeptical feeling about any program for farm aid whether it is for education or economic purpose. The great changes in agriculture may, in part, be due to some of the work done by the Extension Service. Whether or not Extension has helped precipitate the revolution, it is finding a different climate in which to work. Research is needed to help determine what role of Exten- sion is best for the greatest number of people. 5 The study undertaken by this writer is aimed at finding public concepts related to the role of Cooperative Extension Service as an aid in planning future programs. According to Dr. Frank Suggitt, Head of the Department of Resource Development, Michigan State University, we either can consider the job of Extension about finished and abandon it, or we can revise the orientation of Extension in the light of many new and competing activities.2 This study problem required background reading about research methods and about the formation of public opinion. This includes recogni- tion and definition of public opinion and some of_the information is in- cluded in the next chapter. 2Suggitt, Frank W., Trends and Projections Affecting the Coopgrative Extension Program. Mimeo. publication from Dept. of Resource Develop- ment, Michigan State Univ., 1958, p. 7. CHAPTER II PUBLIC RELATIONS DEFINED Testing the color of_public relations Peeple form attitudes of approval, disapproval, and indifference about other people, moral values, products, and programs. These atti- tudes make up public Opinion. Each group with a common interest is a separate public which tends to react in a pattern to recognized events or symbols. Public Opinion may at times seem as intangible as a wisp of smoke tossed and scattered by the wind. We may see it founded, not only on knowledge, judgment, and understanding, but also on ignorance, prejudice, and human subconscious trivialities. But whatever the foundation, it is a dynamic force operating on all institutions whether or not recognized and whether or not desired. One meaning for the term Ipublic relationsI is a condition of public approval or disapproval. .Cooperative Extension does not exist in a vacuum, whether it is conscious of the fact or not, it has public relations. Favorable public opinion can be considered as ”white," and various shades of unfavorable opinion can be considered as approaching I'black." Accurate testing of the color which exists is necessary be- fore any wise action can be adopted to improve an Extension Service activity. This leads us to another common meaning of the term "public re- lations" when it is considered as specific actions taken by an organi- zation to win favorable attention. Such actions include two basic functions; 1) finding out what the public knows and expects, 2) doing the job and making sure the public finds out about it. Harlow and Black, Practical Public Relations, indicate the sig- nificance Of finding out what the public knows and expects. From the public relations standpoint, research in the form of Opinion surveys is a necessity. In dealing with a factor as elusive and as difficult to measure as the human mind, the chief interest of public relations, the use Of some means of arriving at an estimate of what people are think- ing is imperative. Otherwise nearly all the work done in public relations is guesswork. - Business and social leaders are constantly trying to solve the riddle of how to control human opinion. The art of Communication is used for this purpose, but signals are not always received. While comp munication difficulty is the most frequent trouble, there is more to it than clearing up the static. As stated in Edward Bernay‘s Engineering of Consent: Every leader wishing to win people to his point of view must take into account psychological raw materials - motives. These are subconscious pressures created by forces or desires. They include self preservation, ambition, pride, hunger, love of family and children, patziotism, imdtativeness, desire to be a leader, and love of play. Individual behavior, attitudes, and opinions are formed by effect of communications on personal motives. We are not born with built-in opinions, but we develop them from experience. A baby, at birth, has the same level of learning as babies had thousands Of years ago. A man, sharlow, Rex F., and Black, Marvin M., Practical Public Relations, Harper & Brothers, New York, 1952, p 264. hBernays, Edward L., The Engineering of Consent, University of Oklahoma today, has been said to be only the length of his days from a savage, but he is walking evidence of the vast influence Of communication and experience. The total experience Of individuals important to Cooperative Extension forms the public relations color. Extension publics may be grouped by (1) family of employees, (2) clientele of cooperators, and (5) general publics not associated with the program directly. Of these three groupings, the family of employees is important. Many public re- lations executives believe that, next to sound policies, the employees Of an organization are the most influential factor in its public rela- tions success or failure. What the employees do and what they say are two very important factors in public relations. To most people, the employees are the Extension Service, and to many of them the Extension Service is Michigan State University. Therefore, staff selection, staff training and co- ordination are key activities in any program to develop or maintain good public relations. The attitude of University departments toward one another must be based on understanding and mutual support. Results depend on all employees making good public relations a way of life. The job cannot be assigned to one person or one department. Clientele publics can be compared to customers Of a manufacturing company. For extension they include interest groups in each farm com- modity, gardeners and lawn growers, rarm service business houses, 4-H club groups, community clubs, homemakers, civic clubs, marketing organi- zations, government employees, general farm organizations, schools, and planning committees. Relations with the customers depends on quality of work and satis- faction given. It is in these publics where a good job counts and where friends and good will ambassadors develop. Many Extension agents who have been confident of favorable public acceptance do good work without specific effort to make sure the work was known widely. This follows a theory that satisfied cooperators will be enthusiastic enough to sell the program. Experience is proving the need for Extension efforts to make sure more publics know its story. Cooperators are often passive in their approval and do not go out of their way to sell Extension. Modern communication methods are bringing a complex array of promotion ideas which deflects the public attention. Good Extension work includes repeated explanations of the organi- zation along with all regular education activities. The people who use the extension service receive explanatory inserts with bulletins, news stories carry the sponsorship line to credit the source, and meetings or other speaking programs include an explanation Of who is doing the act. Demonstration displays have a sign on them to make sure people know who is responsible. In addition "program projection” is a committee planning device being used to get interested people to help work out a plan of work for Extension in each county. This will get more peOple to take part in the planning process which both adds quality and gets them to really support it. The third area of Extension public relations includes all publics not directly associated with the prOgram. These groups must be informed about the work because, first, some of them may have need for the service, and second, their favorable Opinion is essential to assure tax funds for 10 the continuation of the prOgram. One of the important publics includes government representatives who budget public funds. This includes County Supervisors, State Legislature members, and Congressmen since these three sources cOOperatively support the program. Also, repre- sentatives of the press, radio, and other influential persons make up key publics. It is helpful for workers in COOperative Extension to become widely acquainted. The personal influence of each worker is an important public relations tool covering the entire state. This tool is more ef- fective in rural areas and least effective in cities. The urban people have least Opportunity to learn what cooperative Extension is doing yet they make up the great majority of pOpulation. Personal contact is more effective than sometimes reported. Sur- veys on the effectiveness Of mass media Of communication in the formation of public opinion show that ideas Often penetrate the public slowly and very often through interaction of neighbor on neighbor without any ap- parent influence from the mass media of communication. Katz and Lazarsfeld, in Personal Influence say: The influence of mass media directly on public Opinion has negligible effect. Ideas seem to flow from radio and print to opinion leaders and from them tO the main mass of pOpulation. Thus most opinion originates from personal face- to-face contact with opinion leaders. The Opinion leaders in the survey were not at all identical with those traditionally thought Of as wielders of influence. Opinion leaders seem to be distributed through every occupa- tional, social and economic level. 5Katz, Elihu and Lazarsfeld, Paul F., Personal Influence, Free Press, Glencoe, 111., 1955, p 55. 11 The small friendship groups that are part of our daily lives are key factors in public opinion. In short, an individual's attitgdes and opinions depend on what he thinks his friends think. The method of research chosen for this study was a mail question- naire. Through this method we are able to find some indications of public opinion provided the methods used are apprOpriate and understood. The next chapter points out the questionnaire as a study method. 6Katz, Elihu and Lazarsfelt, Paul F., gp.‘git., p 54. 