DRY-FARMING CONGRESS, WICHITA, 1914 



243 



of Trade, and other business organizations, raising local or county funds 

 to meet the Government appropriations, so that we now have over one 

 hundred paid County Agents in Texas who are teaching better farming 

 to the farmers and the farmers's children of our State. 



The methods we have followed in Texas are so simple that I think 

 they should commend themselves to the attention of every State in the 

 Union, for I believe the best and most practical results can be accom- 

 plished where you have an individual worker in every county and town- 

 ship in your State. These banker Sub-Chairmen are now being urged to 

 call meetings of all the bankers in their respective counties, and to invite 

 country merchants and farmers to these meetings. Let us say that an 

 individual county, in Texas or any other State, has five villages — it is very 

 simple and inexpensive to have a meeting once a month, changing the 

 meeting place each month. This stimulates local interest. We are en- 

 deavoring to show the country merchant how necessary it is for his busi- 

 ness that credit be extended only to those farmers who, through diversifi- 

 cation and sufficient investment in livestock, put themselves upon a self- 

 sustaining basis. We advocate the banking policy of lending money for 

 "BETTER FARMING," and if that is a sound policy, and WE KNOW 

 THAT IT IS, it is equally sound to refuse our credit to those farmers who 

 continue to work along the old lines of farming one crop only. With the 

 country banker and the country merchant sufficiently aroused to the im- 

 portance of this work, it is easy for the County Agent to get results. 

 Many County Agents received slight encouragement from the farmers 

 when they first began their work in the field, but the bankers and the 

 country merchants, who are close to the farmers, are advising them to 

 carry out the ideas and follow the instructions of the County Demonstra- 

 tion Agents, and, with the County Agent, the farmer, the banker and 

 the country merchant working together, we are bound to get results. 



I believe every person attending the International Dry-Farming Con- 

 gress ought to familiarize himself with the provisions of the Smith-Lever 

 Bill, and see that the particular county of his State receives the appro- 

 priation to which it is entitled under this act, providing the county appro- 

 priates an equal amount for the purpose. Under this act the State of 

 Texas, alone, will receive, beginning with $36,000 in 1915, and increasing 

 annually by some $30,000, an amount which will reach the sum of $246,000 

 in 1922. The appropriation for each State is made in the proportion that 

 its rural population bears to that of the entire rural population of the 

 United States, One of our prominent agriculturists has said that "with 

 the exception of the Currency Bill, it is believed that the passage of the 

 Smith-Lever Bill will do more good to more people than any other act 

 passed since the Civil War." 



An experience of several years in this work convinces me that the 

 only way to reach the farmer who needs HELP THE MOST, is by PER- 

 SONAL WORK IN THE FIELD. I have attended many agricultural con- 

 ventions, and I have no doubt that this great International Dry-Farming 



