Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-12-26

month to see that the farmers are follow
ing instructions in the preparation or
the soil, the selection of seed, in ploW-
ing, narrowing, in the use Of fertilizers.
labor and the results. The local agents
call in the neighbors, as many as Will
come. and hold field schools with practl-
cal object lessons in the crops before
them. At every one of these meetings
some farmer. and sometimes many. be-
coming convinced of the advantages or
intelligent farming, agrees to adopt the
same methods and report the results
I'VE had, altogether, during the past
season. about thirty-two thousand farms,
scattered all over the south, cultivated In
whole or in part upder the direction of
our agents, according to rules laid down
by the Department of Agriculture In
addition to these, we had the twelve
thousand five hundred corn contests OF
an acre each among the boys of the
south, and about two hundred and nifty
thousand of cooperating farmers VINO
attended the field schools and agreed to
follow the instructions they received
there.
Labor of Seven Years.
'"rhus. after working for seven years.
we have been able to induce about 3OO.-
coo out of a total of 100000 farmers in
eleven southern states to adopt improved
methods. and the results of those meth
DDS have been so apparent to everybody
who has been willing to take notice Of
them that we are gradually revolution
izing agriculture in the south. We can
not tell what the material results have
been until we see the statistics OF the
next census. We know that in many in
dividual cases the profits of the farmers
have doubled and ,fuadrupled by the in
PRODUCTION of improved methods. We
know that in certain sections of the
south where the people used to import
their meal and their bacon from the
north they are now exporting 1t. We
know that corn and hogs and cattle are
now being shipped from hundreds of
towns where such thing was unknown
until a few years ago. We know that
the corn crop of the south is something
like 6O,O0O,OOO bushels more than it was.
and. although the devastation of the boil
weevil in the cotton fields has Offset the
results of our labor. if it had not been
for improved methods the crop could not
have been kept up and the cotton grow
ers Of the south today would be poor
instead of rich.
The census returns of 1910 will show
the increase in the corn, hogs and cattle,
the dairy products, and pork and bacon
that have been produced during the last
seven years, and l am confident that
the figures will astonish those who are
not aware of the revolution which has
been going on.
Farmers Were Skeptlcal.
But the main thing is the education
of the people. Many old-fashioned farm
ers would not believe that their soil
could produce what 1t is now yielding.
They were satisfied a few years ago with
one third of bale Of cotton per acre,
but with improved methods some of them
are now getting two bales per acre. This
has inspired desire to know more.
They are reading books and taking agri-
agricultural colleges and insisting upon
agricultural education I'M the primary
schools. They are adopting modern ma
chinery and implements. When we COM
menced our work % per cent of the small
farmers of the south were using a one
mule pillow and were blowing three inches
deep. They were able to plow three
every body is using two mules and plow-
ing three acres a day and twice as deep.
We introduced the disc pillow last year,
which was unknown to the average
farmer until then. and one firm in a
single county In Alabama sold 16o last
spring.
Same of All Tools.
The same can be said of all kinds of
tools. The common tooth harrow was
unknown in certain sections of the
south until we introduced it, and now
the agricultural implement makers are
selling thousands of them. This shows
a progressive spirit, which is the most
important thing. because they already
have the soil and the climate, and the
result is profitable crops. The cotton
crop this year Is worth = billion dol