THE DEMONSTRATION WORK 



He proceeded to change the conditions in accordance with 

 his deliberate judgment. 



During that same year, in his instructions to the agents, 

 he showed his buoyant optimism and the great scope of his 

 vision when he said: 



"I estimate that there is a possible 800 per cent increase in the 

 productive power of the farm laborer in the average Southern 

 States, and I distribute the gain as follows : 



Three hundred per cent to the use of more and better mules and 

 farm machinery; 



Two hundred per cent to the production of more and better 

 stock ; 



One hundred and fifty per cent to a rotation of crops and better 

 tillage ; 



Fifty per cent to better drainage; 



Fifty per cent to seed of higher vitality; thoroughbred and 

 carefully selected, and 



Fifty per cent to the abundant use of legumes and the use of 

 more economic plants for feeding stock." 



It might seem easy enough to make estimates and to calcu- 

 late percentages of possibilities. This agricultural prophet, 

 however, based his judgment upon a thorough study of condi- 

 tions as well as of crops and live stock. The purchasing power 

 per capita of Southern people is already high enough to prove 

 that his faith in them and their resources was not in vain. 

 In traveling over the hill country of the South he longed to 

 see the time when there would be more grasses, clovers, alfalfa 

 and the summer legume crops. He called attention to the fact 

 that as civilization advanced in countries with such topog- 

 raphy, that more lands were devoted to grazing purposes. He 

 said that in his boyhood, one-fourth of England was in grass 

 and at the time he spoke that three-fourths of it was in grass 

 and devoted to the live stock industry. But a little clipping 

 from Agricultural Farm Notes, published while Dr. Knapp 



[10] 



