Agricultural Education. 



446 



[November, 1911. 



Long-time customs cannot be overcome 

 by writing a book. One might as well 

 write a book to teach better sewing. 

 Poor farming is the natural result of a 

 lot of bad practices and must be treated 

 rather as a defect in art than a lack of 

 intelligence. It is not assumed, nor is it 

 the intention to assert, that agriculture 

 is not one of the greatest of sciences, but 

 at the beginning it must be treated as an 

 art and the best method adopted. 



Then it is shown that this greater 

 income should be applied to the reduc- 

 1 ion of debt, the betterment of the family 

 and the home, and the improvement of 

 rural conditions. Co-operation is then 

 taught in buying and selling, but co- 

 operation is of little avail in buying if 

 the farmer has no money, and it is im- 

 possible in selling if his crop is mort- 

 gaged for advances. 



The fundamental basis of the work of 

 the Department of Agriculture is to 

 increase the efficiency of the farmer. 



If there is better variety of cotton seed 

 in Georgia or Texas, then the other 

 cotton-producing States should immedi- 

 ately have the benefits. This is pre- 

 cisely such work as the Farmers' Co- 

 operative Demonstration Work is doing 

 in the South. It has been instrumental 

 in the introduction annually of 100,000 

 to 500,000 bushels of better cotton seed. 

 This has resulted not only in a large 

 income in yield per acre, but an improve- 

 ment in the staple. 



These better varieties of cotton seed 

 are of earlier maturity than the old. 

 This cotton is picked on an average six 

 weeks earlier in the fall, which gives the 

 children six weeks more time for school 

 and allows the farmer to prepare his 

 land for tne next season's crop. The old 

 plan was to pick cotton all winter. The 

 loss of cotton and the lowering of the 

 grade by the winter rains made this 

 plan au ecouomic crime, and its debar- 

 ring the children from attending school 

 caused it to be a social crime. These old 

 methods will soon be a thing of the past. 



This is truly a national work, and 

 wherever put in operation with suffi- 

 cient intensity to influence publicopinion 

 these results have rapidly followed: — 



(1) Increased yield per acre. 



(2) The purchase of moie and better 



horses or mules. 



(3) Great increase in the use of better 



implements. 



(4) General iuterest in seed selection 



and the use of best seed. 



(5) Home and school improvements. 



(6) More months of schooling. 



(7) Better highways. 



(8) Increase of a healthy social life in 



the country. 



(9) Intense interest in agriculture. 

 Improved rural conditions already 



established. 



While the State agents of the Far- 

 mers' Co-operative Demonstration Work 

 were in Washington, September 1, 

 1908, arranging some details of their 

 work for the year 1908-9, they called 

 upon Secretary Wilson, and in response 

 to inquiries made by him the following 

 facts were brought out :— 



Mr. T. O. Sandy, of Burkeville, Va., 

 State agent, reported that the demon- 

 stration work was commenced in Virginia 

 in January, 1907. Up to this time it has 

 been exclusively conducted in the 

 counties south of the James River, 

 where tobacco was the staple cash crop, 

 under the effect of which farms had 

 deteriorated in productive capacity and 

 value until many were on the market a 

 short time sine at $5 to $8 an acre. Most 

 of the hay and corn for the work animals 

 was imported. Two hundred and thirty- 

 two thousand dollars' worth of hay was 

 imported within a radius of a few miles 

 of Burkeville in one year for home 

 consumption. The average yield of corn 

 was 5 to 10 bushels an acre. Last year 

 on Mr. Sandy's demonstration farm the 

 yield was 4 to 6 tons of hay, or 75 bushels 

 of corn to the acre. 



One of the demonstrators raised 85 

 bushels of corn an acre. The effect of 

 these yields was to increase the number 

 of demonstration farms from twenty - 

 seven last year to nearly twelve hundred 

 this year, and to stop the importation of 

 hay just as fast as lands can be prepared 

 and seeded to grass. Nearly all lands 

 about Burkeville have doubled in value, 

 and some advanced threefold since the 

 demonstration work commenced. As 

 soon as the farmers found they could 

 produce hay and corn profitably, they 

 wanted to engage in dairying and stock 

 raising so as to use their idle lands. A 

 creamery and an ice plant have been 

 built this season at Burkeville, with 

 the guaranty of a business requiring a 

 thousand cows, the bank there advanc- 

 ing funds to purchase many of the 

 cows, while commercial dairies are 

 springing up in adjoining counties. 

 This has had an immediate effect on the 

 improvement of home conditions, be- 

 cause the estimate of farm life has 

 changed. It had been thought that 

 farming in Virginia could not be made 

 profitable. Many farmers moved away 

 and nearly all ceased to spend much 

 money in farm improvements. As soon 



