76


THE    DEMONSTRATION    FARM       77

(3)  the  boll-weevil,  which,  entering  Texas  from
Mexico  in  1899,  has  extended  its  ravages  over  the
States  of  Arkansas,  Oklahoma,  Louisiana,  and
part  of  Mississippi,  and  at  one  time  threatened
the  ruin  of  the  whole  cotton  industry.  It  may
seem  odd  that  this  unwelcome  invader  should
be  reckoned  among  the  factors  that  are  promoting
agricultural  development ;  but,  in  a  very  real
sense,  he  has  served  as  a  pioneer  to  the  movement.
Dr.  Wallace  Buttrick,  of  the  General  Educa-
tion Board,  was  so  kind  as  to  give  me  an  outline
of  the  course  of  events.
"Our  Board,"  he  said,  ''was  established  and
endowed,  and  has  been  at  various  intervals  re-
endowed,  by  Mr.  Kockefeller."

,1  rn  J.         T        7."         '      J.^         Rockefeller  to

''  To  promote   education  m  the      ^^^  Rescue
South  ?  "

"Not  in  the  South  alone,  nor  even  primarily;
but  we  had,  of  course,  to  study  the  special
conditions  prevailing  in  the  South.  We  soon
convinced  ourselves  that  the  deficiencies  of
Southern  education — and  they  were  enormous —
were  due  to  the  sheer  poverty  of  the  country.*
In  the  Southern  towns  there  are  good  schools,
and  the  accommodation  is  fairly  adequate.     But

*  "The  figures  of  our  national  census  show  that  from  1860  to  1870
there  was  a  fall  of  82,100,000,000  in  the  assessed  value  of  Southern
property,  and  that  the  period  of  Reconstruction  added,  in  the  years
from  1870  to  1880,  another  §67,000,000  to  the  loss."— E.  G.  Murphy,
"The  Present  South,"  p.  40.  "No  other  region,  except  Poland,  ever
knew  such  losses ;  and  Poland  ceased  to  exist.  The  year  1900  had
come  and  gone  before  the  whole  South  had  regained  its  per  capita
wealth  of  I860."— E.  A.  Alderman  :  "  The  Growing  South,"  p.  7.
