The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1908-09-02
JOHN D.AND UNCLE SAM
Spending Thousands Teaching the
Country How TO Farm.
CROPS WHERE NONE GREW

CROPS WHERt NUM- UNIV
And Harvests Have Been Doubled
and Mortgages Raised. Twelve
Thousand Demonstration Fields
Under Federal Supervision at Cost
of Hundreds OF Thousands of
Dollars.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 31.-An in
dnstrial revolution of incalculable
Importance has been started in the
south. Two personages who large
" fill the public eye are backing up
the movement and helping it along
in every way possible. They are
Uncle Sam and John D. Rockefeller,
who ordinarily do not operate in con-
junction. but in this instance they
are doing so and seem to get along
tremendously enough.
The revolution arises simply from
the fact that the south is learning
how to farm. Before the civil war;
no doubt, the south had good
knowledge of farming, and some OF
the big plantations teemed with pros
perity. But for a generation ana
more this knowledge has seemed to
have been forgotten, or at any rate,
not generally applied. The average
southern farmer, with his wooden
nlow and his lone mule, with his
ground half titled and his crop mort
gagged as soon as it went into the
soil, presented a pitiable enough
spectacle.
Transformation Wrought.
Not yet has the southern farmer
climbed up out of the slough OF de-
spond into which he has been
plunged by years of poor methods.
But he is beginning to climb out,
and that at a rapid puCe A remark
able transformation is being wrought
in the farms and farmers OF the
south.
DR.. S. A. Knapp of the department
of agriculture. special agent IN
charge of farmers cooperative dem
onstration work in the south, IS d.
recting the task Of teaching the farm
Ger how to till his land Alright, how TO
crow more cotton and corn to the
acre. how to rescue himself from debt
and how to better his condition gem
orally. Dr. Knapp has been III charge
of this work for five years. 80
ouietly has it been conducted that
comparatively few people VINO 90 not
come directly in contact with it know
that anything of the sort is Delhg
done.
Yet it is in some respects the most
important work that the department
of agriculture is doing. what 1t
means i'm money to the south may be
judged from the fact that banker
has lately written to DR.. Knapp that
the educational work that has been
done this year in single county OF
northern Texas, among the farmers,
will add S35O,000 to the value of the
crops of that county.
Lone Mule Is Passing.
The work is going forward with
energy in practically every county
of the south where the agricultural
interests predominant. 1t is beng
conducted in every one of the south
ern states, aside from Maryland,
Kentucky and Tennessee.
AS a result of it the poor, mort
gage-ridden southern farmer is get
ting away from the lone mule, the
wooden pillow and the hoe of his ia
theirs. and is using a team, with
modern pillow and up-to-date farming
machinery. He is improving his
house, fixing his fences and sending
his children to school He is plow-
ing his ground deeper, CultiVating it
better. raising larger crops and lift
ing the old mortgage. This applies
alike to the white farmer and to the
black.
In no other part of the United
States is there such a demand for in
formation about right methods of
farming as in the south today. As
DR. Knapp says, the people have quit
talking politics and are talking about
raising crops This has become so
noticeable that many of the members
of congress have to conduct a series
of meetings in their districts annual