RARE "Teachers of Agriculture" Seaman A. Knapp Hand Signed 2X3 Card For Sale

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RARE "Teachers of Agriculture" Seaman A. Knapp Hand Signed 2X3 Card:
$499.99

Up for sale a RARE "Teachers of Agriculture" Seaman A. Knapp Hand Signed 2X3 Card.  

ES-4400

Seaman Asahel Knapp (December

16, 1833 – April 1, 1911) was a Union College graduate, Phi Beta Kappa member, physician, college instructor,

and, later, administrator, who took up farming late in life, moving to Iowa to

raise general crops and livestock. The first seeds of what would later become

an aoffering interest in farm demonstration were planted after he became active

in an organization called "The Teachers of Agriculture," attending

their meetings at the Michigan Agricultural College in

1881 and the Iowa Agricultural College in

1882. Knapp was so impressed with this teaching method that he drafted a bill

for the establishment of experimental research stations, which later was

introduced to the 47th Congress, laying the foundation for a nationwide network

of agricultural experiment stations. Knapp later served as the second president

of Iowa Agricultural College from 1883 to 1884, but his interest in

agricultural demonstration work did not occur until 1886, when he moved

to Louisiana and began developing a large tract of

agricultural land in the western part of this state. He founded Vinton, Louisiana, naming the town after his hometown Vinton, Iowa. Knapp could neither persuade local farmers to

adopt the techniques he had perfected on his farm nor enlist farmers from the

North to move to the region to serve collectively as a sort of educational

catalyst. What he could do, he reasoned, was to provide incentives for farmers

to settle in each township with the proviso that each, in turn, would

demonstrate to other farmers what could be done by adopting his improved

farming methods. The concept worked. Northern farmers began moving into the

region, and native farmers began buying into Knapp's methods. By 1902, Knapp

was employed by the government to promote good agricultural practices in the

South. Based on his own experience, Knapp was convinced that demonstrations

carried out by farmers themselves were the most effective way to disseminate

good farming methods. His efforts were aided by the onslaught of the boll weevil, a voracious cotton pest whose presence was felt

not only in Louisiana but also throughout much of the South. Damage associated

with this pest instilled fear among many merchants and growers that the cotton

economy would disintegrate around them. In the view of many, a farm

demonstration at the Walter G. Porter farm, now

a National Historic Landmark in Terrell, Texas, set up by the Department of Agriculture at the

urging of concerned merchants and growers, was the first in a series of steps

that eventually led to passage of the legislation that formalize Cooperative Extension work. USDA

officials were so impressed with the success of this demonstration that they

appropriated $250,000 to combat the weevil — a measure that also involved the

hiring of farm demonstration agents. By 1904, some 20 agents were The movement also appeared to be spreading Knapp is commemorated

in Washington, D.C. by a

bridge linking the U.S. Department of Agriculture Administration of Agriculture South He is interred at Iowa State University Cemetery, Ames,

Story, Iowa, USA, (see 'find-a-grave; Seaman Asahel Knapp'). Bradford Knapp, a son of Seaman Knapp, was the President of

the Alabama Polytechnic Institute, now known as Auburn University from 1928 to

1933 and the second president of Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas.

RARE "Teachers of Agriculture" Seaman A. Knapp Hand Signed 2X3 Card

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