St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-12-06
interesting Details Concern
ing Our Mueh-Abused Agri-
cultural Department.
Our Secretary Industriously
Uses the Microscope for the
Benefit Of Farmers.
He Also Has in His Employ
ment a Number Of Very
Pretty Girls.
Persistent Manner in Which
Uncle Sam Helps the
Farmers Along.

Now that the harvest is made and the
granaries are full, and the industrious
agriculturiSt is settling down to the
winter of his content. says Robert
Graves in the New York Sunday Adver-
tiser, l think it time to give Uncle Sam
credit for his share in the general pros
perity. If there is anything admire
Uncle Sam for. it is the intelligent and
persistent manner in which he helps
the farmer get along.
Secretary Rusk said the otner day
that agriculture was at best nothing
but a series of xperiments-experi-
ments with soil, with seed, with differ
ent crops, with methods Of planting,
cultivating and treating. The best
farmer is the one who profits most by
the experiments which he has himself
made-Or, better still. by the ex-
periments of others. Here is where
the government steps in with a well-de-
hned tunctlon--that of test, experiment.
study, investigation, all on a scale of
magnitude sufficient to determine salts
factOriIv. and with care and method
and intelligence which reduce expert
rlment TO science. In short.
the government has brought science
to the aid of agriculture and
made it its handmaiden. Sell
nece helps the farmer 10 make the most
out OF his land. the most out of his work.
shows him how the best results NAV be
obtained and where the greatest econ
Omy lies. Assistant Secretary Willis
was talking about this recently, and /
cannot do better than to quote his
words:
You cannot cheat Nature" SAID he:
"tranSgresS her laws nd you shall sure
" suffer. This appliestO farming as we'll
as to sanitation or health. Ii you have
plague-stricken population you want
science to reveal it. s. plague-Stricken
soil needs science, too. Sanitation and
vegetation are not accidents. For both
there are arts that promote and arts
that prevent injury. Science is at the
bottom of each. | sometimes think that
the farmer does not realize how much
he owes to science. He may be too busy
to remember. What farmer, for in
stance, ever thought of building a mon
ument to the man who invented hay?
Yet the inventor of hay, whoever
he was, deserves a greater mOnU-
ment than Christopher Columbus. who
merelr discovered America; greater
than Fulton, who merely applied steam
to one of its most obvious uses. In a
large sense hay IS modern discovery,
based upon long experiments in the i'm
pOrtation. cultivation and Improvement
of grasses till then unknown to the
agriculturist. Three centuries ago
the average weight of bull
locks bought for the English
navy was less than 400 pounds. For
want of hay the sheep were mostly
killed in November. and such as were
left. with the oxen, starved through the
winter. The discovery OF hay cannot
be said to have been an accident. The
| practical. scientific experiments of the
Duke of Bedford and others in the pres
ervatIon OF grasses made the 2,000-p0und
bullock possibility"
Now that our department of agricult
ure has gotten we'll TO work. with an
adequate and competent organization,
it IS doing some surprising things in
| this field of experiment and application
of science in this work of education. It is
doing so much, and its work is so sure to
count IN the results and prosperity of
the future. that | am sure the dav is
coming when the people will be willing
to spend five or ten times as much
money for this purpose as is now spent,
as already it has come to pass that the
man who sneers at 1.-The seed Shop and
the "hayseed end of the government"
as was so popular years ago, simply
advertises his ignorance and narrow
ness. In my opinion, the scientific
work of the department is really much
more valuable than its practical work,