THE DEMONSTRATION WORK 



method of procedure. Thousands of these immigrants are 

 among the most successful farmers, but best of all, the 

 Acadians soon learned to do as well as newcomers. 



A great prosperous section of the country is producing 

 rice, sugar, cotton, corn and high-class live stock, where for 

 centuries there had been swamp, prairie and waste land. 

 ''Such are the possibilities of demonstration," says the man 

 who is responsible for its inauguration. 



It might be easy enough to trace the great Demonstration 

 Work, with its thousands of men and women agents through- 

 out the country, to this simple beginning, but there must be 

 something back of it. The man must have been prepared to 

 meet the emergency when it arose. 



It is worth while to know that for six years previous to 

 this experience in Louisiana, Dr. Knapp had been professor of 

 agriculture, and a portion of the time president of the Iowa 

 State College of Agriculture at Ames, Iowa. It is worth 

 while, also, to know that for eighteen years previous to that 

 time he had been constantly engaged in agricultural pursuits 

 and in writing for agricultural periodicals. He was editor of 

 the Western Stock Journal and Farmer for three years. 



Dr. Seaman A. Knapp, the Hon. James Wilson, for six- 

 teen years United States Secretary of Agriculture, and Dr. 

 Henry Wallace, who built up Wallace* s Farmer, famil- 

 iarly and affectionately known as ''Tama Jim" and "Uncle 

 Henry," worked together during this period for better live 

 stock and better agricultural methods in Iowa. There is some 

 significance in the fact, too, that the man who started the 

 demonstration movement, had five years' experience as presi- 

 dent of the Iowa State School for the Blind. He must have 

 thought a great deal about the best ways to teach those who 

 cannot see. The training given him in his boyhood by his 



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