The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1893-05-09

J.
TO the fact that both are so plentiful
AS soon as man Is we'll enough of
to afford the luxury of thinking he
gets away from the work of digging
up the ground, and after that he only
bothers about agricultural questions
when the time comes to pay for pota.
toes or flour.
HIS BIG OPPORTUNITY.
A good many years before Mr.
Morton was born men were digging
up the ground in Egypt with ploughs
and carrying their products on carts
drawn by animal power. The intel
ligent man got the easy job of driving
the cart and the dull man held the
plough. The dull man is still holding
a plough of very much the same con-
struction, while the intelligent man,
devoting his centuries of thought to
the cart, has changed it into loco
iUOIlNt anu tTdiI VI CARS.
There is chance for the man who
Is Secretary of Agriculture, who SUI
pervises the commissariat of the Re-
publican, to put the farmer on plane
with the other inhabitants of the
earth by experimenting, studying and
giving the farmer the benefit of intel
lectual operations which he can not
afford. XVI NIX #.E F#
When Mrs. Morse had baby, the
transmission of news was very slow
and unreliable. The baby grew up
to be Morse, the inventor. He noticed
that there was plenty of very fast
electricity up in the air and in the
earth, ana he arranged to make it
work for living, and our telegraph
system is the result. For thousands
of years farmers have seen an abun-
dance of water in the air above them
and on the earth, and have seen their
crops wither for the lack of that
water, or have seen them drown by
getting too much of it. Mr.. Rusk,
who would not impress the average
beholder as a man of great thought
at least had the courage to say to
himself that if the country was to do
nothing but take droughts and floods
as they came it could do that without
the help Of paid Secretary of Agri-
culture, and tried to get rain by
shooting at the sky. He may have
been foolish, and he may not, but it
seems probable that when God made
the earth's surface two parts water
and one part land he thought that man
would manage to wet the one-third
of land when necessary.
VI NOT MUCH ORIGINALITY. saa
Mr.. Morton does not appear to be a
man who will do very much in the
line of original experiment, but it may
be hoped that he will bring to the
task assigned him qualities of careful
conscientious investigation and econo-
my, which will form good working
foundation for the great Secretary of
Agriculture, when he shall appear.
For instance, Mr.. Morton has already
discharged enough employees from
one of his departments-the Bureau
Of Animal Industries-to effect a re-
iuction of $l25,O0O a year in running
expenses. Some years ago the cattle
Of the country were threatened with
an epidemic of pleuro-pneumonia. A
great body of veterinarians and other
'harps were hired to stamp out the
disease. They stamped it out effect
lally, and then remained placidly on
he Government pay-rolls like the En-
ylish sparrows that were brought
over to exterminate the caterpillars
md made themselves a pest after all |
he caterpillars we've gone. The new
Secretary has sent all of the veterinar-
ans and other useless persons to join :
he vanished pleuro-pneumonia.
Mr.. Morton finds many things to
object to in the regular running of the
He often illustrates his
meaning with short story.
p "My idea of the Agricultural De-
he said, sis that it should
,e in line with the Jetfersonian idea
If government, which idea is to pro-
ect the life, liberty and property of
he citizen and the stock"
Mr.. Morton is one of those we'll
Meaning gentlemen who spend their
ime shying at the bugaboo of pater-
lalism. His idea is that the Agricul-
ural Department should teach the
people how to help themselves; tina
t should confine itself almost exclu-