REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 141 



PROGRESS IN DEMONSTRATION WORK. 

 COOPEBATIVE DEMONSTRATION WORK IN THE SOUTH. 



The demonstration idea has been a feature of the work of the 

 Bureau of Plant Industrj^ since its organization. Even before the 

 plant work was coordinated, demonstrations were a necessary adjunct 

 lo research work on plant diseases, notably those of the grape and the 

 potato. Early in 1903 the advent of the cotton boll weevil in the 

 South made it imperative that steps be taken to meet its ravages 

 through some cooperative effort on the part of the farmers. 



Out of the various preliminary steps that must necessarily be taken 

 in a work of this nature there developed a few years later the 

 Farmers' Cooperative Demonstration Work. Briefly stated, the ob- 

 ject of this work was to bring home to the farmer on his own farm 

 certain fundamentals which would enable him to grow cotton despite 

 the weevil, and also to point the way for him to diversify his crops 

 and build up his land. It was found essential that the farmer should 

 be taught self-reliance and to help himself in so far as related to the 

 practices of the farm. Any effort made to help the farmer by mere 

 object lessons in which he did not actively participate was found to 

 be a failure. 



As the work progressed the demand for it rapidly increased. At 

 the close of the fiscal year 1906 there were employed 25 agents having 

 under their supervision more than 2,000 demonstration farms, and 

 in addition more than 3,500 cooperators were receiving instructions 

 from the department. The demand now arose for more intensified 

 work. Each field agent's territory included several counties, and 

 he could at most personally supervise not more than three or four 

 demonstration farms located near the principal railroad centers in 

 each county. In several counties business men and leading farmers 

 now offered to contribute toward the salary of an agent to devote his 

 entire time to their county. In the season of 1907 such cooperative 

 plans were arranged for a county agent in six counties in eastern 

 Texas and two in western Louisiana. The results in such counties 

 were so satisfactory that the county agent was henceforth considered 

 a necessary addition to the plan of organization. Since that time no 

 material change has been made in the plan, which includes a special 

 agent in charge, with a staff of assistants and a clerical force, a State 

 agent, and from two to four district agents in each State, and gen- 

 erally a county or local agent in each county in the State. 



It is not too much to say that this work has revolutionized the 

 agriculture of the Southern States. It has given the farmers a new 

 outlook and has shown them the great possibilities of the land. The 

 scope of the work has been gradually enlniged from simple demon- 



