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.