12 CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD TO GATHER INFORMATION This survey was planned to learn something about what Cooperative Extension Service means to important publics in Jackson County, Michigan. This is considered important as a first step in any public relations program. Certainly most Extension people use their best estimates to decide what any given public thinks, and base all actions or programs on what is thought to be actual public opinion. Finding out what a public knows or expects of Cooperative Exten- sion, or any other organization, is not a simple process. Almost al- ways, it is necessary to use sample information from.one of many sources. Personal interview with a few of the people involved is probably the best method, but it is limited to a very small sample. A written ques- tionnaire was chosen in the Jackson county survey to increase the num- ber of people who could be asked questions. The method is much less accurate than personal interviews and this fact must be considered. Goods and Hatt, Methods in Social Research, define as follows: A questionnaire is a device for securing answers to questions by using a form which the respondent fills in him- self. Anyone who has filled in a job application has had the experience of filling in a questionnaire. Answering questions systematically communicates intent or infor- mation from one person to another. Clear asking and clear receiving of the message is not an exact science, but has been called an art. 7Goods, Wm. J., and Hatt, Paul K., Methods in Social Research, McGrawb Hill Book Company, Inc., New York, 1952 15 Communication as an art has had a very long history, but its use as a field of scientific inquiry is of fairly recent origin. Berelson and Janowitz, Public Opinion and Communication, reports that this develop- ment came in part from a growing urgency to close a gap in understanding between worker and management in industry, between lawmaker and citizen in national life, and between nations.8 The questionnaire as a tool for asking and responding to ques- tions, has wide usage in industry and government at the present time. Administrators require reports forms from unit supervisors, salesmen, and customers. Membership in labor unions, trade associations, civic groups, and cooperatives often requires filling in a questionnaire. Also both government and private agencies frequently seek facts or opinions from segments of population to guide program planning. Confidence in the reliability of the questionnaire method of gathering information has been widespread. Complicated factors that prevail to make this method unreliable are not usually understood by citizens and officials alike, but outstanding failures have helped keep this method from even greater popularity. Parten, Surveys, Polls and Sa les, writes: Public acceptance of this method might be unqualified had not two important presidential election poll predictions proved wrong. Due to the wide publicity, it became apparent that the new techniques were not always without fault.9 8Berelson, Bernard and Janowitz, Morris, Public Opinion and Communication, The Free Press, Glencoe, 111., 1955. 9Parten, Mildred, Surveys,Polls, and Samples, Harper & Brothers, Publi- shers, New York, 1950. 14 In deciding to use the questionnaire as a means of testing the knowledge and opinions of Extension publics, it was necessary to think of purpose, feasibility, accuracy, sampling, motivation, question form, distribution, and tabulating the results. The purpose and need for the data seemed to justify the effort and expense involved in Jackson county. Lundberg, Social Research, states the reason for extensive use of questionnaire surveys is its low cost when accuracy of the method is satisfactory.10 The feasibility of any communication method depends on making some assumptions on how it could work, as a guide, to direct the lines of action. To find out anything by questions, we must assume certain things are true and then set out to prove or disprove the assumptions. According to Goods and Hatt, assumptions are logical concepts created from impressions, or experience, and are the basis of all human com- munication and thought.11 Accuracy of any questionnaire is seriously limited. There are many possible causes for error, and people generally do not realize this limitation. Our Jackson county survey is no exception and the results must be considered accordingly. "Bias" of several types is a big cause of inaccuracy at every step in the survey process. It is es- pecially tricky in opinion research. Lundberg, Social Research, writes: Even unanswered questionnaires bias the results because non-answerers are different than the others. Leading (loaded) 1oLundberg, Geo. A., Social Research, Longmans, Green & Co., New York, 1942. 11Geode, wm. J., and Hatt, Paul K., 22. cit. 15 questions suggest an answer, stereotyped words influence answers, and ambiguous words mislead because they have different meaning to different people. Choosing a representative sample is critical in getting accurate information from questionnaires. The Jackson county Extension survey did not use a real sampling method since the entire membership of existing organizations were chosen with the hope they would represent an important segment of the public. Hoskins, Statistics-Gathering Techniques, writes: Complete enumeration is safest if possible, but a sample is satisfactory if it contains all the relevant characteristics of the whole population or membership in the approximape proportion to their relative importance in the whole. 5 The principle of random sampling is considered to be good, since it insures equal Operation of the method of chance. A good random sample might be picked with complete ignorance about the problem while a small amount of information would introduce bias. Hoskins, Statistics-Gather- ing Techniques, indicates one method of selecting a representative sample of a known clientele is to take each name at any regular predetermined interval such as every fifth or tenth one throughout the entire eligible list. The interval would depend on the ratio of the total list to the 1A size sample desired. 12Lundberg, Geo. A., 22. cit. 15Hoskins, Floyd J., Statistics-Gathering Techniques, a paper given for National Institute for Commercial and Trade Organization Executives, Northwestern University, Aug. 18, 1949. 1IIAI‘Ioskins, Floyd J., 22. cit. 16 Another key factor is motivation of people to answer the ques- tions. Among the first motivation factors is the authority of the person or organization asking the questions.' The form sent out must clearly answer the question of character, respectability, importance and authority of the sponsor. An explanation must be made to begin with that is readable, interesting and pursuasive. Capacity of ques- tionnaires to arouse interest and make a person feel it is a sensible inquiry on a subject of significance is of greater importance in deter- mining willingness to respond than length of time it takes to answer.15 The form of questionnaire is important. First, it must have an explanation with it written in a businesslike and considerate tone. This should quote the authority or sponsorship, and a satisfying reason for asking cooperation. It should contain an inducement for immediate reply, a promise that the results will be available and that no indi- vidual data will be disclosed, and a time and place must be given when the questions are due. If it is a mail inquiry, it should have a self- addressed, stamped envelope enclosed. The form must be convenient size to send or carry, paper should be good, space not crowded, each question is best identified by a number or letter, and a duplicate copy furnished for the cooperator if possible. Questions should be boiled down to keep the number low and the significance of each high. They should be simple, definite, clear, courteous, diplomatic, easy to answer and not inquisitorial. Related 15Lundberg, Geo. A0, 220 Cit. 17 questions should be grouped together. Guard against use of gobble- gook and specialist shorthand. Questions asked by one person are fre- quently clear to him but the meaning not at all obvious to others. Formulation of good questions is a much more subtle and frustrating task than is generally believed.16 The following chapter describes the Jackson county publics ques- tioned in this study and the method used to choose and test them. 16Hoskins, Floyd J., gp. 313. 18 CHAPTER IV SURVEY PROCEDURE IN JACKSON COUNTY Jackson county was chosen for the questionnaire because it pre- sents a typical southern Michigan county with a combination of industrial and rural economy. The county had a population of 108,000 in 1950 with one indus- trial city, Jackson, about in the center with 51,000 population. Rural non-farm population was reported at 55,889 and the farm population was 12,711. The county had 2,506 farms of which 1516 were classified as com- mercial by the census. The average size of the farms was reported to be 158.8 acres. In 1949, Jackson county farm product sales came from the following sources: Dairy products 51.6% Field craps 18.2% Cattle and calves 15.5% Vegetables 7.6% Hogs 10.8% Horticultural 4.9% Poultry & eggs 7.1% Fruit 1.1% Sheep, wool, and misc. 5.1% 68.2% 51.8% 19 NUMBER OF FARMS IN JACKSON COUNTY Types of farms Field crop other than fruit and vegetable Vegetable farms Fruit and nut Dairy farms Poultry Livestock other than dairy and poultry General farms Miscellaneous and unclassified Farms by economic class Commercial farms $25,000 or more product sales 10,000 - 24,999 5.000 - 9.999 2:500 - 4.999 1,200 - 2,#99 250 - 1,199 Part time farms Residential Institutional 20 206 68 28 795 105 285 248 1,125 1,745 41 157 550 489 555 191 512 .1221: 565 541 55 257 250 771 1,516 24 252 590 550 11115 75 580 555 Before undertaking the survey, a few days were spent visiting with farmers in the county and others to determine a workable sample of peeple to question by mail and to determine suitable questions to be asked in the questionnaire. In selecting a study group, consideration was given to a random sample of either telephone listings, public utility customers, labor unions, supply house customers, and others. None of them was used due to obstacles involved in covering a large field within the limits of a brief survey. The sample of people that was actually questioned consisted of the entire membership of existing organizations that could easily be reached. These organizations were Jackson County Artificial Breeders As- sociation, Jackson Rotary, Kiwanis, and Business and Professional Women's clubs. The rural group members were active dairymen representing the largest farm enterprise. By sampling the entire association membership all size farms were included as well as all parts of the county. The technician selected the names from his membership list that earn more off-farm income than is earned on the farm. These were labeled part- time farmers and totaled'fi1. That left 165 full time farms. In selecting the urban sample, it was assumed that the active service clubs would include many of the leaders who make up the power structure in Jackson county. Of course this type sample can be eXpected to have much higher education and community awareness than average popu- lation. For this reason, it is not considered to be a voter sample but of leaders who might influence public opinion. 21 Selection of these groups for questioning left at least one very important group untouched. The industrial workers make up a large per- cent of Michigan population. Brief contact made within this group be- fore setting up the survey showed little knowledge or interest in the program of Extension. Significance of a large number of disinterested people and the effect it could have at some future time, is a field worthy of investi- gation, but is far beyond the time and scope of a limited survey. Response to a mail questionnaire might depend upon several dif- ferent factors. There were a few things in this case which might be significant. Announcement of the forthcoming survey was made by county agent Fred Sackrider to the Jackson Citizen Patriot and they published a sixb inch story in their Sunday edition a few days before the questionnaire was mailed. After participation in the survey was approved by the officers and board of directors, the writer attended each service club at a regu- lar luncheon meeting to announce the coming questionnaire from the speakers table. An effort was made to make this announcement sound interesting without saying much about Extension work that might influ- ence answers. The fact that it was announced that the writer is a pastfresident of my Rotary club in Oregon provided a tie that probably added to the number of returns received from the Rotary club. The Kiwanis club sponsors some 4-H club awards each year, and this might be expected to influence their interest in the survey. 