rm Bureaus,--for on June 30, 1918, there were 791 farm
bureaus with approximately 290,000 members,--the movement became truly a
farmers' movement rather than a mere "extension" of the work of the
agricultural colleges, though the close affiliation with them
constituted its strength and furnished its leadership.

It so happened that almost as soon as the Smith-Lever Act became
effective the world was plunged into war and marketing problems became
more and more important. Whereas in the first decade of the county agent
movement interest had been chiefly in better methods of production, it
now rapidly shifted to include better methods of marketing and the
development of cooperative selling associations, whose organization was
assisted by the farm bureaus wherever they were needed and practicable.

The entry of the United States into the World War greatly accelerated
the farm bureau movement. "Food will win the war" was the slogan which
challenged American agriculture. The number of county agents in the
North and West increased from 542 to 1,133 within the year ending June
30, 1918. It was the county agent system which formed the mechanism
through which the federal government secured the whole-souled
cooperation of the farmers of the United States under peculiarly trying
conditions. The winter of 1917-18 was severe and seed corn was unusually
poor. As a result, the available supply of sound seed corn in the spring
of 1918 was the lowest on record in the face of the greatest need for a
bumper crop. Had it not been for the remarkable organization developed
through the county agents and the farm bureau system of the entire
country, the corn crop of the great Corn Belt would have been far below
normal. As it was, nearly a normal acreage was planted and an abundant
harvest secured. The role which the agriculture of the United States
played in the World War has never been adequately written or
appreciated, but it was full of as much romance and heroism as were the
industries which commanded the headlines of the press. Dr. Bradford
Knapp, for many years in charge of the county agent work in the Southern
States after the death of his father, its founder, has called attention
to the fact that during the war "of the four great activities or
industries in America, agriculture, manufacturing, mining, and
transportation,--one alone--agriculture, stood the test, and that mainly
because there was already in existence an organization exten