THE FARM DEMONSTRATION WORK 



your arguments in a sensible, practical way. Secure the country 

 village influence and induce the citizens to give active aid. When 

 the tide of local opinion has set in favor of better methods of 

 farming it will be found easy to maintain interest. In the monthly 

 rounds of inspecting farms, never fail to notify eight or ten of the 

 prominent men in advance and have as large a company as possible 

 visit the demonstration farm with you." 



"Can agricultural conditions be changed by simply talking? 

 No. By demonstration? Yes." 



In subsequent addresses and publications it seemed neces- 

 sary to give additional exposition and explanation so that 

 people who had charge of educational institutions, and who 

 were giving academic and dogmatic instruction, should under- 

 stand the philosophy underlying the work of this new type of 

 itinerant teacher. 



In a speech before the Conference for Education in the 

 South in 1907, lie tried to make the plan of work more easily 

 understood by such explanations as: 



"The environment of men must be penetrated and modified 

 or little permanent change can be made in them. The environment 

 of the farmer is limited generally to a few miles. The demonstra- 

 tion must be carried to this limited area and show how simple 

 and easy it is to restore the virgin fertility of the soil, to multiply 

 the product of the land per acre, to increase the number of acres each 

 laborer can till by three or four fold, and to harvest a profit from 

 untilled fields by animal husbandry. This is our Farmers' Co- 

 operative Demonstration Work." 



During this whole period he improved every opportunity 

 to set forth the purposes, methods and principles of the 

 Demonstration Work. He defined its aims as follows : 



"The Farmers' Cooperative Demonstration Work aims at sev- 

 eral things: 



(1) To reform agriculture and make it an occupation of profit 

 and pleasure. 



(2) To improve rural conditions. 



(3) To broaden and enrich rural life. 



[•3] 



