254 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



One farmer at a public meeting in Alabama this year expressed 

 his views as follows: "I was born in a cotton field and have worked 

 cotton on my farm for more than forty years. I had usually raised 

 one-half a bale on my thin soil and I thought that was all the cotton 

 there was in it in one season. The demonstration agent came along 

 and wanted me to try his plan on two acres. Not to be contrary, I 

 agreed, but I did not believe what he told me. However, I tried my 

 best to do as he said, and at the end of the year I had a bale and a 

 half to the acre on the two acres worked his way and a little over a 

 third of a bale on the land worked my way. This year I have a bale 

 and a half to the acre on my whole farm. As a good cotton planter 

 I am just one year old." 



It is of the greatest importance to confine the work to a few 

 standard crops and the instruction to the basic methods and principles 

 which stand for the best results and to repeat this line of instruction 

 on every occasion until every farmer works according to some system 

 and knows the methods that make for success instead of charging 

 failure to the moon, to the season, to the soil, or to bad luck. It 

 requires several years so to impress these teachings upon the masses, 

 even when supported by demonstration, that they become the general 

 custom of the country. The first year a few try the plan on small 

 areas; the second year these greatly enlarge the area and some of 

 their neighbors follow their example; the third year possibly 40 or 50 

 per cent adopt some of the methods; and so work progresses by the 

 force of demonstration and public opinion until its general adoption 

 is secured. 



Every step is a revelation and a surprise to the farmer. He sees 

 his name in the county paper as one of the farmers selected by the 

 United States Department of Agriculture to conduct demonstration 

 work; he receives instructions from Washington; he begins to be 

 noticed by his fellow-farmers; his better preparation of the soil pleases 

 him ; he is proud of planting the best seed and having the best culti- 

 vation. As the crop begins to show vigor and excellence, his neighbors 

 call attention to it, and finally when the demonstration agent calls 

 a field meeting at his farm the farmer begins to be impressed, not only 

 with the fact that he has a good crop, but that he is a man of more 

 consequence than he thought. This man that was never noticed 

 before has had a meeting called at his farm; he concludes that he is a 

 leader in reforms. Immediately the brush begins to disappear from 

 the fence corners and the weeds from the fields; the yard fence is 



