ctical farmers to go among their neighbors and get them to agree to
give a fair trial to the methods advocated by the government, i.e., to
demonstrate their practicability. Those making the trials were called
"demonstrators" and their neighbors who came to follow their example in
testing the new methods were called "cooperators" and were called
together at the "demonstrator's" farm to see the results of his work and
to receive instruction from the "demonstration agent" who supervised the
work for the government. As this work was in charge of practical farmers
more or less known locally, it appealed to the farmers as a
common-sense method, the results spoke for themselves, and the demand
for the work spread rapidly. Dr. Knapp found that the county was the
best unit for the work of the supervising demonstration agent, and he
soon came to be known as the county demonstration agent, which was later
contracted to county agent or county agricultural agent. The whole
movement came to be called "the farmers' cooperative demonstration
work." Three new features in agricultural instruction of farmers were
involved in this system; it was more or less cooperative on the part of
a local group of farmers; it used the demonstration method of teaching,
i.e., the farmer demonstrated to himself by his own trial; and a local
county agent was employed for the supervision of the work. It soon
became apparent that merely trying to circumvent the depredations of the
boll weevil would not solve the problem and that instead of raising only
cotton as a cash crop the farmer must diversify his crops so as to raise
more of the foodstuffs consumed on the farm and to have other products
for sale. This involved the application of the demonstration method to
the growing of corn, legumes, hogs, etc., in short, it involved the
whole field of farm management and agricultural practice. The work of
the county agricultural agents was liberally supported by local business
men, commercial clubs and railroads, and the General Education Board, as
well as by the U. S. Department of Agriculture. In 1909 the Mississippi
legislature passed the first act permitting counties to appropriate
funds for this work, and this was followed by most of the southern
states within a few years.

The Report of President Roosevelt's Country Life Commission in 1909
called attention to the need of a national system of agricultural
extension work in charge of the agricultural colleges, a