THE FARM DEMONSTRATION WORK 



addressing a thousand. In many such cases the individual 

 saw the light and felt the power of his plan and operation. 

 All of the agents in the work in those days knew his policy 

 with regard to publicity. He constantly impressed upon the 

 agents not to push their plans in front of them, but rather get 

 good results first and then let the people know about them. 

 The success of the work in many counties is due to the fact 

 that it was established upon this basis. He thought that 

 agents who started out to organize their counties with speech- 

 making tours and publicity campaigns were doomed to failure 

 from the outset. 



The following extract from a letter to one of his state 

 agents shows that he discouraged contributions to publications 

 unless there was something fit to print : 



"I entirely agree with you. It is not advisable for our agents 

 to rush into print too much. Our system is to do something and 

 then we may talk about it in a judicious way, but to go on writing 

 general advice and all sorts of loose talk to farmers is not in our 

 line. Discourage it all you can. There are very few men that know 

 enough to write a first-class letter for the newspapers every week, 

 about agriculture. I doubt, if George Washington, Benjamin 

 Franklin and Daniel Webster, were all combined in one man, 

 whether he could write fifty-two first-class letters to an agricultural 

 paper in one year. Perhaps he could, but I have never seen it 

 successful. On the other hand, when there is anything particular to 

 be said, and they will suggest the matter to you and take your 

 advice, I have no objections to the agents going into print. ' ' 



He never hesitated to write about events that had already 

 happened and results that had been achieved. It was always 

 a source of pleasure to him to tell about the rapid growth and 

 development of the organization under his supervision. 



The following quotation is taken from a letter that he 

 wrote to the Editor of The Sentinel, in Marshall, Texas, in 

 1908 : 



[25] 



