New-York tribune., 1908-08-02

| IF President Roosevelt thinks enough of pore
! nigge:s to send white man down here to tell US
! how to raise cotton, think ought to raise
| cotton said old negro.
| The result was that every OF the farmers
who followed the instructions given by the govern
! ment expert made money. None of the others did
/ but they learned the lesson
! In another Texas county. kaufman fo-tv tenant
! farmer families. who had made a long and futile
struggle against debt became ''co-operators' with
the government. At the end Of the year every
family had accomplished the impossibe-paid off it's
! debts. More than that, among them they had put
| $4,000 into banks.
These only two instances out of hundreds in
! all parts of the South
The tenets of DR.. Knapp's propaganda says
M. Smith, can be summed up in a few words
Deeper ploughing and better preparation of the
seed bed the best seed judicous use of fertilizers
thorough tillage. horsepower and better tools
| and more and better farm stock. That is ALL but
IT is making men out of debt-ridden tenant farm
| ers, whose condition has been little better than
that of slaves, if not indeed worse. His work
is making it worth while for farmers to stay on
the farm.
He teaches by object lessons. the demonstra-
! ton farms. demonstration farm is a plot of
from one to five acres which the farmer agrees to
work in strict accordance with instructions. Such
a farmer is called a demonstration He agrees
to furnish all the labor machinery and fertilizers
/ that required his land, and to keep an ac-
curate account of all the soil and crop history of
all cost of cultivation and of the yield of the crop
This furnishes the government with data for
future assistance in the region. The government
will furnish seed, if is his first season. after that
he will have raised his own seed
DR.. Knapps method of fighting the boil wee,1l
since il appeared in 1893 illustrates his theories and
practice. When the weevil appeared Congress ap-
propriated s250,Ol0 emergency measure The
question then was the method to be ar1opled to
meet the condition. Entomologsts proposed 10 find
the enemy of the boil weevil in order to exterml-
nate it. Agricultural experts wished to experiment
with other kinds of cotton in the hope that they
would be less to the liking of the wee,I Or
Knapp suggested that the planters be taught how
to raise such large crops that the weevl could not
by possibility destroy the yield. What the
planters needed first he said, crop nf cottol
AT first the planters laughed the idea IF toilins
harder than ever FOR the benefit OF the pest
do you tell us said one spokesman
that you have come empty handed to Texas to
lieve the distress of people and restore conf
dence, and that you know of way of destroying
the boil weevil? And, further, that you furnish no
seed fertilizers? And do you intend to tell our
people, your only remedy is TO get out and hus-
tie? If this be true. are TO receive one of the
greatest Of disappontments" Texas had sup
posed that the government going to supply
money
Nothing of the sort" said DR.. Knapp We're
going to show you how TO raise cotton People are
rarely benefited by gifts. Our system nsures
crop. and while you waiting for the govern
ment to give you few thousand you can increase
your income from s2O.Ooo.oo0 to s3O.0o.c00 add to
your manhood and become independent"
Much argument was required but finally eight
thousand co-operators obtained In the fall of
1904 the farmers of the district by the boil
weevil found themselves better off than they had
been for years. The entomologist has not vet dis
covered a method Of exterminatlng the boil weevr.
but although the pest is moving eastward fifty
miles each year. ii has lost its terrors. And lnde-
pendent being made.