BLACKSBURG - Virginia’s farmers were happy to see the

BLACKSBURG - Virginia’s farmers were happy to see the Virginia Cooperative Extension Service created by the Smith-Lever Act in 1914, but many agriculturists at Virginia Tech did not dance for joy. Though the program promised much for the Old Dominion, the Tech researchers were afraid that there wrould be too much outside interference with their “pure” research.

Fortunately, the farmers’ joy was realized while the faculty’s fears of “selling out” never came to pass.

Although Extension work was flourishing across Virginia prior to the bill’s passage, Tech researchers w ere hesitant to support demonstrations believing them to be too closely associated with vested interests. Colleges preferred to conduct research at experiment stations and relay the information to farmers by publications or hold meetings on campus to attract them. Unfortunately, this did not allow information to reach those who could not afford to travel and who often did not understand or trust representatives from a college campus.

Smith-Lever specifically mandated that “Cooperative Agricultural Extension Work shall consist of the giving of instruction and practical demonstrations i|i agriculture and home economics to persons through field demonstrations, publications, and otherwise.” Many of Tech’s agricultural faculty did not favor the face-to-face method of Extension, fearing that the U.S. Department of Agriculture would assume control of their operations.

It also was fortunate that J.D. Eggleston was president of Virginia Tech at the time of the law’s passage. Dr. Eggleston, who was Virginia’s state superintendent of public instruction, was the man Seaman A. Knapp first converted in Virginia to the need for field demonstrations. Dr. Eggleston WTote that Mr. Knapp w'as “a man sent from God.”

In his public education post, Dr. Eggleston became a supporter of Extension in 1906, and was instrumental in getting T.O. Sandy appointed state agent to begin the program. In 1907, Mr. Sandy began working with farmers in the vicinity of his Burkeville home. The demonstration movement was an instantaneous success.

Mr. Sandy was not the first Extension agent in Virginia, however. That honor went to John B. Pierce, a faculty member at Hampton Institute. Mr. Pierce, who was busy working with farmers in Norfolk County, w'as asked by Mr. Knapp to become an agent, and his first assignment was in Gloucester County.

He later w ent on to direct Extension agents in the region made up by Virginia, North and South Carolina, West Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland, Tennessee, Arkansas, Delaware, and Missouri.

Southall Farrar, one of Sandy’s first agent selections, was Virginia’s first youth agent. He started Virginia’s first com clubs in 1908. In 1910, he hired Ella Agnew to head the girls’ program and to form the tomato clubs. Mrs. Agnew was the first woman home demonstration agent in the nation. These programs were forerunners of today’s 4-H operation.

It was felt that the teaching of good agricultural and home economics practices to young people would be relayed to the parents. That is an educational technique that is being used today throughout the world. Dr. Eggleston, through his public instructional post, was instrumental in