MEN INFLUENTIAL IN IMPROVING AGRICULTURE. 27 



Another crisis in Dr. Knapp's life came about this time. His 

 health gave way under a severe attack of rheumatism. Physicians 

 said he must give up college work. Turning his face to the sunny 

 South he organized a great development company, bought a million 

 acres of land in southwest Louisiana and sent invitations all over the 

 Northwest, " Come South, young men, and grow up with the coun- 

 try." Several thousand came. For many years he had believed that 

 the South was destined for a wonderful future. He said, " Here is a 

 people of pure Anglo-Saxon stock, energetic but conservative, with- 

 out much admixture of foreign blood. These people should be the 

 conservators of the best American traditions. Here is a productive 

 soil, delightful climate, and long growing seasons." 



He at once began to conduct demonstrations in rice growing and 

 diversified farming for benefit of native farmers and immigrants. 

 In 1898, however, he was authorized by the Secretary of Agriculture 

 to visit China, Japan, and the Philippines, to make rice investiga- 

 tions. In 1801 he made a second trip to the Orient; he went to 

 Europe in 1901 to study agricultural conditions, and later to Porto 

 Rico to report on agricultural resources and possibilities. 



His training was complete after 70 years of study to begin his 

 great work. In 1903 the Mexican boll weevil began to make such 

 destruction in the Texas cotton fields that Dr. Knapp was sent into 

 Texas to fight its deadly ravages. He began by organizing the farm- 

 ers and instituting the Farmers' Cooperative Work. Dr. Knapp vis- 

 ited one small farm near Terrell, Tex., about twice a month and 

 directed the operations there. Neighboring farmers met him in field 

 meetings. At the close of the year he had proved that cotton could 

 be grown in the face of the boll weevil, and was urged to extend his 

 teachings and his methods throughout the whole country devastated 

 by the pest. The next year, with funds furnished by Congress and 

 by local business men, he appointed a few agents and began to or- 

 ganize different counties in Texas. The work soon attracted the at- 

 tention of the country. Congress enlarged its appropriation, local 

 aid was increased, and the work was extended to Louisiana and Mis- 

 sissippi. About this time the General Education Board of New York 

 asked to be allowed to appropriate money for similar work in other 

 cotton States. In a few short years this great work had covered the 

 entire South, had a force of 1,000 agents, an enrollment of 100,000 

 farmers, 75,000 boys in the corn clubs, and 25,000 girls in the can- 

 ning clubs. Every State in the South began to show an increase in 

 the average corn production per acre, as well as other crops, and 

 southern corn club boys attracted the attention of the world by pro- 

 ducing more than 200 bushels of corn to the acre at low cost. Girls, 

 too, demonstrated practical, scientific work in garden and home. 

 During the year of his death, Russia, Brazil, England, South Africa, 



