The morning times., 1896-11-23
MORTON'S ANNUAL REPORT
Secretary Of Agriculture Reviews
Past Years Work.
Suggests n New Office and Rap>
the Waste of seed Export OF
Farm Products.

TIE fourth annual report of the Score
tary of Agriculture shows that with So
2SU. 900, which may be saved from tilc
appropriations for the current fiscal year,
there will have been covered back INTO the
Treasury since March =. 1898, over 81,
coo 600 attributing this in a large degree
10 the Improvement it, the personnel Of
the force under civil service rules.
He deems necessary, to complete the
system OF civil service in his department,
the appointment of Il permanent director
in charge CT bureaus and scientific invcSt-
g5ltious,' who shall lie designated 10 serve
rs acting secretary He declares that
the CHIEFS cf scicntifi. bureaus aud di-
visions and their nSsi-iantS, who do the
actual thinking and reasoning for The de-
vclopment of agricultural science, are not
adequately compensated.
Mr. Morton urges that government III
Spectiun should hc extended 10 all animals
intended for human food, the cost To NC
paid by the packers The total con
SUMPTION OF meat in Great Britain for
the year was 100000 tens, 15 per cent
of which was produced al home, the re-
manning % per cent being imported. of
live meat arriving in the United Kingdom
during the first six months OF 1896, the
United States supplied IS per cent Of the
cattle and 40 % per cclit OF the sheep.
American packers are not participating.
in the profits of The growth in consunp
ton of swine flesh and hog products in
Great Britain as much rs inry ought to,
,.ecause they do not cure meats To suit
the British demand.
The shipment of American horses to
England is steadily increasing. In 1898
Great Britain took II, ,13I American horses,
nearly 23 900 in 1894, and 3i.ouO in
1885. but during tie first Zine months
of 1896 more American horses were
Stunned into England than in any previous
twelve months.
Tho seeds distributed by the government
during the present fiscal year weighed
23u tons and occupied thirty mail cars
in transit. The cost of carrying them
through the mails was over so 900.
Enough seed was sent out gratuitously To
plant ll3 square miles of garden. Each
Congressman received enough 10 plant
163 10 acres. For the current year, at
present prices. the amount required ny
Congress to be expended in the purchase
of seed will make each Congrcssinan's
quota double what IL was last year. The
Secretary calls this an unnecessary and
wasteful expenditure of public money. and
hopes Congress may in goGd- llmc put Il
stop thereto.
Secretary Morton refutcs the idea pre-
Valing that the farms of the West and
South are more heavily burdened with
mort gages than those of the Eas; and
Northeast.
Referring to the stress oracompcti,ion
which the American farmer is Compelled
To endure, Mr.. Morton calls attention To
nearly 1000 900 farms of so acres each
given away by the government under the
homestead act Of 1865 during the past
thirty years. and TO the amount donated
under the timber culture law, equivalent
TO over $50, 600 more farms of the same
size 1t is impossible, he says. for farmers
in the old States to profitably sell their
products in Competition with those of the
newer States grown upon lands which
cost their owners nothing.
Referring to the impression that greater
rates of interest are charged for money
loaned upon farms than for that loaned
upon other kinds of real estate, Secretary
Morton states that the rate OF interest
charged on mortga gcs uponresidcntial prop
erty other than farms averages eighty-f
hundredths of one per cent less than the
| rate of interest charged upon farm loans
During the fiscal year just ended the cX-
ported products Of American farms aggrc