22 At the suggestion of the home demonstration agent, arrangements were made to send the questions to the Business and Professional Women's club to provide more chance for women's attitudes to show up in the replies. Except that a regular meeting of this club was visited, there seemed to be no special circumstance that would motivate answering. None of the county Extension agents are members of these par- ticular service clubs. Since response to the questionnaire was greater among the groups where a personal contact was made, it may be assumed that this was a factor in the number of returns. The questionnaire used consisted of one page with twelve mul- tiple choice and three open and questions. Multiple choice questions give a definite answer for tabulating, but give no chance to measure depth of opinion. Write-in questions give a better opportunity to ex- press opinion. There were written statements added to the answers by many of the people who responded. A month was allowed for returns before the tabulations were made. Actually, most of the returns came within the first week. A stamped envelope addressed to Elgin Cornett was included. The Extension Service or Michigan State University was not shown as a sponsor. The information gathered by this survey comes only from the people who were willing to answer on the first contact. Time and ex- pense did not permit a follow-up process to check the opinions and bias of those who did not reply and no signature was asked for in order to encourage free expression of opinion. 25 In retrospect, I feel signatures would have had little or no influence on the answers. Also, mailing a pre-test questionnaire would help weigh question values. At the time, it seemed that my days of visiting with farmers and others had taken care of the need for pre- testing the questions. Analysis of the information returned by the mail questionnaire represents only the people who were motivated to respond. It was not possible to examine any of the opinions among those who did not answer. The rural response was comparatively low (55 percent) and it would seem that those most interested in Extension were the ones who made the effort to answer. No doubt the unanswered questionnaires would have given a different picture. The urban response was better (48 percent) which might be con- sidered more representative. The material we have available for analysis comes from the fol- lowing people: 1) About 100 full and part time farmers who are members of the Dairy Breeders Association, located in various parts of the county. Practically all of them know of the Extension Service, know some of the agents and have participated in its programs. 2) About 200 men and women from the city of Jackson who are mem- bers of some of its leading service clubs and are considered to be leaders in their community. A good cross section of occupations and reactions are included. They represent a larger sample of the whole membership than was acquired in the rural group and therefore can be considered to more nearly indicate opinions of their organizations. 24 Group representations and their responses to questions are shown in the following chapter. 25 CHAPTER V OPINIONS - TSWERS TO QUESTIONS The Jackson county survey This chapter shows the data that was tabulated from the ques- tionnaire received from Jackson county people. The following tables deal with all the questions that were asked. The tables give the actual question that was asked, a tabulation of results, followed by an analysis of the data. TABLE 1 NUMBERS AND PERCENT OF QUESTIONNAIRES MAILED AND RETURNED NUMBER OF QUESTIONNAIRES GROUP W RETURNED PERCENT Full time farmers 165 65 58 Part time farmers 141 40 28 All farmers 506 105 55 Rotary club 155 96 59 Kiwanis club 145 65 45 Business and Professional Women's club 106 41 58 All urban 406 212 48 Grand total 712 505 42 26 Basic to a study of relations of the public to Extension was the necessity to find their awareness of the program. The Extension Service has provided an office and program in Jackson county for many years. The question to recall whether or not anything had been heard or read about Cooperative Extension Service shows greater awareness for the program among the rural than the urban people. Rural answers showed 95 percent and urban answers showed 82 percent were able to recall hear- ing about it. (Table 2) City service clubs showed a variation in their awareness of Extension. Rotary answers on the yes side were 74 percent. Kiwanis was 89 percent, and Business and Professional Women's club was 90 percent. This is a better awareness than was expected, particularly among the urban group in a city as large as Jackson. If we take the positive answers on this question and compare them to the whole membership, we find that at least 45 percent of the Rotary club and 40 percent of the Kiwanis are at least somewhat familiar with the program, even though we assumed all the non-answered questionnaires to be a negative response. That some of the unanswered group would have been positive answers we know from questionnaires which arrived too late to be tabulated. It would seem conservative to estimate then that at least 50 percent of the membership of the Kiwanis and Rotary service clubs have some know- ledge of the Extension program. Estimates for the other groups on this basis would be less con- clusive because of a smaller and more weighted sample returned. 27 AN INDICATION OF AWARENESS OF EXTENSION TABLE 2 QUESTION: Do you recall hearing or reading about the Cooperative Ex- tension Service? GROUP Full time farmers Part time farmers All farmers Rotary club Kiwanis club Business and profes- sional women's club All urban Grand total NUMBER OF QUESTIONNAIPES RETURNED MAILED 165- 141 2_o_6 155 145 106 as 712 28 65 ' 40 L02 96 65 PERCENT ANSWERING YES 95 95 22 7a 89 9O 82 87 TABLE 5 INDICATION OF WHO HAS USED EXTENSION INFORMATION QUESTION: Have you or your family used information provided by Ex- tension agents? GROUP Full time farmers Part time farmers All farmers Rotary club Kiwanis club Business and profes- sional women's club All urban Grand total NUMBER OF QUESTIONNAIRES MAILED 165 141 29.6 155 145 106 406 712 RETURNED 65 40 192 96 65 41 202 505 PERCENT ANSWERING YES 94 85 £2 57 42 5a Table 5 indicates about twice as much use of Extension informa- tion in the rural area as in the city. Farmers reported 89 percent and urban answers reported 42 percent had used information provided by an extension agent. There were 110 (about one-third) negative answers to the query on whether information had been used, but 15 of these indicated some information by their answers to other questions. Some of these were families who had participated in the 4-H prOgram but evidently did not connect that activity with Extension Service. This apparent dis- crepancy is evidently a matter of terminology and name recognition. People may know the "county agent" or the'4-H clubs' without making a connection with the program behind them. A This possibility was also indicated in the answers to the ques- tion on having heard or read of the CoOperative Extension Service. In the NO answers to that question, nine answered other questions that would indicate a knowledge. Several knew one of the agents. This could be a matter of literal interpretation of the question or again a matter of name association. On the other hand, there was at least one mention of the EPA as an Extension youth program and some mention of other university off- campus activities as if they were all part of the area being surveyed. This would also show that some respondents have no clearucut picture of exactly what Cooperative Extension is. There was not too much difference between the number of rural people who had heard of and used the Extension Service, but the urban people had heard of it almost twice as often as they had used it. 50 I TABLE 4 METHODS RECALLED BY WHICH EXTENSION INFORMATION WAS RECEIVED QUESTION: Can ygu recall how you received information from the Exten- sion Service? Out of 505 returns, 179 or 59% answered this question FULL TIME PART-TIME ROTARY KIWANIS BUSINESS & FARMERS FARMERS CLUB CLUB PROF. WOMEN NUMBER OF REPLIES TO THIS QUESTION 59 53 56 29 22 PERCENT OF THE ANSWERS TO THIS QUESTION METHOD Telephone 52 21 22 17 41 Letters 64 45 28 21 18 Personal contact 90 73 50 59 55 Radio 46 49 51 58 52 Television 10 2O 11 7 9 Newspapers 51 45 28 54 25 Bulletins 64 58 58 41 41 Through friend 7 5 9 17 27 Other 2 5 5 14 14 Most questionnaires reported more than one method of receiving information and the above table shows the percent of those reporting each method. Therefore the totals do not come out to 100 percent. 51 .«Vlr Table 4 shows a report of how Extension information was received by 179 people who answered the question on this subject. The total average for all answers showed 69 percent used personal contact; 55 percent used bulletins; 40 percent used letters; 40 percent radio; 59 percent newspapers; 27 percent telephone; 11 percent televi- sion; 11 percent friends; and 6 percent listed other methods. The top three methods of receiving information were similar for all five groups in the sample. Farmers were higher than part-time farmers or any other group in reporting personal contact. Urban reports exceeded farmers in only one method - that of getting information through a friend. Chart 4A shows the comparison between rural and urban replies on how extension information was received. Total percent using per- sonal contact equals the percent who reported that they knew an exten- sion agent (chart 5A). Mass media of communication is usually considered important be- cause of lower cost. Radio and newspapers are recalled about equally in this study, but both are listed less frequently than bulletins and personal contact as sources of information. Awareness for the Extension program may be closely associated with personal acquaintance with Extension agents. The purpose of ask-- ing how extensively the workers are known makes it possible to study this relationship. Where several Extension agents work out of the same office, it seems natural that the total number of people who know all of them should be less than the total knowing any one. Part of the reason for 52 '81., .1. CHART 4A COMPARISON BETWEEN RURAL AND URBAN ANSWERS ON HOW INFORMATION Personal contact Bulletins Letters Newspapers Radio Telephone Television Through friend Other Each letter (U WAS RECEIVED FROM EXTENSION AGENTS Percent of Rural answers shown by RRRRRRR Percent of Urban answers shown by UUUUUUU 84% 54% 62% 48% 57:35: 2 570 48% 29% 47:7; 55% 28% 25% 15% 9% 5% 16% 2% 10% RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR UUUUUUUUUUU RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR UUUUUUUUUUUUUU RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU RRRRRRRRRRRRRR UUUUUUUUUUUU RRRRRR UUUU RR UUUUUUUU R UUUUU or R) represents two percent. 