roads, bridges, night guards, running water, drainage, etc.1

 One of the most deliberate, systematic attempts to incorporate

the knowledge of advanced farmers into the extension system was developed

in Japan in the 1870's when the government wanted to modernize agriculture

but realized that the large-scale farming practices of the U.S. and

England, utilizing large machinery, were irrelevant.2 In 1878, the govern-

ment appointed one or two leading veteran farmers in each prefecture to

serve as an Agricultural Correspondence System. These veteran farmers

would gather detailed reports about local agricultural techniques and

conditions, send them to the government, receive suggestions from the

government, and organize local Agricultural Discussion Societies to enable

all farmers to share the information. In 1881, a national organization

for veteran farmers'was established, the Agricultural Society of Japan.

Four year later, an "itinerant instructor system" was organized, utilizing

both graduates of agricultural colleges and veteran farmers. Veteran

farmers were crucial in staffing the system until 1889, when sufficient

trained people were available to staff the system. A few years later,

the itinerant instructor system was merged with the newly formed Prefec-

tural Experiment Stations, and in 1899 many extension services were

incorporated within compulsory farmers' associations, which received


 Edgardo Rothkegel Ortuzan, "The Ecuador Non-Formal Education
Project, in Richard Niehoff, ed., Non-Forward Education and the Rural Poor
(East Lansing: Michigan State University College of Education, 1977),
p.p. 111-120.

 2Takekazu Ogura, Agricultural Development in Modern Japan (Tokyo:
Fuji Publishing Company, 1967), pp. 301-303: Toruzo Tatsuno and Reiichi
Kaneko, Agricultural Extension Work in Japan (Tokyo: Agriculture, Forestry,
and Fisheries Productivity Converence, 1959); and Ron Aqua, Local Institu-
tions and Rural Development in Japan (Ithaca: Cornell Rural Development
Committee, 1974).