The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1895-09-17
A CHAT ON FARMING.
SUGGESTIONS FROM THE SEC
RETARY OF AGRICULTURE.
His Views About Potato Patches for
the Poor on Vacant Lots-In
Favor of Farm Villages
Horses Doomed,
T CALLED ON the Hon J. steri;ng
Morton, the Secretary of Agri-
culture, and asked him to give

me some points for the cities
which are turning their vacant lots
into potato gardens for tho poor. The
Secretary of Agriculture believes that
there is money in farming. He is a
man of much wealth, and great part
OF his fortune has come out of the
soil.
Said the Secretary: "There is no
doubt that there will be large de-
mand for oil the potatoes that these
cities will raise this year and for years
to come. We raised last year more
than ITO, 10000 bushels OF potatoes
IN the United States, and these brought
about S91, 100000. The crop was,
however, not enough by millions of
bushels to supply our demand. and
potatoes always bring n high price.
This is especially so in the cities, and
If these people will work there is no
doubt that they can make some money
out of their crop. The great objec.
ton | have to the method being en-
ployed is that the land is given to the
poor for nothing. 1t ought to be
rented to them at very low rate, and
you would then find ten men engaged
in the cultivation of the soil where
one Is doing it now. People don't
want what they can get for nothing,
and measures like this tend to the
education of paupers.
what do You think of the way our
farmers live, MIR. SecIetary?" asked.
"Would it not be better if they lived
in villages and not on their farms?'
''ln many respects, yes" was the
reply. "The farmers wife has
dreary lot. She is in most cases little
better than n slave to her work ana
her house. She drags out sal exist
ence, scrubbing and cooking, with
few resources outside OF herself. |
can't imagine anything much worse
than her condition, and it seems to
me that the European system of farm
villages is better than ours. And still.
the most of our farmers wives are
bright women. They are, as rule,
industrious and good business women,
but they get little for il. believe in
making women to large extent the
business partners of their husbands.
They are not so in the case of most
men. Take, for instance, n story /
heard the other day about the family
OF an old farmer in Indiana. The man
and his wife had lived together for
fifty years. Their children had grown
up and left them, and now, ut seventy,
the farmer found the burden of his
work too much for him, and he decid-
ed to sell his farm and live off of the
interest. 1t was worth $4,000, but
when the deed came to be made the
farmers wife objected. She said she
had helped to pay for the farm. She
had worked oil her life for it, and she
was bound to have some of the money
which it brought before she signed the
deed. The lawyer and tho husband
were aumbfounded. They had not an
ticipated such a complication, and at
last ono of them asked the old lady
how much she thought she ought to
have. She hGsitated moment, and
then said that she believed she was
really entitled to ask for as much as
So"
The conversation here again turned
to eggs, and Secretary Morton told me
how the dealers sometimes attempted
to put up corners on eggs. "The
eggs" said he, care bought from the
farmers at from nine to ten cents per
dozen, and they are put into cold
storage. Before packing each egg
is tested by placing it between the
eye and n candle. The good eggs are
laid on their ends in boxes, o little
compartment being devoted to each
egg The temperature of the cold
storage is about forty degrees Fahren-
heit, md at this temperature the eggs
will keep for months. There are mill.
ions Of eggs sold as fresh which are
many weeks old, md they are bought
when cheap and sold when dear. 1t
will surprise you to know that there
are tub eggs, just rs there are tub oys-
tiers. These are the eggs which are
broken in packing. The dealers throw
them into bucket, the shells are
picked out, and they are sold in bulk.
Many Of the big hotels buy them, and
they use them for omelets and scram-
bled eggs. / usually eat my eggs in
the shells at hotels.
'How about the great American
horse, Secretary Morton? 1t is said
his days are numbered"
'I fear that is true" replied the
Secretary. "The electric car and the
bicycle have taken away his occupa-
ton, and I expect TO see the day when
our carriages will be run by electricity.
The bicycle Of the future may have n
storage battery, and the day OF high
priced horse flesh, outside of the
sporting and racing stock, has gone
forever"
81 see that one Of our Consuls in
Germany advises the raising Of horse
meat for export to that country. What
do you think Of that?"
81 believe more money can he made
in raising other kinds of meat" re.
Piled Secretary Morton, "and ! do not
believe in these stories about the
money which Americans can make in
shipping horse sausage TO Germany.
The Germans have tariff on horse
meat of more than two cents pei
pound, and the French have n similar
tariff 1t is true that horse meat j.
used more extensively every year in
Europe than in the past. Between
1889 and 1898 more than one hundred
thousand horses we're killed there foI
human consumption, and in 1898 the
total weight of dressed horse hesh
used amounted 30 moro than forty.