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.