82 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Wlien the boll weevil came, bankers and business men lost confi- 

 dence and extensive local panics resulted. With his cash crop cut 

 off the necessary food crops for man and stock had to be grown on 

 the farm. It was necessary to teach and demonstrate diversifica- 

 tion of crops in order that the farmers might be able to raise cotton 

 at a profit and in sullicient quantities to meet the world's demands, 

 and the Department has undertaken to show how to produce paying 

 crops even where the weevils are numerous. 



The leading features of this work are (1) the adaptation of modern 

 cultural methods to the raising of cotton under boll-weevil infesta- 

 tion and (2) the teaching of modern farm methods by which other 

 standard crops can be produced for the purpose of furnishing food 

 for the family and feed for the stock. These things must be done 

 on the farmer's OAvn land and with his cooperation. 



From 1904 to 1909 there was an increase from 1 to 362 agents in 

 the field. The number has now reached 450, and the demand for 

 more is urgent. More than 75,000 farmers are receiving direct 

 instruction on their farms. This work has greatly increased the 

 supply of humus and the use of legumes in soils wasted by long- 

 continued cultivation in cotton. It has caused lands to be plowed 

 deeper from year to year and seed beds to be more thoroughly pre- 

 pared. Cultivation is becoming more intensive, seed selection of 

 both corn and cotton more general, and farming, as a rule, more 

 profitable. 



In 1909 figures from a large number of demonstrators showed a 

 comparative increase of from 50 to 400 per cent in the average yield 

 of standard crops, and the figures for 1910 indicate similar results. 



One of the striking features of the work of 1909 and 1910 is that 

 in thousands of cases an average crop of cotton has been made in 

 spite of the weevil by following the directions of the Department, 

 whereas others in the same localities who have not carried out these 

 instructions have failed to make a crop. This is conspicuously true 

 in the alluvial sections of Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. The 

 methods advocated are being rapidly adopted by farmers in boll- 

 weevil-infested territory and are fast being recognized as the best 

 means yet presented of raising a crop of cotton in spite of the boll 

 weevil. This means the restoration of confidence and credit and 

 prevents the abandonment of farms and the emigration of labor to 

 other fields. 



Private citizens, business men's organizations, bankers' associa- 

 tions, county boards, and others in many of the Southern States 

 have been of considerable assistance to the Department in extend- 

 ing the work. 



It has been found by experience that the only way to reach some 

 farmers and to get them to follow better methods of farming is through 



