improvement must therefore be based upon the strengthening of the South’s economic position.  Essentially the task was to build up Southern agriculture, which for generations had been wasteful, unintelligent and consequently unproductive.  Such a far-reaching programme might well appall the most energetic reformer, but Dr. Buttrick set to work.  He saw little light until his attention was drawn to a quaint and philosophic gentleman—­a kind of bucolic Ben Franklin—­who was then obscurely working in the cotton lands of Louisiana, making warfare on the boll weevil in a way of his own.  At that time Dr. Seaman A. Knapp had made no national reputation; yet he had evolved a plan for redeeming country life and making American farms more fruitful that has since worked marvellous results.  There was nothing especially sensational about its details.  Dr. Knapp had made the discovery in relation to farms that the utilitarians had long since made with reference to other human activities:  that the only way to improve agriculture was not to talk about it, but to go and do it.  During the preceding fifty years agricultural colleges had sprung up all over the United States—­Dr. Knapp had been president of one himself; practically every Southern state had one or more; agricultural lecturers covered thousands of miles annually telling their yawning audiences how to farm; these efforts had scattered broadcast much valuable information about the subject, but the difficulty lay in inducing the farmers to apply it.  Dr. Knapp had a new method.  He selected a particular farmer and persuaded him to work his fields for a period according to methods which he prescribed.  He told his pupil how to plough, what seed to plant, how to space his rows, what fertilizers to use, and the like.  If a selected acreage yielded a profitable crop which the farmer could sell at an increased price Dr. Knapp had sufficient faith in human nature to believe that that particular farmer would continue to operate his farm on the new method and that his neighbours, having this practical example of growing prosperity, would imitate him.

Such was the famous “Demonstration Work” of Dr. Seaman A. Knapp; this activity is now a regular branch of the Department of Agriculture, employing thousands of agents and spending not far from $18,000,000 a year.  Its application to the South has made practically a new and rich country, and it has long since been extended to other regions.  When Dr. Buttrick first met Knapp, however, there were few indications of this splendid future.  He brought Dr. Knapp North and exhibited him to Page.  This was precisely the kind of man who appealed to Page’s sympathies.  His mind was always keenly on the scent for the new man—­the original thinker who had some practical plan for uplifting humankind and making life more worth while.  And Dr. Knapp’s mission was one that had filled most of his thoughts for many years; its real purpose was the enrichment of country life.  Page therefore took to Dr. Knapp with a