318 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



SPECIAL CAMPAIGNS. 



Special campaigns have been conducted by the extension division, 

 through the county agents, wherever it was deemed advisable, in 

 hog-cholera control, tick eradication, and boll-weevil control work. 

 Specialists from the United States Department of Agriculture and 

 the States assisted in these campaigns. 



In cotton territory being invaded by the boll-weevil for the first 

 time the combined efforts of State and Federal agricultural extension 

 workers and the business men are necessary to prepare the cotton 

 growers successfully to meet and overcome the disaster that has 

 always accompanied its advance into new territory. The value of 

 these boll-weevil campaigns is overcoming the fears of the cotton 

 growers and teaching them the proper methods of meeting its rav- 

 ages, also to restore the confidence of the business interests dependent 

 upon the cotton crop in these localities, can hardly be estimated. 



One of the notable special campaigns in which the county agents 

 engaged was that undertaken on account of the fall in price of cotton 

 following the outbreak of the European war in 1914. The southern 

 farmers were caught with the largest cotton crop on record and one 

 that had been made at the greatest expense. For several months 

 cotton could scarcely be sold at all, and then at less than the cost of 

 production, and the depression that followed this sudden collapse in 

 the movement of the South's main cash crop was appalling. For 

 the first time in the history of the country business men, bankers, 

 and in fact those of every profession recognized the full significance 

 of the folly of the one-crop system. For the first time they all 

 worked together and helped put agriculture in the cotton territory 

 on a solid basis; they realized that the money, labor, and resources 

 represented by the cotton crop were tied up in a product that could 

 not be eaten and for it there was no demand in the world's markets. 



At this stage a " safe farming " campaign was started, in which 

 everybody took part. The Government forces, cooperating with 

 those of the State agricultural college, being the strongest organiza- 

 tion in the field, was used as a nucleus around which to get together 

 for making a united effort to persuade the southern farmers to make 

 provision for feeding themselves and their live stock. 



This great cooperative effort to bring about a change was rewarded 

 by making the average southern farm more nearly self-supporting 

 than it had been since the Civil War. The reduction in cotton 

 acreage averaged more than 15 per cent throughout the country. 

 The acreage in small grain, clovers, corn, and forage crops was in- 

 creased enormously. Interest in the live-stock industry increased 

 more rapidly than it was thought possible in such a short period. 



Following the unusual interest aroused by this cooperative move- 

 ment, the burden of the follow-up work to make this change perma- 

 nent rested largely upon the activities of the county agents. It is 

 distinctly encouraging to note that the large majority of the farmers 

 throughout the South have adhered to the methods advocated in this 

 campaign, notwithstanding the fact that cotton has since been selling 

 at a high figure. It is estimated that if the food crops grown in the 

 South could be properly distributed they would be almost sufficient 

 to supply the home needs. 



