The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-02-12
LETTERS TO EDITOR
Negro Work in Wilcox County
cditor of The Age-Herald.

To the Editor of The Age-Herald. Five counties in Alabama now hay, negro demonstration agents to carry or the work of teaching negro farmers bet ter methods of farming by means of dem.
 onstration plots. There are at present | negro united demonstration agents ir nearly all the southern states, but witt
 the exception of Virginia, which ha, seven negro agents working in clever counties, there is no other state where so much work is being done by negro agents for negro farmers as in Alabama
 The reason so much is being done for the negro farmers in Alabama is undoubt- edly due to the influence of Tuskegee in stitute, just as the reason that so muck is being done for negro farmers in Vir-
 ginia is due to Hampton institute, oi
 which the Tuskegee school is an off shoot
 Of the six colored demonstration agents in Alabama. four gained their training g. Tuskegee and the district agent, T. M
 Campbell, who has charge of the work among negroes in Alabama, Mississippi
 Louisiana and Oklahoma, is a graduate Ol the sdiHc stItooi. A Ieccut fcpoIt by the agriculture department on the work of the demonstration agents in Ala. bama shows that the negro farmers
 working under the direction of these agents, have made pretty good show ing.
 The following is summary of results obtained by some of the regro county dem. anS fro in for dor, Styot in r work during the past season:
 c. D. Menefee. Lee county, conducted 59 demonstrations in corn and 60 in cot ton, using 123 acres for the former and 300 acres for the latter. The results were an average of A bushels of corn per acre and an average of 1869 pounds of cotton per acre.
 Washington A. Tate, Macon county had charge of 22 demonstrations in corn and Ss in cotton. using a total of 39.5 in corn and 72 acres in cotton. The results were an average of 541 bushels of corn per acre and 1929 pounds of cotton on the same amount of land.
 Harry Sims, Wilcox county, supervised one demonstration in corn and p in cot ton, planting one acre in corn and 8 acres in cotton. The one acre in corn yielded
 7 bushels; the 35 acres in cotton yielded an average of 1899 pounds per acre. G. W. Patterson, Madison county, had charge of 2l demonstrations in corn and 2i in cotton. The amount of land cultivated in corn was 31 acres and 56 acres were in cotton. Demonstrators made an average of 4Ss bushels of corn per acre and aver aged s1o pounds per acre .for cotton
 Some notion of what the demonstration agents have done for the negro farmers may be gathered from the fact that the average yield of corn per acre for colored farmers in 1909, the year the census was taken, was less than eight bushels pei ! acre. The average bushels made thi: 1 year by negro demonstration farmers ir Macon county was. 54.1 bushels per acre
 This was the best average made by farm | CTS under any of the negro demonstra'
 tion agents and was nearly eight bushels above the average of the other white and colored demonstration agents throughou | the state.
 The averageyield of seed cotton in Ala hama in 1911 was about 600 pounds pei
 acre. The highest average yield made or the farms conducted under a negro agen was in Lee county, where the average
 was 1867 pounds of cotton per acre. Thi.
 was 424 pounds of cotton above the aver age made on the other demonstration pleas in different parts of the state ant more than 12O0 pounds more than wa
 made on the average farm.
 Recently a series of farmers confer ences were held among the negro farmer of Wilcox county One of these was hels | in the Camden courthouse. another wa held on the Oliver plantation, Pine Bar ren creek. ten miles northeast of Camden
 The Oliver plantation. consisting of abou
 eoO0 acres, is in the center of e communit, | of 900 negroes with only three whit l families living within a radius of tel miles. About 800 acres of this plantation | is owned by Drs. J. H.. w. B. and T. B LJones of Camden. At the request of tn
 owners the dsnonstration agent, slmma