The San Francisco call., 1897-03-14

thrives in the great corn belt. Now, we
not only propose to make all Of the sugar
that we consume, but after the saccharine
matter has been extracted from the beet
we intend to feed it to cows-why, my boy,
we can raise more sugar beets and fatten
more cows and make more good butter
than any country on earth. One of the
first things l shall do will be to appoint
special agents in Europe to investigate and
report on different favors of butter now in
demand over teere. You see we must con-
suit the tastes of those people. The longer
the butter is worked the longer it will
keep fresh in transportation. The more
it is worked the more buttermilk is
pressed from the fat; for buttermilk Is
caseine, you know, Bnd the bacteria feed
upon cazeine."
Secretary Wilson then reverted to the
subject OF distribution OF sugar beet nd
other seed. He said that, as everybody
knows, this has been ve1ed question
during the past four years, and Secretary
NJ orton has persistently opposed appro-
priations for this purpose.
care we going to get our seed ?" is the in
terrogation of every member of Congress,
espec tally those from the agricultural sec
tions, to the new Secretary of Agricul-
ture. This inquiry the Secretary in
yariably answers in the affirmative. "Yes !;
but under different system, and one
which will, l hope, develop new indus
tries and greater diversiication of agri-
cultural industries and agricultural prod
ucts."
Secretary Wilson is bringing to the
management of the Agricultural Depart
ment a happy combination of practical
experience as an agriculturist, q Congress
man and scientist. His long years OF
practical farming were followed by expe-
rience in Congress, and since then scien-
tific study, com bined with practical ex-
perimentation, in his work as director of
the State Experiment Station of Iowa.
In the few days in which he has been in
charge of the Department of Agriculture
he has set on foot line of work which it
is believed will supply to the farmers of
the country. through the usual channels
of distribution by the members OF Con-
gress and the experiment stations, an en-
tirely new application OF the system of
seed distribution, and one intended not
only to diversity and increase the produc-
ton of the farm, but to add largely to the
value of farm products and keep at home
enormous sums of money which are now
being sent abroad for agricultural prod
ucts, while at the same time making q
market abroad for the products OF the
farms of the United States.
Mr.. Wilson's experience as the head of
the experiment station of his own State,
in which he coupled practical farm expe-
rience and intelligent scientific knowledge
of the value of the various kinds of agri-
cultural productions, has resulted in q
marked i'm provementi in the value and di-
yersification in land products in Iowa, and
plans which he has already outlined to
the mem bers of Congress with whom he
has talked show to them that this intelii-
gent system is to be applied to the entire
agricultural area of the United States.
Corn, which in his own State brings no
more than 10 or Is cents per bushel for
marketing. is in his opinion worth several
times more than that if properly fed, and
ne has already put on foot Investigations
of the experiments made in this line in
the various States, especially with refer
ence to the utilization of these and other
farm products for feeding sheep. system
through which he believes the agricul-
tural products may prove more valuable
than in the past, especially by reason of
the difficuity farmers have had in procur-
ing other classes of food animals to which
to feed the enormous grain crops which
this country has been producing during
! the past few years. But it is not along
this line alone to which he is confining his
experiments and researches and plans
| In the distribution of the seeds he is pre-
pairing to supply the farmers of the coun-
| try with the class of plants which have
proved especially valuable in other parts
of the world, and in experiments which
have been conducted in few of the States
of this country.
People of the world now, Mr.. Wilson
finds, are demanding nitrogenous food
and not requiring such quantities of the
class of food obtained from the fat pro-
ducing grains which have sent American
lard all over the world, but for which the
demand has of late somewhat fallen off.
In other words, fats are less in demand,
and the nitrogenous products which fur