The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1898-11-29
LOTS OF WHEAT AREA
SECRETARY WILSON COMPUTES PRO-
FEssoR cRookEs' ASSERTIONS.

In Talking About Americas Re-
sources For Raising Wheat-Avnil-
nble Land Used For other Things.
James e. Wilson, secretary Of agri-
culture, in his recent absence from
Washington read Sir William Crookes'
presidential address to the British ASSOC
citation at Bristol upon the wheat sup
ply of the world. published in The Sun
recently, and upon his return to Wash.
ington the other day expressed with
much vigor his dissent from Sir Will
liam S conclusions.
Professor Crookes," said the secre-
tary to reporter, "takes the posi-
ton that the possible wheat lands
throughout the whole world have been
brought under cultivation-that there
are no more in the United States. 1t is
true that the territory of the United
States has been settled clear to the Pa
cific coast, but it is also true that lands
originally sown in wheat and devoted
to some other crops would again pro-
duce wheat abundantly if the price
were high enough. The corn belt i'll the
Mississippi valley was devoted by the
original settlers to the raising of wheat
to considerable extent, and continuous
growing of that crop for 10 or l2 years
without rotation exhausted the availa-
BILE plant food Farmers then turned
their attention to stock raising, grow
ing crops to feed their animals, rotating
grains and grass. These grass lands will
yield wheat as abundantly as ever, but
it is grown now SO abundantly that
farmers do not get good prices for it,
"Wheat is an unusual grain" con-
tinued the secretary. cit can be grown
where corn cannot; it can be grown
where grasses cannot. Wheat is the
highest priced cereal, the favorite food
in Latin countries. 1t is always cash
article. New settlers in new countries
reached by new railroads are generally
men Of small means, and they first pro-
duce wheat in their new locations, be-
cause it is a cash article. One of the
states in the middle west now producing
little or no wheat could in system of
rotation produce very large crop Of
wheat and would do so were the price
high enough to justify the effort. Wheat
is not grown because it does not pay. To
illustrates: was director of tho Iowa
agricultural experiment station for six
years. We found that one specimen of
Russian wheat would produce in that
locality 40 bushels to the acre.
within the past few years, through
the agency of agricultural experiment
stations, we have been able to ascertain
the value of wheat as food stuffs for
animals. We know that GO pounds Of
average wheat will make ID pounds Of
live hog, and it is extensively fed when
the price drops down low. Wheat is the
most nutritious Of all grains. Its nutri-
tive value is determined by the ratio
existing between the bulk Of nitroge-
nous and carbonaceous matter in tie
cereal. Wheat has part of digestible
| heterogeneous to e1a Of carbonaceous;
oats, to 2; rye, to ~ barley, to
8; corn, to 10; rice, to 15; peas and
beans, to 2 or 8. Nothing comes near
er to being complete ration for hui
man being than the army hard tack fur
nished to our soldiers, unless it be milk,
and you can't always get that.
"When you civilize man, he wants
wheat and beefsteak. The heterogeneous
element in food is sought by all classes
and nationalities of people, To baked
potatoes man adds buttermilk. The
New Highlander is partial to pork and
beans. The one balances the other. Oat-
meal and skimmilk make proper COM
bination. The Chinaman, who is report
ed to live on rice, grows beans to eat
with it, the Japanese add fish.
"But that is getting away from the
point at issue, which is that the world IS
wheat lands or at least so far as we are
concerned, those Of the United States,
are all under cultivation. Sir William
is unduly excited, and his emotion is
caused by lack of appreciation, if not
knowledge, of the resources of our coun-
try. He advocates increased electrical
agitation Of the atmosphere as the only
method of precipitating the nitrates in
the air and thus replenishing the pro.
ductive powers Of the earth. 1t is much
better, it seems to me, to plant clover
and other legumes, which produce the
| nitrates much faster than electrical dis.
turbances. 1t puts them where they are
wanted, too, while an electrical agitation
! might visit itself in violence and de.
struction upon your neighbor' s property.
where it could by no possibility do any
good in any event. !"
Secretary Wilson spoke of his trip tc
the Genesee valley, which. he said, il.
Illustrated his contention.
''The first great wheat growing of the
country was done there, but the people
now feed live stock on the grass grow
ing in the old wheatfelds and buy
their flour at Minneapolis getting it fol
less money than it would cost them tc
make it, and yet these same grass lands
could now produce as much wheat as
ever, and would if it paid. Congress
man Wadswo1th, chairman of che com.
mittee on agriculture in the house, who