The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1911-10-15
County Exhibits at the
StateF airThat bowed
Up Mighty Well,
GROW ING INTEREST
IN BETTER WORK
Farm Demonstrators Make a
Great Showing-only Thirty
Counties on Deck-Others
May Come When Dead SUI
pervisors Wake Up-Big
Things Hoped For.
BY rRANK $. woopsoN.

BY FRANK s. wOODsoN.
have tried 10 take In the whole
State Fair. and matter OF fact 81
believe did take in the most OF 81, try
ing all the time. as I did. to confine
myself largely TO those features of the
fair that would most naturally Interest
the man. who. as Industrial editor OF
The Times-Dispatch. looks to the In
dustrial and agricultural development
of Virginia 1 got enough ideas TO last
me for this page for six months. more
or less.
In this capacity / naturally was at
tracted by the great display of the
Bellwood Farm, big thing in farming
operations that was brought to perfec-
tion by man who came to Virginia
some years go from the cold regions OF
Michigan for hie health and found here
conditions. climatic and otherwise. that
were altogether favorable. Mr. Bell
wood had done big things over in Ches.
terheld county, and next week I am
going to tell In this department OF The
Dispatch something that Is de =,
finite about his good work. Just have
not the space In this edition to tell
the whole story. II will take q whole
page to do justice to the Bellwood ven
ture and / have not whole page at my
disposal just now.
For the present I want to tell In n
general why OF IIe eS nlDiIS ana tne
good work OF the Virginia demonstra-
tors as saw ii on exhibition at the
State Fair.
Demonstration Work.
Talking about the good work OF the
demonstrators. work that Is State
wide or semi State wide. and ought to
cover the whole state, / will have TO
go back a little and rehash a bit of
history. Some years ago, I can't re-
member how many, the Education
Board. OF New York. an institution
that was organized with a whole lot
OF capital to help out in educational
matters, generally In the South. con-
ceived the idea that education along
agricultural and industrial lines might
help the South a little better than
literary educetiop. and 30 this society
appropriated certain amount OF Its
funds for agricultural education. The
late DR.. S. =. Knapp was at that time
at the head OF the government agri-
cultural department. or of that end OF
1t thta had to consider this part OF
the work. DIR. Knapp. believing in the
possibilities OF the Southland grandly
encouraged the educational idea OF
the New York board and urged prompt
action.
sandy Gets In II.
T. o. Sandy. of Burkeville. had done
some very good stunts in his own
way along the line OF educating his
neighbors towards better farming, and
most naturally he was selected by the
authorities to put the scheme 20 work
In Virginia Sandy had hard time
getting Virginia to catch on to the
new idea, but he has done mighty
good work. but he needed moral en-
couragement and more money.
The last session OF the Legislature
went so far as to authorize all of the
counties to make special appropria-
lions to aid In the demonstration work
Not more than $500 was asked from |
any county. and the whole matter was
left entirely to the Boards of Super
visors. The board would appropriate
or not. Just as IL liked.
Tho boards OF thirty-two counties !
out of the one hundred saw proper to
appropriate, and all of these thirty
two counties had fine exhibitions at 1
the State Fair. exhibitions that show
what those counties can do In their |
way, and incidentally st is shown what |
these counties did not do In the days
preceding the demonstration work
What Demonstration Means.
am not going into any details as !
TO what these thirty-two counties have |
done. The cuts on the first page show |
a thing or two, but II they did not |
show anything In picture way the j
fact remains that the exhibits at the !
6tdlc Z Gil w SilO" lnlHS OF Two.
For instance. the demonstrators are
teaching. and teaching intensely the
sense OF the rotation of crops and
thereby the Improvement of lands. .
This rotation system makes corn one /
year. hay another year, wheat another
year and so on. all the time the land |
bringing something and getting better
and better every year; never deteriora.-
ing as 1t did in the old times.
do not know that the neople who
looked at the exhibits out at the Fair !
Grounds caught on to this idea OF ro-
tation of crops. but all the Same 1t
was we'll demonstrated
What They Saw.
Taken as a whole the countryman
saw In the exhibits. just pictures Of
which am showing on the, front page. {
how Ave, six and seven tons of hay. |
are being made form ground that never
before made grazing; how one acre is
producing from 100 to $50 bushels Of
corn that under the old system did
not make over thirty bushels: how
wheat grows to ten bushels where
less than one used to grow; where
oats have Increased more than 100 per
cent, and all the time the land IS =
getting better and better. instead of i
being worn out as in the old daya
And yet only thirty-two counties t
OF the one hundred that constitute the (;
State of Virginia. were willing to vote
an appropriation under the State law,
Ter this demonstration work
Well county supervisors arena HI
tie slow to catch on. They VIII all /
come around after while They lust |
need to be educated up to twentieth
century ideas. They are good enough i
folks mighty good and mighty re-
AabIs folks.