County agent with car covered in promotional dairying posters

(Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections & Archives, P0138 Bx. 012 Fd. 25-001.)

Passage of the Smith-Lever Act in 1914 solidified the college’s mandate for Cooperative Extension through the creation of Cooperative Extension Offices with agents established at the county level.

County agents organized yearly programs demonstrating new agricultural techniques to Utah’s farmers. While the Extension Service’s county agents helped the state’s farmers, its home demonstration agents advised rural women about nutrition, homemaking, and sanitation. All agents prepared annual federal reports of the year’s accomplishments and plans for the coming year. These reports contained a wealth of information on rural life in Utah: crop production, livestock, dairying, wool marketing, irrigation, weed and pest control, home economics, clubs and community events, etc.