The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-03-27
UNCLE JERRY RUSK.
A Chat With the Secretary of
Agriculture on Farming.
HE WAS A BOY WITH GARFIELD.
His Skill As . Cooper-Deserts to BE
Fertflized, and n Second Holland
on the Gulf of Mexico.

week with Secretary Rusk at his house on
Massachusetts avenue. The home of
Uncle Jerry is one of the pleasantest ut
the capital. 1t is Just off Thomas circle
about four squares away from the White
House and next to where General Bob
Schenck used to live. Around the
corner from it is the home of
Secretary Foster and just across the
way is the white brick in which
Senator Allison lives. Secretary Rusk's
house is a big brick, painted drab, and it
contains, judge, somewhere between fif-
teen and twenty rooms. 1t has two sto-
ries and mansard, and you enter it by a
wide front door, through vestibule so
large t hat rustic chairs are seated on either
side of it. The house is well but plainly
furnished, but there it an air of everyday
comfort about it, and visitors always feel
at home in it. Secretary Rusk spends
most OF his evenings at home. He has
a domestic nature allied to his So
ciable qualities, and he talks best
around his own fireside. He is one of the
best conversationalists in public life. His
big head is packed full of stories and he
is like Abe Lincoln, in that he illustrates
his points by anecdotes. He is like Lin
coin also in that he is man of the people.
There is not an ounce of snobbery in his
$50 pounds of American flesh and he is as
democratic in his manners today as when
he began life in Ohio as a stage driver
more than forty years ago.
He is not ashamed of his stage-driving
and he is not one of those snobs who think
it disgrace to have worked for their liv-
ing. 1 asked him during my talk about
his boyhood and he told me he was
brought up on farm and that his father
had a half section of land in Morgan
county, Ohio.
81 was IA years old, said General Rusk,
"when my father died and left me to man.
age the farm. / had been used to horses
since l was a baby aud l knew how to
drive long before 1 became connected with
the stage. At that time the chief travel
from the East to the West was by stage
and was given coach which ran from
GAINESVILLE to Newark. 1t was a big Con-
cord coach with four horses and l sat on
the box and drove four-in-hand. / after
wards owned about 14O miles of stage lines
in Wisconsin and l ran these lines for
some years"
SIT was as stage driver that you first
met James A. Garfield, was it not2"
"Yes, Garfield was driving a mule on
the canal. He came down as far as New
ark with his canal boat, and we met
number of times. L was good deal of
boy in those days and was very fond of
wrestling. This was the chief amusement
of the boys of my time, and Garfield him.
self had some reputation as a wrestler.
Well.' whenever we met we wrestled
together, and in this way got
to be friends. You don't forget a man
oft la1 Will !;
neither Garfield nor myself forgot each
other. While was still driving the stage
he left the canal to go to school. He en-
tered school at Hiram, and then went
East to Williams. But did not see him
after l left him there on the canal
until we met in the army. 1t was at Chat
tanooga. He was on the staff with Gen.
eral Thomas and l had command of
regiment. During our stay here we met
and recalled old times. Shortly after
this Garfield was home on a fur
Tough, and during this they elected
him to congress. l did not see him again
until came to congress myself, and we
served there for some years together.
knew him very well from that time on till
his death. | was at the convention that
nominated him, and had something to do
with getting him the sixteen Wisconsin
votes which started the boom which
brought about his nomination"
How did you come to go to Wisconsin,
general?"
Rusk, "largely due to that spirit of Young
America which teaches all our boys to
strike out for new country. | wanted to
get farm and l wanted to make my for
tune. After my stage-driving experience
/ tried railroading for a time and helped
As soon as l got to Wiscon-
sin 1 bought farm and l own
the same farm today. 1t con tains about
400 acres and can get more fun out of it
in week than can out of my life here at
Washington in six months"
Il have seen it stated, general, that you
learned the cooper's trade when you were
a boy. Could you make barrel today2"
Yes. l could, replied Uncle Jerry. II
think | could make any kind of a barrel
or cask you might want. But it is mis-
take to think | was apprenticed to
cooper. All the farmers in our region
made barrels when l was boy. 1t was
our winters work, and I got so that I
could make six good barrels any day.
| have made as high as ten in a day,
and as we got from twenty-five to thirty
cents barrel, you see thework was quite
profitable"
The conversation here turned to the
farmer and his progress. and referred to
our great increase in population and asked
Secretary Rusk whether the farmers
would always be able to supply food for
our people. lie replied:
always is a long time. But / think I
can speak for a good many years to come.
We have hardly begun TO tap the great
agricultural wealth of the United States.
1t is true that the day must soon come
when all the good public lands will
be taken up. The best are gone
now, but after that modern invention
VIII turn towards our vast areas of
desert and swamp. The first Will be
irrigated and the latter will be drained.
The swampy lands of the South will be re-
claimed and diked. We will have sec
ond Holland along some parts of the Gulf
OF Mexico, and the golden age of farming
Will be at hand. As this goes on, farms
will steadily increase in value. They
are now large part of the aggregate
wealth OF the country. Twelve years ago
our 100000 farms were worth $1,000, 0OO,-
oOJ anu they produce yearly crops worth
more than $1,000, 600, 600 We talk of the
poverty OF the farmer, but by the census
OF lsS0 the stock on the farms alone was
worth over 81 800, $4,000, and by statistics
which We have over at my department
today our livestock is worth nearly twice
as much nov. We know how TO prevent
diseases of stock. and We have gained also
in better breeding and better feeding. To
day our best beef is sold at years old
1t IS not many years since beet was .
thought to be beet unless the animal was ct
least years old, and yet the meat of at
2-year-old beeves of today is OF the iinthe
quality and it surpasses in weight thatest
the average 4-year-old of twenty years ag of
Where beeves can be turned of in hao
the time man can raise twice as m anlf