53 TABLE 5 A MEASURE OF HOW EXTENSIVELY JACKSON COUNTY EXTENSION AGENTS ARE KNOWN QUESTION: Do you know any of the Extension workers in your county? Out of 505 returns, 198, or 65% reported knowing at least one Extension worker in the county. FULL TIME PART-TIME ROTARY KIWANIS BUSINESS & FARMERS FARMERS CLUB CLUB PROF. WOMEN NUMBER OF ANSWERS TO THIS QUESTION 65 ' 40 96 65 41 PERCENT OF ANSWERS FOR EACH WORKER WORKER Home demon- stration agent 41 27 14 22 52 County agent 84 75 56 66 2O Ass't. County agent 64 2O 51 14 2 4-H club agent . 52 45 16 4O 10 Office secretary 55 27 5 11 7 At least one agent 92 75 42 77 59 Most answers to this question reported knowing more than one worker and the above table shows the percent of those reported. There- fore, the totals do not make 100 percent. 54 CHART 5A COMPARISON BETWEEN RURAL AND URBAN ANSWERS ON HOW EXTENSIVELY County agent 4-H club agent Assistant agent Home demon- stration agent Office secretary At least one worker Each letter (U COUNTY EXTENSION AGENTS ARE KNOWN INDIVIDUALLY Percent of Rural answers shown by RRRRRRR Percent of Urban answers shown by UUUUUUU 80% RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR 42% UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU 49% RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR 22% UUUUUUUUUUU 47% RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR 6% UUU 56% RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR 20% UUUUUUUUUU ' 51% RRRRRRRRRRRRRRR 6% UUU 85% RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR 5h% UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU or R) represents two percent. 55 a multiple person staff is that each may serve a definite group. While programs are planned together, each division is aimed at a different method and often a different group. It is natural that different workers would be known to a different extent by different groups. The entire sample that answered the questionnaire know the ex- tension workers as follows: Two-thirds know at least one Extension agent, over half know the county agent, one-third know the 4-H club agent, one-fourth know the home demonstration agent, one-fifth know the assistant county agent, and one in six know the office secretary. At least one extension worker is known by 85 percent of the rural and 54 percent of the urban answers. The average is 65 percent. The county agent is known by 55 percent of the 198 people who answered. As shown in Table 9, the range was from 84 percent of the full time farmers to 20 percent of the Business and Professional Women's club. The 4-H club agent is known by 51 percent of all answers ranging from 52 percent of the full time farmers to 10 percent of the Business '3 club. and Professional Women The home demonstration agent is known by 25 percent of all with a range from 41 percent of full time farmers to 14 percent of Kiwanis. The assistant county agent is known by 20 percent of all with a range from 64 percent of full time farmers down to 2 percent of the Busi- 's club. ness and Professional Women Office secretaries are known by 15 percent of all returns with a range from 55 percent of the full time farmers to 5 percent of Rotary. 56 TABLE 6 OPINIONS ABOUT INDIRECT CITY BENEFITS FROM FARM EDUCATION QUESTION: The agricultural program of the Cooperative Extension Ser- vice provides farmers with information needed in their business. In your opinion,_do city people benefit from agricultural education for farmers? OPINION PERCENTAGE OF EACH GROUP GROUP MUCH SOME NONE 65 Full time farmers 40 52 5 40 Part time farmers 25 58 8 Total all farmers ‘25 ‘54 _5 96 Rotary club 21 54 4 65 Kiwanis club 55 5A 2 41 Business and profes- sional women's club 44 44 0 Total all urban 59 ‘22 ‘_2 Grand total 51 55 5 Twenty-six replied "don't know" to the above question and are not included in the table. Thus totals are less than 100 percent. 57 Tables 18 and 19 show a comparison between the returns that re- port knowing at least one agent and those that do not know any and indicates how each answered some opinion questions. At the time Cooperative Extension began, a larger part of the population was on farms and it was generally agreed that business prosperity was based on farm well-being. Public eXpense for education of farm families should help them toward better living and at the same time indirectly benefit the entire community. These indirect benefits might come from less expensive cost of producing food, higher quality farm products, better business oppor- tunities with prosperous farmer customers, training farm young people who may be future city citizens, and building all around better comp munity life. Table 6 shows the answers to a question designed to find how well people understand or believe in indirect benefits from Cooperative Extension since everyone shares in the taxes that support it. From the returns, city people and farmers have about the same opinion on how much benefit urban folks get from education work among farmers. About one-third say city people benefit gush and just over half say the benefit is some. Ten percent have no opinion and three percent say 2233. This indicates that there is not a strong feeling among either farm or city people that agricultural education for farmers is bene- ficial to urban people. Table 7 gives some Opinions on what farm education should cover to be most useful to farm business. This could be an aid to planning the county agent work plan. 58 TABLE 7 OPINIONS ABOUT WHAT INFORMATION IS MOST USEFUL TO FARMERS QUESTION: What information do you think is most useful for farm busi- ness in_your county? This question was answered by 204, or 67 percent, of the 505 questionnaires returned. NUMBER OF ANSWERS TO THIS QUESTION PERCENT OF THE ANSWERS TO THIS QUESTION FOR EACH SUBJECT SUBJECT Business methods Production techniques Conservation Public policies Marketing Organizations FULL TIME FARMERS 45 19 58 14 16 PART TIME ROTARY FARMERS CLUB 52 54 24 KIWANIS CLUB 1+7 19 BUSINESS & PROF. WOMEN 28 56 CHART 7A COMPARISON BETWEEN RURAL AND URBAN ANSWERS ON WHAT INFORMATION IS MOST USEFUL TO FARMERS Percent of Rural answers shown by RRRRRRR Percent of Urban answers shown by UUUUUUU Production techniques Business methods Marketing Conservation Organizations Public Policy 57% 50% 17% 25,7; 15% 9% 1 17 9% 0% 5% 0% 2% RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU RRRRRRRRR UUUUUUUUUUUUU RRRRRRRR UUUUU RRRRRR UUUUU UUU Each letter (U or R) represents two percent. 40 The answers were consistently strongest for information on pro- duction techniques with an average of 55 percent. This seemed to dis- count the fact that there were several comments made criticizing farm overproduction and the surplus problem. Chart 7A gives a comparison between rural and urban returns. While they both placed production technique highest, the city folks vote higher for teaching business methods to help farm business rather than farmers themselves. In this respect perhaps the businessman can see the farmers problem better than he can. The farmer vote for education information on marketing was medium but it was higher than the city group. This is to be expected since far- mers are closer to the problem of selling their products. Conservation education was not rated very high and the rural vote on it was higher than urban returns. The word conservation has been considered a golden word which will attract approval for anything. These returns do not bear out that idea. No farmers at all voted for education information on organizations or on government policy. A few city returns favored both these. A few comments on public policy included remarks that extension had no busi- ness forming public policy. This indicates misunderstanding on what education is in this field. As shown in Table 8, 66 percent of the farm and 15 percent of the urban questionnaire returns have had a 4-H club member in the family. Only about one-third of the total returns answered this question and probably included only those with an interest in 4-H clubs. For this reason, the figures cannot be considered to represent all the sam- ple of people questioned. 41 TABLE 8 PROPORTION OF FAMILIES WITH 4-H EXPERIENCE QUESTION: Has anyimember of your family ever belonged to a 4-H club as member or leader? Out of 505 returns, 107 or 55 percent, indicated 4-H club experi- ence in the family. PERCENT OF QUESTIONNAIRES RETURNED GROUP SIZE 4-H MEMBER 4.11 LEADER BOTH 65 Full time farmers 65 55 55 40 Part time farmers 70 45 45 Total all farmers 66 .58 51 96 Rotary club 15 5 5 65 Kiwanis club 15 8 5 41 Business and Profes- sional Women's club 20 10 Total all urban '15 _1 _£ Grand total 52 17A 15 42 The families that have had a 4-H leader in the family included 58 percent of the rural and 7 percent of the urban returns. Families with both 4-H members and leaders were 57 percent of the rural and 4 percent of the city answers. The figures indicated that two-thirds of the farm families re- porting have at one time had a 4-H club member. It does not reveal how many are now enrolled. Over one-third of the farm families have at some time had a 4-H club leader in the family. Almost all of these also report having had a 4-H member. This means we have very few club leaders without children of their own in 4-H club work. The 4-H club information asked for in the question of Table 9 was seeking to find what people think the basic function of 4-H work might be. Comments on the returns revealed a general good impression of the 4-H club program for youth training. There seems to be a strong social interest in children and youth programs. This appears to be the strongest phase of extension work from the standpoint of public support. The largest part of the urban returns shown in Table 9 place citizenship and character building as the most important function of the 4-H club program. Returns from the rural section say top benefit is evenly divided between training youth to work with other people and giving training in farm and home skills. A few farm returns show recreation to be the function of 4-H clubs and a few city people list appreciation of the farm as an important 45 TABLE 9 OPINIONS OF FARM AND CITY PEOPLE ABOUT THE PURPOSE OF 4-H CLUB WORK QUESTION: What doespyour family say is the most help received from the 4-H club program? Out of 505 returns, 95 or 51 percent, gave a statement in answer to this question. The general meaning of these statements is included in the following five subjects. There were 61 rural and 54 urban answers. PERCENT OF TOTAL ANSWERS TO THIS QUESTION RURAL URBAN ANSWERS ANSWERS 52% 15 Develops the ability to cooperate with other people. 52% 29 ProVides training in various skills on the farm and in the home. 25 47 DevelOps character and citizenship in young people. 