154 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE 



ogy, Doctor Knapp soon learned that certain better cultural 

 methods, properly carried out, would measurably control 

 the new pest even if it did not eradicate it. By burning 

 old stalks, by early planting of early varieties with better 

 seed, by better preparation of the seed bed, by more thor- 

 ough cultivation of the crop, by agitation of the stalks, 

 and by other means, the injury done by the weevil could 

 be reduced to the minimum necessary to produce a living 

 return. How to convince farmers of this and how to get 

 these practices generally adopted was the real problem. 

 That the pest could at least be measurably controlled had 

 already been demonstrated on a few selected farms by fed- 

 eral agents who knew what could be done. But these were 

 limited in their influence on the practices of neighboring 

 farmers. To convince the majority of the cotton planters 

 of the value of the practices advocated was the task to 

 which Doctor Knapp resolutely set himself. 1 



LOCAL COOPERATION ENLISTED 



Beginning with the most progressive citizens, mostly 

 townspeople who owned and rented out their land to negro 

 and other tenants including besides a few leading farm- 

 ers, merchants, bankers, lawyers and teachers the coop- 

 eration of the cotton planters was enlisted. The new 

 methods were preached up and down the land, by word of 

 mouth and in the newspapers. It was not difficult to get 

 town cooperation, for farm buying power had been seriously 

 depleted and the merchants grasped at any promising 

 straw. 



To aid in securing local cooperation from the farmers 

 themselves, Doctor Knapp established districts with local 

 agents in charge, the district agents being lieutenants for 



i The first county agent in the South was W. C. Stallings in 

 Smith Co., Texas. 



