Today, Purdue Extension delivers practical, research-based information that transforms lives and livelihoods. Tailored to the needs of Indiana, its current programs include Agriculture and Natural Resources, Health and Human Sciences, Economic and Community Development, and 4-H Youth Development. However, today's success is built on over a century of visionary hard work and outreach. Scattering the Seeds of Knowledge: The Words and Works of Indiana's Pioneer County Extension Agents chronicles the tales of the first county Extension agents, from 1912 to 1939. Their story brings readers back to a day when Extension was little more than words on paper, when county agents traveled the muddy back roads, stopping at each farm, introducing themselves to the farmer and his family. These Extension women and men had great confidence in the research and the best practices they represented, and a commanding knowledge of the inner workings of farms and rural residents. Most importantly, however, they had a knack with people. In many cases they were given the cold shoulder at first by the farmers they were sent to help. However, through old-fashioned, can-do perseverance and a dogged determination to make a difference in the lives of people, these county Extension agents slowly inched the state forward one farmer at a time. Their story is a history lesson on what agriculture was like at the turn of the twentieth century, and a lesson to us all about how patient outreach and dedicated engagement-backed by proven science from university research-reshaped and modernized Indiana agriculture.
Introduction
Part One The Precursors to the Development of Extension Education in Indiana: Research, Farmers’ Institutes, and One Man’s Vision (1882–1912)
1. Research Lays a Foundation for Extension
2. One Man’s Vision for Extension
3 All Roads Lead to the County Agent
Part Two The Show-and-Tell Years of the First County Agents in Indiana: When Seeing Was Believing (1912–1916)
4. Extension Work Being New in the County, the Office Was Not Understood
5. Field Demonstrations Are the Rock On Which We Build
6. Farming Requires Business Principles in Its Management
7. Very Few Farms of the County Are Maintaining the Fertility
8. Test! Don’t Guess!
9. The Marriage of King Corn and Queen Alfalfa
10. Barn Was Engulfed in a Cloud of Oat Smut
11. A Number of Men Sowed Wheat That Had Never Sowed It Before
12. The Fruit on the Unsprayed Tree Was Unsound, Wormy, Knotty, and Rotted
13. Hog Cholera! Keep Out!
14. Cattle Were Found to Have the Foot-and-Mouth Disease
15. The Teachers Look to Me for All Aid in Teaching Agriculture
16. Boys’ and Girls’ Club Work in the County Is Helping Considerably
Part Three Food Will Win World War I (1917–1918)
17. Supporting Soldiers at the Front Through Work in the Fields
18. Every Call Took Some Men Much More Valuable as Producers Than They Could Be as Soldiers
19. With a Food Shortage Possible, There Has Been a Desire to Save All Perishable Food
20. Not Safe to Guess on the Vitality of Their Seed Corn
21. Meeting the Government’s Request for More Pork
Photographs2
Part Four: Living Through the Miserable Years of the Agricultural Depression (1919–1929)
22. The Farm Business Is on the Rocks
23. No One Man Ever Will Know All a County Agent Is Expected to Know
24. The Program Has Become a “Jack of All Trades and Master of Some”
25. Better Hens, More Bushels per Acre, and Greater Economy in Production All Around
26. A Public Servant or a Servant to One Organization
27. The Value of the Hen as the “Mortgage Lifter”
28. The Milk Check Has Been a Very Welcome Thing in a Great Many Homes
29. One-Third of All Tuberculosis Cases Are Contracted Directly from Milk
30. This Is the Finest Bunch of Hogs I Have Raised in Years
31. Better Keep Bees Better or Better Not Keep Bees
Photographs
32. Just Mixed Up Nondescript Corn of No Particular Origin
33. Farmers Should Realize That the Pest Is Within Our Midst
34. The Three L’s—Limestone, Legumes, and Livestock
35. Soil Fertility Is Their Capital Stock for Profit or Loss on the Farm
36. Whenever a Farmer Gets the Soybean Habit, He Rarely If Ever Quits
37. The Wheat Crop Though Unprofitable on the Average Farm Has Returned a Neat Profit in Some Cases436
38. Superior Strains Sought After by Progressive Farmers
39. The Eradication and Control of This Weed Is an Ever Perplexing Problem for the Careful Farmer
40. Care For or Cut Down Orchard Campaign466
41. Farmers Must Find Some Crop Which Will Pay Them a Good Cash Income
Photographs
42. The Tractor Has Taken a Prominent Place on the Farm
43. Crops and Livestock Can Be Made to Grow on These So Called “Worn-Out” Farms
44. The Man on the Dirt Road Today Is at a Decided Disadvantage
45. Hoosiers Are Kind to Rats, Feeding Them on Eggs, Poultry, Grain, and Meats
46. Power in the Home Saves Mother
Photographs
47. Extension among Farm Women and Girls Is as Important as That among Farm Men and Boys
48. The Afternoon of Each School Day Is Devoted to Agriculture
49. Club Members Have Learned to Win Without Boasting, to Lose Without Squealing
Epilogue
Educators by Profession, Friends to Rural People, and Pioneers of Agricultural Change
Photographs
Notes
Sources
Index
Frederick Whitford is a clinical engagement professor and director of Purdue Pesticide Programs. He received his bachelor's degree in wildlife management from Louisiana Tech University. He received his master's and doctoral degrees in entomology from Iowa State University. Dr. Whitford is the author of The Grand Old Man of Purdue University and Indiana, The Queen of American Agriculture, For the Good of the Farmer, and Enriching the Hoosier Farm Family. He has authored more than 300 publications and has become a popular speaker with more than 5,000 presentations given nationally. In recognition of his significant contributions to Extension outreach efforts, he has received numerous awards, including the Frederick L. Hovde Award of Excellence in Educational Service to the Rural People of Indiana, the Outstanding Extension Faculty/Specialist Award from Purdue Extension, and the Excellence in Extension Award from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, and he was named an Honorary Master Farmer.