10 5 Provides a means of recreation for youth. _2 ‘_§ Encourages young people to stay on the farm. 100 100 44 function. These replies tend to show a varied and multiple function for 4-H work in the area of youth development. It is sought as a means of reducing juvenile delinquincy and as a means to keep young people gainfully occupied during the growing up period. ' From the sample of questionnaires, twice as many farm women have attended a home demonstration meeting than have not. Table 10 shows almost three times as many urban women have not attended a home demonstration meeting as those who have attended one. Table 11 shows that half of the rural answers report having used information from the home demonstration agent. A third of them report having received no assistance at all. The urban answers report 25 percent have used information and 64 percent have not. A Table 12 reveals that nearly half of the opinions state that learning homemaking skills is the most useful help to be received from the home demonstration agent. Twelve percent of the rural and 6 percent of the urban statements said the program is not practical. Rural answers show a preference for practical job training for homemakers, and the urban answers were stronger for higher living standards and newer research information. Jackson county Extension agents do not have an extensive program for city people in 4-H clubs, home economics, or agriculture. As in other counties, they seem to have an increasing number of requests for assistance from non-farm citizens anyway. 45 TABLE 10 PROPORTION OF FAMILIES WHERE A MEMBER HAS ATTENDED HOME DEMONSTRATION MEETINGS QUESTION: Has any member ofgyour family ever attended one or more home demonstration meetipg? GROUP SIZE 65 Full time farmers 40 Part time farmers Total all farmers 96 Rotary club 65 Kiwanis club 41 Business and Profes- sional Women's club Total all urban Grand total PERCENT OF QUESTIONNAIRES RETURNED YES 62 55 Z 19 17 42 55 46 NO 52 25 22 69 69 44 DON'T KNOW OR DIDN'T ANSWER 6 2O 12 12 14 15 TABLE 11 PROPORTION OF FAMILIES WHO HAVE USED ASSISTANCE FROM HOME DEMONSTRATION AGENT QUESTION: Has a member of your family received assistance from the home demonstration program? PERCENT OF QUESTIONNAIRES RETURNED GROUP SIZE YES NO DON'T KNOW 65 Full time farmers 54 57 -- 40 Part time farmers 45 5O 8 Total all farmers 51 54 _5 96 Rotary club 8 78 9 65 Kiwanis club 12 71 11 41 Business and Profes- sional Women's club 54 46 10 Total all urban .25 64 19 Grand total 27 57 7 There were 24 returns leaving this question blank and not in- cluded in the above table. 47 TABLE 12 RURAL AND URBAN OPINIONS ON THE MOST USEFUL HELP RECEIVED FROM THE HOME DEMONSTRATION AGENT QUESTION: What do the women of your family say is the most useful help to be received from the home demonstration agent? Out of 505 returns, 76 or 25 percent gave a statement in answer to this question. The general meaning of these statements is included in the following seven subjects. There were 45 rural and 55 urban answers. PERCENT OF TOTAL ANSWERS TO THIS QUESTION RURAL URBAN ANSWERS ANSWERS 49 45 Learning the skills a homemaker should know. 12 6 Finding food and nutrition facts. 9 5 Learning to save money through work and planning. 9 6 Provides social relations and a chance to learn social grace. 12 6 The program has no value and is not practical. 2 12 Helps to raise community living standard. 7 24 Keeps us up with the latest information on family living subjects. 100 100 48 TABLE 13 RATIO OF RURAL OR URBAN EMPHASIS FOR EXTENSION AGENT WORK-LOAD QUESTION: Urban people seem to use an increasing amount of Extension agent work time. Normally this will mean less time for farm areas. Due to the urban work-loadl do you favor less rural service or adding another Extension agent? Out of 505 returns, 269 answered this question and 56 did not express an opinion. PERCENT ANOTHER LESS DON'T LESS GROUP SIZE AGENT URBAN KNOW RURAL 65 Full time farmers 25 24 27 8 40 Part time farmers 40 28 1O 5 Total all farmers .21 22 ‘29 _1 96 Rotary club 15 19 45 6 65 Kiwanis club 20 29 4O 5 41 Business and Profes- sional Women's club 55 1O 41 0 Total all urban 12 39 £5 _5 Grand total 25 22 55 5 49 The question asked in Table 15 was designed to find out the opinions on use of Extension agent for work in the city and suburbs. The folks who favor more urban Extension strongly enough to ask for another Extension agent in order to avoid taking service away from farmers included about one-fourth of all answers. The farmers were stronger than city people on this point. The folks who do not favor use of Extension agent time in urban areas were almost as many as those who were in favor of it. The urban replies were actually more against urban service than were for it, but more farm replies favored the city service than were opposed to it. Five percent of the replies voted for taking some of the rural agent time and use it in urban areas. With diminishing farm population I on commercial farms, this feeling is not surprising and could have been greater. Three out of the 505 returns were in favor of less urban work and yet write in that they wanted more agents for farms. Five out of the 505 returns on this question would like to see both less rural and less urban Extension agents. The answers to this question suggest that these people now con- sider Extension work a rural program and do not agree that it should serve non-farm people if service to farmers is reduced. One-fifth of the farmers and over two-fifths of the city people reported no opinion. Social and economic developments are creating demands for Exten- sion agent work that is sometimes not considered service to farms. Ex- amples might be educational work in explaining and organizing action on such public programs as zoning, taxation, health, etc. 50 TABLE 14 OPINIONS ABOUT RESPONSIBILITIES OF EXTENSION ON COMMUNITY WIDE PROBLEMS QUESTION: Should Extension agents increase their educational efforts on public programs such as zoning, taxation, community development, health, etc.? Out of 505 returns, 295 answered this question and 21 gave no opinion. PERCENT GROUP SIZE YES SOME NO DON'T KNOW 65 Full time farmers 48 22 1O 20 40 Part time farmers 45 18 24 15 Total all farmers 41 .21 '15 11 96 Rotary club 48 1O 19 25 65 Kiwanis club 41 14 18 27 41 Business and Profes- sional Women's club 59 11 8 22 Total all urban 41 lg 11 .24 Grand total 47 15 16 22 51 Farm and city economic and social relationships are overlapping to the extent that a clear division is not possible. Extension Service sometimes can help farmers more by public education off the farm than can possibly be done within the boundaries of the farm itself. The question in Table 14 is seeking to find opinion on Extension work with public programs that are community service rather than indi- vidual farm service. Both farm and city replies showed that these people feel that Extension agents should increase educational efforts on community de- velopment. I estimate that they mean rural areas primarily. Several city people wrote comments about the need for improving the looks of rural slum conditions that are developing. Opposition to having Extension work on community problems totaled 16 percent and some reasons included avoidance of spreading Extension too thin, keeping the work on the farm where it belongs, and there is no need to invite expansion of Extension. An Extension agent's pride in his work and his personal satis- faction depends in part on what he thinks other people feel about it. The usefulness of a public program is affected by the prestige value that comes from a general feeling that it is a useful program. Also, support for a public program like Cooperative Extension is related to public opinion of how helpful it is felt to be. The questionnaire replies on Table 15 give some opinions as to how helpful the entire Extension Service program may be in the minds of those who answered. 52 OPINIONS SHOWING HOW HELPFUL QUESTION: Cooperative Extension depends on public approval and support. TABLE 15 Extension education is helpful? EXTENSION EDUCATION IS FELT TO BE Service, like all public education, Do you personally feel that Out of 505 returns, 292 answered this question and 15 gave no opinion. GROUP SIZE 65 Full time farmers 40 Part time farmers Total all farmers 96 Rotary club 65 Kiwanis club 41 Business and Profes- sional Women's club Total all urban Grand total DEFINITELY 8O 68 12 49 66 85 60 65 55 PERCENT PROBABLY 12 22 28 20 19 DOUBTFUL 5 1O .1 10 loo NO OPINION 3 O I» They show 84 percent favorable, eight percent doubtful, and eight percent with no opinion. The favorable replies came from a total of 65 percent who say it is definitely helpful and 19 percent probably help- ful. The comparison between rural and urban opinions are shown on Chart 15A, for only those who reported definitely helpful. CHART 15A COMPARISON BETWEEN RURAL AND URBAN RETURNS THAT SHOW HOW HELPFUL EXTENSION EDUCATION IS FELT TO BE Percent of Rural answers shown by RRRRRRR Percent of Urban answers shown by UUUUUUU Extension is 75% RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR definitely helpful 60% UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU Probably helpful 16% RRRRRRRR 21%‘UUUUUUUUUU Doubtful 7% BER 8% UUUU No opinion 2% R 11% UUUUU Each letter (U or R) represents two percent. Chart shows percent of replies received on this question from rural people and percent of replies received from urban people. Chart 16 attempts to show a comparison between various factors within the questionnaire that influence replies that Extension is defb initely helpful. CHART 16 CORRELATION OF EXTENSION INFORMATION USERS AND THE FEELING THAT EXTENSION SERVICE IS DEFINITELY HELPFUL The following groups within the questionnaire were compared rela- tive to their feeling that Extension is definitely helpful; those who have heard or read about extension; those who have used information supplied by Extension; those who know an Extension agent; those families with 4-H experience; those families that have used Extension home eco- nomics information; and all replies to this question. GROUP Home economics 4-H club experience Know an agent Used any information Heard of extension All replies Never heard of extension 87 9o 85 68 79 75 78 79 75 75 60 57 PERCENT THAT FEEL EXTENSION IS HELPFUL RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU Each letter equals two percent Rural answers shown by RRRRRRR Urban answers shown by UUUUUUU 55 High percentages shown on the chart indicate that the major sup- port for Extension work comes from the groups that are familiar with it. These groups are shown with response from both rural and urban returns. The women who have used home economics information are the strongest supporters of all. While the returns indicate that the num- ber of users of home economics programs is not high, most of those who have participated definitely approved Extension. Rural people who reported use of the 4-H program were second in support of Extension. Urban 4—H people were not as strong here as in the rural replies. Groups that report knowing an agent and those who have made use of Extension information seem to have about the same feeling of the help- fulness of the program in both the city and rural replies. The people who never heard of Extension come from the urban group. They showed 