442 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The results of this coo]:)eration have been higlily satisfactory, and 

 widespread interest in this work is manifest in all parts of the 

 country. 



Boys and (jirls' club work. — The work of the boys and girls' 

 clubs is also being extended along the same lines as those that have 

 proved so successful in the Cotton States under the late Dr. S. A. 

 Knapp. Cooperative arrangements for corn-club work have already 

 been made with eight States, with an approximate enrollment of 

 20,000 boys. 



FARMERS' COOPERATIVE DEMONSTRATION WORK. 

 GROWTH AND EFFICIENCY. 



The cooperative demonstration work among farmers in the South 

 under the direction of Mr. Bradford Knapp has had continued growth 

 in magnitude, influence, and efficiency. As a method of taking defi- 

 nite agricultural information directly to the farmer, the work has 

 more than ever proved successful. 



Agents have been placed in many additional counties in the various 

 Southern States and the work continued in all old territory. Nearly 

 50,000 more people, of all ages, were receiving direct instructions 

 fi'om the department through this work at the close of the last fiscal 

 year than at the close of the year previous. The enrollment at the 

 end of the fiscal year just passed was as follows: Adult demonstrators 

 and cooperators, 100.703 ; boj'^s' corn-club members, 67,179 ; girls' can- 

 ning and poultry club members, 23,550; members of boys' cotton 

 clubs, 4,690: members of boys' Kafir-corn clubs, 1,361; total, 197,483. 

 The work reaches indirectly a larger number than those formally 

 enrolled. 



The number of field agents employed at the close of the year was 

 858, an increase of 277 over the previous year. Of this number 13 are 

 State agents, 36 district agents, 20 corn-club agents, 639 local agents, 

 and 159 collaborating agents engaged in work pertaining to the girls' 

 canning and poultry clubs. 



RESUITS OF THE WORK. 



For the season of 1911 detailed reports were received from 

 13,641 demonstrators reporting on 109.999 acres of cotton and from 

 12,390 demonstrators reporting on 66,880 acres of corn. Much more 

 land was cultivated according to instructions than these reports 

 covered; thousands of reports showing large yields were rejected 

 because they were in the nature of estimates. On demonstration 

 farms the average yield of cotton was more than 75 per cent greater 

 and of corn more than 110 per cent greater than the average yield for 

 the entire States as shown by the figures of the Bureau of Statistics. 



Cotton demoxstrations. — Especially noteworthy are the results 

 on cotton demonstration farms in boll-weevil territory. The heavi- 

 est infestation and consequent damage from this source was in 

 Louisiana and Mississippi. In each of these States the average 

 yield on cotton demonstration farms was more than 100 per cent 

 greater than the average for the State as shown by the figures of the 

 Bureau of Statistics. In hundreds of instances the reports show that 



