Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1897-06-12

man with his coat off himself all his life.
His big, muscular, horny hands show it;
his slow, heavy gait, as of a man measur-
ing the distance between burrows, pro-
claims it; SO do his tall, rugged, but some
what stopped figure, his lined, wind-swept
countenance, his steel blue eyes, their
singular brightness eloquent of life in the
open fields, the lids habitually drawn to-
gether by a lifelong evasion of the glar-
ing brilliance of the harvest sum- Inc
honors he has gained have been thrust
upon him; literally by physical force he
was dragged from the farm to the forum.
Now, summoned from the dictatorship of
an Iowa agricultural college to the head
of the national agricultural institution,
he still processes to be nothing more than
a man in his shirt sleeves, working for
the advancement of men similarly divest-
ed.
In his labor-acquired physique, his
speech, his manner, his movements, ev-
cry one of Mr.. Wilson's seventy-three
inches Enthusiastically proclaims him a
farmer; he is a fne-looking, generous,
sturdy-looking figure of man who knows
what the dome of heaven looks like at
sunrise. When the torch of civil war
gave forth its first red illumination, young
Farmer Wilson was all for Selling mus
ket and rushing to the front. But the
family to which he belonged was large,
ped to the plough; moreover, his brother
Peter, an older man, wanted to go, and
had the law of primogeniture, observed
by the Scotch, on his side. The two men
drew lots, and Peter went to the war,
and died in it. The younger man re-
turned to his plodding of the fields, to be
seized upon as a parliamentarian by his
neighbors a few years later.
Among the men with their coats off,
said Mr.. Wilson the other day, "are the
dairymen of this country. They are just
setting about to tackle one of the biggest
jobs they have ever undertaken, and, if I
have any kind of gift of prophecy, they're
going to win. The problem is this: Eng
land is buying $50, OOO, 900 worth of for
supplies perhaps 1 per cent of it, or little
over 100000 worth, while little Denmark
supplies nearly $50, 0OO, 900 worth, buying
American COW feed for the purpose of
holding this immense business. We make
the best butter in the world. Then why
can't we sell at least as much of it to the
British people as a little country like
Denmark? That's one of the things am
going to find out, if it takes all of the spe-
cial agents in this department to get me
the facts; and it will be one of the cor
prises of my life if at the end of three OF
four years we are not furnishing Crest
Britain with al least one-half the butter
she Imports
Secretary Wilson puts in from nine to
ten hours a day at his department He be-
longs to the careful, plodding type of
workmen. He likes to make the drafts in
his own handwriting of the more impor-
tant letters and documents to which he
appends his signature. Disaster befallo
him when, as often happens, his old farm
er friends from Iowa walk in upon him
at his office, for single visitation of this
sort eats a considerable hole in his work
ing day; and it does not console the Sec
rotary to be aware that it is his own fault.
He will not let such visitors depart with
in a reasonable time, much as they pro-
test that they fear they are trenching up
on his indulgence. He lines up on a leath-
er sofa alongside a couple of these pros
porous looking elderly agriculturists, and
there ensues a canvassing of farming
matters, treated either theoretically tech
nicaliy or practically.
Being a scientific farmer, as well as a
practical one, Mr.. Wilson says that he
feels as much compelled to keep up with
the latest writings of scientific farming
as the ambitious physician is obliged to
follow the current developments in his
profession. Hundreds of pamphlets and
publications of all sorts relative to mat
tiers of the farm reach him every week,
and he looks through them all. He has
one pet hobby, which, however, is an emil
nenIy practlcal ana pralseWorthy one,
viz, the fostering of the sugar beet indus
try in the United States. "Why should
the United States pay out 800, 900
year for its sugar, when we can easily
raise it at homer" is an inquiry he puts to
his friends constantly, and before long he
intends to make personal inspection of
| the most important fields in the country
| where the sugar beet industry is growing
| Probably next year." said Mr.. Wilson,
| Il shall make q tour of the farming dis
| tricts throughout the South and South
west. 1 am peculiarly a farmer of the
| temperate region in the Northwest. and
must own to a considerable lack of infor-
nation as to the requirements of the men
| with their coats off in the sub-tropical re-
| gions of the country. But l going to
| find out as much about them as L can, and
| shall probably proceed far Califor-
| MIA in the effort"