57 percent felt Extension was definitely helpful in spite of no knowledge of it. In both rural and urban groups those who could see no helpful- ness in the Extension program (8 percent) were divided to show that about one-fourth had used Extension Service and three-fourths had made no use of it. The criteria of how definitely people feel Extension to be help- ful is used here as an indication of support. While the survey shows some favorable reaction even among those who have never heard of Exten- sion, support seems to become increasingly evident with awareness, con- tact with and use, and strongest where people are directly participating in its programs. Conversely, a definite lack of support is most evident in people who have made no use of the program. How extensively an agent is known in his county has long been considered one of the primary factors in his public relations program. In the beginning days of Extension, agents spent a great deal of time on individual farms and his program was one of pretty much direct rela- tionships. As more and more demands are made on his time for adminis- trative jobs and as population increases, farm information must be disseminated more by the indirect media of mass communication. Many agents wonder how this may be effecting public relations. Table 7 shows the percent of people in each group who know the various agents. Table 17 shows the actual number of people who know at least one agent and Table 18 was developed to show what effect knowing or not knowing an agent may have on public opinion questions. TABLE 17 A COMPARISON OF THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE ANSWERING THE QUESTIONNAIRE WHO KNOW AN EXTENSION AGENT AND WHO DO NOT KNOW ANY KNOW ONE OR MORE DO NOT KNOW AN GROUP ‘ EXTENSION AGENTS EXTENSION AGENT Full time farmers 58 5 Part time farmers 50 10 All farmers 88 15 Rotary club 44 52 Kiwanis club 50 15 Business and Profes- sional Women's club 25 18 All service clubs 111 85 Grand total 205 100 57 COMPARISON BETWEEN OPINIONS OF PEOPLE WHO KNOW AT LEAST ONE EXTENSION AGENT AND WHO DO NOT KNOW ANY ALL FARMERS ALL URBAN KNOW AGENT DON'T NOW AGENT DON'T Number of answers 88 15 117 85 Another agent urban work 51% 55% 26% 11% Less urban work 22% 46% 24% 15@ Extension increase education on zoning, taxes, etc. YES 45% 55% 56% 28% SOT; 19% 20% 8% 15% NO 16% 7% 18% 11% DON'T KNOW 16% 20% 15% 54% Feel Extension education is helpful DEFINITELY 79% 55% 75% 45% PROBABLY 16% 20p 16% 27% DOUBTFUL 4% 20% ,% 12% DON'T KNOW . -- -- 5% 8% Table 18 gives some data comparing people who know at least one Extension agent and their feeling for more urban Extension work, feeling toward Extension education in community problems, and feeling that Ex- tension is definitely helpful. It shows that farmers who answered the questionnaire and do not know an agent are a little more inclined to favor keeping Extension workers out of the city than those who know an agent. On the question of approving Extension education for things like zoning, taxation, etc., strongest approval came from farmers who do not know an agent and from city people who do know one. More of the city folks who do not know an agent had no opinion. The people in both farm and city replies who know at least one agent were highest in showing definite approval of Extension work. Those who think Extension benefit is doubtful came mostly from those who do not know anyone in the Extension office. These conclusions show that people who answered the inquiry Were definitely influenced by knowing someone from the county Extension office and were more likely to understand and support it. The city people are more inclined to favor public or community projects than rural folks but this feeling is interpreted to mean service to rural areas. TABLE 19 RURAL AND URBAN ANSWERS SUGGESTING SUBJECT FOR EXTENSION PROGRAM QUESTION: To what problems should the Cooperative Extension Service give more attention? Thirty-two percent of the questionnaires returned gave a state- ment answering this question. There were 99 out of 505 returned - 45 were rural and 54 urban. The general meaning of these statements is included in the fol- lowing 11 subject areas. PERCENT OF THOSE WHO ANSWERED THIS QUESTION RURAL URBAN ANSWERS ANSWERS SUGGESTION 11 20 Something should be done to reduce the farm subsidy programs handed out by government. 18 4 iore work should be done for farm marketing. 11 9 Give farm help along the line of cost efficiency at low production levels. 16 15 Jackson Extension agents are doing top work and should keep up the good program. 7 h More attention should be given to public relations. 11 11 Spend more time in the country and less time in the city. 2 9 More work should be done on rural-urban relations. - 9 Rural zoning needs more attention. 18 9 Youth programs can use more attention to expand h-H clubs and help juvenile delinquency. - 7 Give more attention to city extension work. 7 2 Help small farms stay in business. A _3 Other 100 100 :8 CHAPTER VI Survey of Opinions of Michigan State University Faculty The Cooperative Extension Service is part of Michigan State Uni- versity and is administered by the College of Agriculture. Extension staff members are ranked as regular staff members even though they have office locations off the campus. The possibility that county Extension offices could be used for Michigan State University purposes other than agriculture is a short step from working on community problems that include all people. Chang- ing conditions have drawn Extension workers into more and more service that affects the entire community. With the role of Extension being affected by changing needs over the state, the public concepts of these changes may be the factors that determine what Extension will be doing in the future. Since off-campus education and on-campus education may influence each other, it would help to have the Michigan State University resident faculty and Cooperative Extension know about and understand each other's program. The role of Extension in the minds of faculty other than agri- culture and home economics would be important. For that reason a short questionnaire was mailed to 100 staff members outside the Colleges of Agriculture and Home Economics to test the general level of knowledge about the program of the Michigan Co- Operative Extension Service. The sample included every sixth name in the Basic College directory and the third name listed for assistant and associate professors in the other teaching departments. 60 TABLE 20 PROPORTION OF NON AGRICULTURE FACULTY OF MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY WHO ARE FAMILIAR WITH EXTENSION WORK From 100 questionnaires mailed to Michigan State University faculty members, the 50 returns received indicated that the following number were familiar with types of Extension workers shown here: h‘H ClUb agent 0 o o o o 022 Home demonstration agent .16 None 0 o o o o o o o o o .11 County agent 0 o o o o o 026 SpeCialiSt o o o o o o o 022 The following number have had a chance to talk with an Extension agent about his work: Talked on campus . . . . .27 Never talked with one. . .20 TABLE 21 Talked in a county . . . . 8 Don't recall 0 o o o o o o 2 MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY STAFF IMPRESSION OF EXTENSION AS AN OFF-CAMPUS PROGRAM iichigan State University staff members gave their impression of Cooperative Extension as an off-campus activity by checking the follow- ing statements. Each line shows the total number out of 50 returns that checked the statement. A service only for farmers . . . . 8, or available to anyone . . 57. Primarily an educational program . 25, or mostly a service. . . . 25. Growing in importance. . . . . . . 25, or becoming less important 12. Extension not regular faculty. . . 12, or have faculty rank . . . 29. Michigan State University Exten- sion contacts most people. . . . 5, or county workers do . . . 28. TABLE 22 MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY STAFF RATING OF EXTENSION SUBJECTS CF RESPONSIBILITY To determine attitudes of Michigan State University faculty toward areas of responsibility of the present Cooperative Extension program, the following subjects were listed for approval. A total of 45 returns gave an answer to at least part question. The following table indicates the number of votes subject received: Farm Crops . . . . . . . 55 Veterinary work . . . . Livestock . . . . . . . 5h Rural-urban relations . Agricultural college . . 31 All-university. . . . . Marketing. . . . . . . . 50 Landscaping . . . . . . Conservation . . . . . . 29 Rural taxation. . . . . Consumer information . . 29 Living standards. . . . Community health . . . . 24 All resources . . . . . Lawns. . . . . . . . . . 21 City planning . . . . . Better living. . . . . . 21 Zoning. . . . . . . . . Youth training . . . . . 21 Government policies . . 62 of this each . . 2O . . 19 . . 18 . . 18 . . 15 . . 15 . . 12 . . 12 . . 12 . . 8 TABLE 25 EXTENSION PROGRAM'S INFLUENCE ON COLLEGE ATTENDANCE STIMULATION Carrying results of research to Michigan homes is one Extension Service job._ Do you feel this replaces college or does it stimulate young people to attend college? Forty-six Michigan State University staff members answered this question as follows: Tends to replace college . . . . . . . . 1 Stimulates more to attend college. . . . 24 Has no effect on attendance. . . . . . . 5 Don'tknOW...............18 Fifty Michigan State University staff members who answered a short questionnaire gave some information on what they think about the Coopera- tive Extension Service. Over one in five do not know about Extension jobs such as county agent, 4—H club agent, home demonstration agent, or specialist. This group probably are not familiar with the Extension Service. Over half never have talked with an Extension worker about his work. This point indicates the number who have had a chance to learn what the Extension Service is. Half the faculty who answered feel Extension is primarily an edu- cation program and the other half feel it is for service primarily. 65 TABLE 24 SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVING EXTENSION RELATIONS WITH MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY FACULTY Michigan State University faculty members were asked to suggest activities that might improve Michigan State University all-staff rela- tions with COOperative Extension Service. for the About half of the fifty answers gave a statement as a suggestion improving staff relations. The following four general ideas include suggestions that were made and show the number of returns in each: . Through seminars, faculty magazine and/or brochures, explain the Extension program better to all the university staff. . Have Extension people teach at the university and use the regu- lar teaching staff more out in the field. . The Extension Service should be reduced. . No improvement in relations is necessary or feasible. Some of the ideas suggested were to distribute a chart of organi- zation and an explanation of each division of Extension; invite faculty to accompany Extension workers into the field; broaden television and radio programs to include all-university; and place more emphasis on liberal arts. 64 One out of four think Extension is getting less important. One out of four think Extension workers are not regular faculty. One out of ten think state staff contacts more people than the county Extension staff. Other opinions suggested were: The extension Service responsibility is mostly in the area of technical agriculture. Low on the responsibility list are the subjects like public policy and zoning. Taking research to Michigan homes encourages college attendance. Better Michigan State University resident staff and Extension staff relations might result from more exchange of information about the organizations and activities. Four out of 22 believed the Extension Service has served its func- tion and should be gradually eliminated. From the above summaries, many faculty members do not have a clear understanding of Cooperative Extension. Public relations pro- grams that include more interdepartmental exchange would be helpful to each department and the university as a whole. 