Washington materially aided the Southern
farmers of both races to tide over a serious crisis and materially
increased the economic wealth of the entire South. As he well knew,
the people were desperate and panicky and hence ready to follow
almost any lead. In any ordinary state of the public mind such a
letter could have produced nothing like such an influence. This well
illustrated Booker Washington's accurate knowledge of and feeling for
the psychology of the public which enabled him almost without
exception to speak or remain silent at the right times.

Booker Washington was not only interested in black farmers but white
farmers. He always emphasized the responsibility of the farmer as the
builder of the foundations of society. He was constantly inviting the
white farmers of the surrounding country to visit the school and see
what was being done on the school farms and by the Experiment Station.
And the white farmers availed themselves freely of this opportunity
and profited by it. The school's veterinarian is probably the only one
in the county, and this division was established very largely for the
purpose of bringing the school and the community--both white and
black--into closer relation. In dealing with farmers, even more
perhaps than with other classes of people, Washington would appeal to
their pride and even to their vanity. He was fond of telling them that
they were the salt of the earth. One of his favorite stories was about
the farmer who keeps his best potatoes for himself and his family and
sends the speckled ones to town; keeps his tender young chickens and
sends the old tough ones to town; keeps his rich milk and sends his
skimmed milk to town. While there may never have been quite such a
farmer the story had its element of truth, and helped to make the
farmer appreciate his good fortune and his importance in the scheme of
things.

In 1910, when the last Federal Census was taken, 503 Negro farm owners
in Macon County, Booker Washington's home county, owned 61,689 acres,
or an average of more than one hundred and twenty-two and one-half
acres of land per man. This is probably the largest amount of land
owned by the Negroes of any county in the United States. Certainly
this was true at that time. The better class of Negro farmers has
greatly increased during the past thirty years until at present from
90 to 95 per cent. of the 3,800 Negro farmers in the county operate
their own farms either as cash te