Such a policy is like dropping the pilot just as the ship enters the most dangerous seas. It is like shutting up the light house just as the storm comes on.
The farmers of the south will need the help of the county agent more in 1921 than ever before. And they will use him more than ever before.
In the first place they need his help about production. How much the cotton acreage will be cut is problematical, but it is certainly gong to be cut. Farmers are going to grow a diversity of crops, and they are going to need guidance in new fields of effort. They are also going to grow more livestock, and here especially they will need the help of a thorougly equipped county agent.
No less urgently—in fact, even more urgently, farmers need the help of the county agent in problems of marketing. Big and promising plans for reformed cotton marketing (as well as tobacco marketing and peanut marketing in sections growing these crops) are already under way. The county agent is the man who must do mor ethan anyone else in bringing success to these plans for scientific and profitable marketing. Then, too, in growing corn, hay, hogs, and cattle, farmers will find their diversification program has small profit unless plans for cooperative shipping and selling are worked out. They naturally look to the county agent for leadership in these matters.
For all these reasons the best investment your county can make is to pay enough to get a superbly qualified man to lead your farming forces as county agent in 1921. . . . .
(From the Progressive Farmer magazine, as reprinted on the front page of The Mount Airy News, Jan. 20, 1921)
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