The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1909-03-09
Government Men Doing
Good Work.
MEETING HELD In MONTGOMERY
Executive Session Was Conducted
During Morning.
workers and Local Farmers Ring
Praise ef the Government System
- = Public Meeting Held
Last Night.

LIT. - n. Anapp OF the Depdr tinent
Of Agriculture of the Government. is
in the city talking to farmers at the
Commercial Club about crops and farm
conditions, and hearing the reports
Of the Governments agents. The ses-
sion yesterday morning was executive.
the work, consisting in DR.. Knapp in
structing the representatives Of the
i districts which are being worked and
arranging business affairs.
Last night the session was open, the
workers and the local farmers talking
over existing, conditions. as they see
them, in q sort OF experience meet
some OF the stories the agents of
che sGovernnient told were amusing,
but all were Interestingly instructive.
One man said that when he first visit
ed section which was in a mountain
Gus part of the State. he was mistaken
Tor revenue officer and had more
than q little trouble convincing the
people he was an agriculturalist.
He said following the instructions he
I had given that the land was being
broken much earlier and that close
attention had been paid to his talks on
rotatfve crops. AS a result of the les
sons. he had seen increases In farm
products such as two bales OF cotton
to an acre, instead of a few hundred
pounds. He also said that In treating
the corn as the Government had ad-
yised. through him. yields of seventy
eight bushels to an acre had been
given. mot only on one trial acre. but
one man. making that average for an
entire field.
Signs Of development and prosperitS,
he said, had sprung up in year. tele-
phones had been installed. where before
they were too expensive. the plows
were now being drawn BY two mules,
49, g.
giving place to other plants as lucra-
tive when marketed. which also left
q product for home consumption after
the crop had been harvested, which
crop brought. per acre, more than the
cotton had formerly returned.
Mores than one man who spoke veri-
fed what the first had said. about the
revenue of1cer mistake. and name
Government" seemed to indicate to
these simple mountain people but one
thing, q person who would make ar
rests. This mistake made the work
as first dangerous, for there were
tmany who had buried a kinsman who
had died in fight with~revenue men,,
and the name Government savored
souriy in the mouths of the hill folk.
But when the men had taken charge
OF land and worked side by side with
the farmers and they had seen the en-
Ithusiasm of the agent and the won
ldrous~crops he produced. the furtive
glance gave way to q neighborly good
morning. which was later replaced by
visits, confidential talks, attention to
instructions and a general betterment
Of conditions.
But all the men who told of what
they had experienced were not those
who had visited the hill country. some
there were who sung the praise of
Southeast Alabama, which land, they
a VIZ no naf N ha Stufa hntf
because 1t was poor, the farmers there
were working hard and getting the
best results of all. The sand levels
were snoddfng under the foliage of
great crops after the agent had been
there awhile. but there. too, the agent
had been handicapped by the name
Government" Openly, one man said
he was accused of being an agent of
the Government who came to report
big crops and so hurt the price of cot
ton, these men said they had more
difficulty than their brother agents
who had met the hill people. for the
revenue men showed their hands be-
fore long and were known, but 1t was
hard to convince the illiterate farmer
Of the lowlands that information detri-
mental to his interests was not being
sent to Washington.
Agents Made Welcome.
These difficulties, they all said. had
of the work were over. and the agents
were known, and understood, and where
one came he was made welcome. was
invited to talk and his advise was
taken. But then another dificulty
arose, when the good results were
given; the farmer even then was a
bit suspicious and asked when the
bill for the instruction would be sent
In. The idea of a Government doing
something for the farmers for moth
ing was too strange to be true; 1t was
beyond belief. But this suspicion
passed when the year went by with no
bill sent in and now the work was
all plain sailing. The representatives
of the Agricultural Department were
now chosen from the more progressive
FARMERS where the first agent had
been; they were men known to the
community. men who were leaders and
who practiced what they preached.
Crop returns were doubled, barns
sprung up, fences appeared. great piles
of alfalfa appeared in the barn yards,
the former co1ton fields bare half the
year, were sown in other things.
But the introduction of rotative
crops was hard for the farmers to catch
hold of, crop would be planted, the
farmer would learn to cultivate that
specific thing. To this new crop he
would stick and all persuasion. at
times, could not dlslodge some of them
then the trouble came, a crop would
fail, blight would take 1t and the agent
would be roundly cursed for ever tell
ing the farmer about 1t. But this
helped. for diversified and rotative
crops got their start from It, The land
was being now used for different pro-
ducts each season. and the causes of