The enterprise-recorder. (Madison, Fla.) 1908-1933, 1910-05-26

Unknown to the general public, all
A most unknown to the farmers them |
selyeg. the Department Of Agricul- |
mre has been engaged for several |
Years in practical sort Of uplift |
work that has expanded until it has |
entered twelve States and is indi- !
n rkctly influencing 100000 farmers
II Is the farm demonstration work,
If which less is known in Washing
\ ton than perhaps anywhere else.
Secretary Wilson calls It carrying
N tbe department to the farmers" and
that Is what 1t practically is. The
. work IS for the benefit Of those who
cannot or will not read the bulletins
Of the department or who, If they
do read them, do not profit by them,
II is one thing for Farmer Jones to
4 read a bulletin on seed selection and I
another for him to find Farmer Smith
on the next farm following Govern
N ment instruction and doubling his
4 crop. The bulletin may or may not
be all right, but IL Smith Is doubling
his crop that is thing close at home
and wants looking into. That is the
way the work goes. When a farmer
secs something good done he is more
than likely to want to duplicate the
success himself.
-Four Hundred Agents at Work.
The demonstration work COM
menced in 1904. There are now 400
regular agents in the field and each
farmer that is instructed acts as a
missionary. The work is very SIM
pie The Department of Agriculture
merely gees into a community and
shows a single farmer how without
extra expense he can either double
the crop he has been raising or raise
new crop that is more profitable.
There has long been a prejudice
among the men with the hoes against
what they style book farmers. I"
They thought that agriculture could
not be taught in schools and that the
mere fact that a man was wearing a
OILED shirt" would prevent his CIV
ing them any useful pointers. The
practical farmers are finding out,
however, that the men sent out by
the department can give them point
ers in spite of billed shirts" or even
Of manicured fngernails.
Began i'm the South.
The work was first taken up for the
benefit of the South. 1t has now ex-
tended to the south Atlantic and
Gulf States and to Oklahoma, Arkan-
sas and Tennessee. Whether it will
be extended to other sections will de-
pend largely on the Congressional
appropriation. 1t has been of real
benefit to the communities where II
was established and despite the in
roads of the boil weevil has enabled
many farmers to make something
more than a living where without Il
they would have made something
less.
The method is simple. The agen
Of the department goes into a com
munity and picks out a farm, neye
one Of the best, to experiment with
Farmer Jones may object TO lending
himself to the experiment. In tina
case the agent will talk Farmer Smitl
into the notion and start to work witt
y him. One of the provisions OF tn
agreement Is that the work is no
going to cost Farmer Smith any NOR
than his old method.
Three Requisites Outlined.
The department agent tries to In
culcate three simple truths. the
are that good crop will depend o
good seed, good seed bed and goo
cultivation.
The next lesson is that these thing
must be had without spending NOR
money, or else the larger crop ma
eat UP more than its own profits.
Finally the farmer who has bee
taught to raise as much OF crop o
half as much land as formerly
shown how to put the remainder
his acres into profitable forage croI
and grasses and to treat the soil
that he is not robbing it, but is mai
ing it better.
DR.. S. A. Knapp, who is in chara
Of the demonstration work, said thi
the farmers, as a rule, require on
to see the truth to go after 1t. +
said that last year in inauguratir
the work at a county seat in NOR
Carolina the farmers who attend'
were asked to bring to the meetiI
samples Of the corn they intended
plant the following year. This CO.