Fig. 2.—Field demonstration in cultivating cotton. The negro is naturally a farmer and takes a keen interest in putting to use the better practices learned at demonstration meetings.
Because of the inevitable economic changes resulting from the World War, many large plantations have been cut up and sold at low prices. In some sections of the South, chambers of commerce and other business organizations have been promoting campaigns to encourage negroes to become landowners. In 1920 about 217,500 negroes in the Southern States owned their farms and about 703,500 were tenants. In some States negroes have been buying farms faster than white people, and the rapid increase of ownership during the last five years is most noticeable. It is not surprising that it has taken a backward race a long time to acquire property and develop farms. It takes white agricultural college graduates quite a while to do that. The next 25 years unquestionably will witness a marked contrast to the first quarter of the century in this regard. It is well that the development is taking place along the lines of the negro’s training and disposition. All of this confirms the judgment of Booker T. Washington, the negro educator, who said:
The negro is, in my opinion, naturally a farmer, and he is at his very best when he is in close contact with the soil. (Fig. [2].) There is something in the atmosphere of the farm that develops and strengthens the negro’s natural common sense. As a rule, the negro farmer has a rare gift of getting at the sense of things and of stating in picturesque language what he has learned. The explanation of it is, it seems to me, that the negro farmer studies nature. In his own way he studies the soil, the development of plants and animals, the streams, the birds and the changes of the seasons. He has a chance of getting at first-hand the kind of knowledge that is valuable to him.
During the last few years many persons from different parts of Africa have visited this country to study our methods of industrial and agricultural education. Some of them have been Government officials, some teachers in schools and colleges, and some missionaries. They represented many different nationalities, all of which are interested in the welfare of dark-skinned people. Such visitors are always interested in Hampton and Tuskegee Institutes and usually have a scholastic point of view when they arrive. On their return, however, they are always enthusiastic about the men and women extension agents whose primary responsibility is to reach the farm and home. They see greater significance in demonstrations which proceed from the farm and home to the school than they do in those which go from the school to the farm. They seem to realize that the home is the fundamental unit of civilization and that the agents are the apostles of a better farm and home life, and therefore return to their work with an optimistic determination to encourage demonstration work in their countries.
DEVELOPMENT OF NEGRO EXTENSION WORK
EARLY HISTORY
Farmers’ cooperative demonstration work was begun in 1903. At first, all demonstration agents were white men and women. They enrolled negro demonstrators who followed instructions so faithfully and carefully that they were often more successful than white farmers and home makers. Many instances were reported of negro farmers who got started along the pathway of success because of the stimulation of such demonstrations. County agricultural agents often reported that 25 per cent of their demonstrators were negroes and that many negroes attended the field meetings and public demonstrations.
Booker T. Washington had a prominent part in beginning negro extension work in the South. Tuskegee Institute, which he founded in Alabama, already had carried instruction to negro farmers through its faculty, through farm conferences at Tuskegee and in local communities, and through printed bulletins. Doctor Washington also used a “Jesup wagon,” provided with agricultural equipment to go out among farmers and demonstrate better farming methods. Washington, H. B. Frissell, of Hampton Institute, Va., and Seaman A. Knapp of the United States Department of Agriculture, worked out the relation of Hampton and Tuskegee Institutes with the department and made arrangements for the appointment in 1906 of T. M. Campbell, of Tuskegee Institute, the first negro demonstration agent, and of J. B. Pierce, of Hampton Institute, a few days later.
In speaking of extension work a few years afterwards, Washington said: