Morris tribune., 1891-11-11
UNCLE JERRY'S ANNUAL
SECRETARY Rusk PRESENTS HIS
REPORT TO THE PRESIDENT.

An Increase In Farm Products Over Last
Year Of s7Oo, 600, ,ooO--Exports of Ce-
reals--Ameri Pork-Artiacial Rain.
other Matters.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 8. - Secretary
Rusk has presented to the president his
annual repsft as secretary of agricul-
ture. The reports opens with general
expression of congratulations upon the
outlook for agriculture, and calls atten-
tion to the specially noticeable feature
regarding the crop values of the pres
emit year. They are 30 well sustained in
the presence of abundant yields, that
the secretary estimates the probable in
crease in the value of agricultural pro-
ducts for 1891 over 1890, at not less than
800, 900, 900. Reviewing our exports
and imports of agricultural products,
Secretary Rusk states that during the
first three months of the present fiscal
year,
our ExpOftS IN CeTeals
alone have aggregated in value over
$7y, ,OOO, 900, adding that the indications
now are that the sales abroad of the sur
plus from our farms will, during the
present year, largely exceed those OF any
previous year. He notes the increase by
some $2s, ,O0O, 900 in the imports of agri-
cultural products during the first ten
months under the present law by COM
parison with the same period during the
last year of the old law, but empha-
sizes the fact that the increase is con-
fined largely to articles not competing
with home products, such as sugar, tea,
coffee, etc. At the same time he states
that the change ip rates has checked tbs
importation of products which may be
produced at home.
Regarding American Pork.
The secretary, in speaking of the
withdrawal by the governments of Ger
many, Denmark and Italy of the pro-
hibition against American pork, ex-
presses his high opinion of the presi-
dents personal interest in the matter,
without which, he says, this grand re-
suit could never have been attained.
He devotes considerable space to the
review of the work of the bureau of
animal industry. Pleuro-pneumonia he
regards as quite under control, and
limited in territory to two or three
counties on Long Island and In New
Jersey, over which thorough quaran-
tine is exercised. He earnestly recon-
mends increased appropriations to ex-
tend meat inspection to all applicants.
Artificial Rain.
Of the rainfall experiments, the secre-
tary states briefly that they have been
made, but that as regards the produc-
ton of rain he has no data yet at hand
which would justify him in expressing
any questions on the subject.
In concluding his report he indicates
that from the time he assumed the reins
of office he has devoted his personal at
tention to general enlargement of the
scope of the work of the department in
the interest of practical agriculture and
especially to the extention of the market
for the disposal of the surplus of our
great staple crops, including the cereals
and our vast animal products, and the
enlargement of our productive capacity
so as to achieve the gradual substitution
of home grown for imported products,
and to bringing the department into
such close relations with the farmers as
would acquaint them with its work and
inspire them with confidence in its abil-
ity to serve them, and forcibly impress
upon the officers of the department
themselves the wants and conditions of
the tiller of the soil.