65 CHAPTER VII CONCLUSION The Extension Service The Cooperative Extension Service was born into a world of rural economy and its activities were directed toward education for better farming and homemaking procedures for farm people. This has involved dissemination of information from research, and motivation of people to make use of it for their own benefit and thus indirectly for the country as a whole. The assumption that the benefit is general, justified the use of tax funds from all people for an essentially farm oriented program. In the early days of Extension, county agent duties were rela- tively simple and he spent a great deal of his time actually on farms where people learned to know him and what he accomplished. As techni- cal and educational levels increased, the program has broadened and sup- port for it has developed among people who are not closely acquainted with the program. After years of gradual farm development, the last decade has seen the status of the farmer suddenly altered by great technological, social and economic changes. Fewer, but highly mechanized farms now use one- third less people and produce over a third more with increasing inte- gration of other industries. Politically the farmer and agriculture are taking the position of a minority group and at the same time rural non-farm POpulation is greatly increasing. It was assumed at the beginning of this study that financial sup- port for the Extension Service depends on the understanding of more 66 people than just those engaged in agriculture. Expanded use of mass communication methods is making it possible for the general public to know more about public affairs. Increased awareness of the tax dollar can be expected to curtail any public program that is not understood by the voters. A favorable feeling toward a tax-supported program is help- ful for support but understanding and appreciation of its usefulness are needed for a firm foundation that will hold support against competition. All of which points to a need for Extension leaders to know people's awareness and use of the program as well as factors which may influence its support. Awareness and Use of Extension Service While the survey did not cover a truly representative sample of Jackson county, it is quite significant because opinions of leaders who wield influence on public affairs may be shown in the results. Such a sample could be the first to forecast changes in public attitude. Most of the people who returned the questionnaire are aware that there is some sort of program in agricultural Extension. This included nearly all farmers, 82 percent of the city service clubs, and 78 per- cent of the non-agriculture faculty of Michigan State University. Exactly what they think this program to be cannot be ascertained in a brief questionnaire, but there are indications of misunderstand- ings. Several reported that they had not heard about Cooperative Ex- tension Service, yet had used various methods to receive information or that they knew an Extension agent. Some of the reporters recalled no use made of Extension information, yet members of the family had been in 4-H club work or home economics programs. Others showed that they 67 did not understand Extension functions when they referred to farm sub- sidies handled, FFA education, off-campus classes, or community services that are not done by Extension. Some direct statements were made to the effect that people do not know what Extension does or what services are available. These may not be so much complete misconceptions as merely hazy ideas about the program. Although it is important, the mere fact of being aware of a pro- gram may not mean understanding. This was also found to be true by Amoss Lee Coleman in a study made of Extension in a rural community in New York state which reports: It was found that most people were aware of the programs, but only a minority could be classed as well-informed about the work.17 A better perspective of the extent to which people are reached may be shown in their use of information and participation in Extension programs. The survey questions were designed to check awareness and use of Extension work in fields of farm business, 4-H club work and home economics. Almost all farmers and 42 percent of the service club members who answered have used extension information at some time. A majority of those who have used any at all report receiving Extension informa- tion from several different sources. The method most frequently re- called was personal contact, bulletins, letters, neWspapers, radio, and telephone in that order. Personal contact seemed to be an important factor in the dis- semination of information and the study showed a high proportion of the people who answered know at least one Extension agent. Eighty-five 17Coleman, Amoss Lee, The People's View of the Extension Service in Relation to Extension Objectives and Problems. Abstract of Ph.D. Thesis, Cornell University, Department of Rural Sociology, Feb. 1950. 68 percent of the farmers, 54 percent of the service clubs, and 54 percent of the faculty have had the experience of at least talking to an exten- sion agent. Over half of the farm families represented by the answers to the questionnaire have had 4-H club experience and almost as many have at some time had contact with home demonstration meetings. City use of these programs was much less, but more homes there have used home economics service than 4-H club programs. From the above reports, it can be shown that the publics studied have had a chance to learn what Cooperative Extension Service does. It is believed that these publics represent a higher than average under- standing of the program. This refers to the 42 percent who actually answered the questionnaire. For that reason, this study is more valu- able as an indication of some of the concepts and attitudes of relatively well informed peOple, than an indication of what the general public is aware of, or what part of it has been reached by Extension programs. Some Changes in Extension Several publications give information to show that Cooperative Extension Service is authorized to work for non-farm people. Also, broad responsibilities were outlined by the Association of Land Grant Colleges committee on Scope and Responsibilities of Extension.18 While it is proper to have Extension doing work that is in the public interest, most people see it as a service to agriculture first and to non-farm people as secOndary. 18 An Outline of Major Extension Service Responsibilities, Report of Association of Land Grant Colleges and Universities subcommittee on Extension's Scope and Responsibility. November 8, 1957. 69 ' Extension activities in the public interest may become very im- portant to agricultural people under the conditions found with the so- called rural revolution. Solving certain public problems may improve farm conditions more than anything that could be done within the boundaries of the farm and the same thing might be true for urban people. Some of the requests for Extension assistance indicate a change from the individual farm service program. Jackson county Extension agents report an increasing demand for help from non-farm people. This presents a problem to decide how far to go in city service when the program has always been planned for farm families and appropriations for financing it have been made in the name of agriculture. Part of the demand from new people is coming from rural families who do not make their living farming and who use Extension as a convenience rather than an economic aid. Since it is a public pro- gram, the basis for deciding how much to expand service should be public concept of the role Extension plays and what will be best supported. Both farm and city people seem to feel that extension work is basicly a rural program and any other use made of it is fringe benefit. From the survey, the idea of taking Extension workers partly away from the farm areas to increase city work was not popular. The most signifi- cant factor is that the majority of people had no opinion on this ques- tion, indicating that they have not been aware of the problem and have given it no thought. About a fourth of the questionnaires returned showed a feeling of approval for Extension work in the city to the extent of using another agent, but about the same number opposed city service. All groups tended to give production techniques as the most important information needed to help farm business. 70 ’ Youth training in citizenship and character was reported to be the most important function of 4-H club work by the city people who answered. Returns from the rural sections place top benefit evenly between training youth to work with others and giving training in farm and home skills. Home skills was the most frequent function for home economics extension work given. Other benefits mentioned were nutrition, higher living standards, social relations, and general family living information. Extension education on public programs such as rural taxation, zoning, health, and community development won a favorable reaction from farm and city people equally in the survey. This indicates a concept of community service in addition to the individual farm family program for Extension. We feel this concept may be limited to rural service and not to any education pregram for community work in urban areas since the survey gave the opinion that Extension agents need to spend their time out in the country. The findings and conclusions that follow are drawn from general impressions of the body of information gathered by this survey and study on the role of Extension. Both farm and city people feel that Extension work is basically a rural program and any other use made of it is a fringe benefit. They feel it has some indirect value to city people, but is here primarily to handle technical matters for farmers, so no one suggests it as a community program for all the people of the county. While the Jackson Extension agents have an increasing demand for helping people in the county who are not farmers, the survey does not seem to recognize Extension as a county-wide service. 