DEVELOPMENT OF THE FARM DEMONSTRATION AGENCY 



crops. If I can do this, I shall earn my salary; if I can't do it, I 

 have no business here. Now, I want one man in this community to 

 farm one field exactly as I instruct him. I want the rest of your 

 people to watch the results, and if that field doesn't show an in- 

 crease in yield, then it is your duty to go to the county court and 

 have me dismissed." 



"Mr. Arnold secured one or more farmer demonstrators in each 

 community, a total of forty men making the agreement. He taught 

 these demonstrators how to prepare the soil for planting the seed, 

 how to select good seed and how to cultivate their growing crops. 

 In each case the crops so grown harvested a greater yield per acre 

 than corresponding crops on the same or neighboring farms. 'See- 

 ing is believing.' It is indeed an unprogressive farmer who can 

 watch a neighbor across the fence throw ten or fifteen more bushels 

 of com into his wagon than an acre of the same kind of soil his own 

 farm has produced, without, at least inquiring how this increase was 

 procured. Hence a majority of Collin County farmers became con- 

 vinced that scientific farming, despite its awe-inspiring name, was 

 worth trying. These trials invariably proved the value of the 

 methods taught by the agent, consequently, the farming standards of 

 Collin County have been revolutionized during the three years of 

 service." 



The popular understanding of the terms and definitions 

 used by the founder of the Demonstration Work is remark- 

 ably clear in view of the fact that in many quarters, where 

 he did not come in direct contact with its inauguration, there 

 was a manifest effort to assume originality or superiority by 

 a change of nomenclature. Even under such conditions there 

 is a steady trend towards the well considered and funda- 

 mental phraseology and plans. Better still, there is a grow- 

 ing appreciation, on the part of the people, of the character 

 and value of the real Demonstration Work brought about by 

 the county agents. This is well expressed in an editorial 

 in Wallace's Farmer, of Des Moines, Iowa, under date of Sep- 

 tember 24th, 1915. It says : 



"A college professor once complained to us that these county 



["3] 



