The record-union., 1892-11-21
Special to the REcoRD-UxIox.


Special to the RECoRD-UNIoN.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 20. - The annual
report of the Secretary of Agriculture be-
gins with a comparison of the export
trade the past fiscal year with former
years, and emphasizes the fact that of the
more than one billion dollars represent
ing the exports Of domestic products the
past year, nearly eighty per cent. con-
sists of agricultural products, thus not
only making the United States the
creditor Of the world for a sum exceeding
two hundred million dollars, the excess
OF our exports over the imports, but re-
heving the home markets from the sur
plus product, which would otherwise re-
duce the prices to a point below the cost
Of production.
In regard to the imports, the Secretary
finds encouragement for the farmers in
the tact that while in the fiscal year ended
III 1889, titty-tour per cent. of the imports
were competing with American agricult-
ure, only forty-four per cent. of the i'm
ports for the past fiscal year did so COM
pete. lie nevertheless regards the
Imports competing with the products of
our own soil still far too great.
Since the last report prohibitions
against American pork products were
Withdrawn in all the countries where
they existed, and 10000, 600 pounds Of in
spected pork, which, without inspection,
could not have found a market abroad.
We're exported. He compared the prices
for September, 1892, with those of Sep
tember, 1880, the year before pork III
yTn nF{n tod -I,<
crease OF eighty cents per 100 pounds in
favor OF this year, an average of 81 per
head on every hogshead.
referring to the proclamation declaring
this country free from pleuro-pneumonia
he emphasizes that precautions We're
taken before the proclamation was issued.
and thoroughly satisfactory grounds
were existing for the declaration of our
immunity for the control and prevention
of Texas fever. He concluded with
declaration that they saved three times as
much money to cattle-growers yearly as
was required to run the whole DEPART
ment. He says the inspection laws re-
stored the confidence of foreigners in the
healthfulnesS OF our cattle The live
cattle exports in 1889 amounted to 2O5. 900
head, whereas in 1892 we exported 3g4 COO
at an increase in value averaging SS per
head.
The Secretary says of the work of his
Indian corn agents in Germany that one
result is the maintenance OF the price of
corn in face OF the largely increased ex
ports, conditions which heretofore lIwavs
accompanied great depreciation in price.
Secretary kusk says one of the gratifv-
ing features of our agricultural industry
during the past year has been the marked
reduction in the cotton area throughout
the cotton States. In connection with
this subject he calls attention to the great
inc co NK~h Inh hos fui-
years in our imports of raw cotton. i'm
ports, which but few years ago, We're
hardly known. 'With a view to check
ing the imports of foreign cottons. esDe-
eially Egyptian" says the Secretary. "T
have taken measures to undertake. with
the cooperation OF some experiment sta
tions in the cotton States. experiments
with view TO producing cotton Of home
growth which shall serve as an efficient
substitute for the Egyptian. l trust in
this we may be successful before the i'm
port cotton trade increases to such an ex-
tent as to seriously affect our own cotton
growers"
With reference to our cereals, he at
tributes the excessive authorizations
formed regarding the price for wheat
throughout the crop year to the failure to
appreciate the changed conditions now
surrounding the production and market
ing of the worlds wheat crop. Hence the
American farmer can justly reduce the
wheat acreage and so bring productions
down to the normal demand, of barley
he says: The domestic markets. which
heretofore absorbed ten million bushels
of foreign barley, is now reserved for the
domestic product, and our acreage and
production has increased and been dis
posed OF at good prices"
The experience of the department in
the domestic sugar industry for the past
l,f
shows that domestic sugar can be pro-
duced with profit to the grower Of the
crop and to the manufacturer, provided
the conditions ofculture and manufacture
insisted upon by the department are Sc
cured.
The Secretary INDUCES in a retrospect
of the work of the department under his
administration, which he believes appro-
pirate in submitting his last report. In
it he briefly refers to the specially i'm
portant measures undertaken and carried
out during his administration. to the larpe
increase in the divisions work and the
important parts which the new divisions
were placed in in extending the useful
ness and maintaining the efficiency of
the department. Referring to the econ
omy with which he has endeavored to fol-
low out his comprehensive plans, he did
not justify this destruction Of the appro-
prialions within narrow limits, but does
claim credit for what he ACCOMPLISHED
with the limited appropriations at his
disposal.
In regard to the sugar industry and its
domestic action in the country, the Secre-
tary says there is nothing to add to what
he had offered year ago on the subject.
beyond the fact that all experiments con-
Quoted by the department, both in the
laboratory and in the field and at the ex-
perimental stations established for that
purpose, confirm the hopeful anticipa-
tions he then expressed as to the posi-
bility of this country in the course of
time supplying its own sugar.
The rainfall experiments, he saws, are
being made as Congress directed, but the
facts in his possession do not, in his opin-
ion, justify the anticipations formed bv
believers in the methods of artificial rain
making.
He emphasizes the need for new and
suitable buildings to accommodate the
department.
Secretary Rusk suggests important
changes in regard to the future organiza-
ton of the department, by which all the
divisions work should be grouped with
reference to character into bureaus. fol-
lowing the organization adopted in other
departments of the Government. He in
sists upon the necessity of universal in
spectiOn of all animal food products. ap-
plicable not only to products intended
for interstate or export trade. but enter
ing into domestic consumption every
where.
Secretary Rusk also points out that
there are many reasons for making a ma
tiOnal standard of grain highly desirable,
and concludes that some system of ma
tional inspection and grading must be
established in the interest of grain-grow-