71 The declining number of farms does not seem to be considered to reduce the need for rural Extension work. Most of the people who like it do not seem to be aware of the rural revolution or at least do not connect it with the functions of the Extension Service. Apparently there is a lag in the public recognition of changing needs that are seeking Extension aid. Public concepts of the role of Extension have been built over many years and they are not changing very fast. Extension leaders see agriculture as a shrinking segment of a tightly integrated economy and they see the Extension Service in a rapidly changing role. Public opinion may see the picture in due time, but so far the lag in understanding is holding to older standards. It is the feeling of many Extension leaders, that Extension is being forced into broader fields of activity by changing economic and social conditions. At the same time public concepts of its role do not seem to be changing at the same pace and this may cause trouble spots to appear in tax competition for support. In a wide public service program, the Extension Service has a disadvantage, since it is known as an agricultural or rural service. It also runs the risk of losing support from farm oriented factions faster than it will gain support from others. If Extension moves toward a role of general public service as the greatest need for an integrated agriculture, it will have to inform more publics that there is a call outside the standard job of individual farm service. Helping farm families is an accepted function, but help- ing the entire community is considered as an incidental Extension role by both rural and urban people. 72 As a leader in adult education, a progressive Extension Service should be ahead of public opinion changes. It has a responsibility to meet the changes as they appear and also to educate the public on the deveIOpments that are taking place. Extension Support Support of a program like Extension is necessary, not only for its existence, but also as an indication of emphasis for program plan- ning. Public approval depends on many factors beyond the scope of this paper, but will be based on a sound useful program. The survey did not try to evaluate the Jackson county program in the effort to discover some of the factors which may influence people on how helpful Extension education is believed to be. For our purpose, the opinion of definite helpfulness was used as a criteria of support. An eXpression of doubt that Extension is helpful was considered as lack of support. Results show that 65 percent of those people who answered feel that Extension is definitely helpful, 19 per- cent consider it probably helpful, eight percent consider it doubtful and eight percent have no opinion. If we think of Extension as a farm program, as most people seem to do, it is 10gica1 to assume that its greatest support would be from farm people. This is shown to be true among the people in the study who made survey returns with 75 percent of the farm group supporting it as helpful and seven percent indicating lack of support. Although the city approval is less general, it gives a strong support report. Considering the urban groups as a whole, 60 percent were favorable and 8 percent had no support. Within the city groups who had never heard or read about Extension, 57 percent checked that it is definitely helpful. 75 Some of those who had never heard of Extension also felt farm education to be beneficial to city people. Altogether, one-third of the reports said city people benefit much, over half said the benefit is some, ten percent have no Opinion, and three percent said there is no benefit at all. This question shows an indication of opinion that there is indirect public benefit from agricultural education to farmers. The fact that farmer education is considered a benefit to city people may have influenced some of those who do not know Extension to support it anyway. The impression is gained that city people support the program mostly as a help to farmers and most any help they get is incidental. Otherwise the pattern of support was quite similar. General pattern for the over-all groups was favorable Extension support from all of them. This increased as awareness and use in- creased. Closely tied to this factor was knowing one of the Extension agents. There was only about 65 percent as much support among people who do not know an agent as among people who do. Many of those not knowing agents had still used Extension information. Strongest support indications were among actual participants in Extension programs and women who had attended home demonstration meetings. These areas of support suggest a foundation for a public rela- tions program for Cooperative Extension Service. Public relations for Extension is education on a two-way basis. People need more information about the Extension job and Extension must carry on a continuing program to find what the public thinks. A systematic method should replace the gues. method of testing public opinion and 72+ this type activity should be done at regular intervals in order to give a basis for comparison and trends. Another need shown by the study is better identification of Ex- tension activities with the organization. People who use the informa- tion furnished by Extension should know where it came from and something about the organization. The name is sometimes not connected with the educational work being done. More effort should be made to inform as many people as possible about the functions of Extension. The Michigan State faculty is one group where additional information should be made available. Relative to new roles for Cooperative Extension, agents in every county now have some program of public service and community affairs. This means they are already changing their education toward more com- munity service even though they still call it an agriculture program. Therefore, we are faced not so much with a decision to change the role of Extension, as admitting that it has changed. With this admission, we would then be ready to educate the public about the demands being made on Extension and ways in which its programs can meet new community needs. This study touches some important facts, but is not final or complete. It is hoped the findings reported here will be helpful to encourage future studies that may go deeper into the public concept of the role of Cooperative Extension Service in the community. There is a need for a survey with more depth of opinion to show how and why peeple react as they do. This could be best accomplished with an interview-type survey, but a questionnaire could be used if 75 it were supplemented with some interviews. These should be interviews of a sample of the people who answered and also those who did not respond. 76 BIBLIOGRAPHY BIBLIOGRAPHY Albig, Wm., Modern Public Opinion, McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., New York and London, 1955: Amended Smith-Lever Act-Public Law 85, 85rd Congress, Chapter 157--1st Session. S1675. An Outline of Vajor Extension Service Responsibilities, Report of As- sociation of Land Grant Colleges and Universities subcommittee on Extension's Scope and Responsibility. Jovember 8, 1957. Berelson, Bernard, and Janowitz, Morris, Publicpgpinion and Communica- tion, The Free Press, Glencoe, Ill., 1955. Bernays, Edward L., The Engfineering of Consent, University of Oklahoma Press, 1955. Black, Fred, History and Growth of Public Relations in America, Pub- lished in the Michigan Business Review, May 1954. Coleman, Amoss Lee, The People's View of the Extension Service in Rela- tion to Extension Objectives and Problems. Abstract of Ph.D. Thesis, Cornell University, Department of Rural Sociology, February 1950. Fitderald, Stephen E., Communicating Ideas to the Public, Funk and Wagnalls, New York, 1950. Goode, Wm. J., and Hatt, Paul K., Methods in Social Research, McGraw- Hill Book Company, Inc., New York, 1952. Harlow, Rex F. and Black, Marvin M., Practical Public Relations, Harper & Brothers, New York, 1952. Hoskins, Floyd J., tatistics-Gathering,Technigues, A paper given for National Institute for Commercial and Trade Organization Execu- tives, Northwestern University, Aug. 18, 1949. Katz, Daniel, and associates, Public Opinion and Propaganda, The Dryden Press, Publisher, New York, 195A. Katz, Elihu and Lazarsfeld, Paul F., Personal Influence, The Free Press, Glencoe, Ill., 1955. Lippman, Walter, Public Opinion, MacMillan Co., New York, 1956. 78 Lundberg, Geo. A., Social Research, Longmans, Green & Co., New York, 1942. Parten, Mildred, Surveys, Polls and Samples, Harper & Brothers, Publishers, New York, 1950. Patterson, W. Calvin, Public Relations in Action, An article published in the Michigan Business Review, May 1955. Payne, Stanley L., The Art of Asking Questions, Princeton Univ. Press, 1951. Suggitt, Frank W., Trends and Projections Affecting the Cooperative Ex- tension Program. Mimeo. publication from the Dept. of Resource Deve10pment, Michigan State Univ., 1958. 79 APPENDIX COOPERATIVE EXTENSION WORK IN AGRICULTURE AND HOME ECONOMICS STATE OF MICHIGAN MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICE U. 8. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE OFFICE OF DIRECTOR COOPERATING o a Sample of MSU Faculty 'riends : As a part of a research study to determine the general level of knowledge about in program of the Michigan Cooperative Extension Service, we would appreciate your answering the following questions . With which of the following types of Extension workers are you familiar? :--H CLUB : COUNTY AGENT : HOME DEMONSTRATION AGENT : EXTENSION S’EC. : ‘ITHER : NONE lave you had a chance to talk with an MSU Extension staff member about his work? YES ON CAMPUS YES IN A COUNTY NO DON 'T RECALL Zheck the following statements which agree with your impression of Cooperative Extension as an Off-campus activity. A SERVICE ONLY FOR FAMRS. or AVAEABIE To ANYONE samenv nu EDUCATION mom or MOSTLY A SERVICE PROGRAM IT IS GROWING IN IMPORTANCE or BECOMING LESS ESSENTIAL TEE WORKERS ARE NOT REGULAR FACULTY WORKERS HAVE FACULTY RANK STATE WORKERS AT MSU CONTACT MOST PEOPLE OR COUNTY WORKERS CONTACT MORE ?lease check the activities which you feel are Cooperative Extension responsibilities VETERINARY WORK : TEACH GOV’T POLICIES : CITY PLANNING : COMMUNITY HEALTH___ :URAL TAXATION. . : ZONING : YOUTH TRAINING : MARKETING LIVESTOCK : ‘-ONSUMER INFORMAT—ION___: simian LIVING : FARM—"CROPS : L‘A‘wns' :LANDS_—CAPING LL RESOURCES : CONSERVATION : LIVETG STANDARDS : RURAL-URBAN RELATIONS__: mama mum-Tc : AmIc.-OO‘L'LEGE INFO.____: AIL-UNIVERSITY mommw . Jan you suggest activities you feel should improve MSU all-staff relations with looperative Extension Service? tarrying results of research to Michigan homes is one Extension Service job. DO you ‘eel this replaces college or does it stimulate young people to attend college? IEND TO REPLACE COILEGE__ MORE ATTEND COLIEGE___ NO EFFECT__ DON 'T KNOW” Jhat is your department and how long have you been at MSU?__ PLEASE RETURN ANSWERS TO 120 AGRICULTURE HALL, ON CAMPUS AAA PPPPP hm“- ‘[ l-lsn n: AAAAA Pnnhnfln+:11n nubnnn:nn Cnnr:r~n “:I‘L:hnn Ca-nhp. 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