The Harvester World: Volume 8, number 12, December 1917

              AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION DEPARTMENT
One Short Course Calls for Another

in the Harrisburg Territory

THERE   is something doing in the way of agricul¬ tural extension work in tlie Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, territory. Here is how it happened:
The sales de¬ partment and the agriculturaj e x- tension depart¬ ment have devel- oped a plan whereby public- spirited IHC dealers in co-ope¬ ration with farm¬ ers and commun¬ ity leaders can secure the serv¬ ices of the agri¬ cultural exten¬ sion department to hold one or two-day agricul¬ tural short course schools for men, women and ev¬ erybody in their communities, by making request through the branch houses. Branch Manager H. K. Curll, of Harrisburg, saw the point. He wrote letters to his blockmen, his deal¬ ers, all the wide-awake farmers in his territory that he could think of (he knows them all), boards of trade, chambers of commerce, county superintendents of schools, county agents, preachers and teachers, telling them what was to be had and how to get it.
Before the letters were sealed Advertising Manager, Miss Grace Ditmer, slipped into the envelopes blank petitions for the signatures of the dealers and others who had the nerve to go on record and say that if a short course was put on in their community they would furnish a hall, advertise the meeting, write letters to every farmer about it and call him on the telephone besides.    Mr.  Curll  bad   a   little bill for  postage

For twenty years R. A. Hayne was a breeder of live stock and a grower of alfalfa in the state of Ohio. For eleven years (this is a part of the twenty Judging from the estimated age of Mr. Hayne) he worked with the Ohio Board of Agriculture aud Agricultural Commission. He has done farmers' institute and agricultural work all over the country east of the Rockies, and for three years now he has been working with Professor Holden. They did quite right, we should say, to put him in charge of the Eastern Short Course.

but he got results, and it is results that count.
Over at Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, is the firm of Whitenight & Kashinka, a pair of I H C dealers, young and willing to work between meals. They got one of the aforesaid letters from Harrisburg and immediately saw a chance to hand out more service along with good machines. Whitenight & Kashinka have a habit of doing things before they forget it, so the first thing every¬ body knew, their petition was in and an advance man for the agricultural extension department, H. J. Nagor- sen, who is on the job when a branch house ipeans busi¬ ness, was at Bloomsburg helping arrange details.
Eighteen meetings instead of one were put on in Whitenight & Kashinka's territory. They were held in the county high schools which are also community centers. Three speakers, R. A. Hayne, Geo. McKerrow and Miss Zella Wigent, from the Agricultural Extension Department, with charts, lantern slides and demonstra¬ tion material, made the different points by automobile. County Superintendent of Schools, W. W. Evans, who has organized twenty-six com¬ munity centers in his county, drove his car from early morning until midnight, carry¬ ing speakers and demonstration luggage. Block- man Jacob Ship- man found out what was going on and was there the iirst day, in the morning, with the service of his new touring car.

Result: Eighteen meetings, reaching the students of eighteen county high schools and their parents. These high schools are in the country aud attended by farm boys and girls who will not live long enough to forget the
George McKerrow has been learning the fine art of breeding and importing live stock for thirty years. He is a practical farmer and dairyman from w isconsin, and he now likes nothing better than to travel around with the IHC Extension Department's Short Course and tell other people how to do it.