Agricultural Education. 



444 



November, 1911. 



(4) Use intensive tillage during the 

 growing period of the crops, 



(5) Secure a high content of humus in 

 the soil by the use of legumes, barnyard 

 manure, farm, refuse, and commercial 

 fertilizers. 



(6) Carry out a systematic crop 

 rotation with a winter cover crop. 



(7) Accomplish more work in a day 

 by using more horsepower and better 

 implements. 



(8) Increase the farm stock to the 

 extent of utilizing all the waste pro- 

 ducts and idle lands of the farm. 



(9) Produce all the food required for 

 the men and animals on the farm. 



(10) Keep an account of each farm 

 product, in order to know from which 

 the gain or loss arises. 



In the course of these discussions it 

 has often developed that the majority of 

 small farmers had never fully complied 

 with any of these rules. They thought 

 they knew all about farming, and 

 charged their small product and failures 

 to the seasons or the land. One farmer 

 at a public meeting in Alabama this 

 year expressed his views as follows :— " I 

 was born in a cotton field and have 

 worked cotton on my farm for more 

 than forty years. I thought no one 

 could tell me anything about raising 

 cotton. 1 had usually raised one-half a 

 bale on my thin soil, and 1 thought that 

 was all the cotton there was in it in one 

 season. The demonstration agent came 

 along and wanted me to try his plan on 

 two acres. Not to be contrary, I agreed, 

 but I did not believe what he told me. 

 However, I tried my best to do as he 

 said, and at the end of the year 1 had a 

 bale and a half to the acre on the two 

 acres worked his way, and a little over 

 a third of a bale on the land worked my 

 way. You could have knocked me 

 down with a feather. This year 1 have 

 a bale and a half to the acre on my whcle 

 farm. If you do not believe it, I invite 

 you to go down and see. 5fes, sir ; as 

 a good cotton planter I am just one 

 year old." 



These field schools are bringing about 

 a revolution. A meeting of a township 

 called at a home to discuss a field crop 

 and to inspect and compare home con- 

 ditions cannot fail to place local public 

 opinion upon a higher level, and that is 

 the principal opinion to be considered 

 in influencing the farmer, 



Instead of expending time and force 

 in moulding State, city, and county influ- 

 ences which have but slight practical 

 results in changing rural conditions, 

 the Farmers' Co-operative Demonstra- 



tion Work makes a direct attack on 

 the men who should reform. It reaches 

 them in a practical way and establishes 

 a different local standard of excellence 

 for farming and for living. 



The initial move is an aroused public 

 sentiment in favour of doing better. 



Instruction Confined to a few 

 Essential Subjects. 

 It is of the greatest importance to 

 confine the work to a few standard crops 

 and the instruction to the basic methods 

 and principles which stand for the best 

 results, and to repeat this line of instruc- 

 tion on every occasion until every 

 farmer works according to some system 

 and knows the methods that make for 

 success instead of charging failure to 

 the moon, to the season, to the soil, or 

 to bad luck. It requires several years 

 to so impress these teachings upon the 

 masses, even when supported by demon- 

 stration, that they become the general 

 custom of the country. The first year 

 a few try the plan on small areas ; the 

 second year these greatly enlarge the 

 area, and some of their neighbours follow 

 their example ; the third year possibly 

 40 or 50 per cent, adopt some of the 

 methods, and so work progresses by the 

 force of demonstration and public 

 opinion until its general adoption is 

 secured. No one is asked to believe 

 anything not clearly proved. 



Special, Features of the Work. 



In most of the Southern States the 

 average farmer works with one mule. 

 The cultivation of cotton and corn is a 

 slow process ; too much of it is done 

 with the hoe. 



To remedy this, resort is had to 

 demonstration. The agent in some 

 cases drives a team of strong mules or 

 horses hitched to a waggon filled with 

 improved implements. At the field 

 meetings this team and the improved 

 implements are used to show how much 

 more and how much better work can 

 be done in a day by having good equip- 

 ment. It is especially emphasized that 

 cotton and corn should be grown with- 

 out using the hoe, thus saving one-third 

 the expense. It will be noted that the 

 earning capacity of each worker upon 

 a farm is almost directly in proportion 

 to the number of horses or mules for the 

 use of each. This is startlingly true 

 outside of the rice, sugar-cane, and 

 market-garden districts. In North 

 Dakota each farm worker has five horses, 

 cultivates 135 acres, and has an earning 

 capacity of $755*62 yearly ; in Iowa each 

 labourer has four horses, tills 80 acres 

 of land, and earns $611*11 annually; 



