Evening star., 1897-03-27

CSuI0 u Uu3uei h you AuIh ~ hto nSos
It will bring you 20 cents a bushel. That
Is the difference between good and bad
farming. 1t is the difference between Is
cents and 40 cents, the difference between
q big profit and q big loss. The poor farm
er sells his grain and keeps poor, the good
farmer turns 1t into meat and dairy pro-
ducts and gets rich. Look at 1t! The corn
= worth 13 cents q bushel In Iowa. 1t Is
bushel to q man there who turns 1t into
meat and makes a profit. or II may even
go across the Atlantic and be turned into
meat by one Of the farmers in England.
Think Of the chance that the farmer who
raises 1t has to make money over the
others"
Il suppose that is the kind of farming
you do. Mr.. Secretary"
YES" was the reply "T have been
raising corn for more than forty years
and / have never sold bushel 1 raise
hcgs and stock and / feed all the grain
that 1 make"
Foolish Expenditures.
Speaking OF Europe. Mr.. Secretary.
what do you think of that country as
market for our corn. Secretary Rusk, you
know. sent an agent into Europe to intro
duce It there. They nicknamed him Corn
Meal Murphy. Mr.. Murphy estimated that
We could easily increase the value of our
corn crop at least one hundred million
dollars year by the foreign demand?"
That Is all imagination replied Secre-
tary WILSON, Il don't believe a word of It,
The European farmers don't want our corn.
They know that corn is very poor in nitro
genous matter. 1t does not make good
manure. The percentage Of nitrogen in
corn Is only about 1 to 10. while flax seed
and cotton seed meal are almost half nitro
gen. The European farmers have to have
food that will enrich their lands. So they
import the refuse of our oil mills by the
thousands of tons. Did you ever realize
that We are the great paint users of the
globe! We use more paint than any other
people. and We import quantities of fax
seed from India and other countries to
make linseed oil. Much OF the refuse of
this seed goes to Europe. The farmers
there understand its value. and we, who
ought to keep 1t. let 1t go. We. on the other
hard. import nothing from Europe mat
adds to our material wealth One of our
| chief imports, for instance. is sugar. This
| Is largely made up of starch. Now, the
starchy elements of plants come from the
air. Sugar is not good for manure. You
might cover a field two feet deep with
| sugar and it would not raise crop. Still
we pay other countries more than hum
| dred million dollars a year for 1t. 1t is prac-
| tically paying a hundred million dollars a
| year for air. Think of it,
He Believes I'm Beet Sugar.
"Why can't We prevent that. Mr.. Secre-
tary. by raising our own sugar.?
I'VE can," replied Secretary Wilson, "and
have already taken steps to encourage
| the growth of the sugar beet in this coun-
| try. We are now sending out beet seed 10
| different parts of the Mississippi valley.
There Is no doubt but that we can raise
the sugar beet. and we ought to make all
\ Of our own sugar. We are now paying
$125 OOO.0 a year to other countries for
| this product. We get a vast amount of
| beet sugar from Germany, and a great deal
of cane sugar from Cuba believe the
| xxyi1l yhaY, yuf1 Qfaa oil yxyQ
| need
| You were speaking of Germany. Mr.. Sec
| retary." said 1. Are the Germans to he
| allowed to discriminate against our meat
products without cause as they have In
the past?
| No" was the reply. we shall stop that
| 1 think. We have already begun move
| ments toward that end. We have given
| that no meat shall be allowed to go out
| of this country that has not been inspected
| by the agents of this department. Every
piece of meat that is carried abroad will
| Germans discriminate against such mea
| they must show the reason why, and il
! they cannot, there will certainly be dis
| elimination against them to the thing!
| which they send to this country. This mat
ter Of foreign trade is business matter
| II the Germans will not treat us fairly We
| can easily retaliate. We import something
like ninety-odd million of dollars worth o.
| the balance Of trade last year was littl'
| in our favor"
Mr. Secretary" said I, you have beel
connected with the Iowa Agricultural Col
| lege. Are such colleges doing very muci
| good?'
"Yes. indeed, they are" was the reply
They are making better farmers. The sue
| cessful farmer OF the future is to be al
educated farmer. My boys went to tn
! agricultural college. and they now ol
farms and are doing well. You can se
what 1 think OF farming by the fact that
| trained my boys for IT. and that they in
tend to make 1t their life work.
Farm Lands ms an Invcstment.
''Do you consider farm lands a good in
| vestment. Mr.. Secretary?
Yes, 1 believe that they will rise ir
value. We have a vast population. 1t Is
steadily growing. The world will always
need food, end we have some of the bes
food lands on the globe. The Mississippi
| basin alone could feed l00,00O,OO, and thi:
is only a small part of our good soil. W.
are already the greatest manufacturing ma
ton of the globe. and mineral re
sources are such that we will ultimately
have an enormous manufacturing popula
tion and the supplying of food for this will
create a great demand for farm products
and land will grow more valuable as tht
country fills up.
Are the farms of the future to be small
or large?"
They will probably become smaller a:
the population grows.
will our farmers ever live In villages, a:
the farmers OF Germany do?"
mo, l think not" replied Secretary WI
son. Il look for the railroads to trave
among the farms, and for electricity o.
some other motive power to carry the far
| mer and his products to and from the mar
kets Rapid transit will bring the farmer
sufficiently together. l don't think We vii
ever have the socialism Of Germany amoni
our farmers.
what is the cause Of the disaffectiol
among the farmers today?'
The low prices of farm products is on
of the causes said Secretary Wilson
'.Thts. added to the lack Of knowledge o
| how to make the most Of their opportun
| tiles, is keeping many Of our farmers poor
| don't think the farmers are badly off 10
| day These who are in straits are larsel
| men who have begun farming withou: cap
| ital and who have not mixed their manur
with brains and economy. There are thou
sands of farmers in my state today VIII
| are making money and there are thousand
| who will continue to do So.
Uncle Snm'x Farm News Syndicate.
How do you like being Secretary o
| Agriculture. Mr.. Wilson. and hat do yo
| q do here?"