# Seaman A. Knapp

Seaman Asahel Knapp (December 16, 1833 – April 1, 1911) was a Union College graduate, Phi Beta Kappa member, physician, college instructor, and administrator. He moved to Iowa to raise general crops and livestock.

## Career

Knapp became involved in an organization called "The Teachers of Agriculture," attending their meetings at the Michigan Agricultural College in 1881 and the Iowa Agricultural College in 1882. Knapp was so impressed with this teaching method that he drafted a bill for the establishment of experimental research stations, which later was introduced to the 47th Congress, laying the foundation for a nationwide network of agricultural experiment stations.
Knapp later served as the second president of Iowa Agricultural College — the future Iowa State University—from 1883 to 1884, but his interest in agricultural demonstration work did not occur until 1886, when he moved to Louisiana and began developing a large tract of agricultural land in the western part of this state. He founded Vinton, Louisiana, naming the town after his hometown Vinton, Iowa.
Knapp could neither persuade local farmers to adopt the techniques he had perfected on his farm, nor could he enlist farmers from the North to move to the region to help teach them. He decided to provide incentives for farmers to settle in each township on the condition that each would demonstrate the results of his farming methods to other farmers. Northern farmers began moving into the region, and native farmers began using Knapp's methods. By 1902, Knapp was employed by the government to promote good agricultural practices in the South.
Based on his own experience, Knapp was convinced that demonstrations carried out by farmers were the most effective way to disseminate good farming methods. His efforts were aided by the infestation of the boll weevil, a cotton pest which affected Louisiana and much of the South. Damage associated with this pest instilled fear among many merchants and growers that the cotton economy would disintegrate around them.
A farm demonstration at the Walter G. Porter farm, now a National Historic Landmark in Terrell, Texas, set up by the Department of Agriculture at the urging of concerned merchants and growers. it was considered the first in a series of steps that eventually led to passage of the legislation that formalize Cooperative Extension work.
USDA officials were so impressed with the success of this demonstration that they appropriated $250,000 to combat the weevil—a measure that also involved the hiring of farm demonstration agents. By 1904, some 20 agents were employed in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas. The movement also appeared to be spreading to neighboring Mississippi and Alabama.
Knapp is commemorated in Washington, D.C. by a bridge linking the U.S. Department of Agriculture Administration Building to the U.S. Department of Agriculture South Building across Independence Avenue.

## Death and legacy

Seaman A. Knapp died in 1911, aged 77. He is interred at Iowa State University Cemetery, Ames, Iowa. His son, Bradford Knapp, was the President of the Alabama Polytechnic Institute, now known as Auburn University from 1928 to 1933 and the second president of Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas.