The San Francisco call., 1896-11-23
Improvement in the Force
Causes a Saving of Two Mil.
lions in Three Years.
Facts to Show That the United States
Should Control the Markets
of the World.

may be saved from the appropriations for
the current fiscal year there will have been
covered back into the treasury since
March z, 1S93 over $2,0 600. That this
great economy was effected without any
loss of efficiency he attributes in a large
degree to the improvement in the per-
sonnel of the force under the civil service
rules.
One more step Secretary Morton deems
necessary to complete the system of civil
service in his department. This is the
appointment of director in charge of
| bureaus and scientific investigations, who
shall be designated TO serve as acting Sec
retary in case of absence simultaneously
OF the Secretary and Assistant Secretary.
He declares that the chiefs of the scientific
bureaus and their divisions and their as
sistants do the actual thinking and rea-
soning for the development of agricul-
tural science, and ADDS that the persons
are not adequately compensated. He
states that during the past few years no
less than thirty-two skilled experts in the
| department service have left it to take
| positions in institutions of learning at sal
aries averaging fully so per cent higher
than they were getting from the Govern
ment The inspection of animals intended
for food is treated at length.
Mr.. Morton urges that the Government
inspection should be extended to all ami
mails intended for human food, whether
for consumption in the United States or
abroad; but he maintains that the cost of
this inspection should be paid by the
packers. The total consumption OF meat
in Great Britain for the year was /, 100, 600
tons, 70 per cent of which was produced
at home, the remaining 25 per cent being
produced abroad. OF the live meat arriv-
! ing in Great Britain during the first half
OF the year 1896 the United States supplied
20 per cent Of the cattle and 45 per cent of
| the sheep. The testimony of the depart
ment reports abroad is that cattle from
| the United States arrive in English ports
in excellent condition. The Glasgow mar
ket is especially commended to Am merican
shippers, as in that city cattle from the
United States compete with the very high
est quality of British animals.
American packers are not participating
in the profits of the growth in consum p
ton of swinehesh and hog products in
Great Britain much as they ought, be-
| cause they do not cure meats to suit to
British demand; on the other hand, DAN
ish and Canadian packers are increasing
their shipments every year. American
bacon averages about 2 cents per pound
below Continental and Irish bacon. and
about 3 cents below English.
The shipment of American horses to
England is steadily increasing. In 1898
Great Britain took 13, ,573 American horses.
nearly % 900 in 1894 and "a, 900 in 1895.
but during the first nine months of 1896
1 a L.
England than in any previous twelve
months.
The seeds distributed gratuitously by
the Government during the present fiscal
year weighed 230 tons and occupied thirty
mailcars in transit. The cost of carry
ing them through the mails was over $40.
600. Enough seed was sent out gratult-
ously TO plant 1l5 square miles of garden.
Each Congressman received enough to
plant 1851 acres. For the current year at
present prices, the amount required by
Congress to be expended in the purchase
of seed will make each Congressman $
quota double what it was last year. The
Secretary regrets this unnecessary and
wasteful expenditure OF public money,
and hopes Congress may in good time put
a stop thereto.
Secretary Morton refutes the idea pre-
vailing that the farms of the West and
South are more heavily burdened with
mortgages than those of the East and
Northeast. States along the North
Atlantic, he says, are quito heavily incum-
Dered with farm mortgages, and New
Jersey carries debt of this kind greater
in proportion to lis farm valuations than
any State in the Union.
Referring to the stress of competition
which the American farmer is compelled
to endure, Mr.. Morton calls attention to
nearly 1000, 900 farms of eighty acres each
given away by the Government under the
homestead act of 1866 during the past
thirty years, and to the amount donated
under the timber-culture law, equivalent
to over $4,000 more farms OF the same
size. 1t was impossible, he says, for
farmers in the old States to profitaply sell
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 that loaned on
other kinds of real estate, Secretary Nor
ton states that the rate OF interest charged
upon mortgages or residential property
other than farms averages eighty-iour
hundredths of l per cent less than the
rate of interest charged upon farm loans.
In seventeen States the average rate
charged on the latter is less than that de-
manded foI loans upon other residential
property.
LII TWO OLates the rates are the same
upon urban and real estate. In Pennsyl-
vania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia,
Kentucky, Wisconsin, Kansas, Iowa.
Texas and Ala abama The rates of interest
are less for money secured by mortgages
than for money secured by other realty.
In five States, including Kansas, the diff
ference in favor of the former is from one
fourth to one-half of one per cent, and in
Texas it is over one per cent. If the West
ern farmer pays higher rate of interest
than the Eastern SO does the Western
merchant and manufacturer.
During the fiscal year just ended the ex.
ported products of American farms aggre-
gated $50, ,00O, ,000 an increase of $l7. 600. 600
over the preceding. In spite of this there
was falling off in the percentage of agri-
cultural products exported to the total ex-
ports, but this was due to the unprece-
dented sale abroad of American manufac.
tured goods. The principal market for
American products is found in the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and her colo
MES.
These English-speaking people bought
58 per cent of exports from the United
States during the fiscal year 1896. Together
with Germany, France, Holland and Bel