Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1898-10-29
PLENTY OF WHEAT AREA

PLENTY OF WHEAT AREA
SECRETARY WILSON COMPUTES PRO.
FessoR cRooKs's ASSERTIONS.
He Says tho Professor Was Excited in
Talking About This Country and the
Exhauation of Land For Raising wheat
LAND Used For Other Things.
James E. Wilson. Secretary of Agri-
culture, after reading Sir William
Crooke's Presidential address to the
British Association ut Bristol upon the
wheat supply of the world, expressed
with much vigor his dissent from Sir
Williams conclusions.
Professor Crooke," said the Sec
retary, "takes the position that the
possible wheat lands throughout the
whole world have been brought under
oultivation-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 Pacific coast; but
it is also true that lands originally
sown in wheat and devoted to some
other crops would again produce
wheat abundantly if the price were
high enough. The corn belt in the
Mississippi Valley was devoted by the
original settlers to the raising of wheat
to a considerable extent, and con-
tinuous growing Of that crop for ten
or twelve years without rotation ex-
hausted the available plant food.
Farmers then turned their attention
to stock raising, growing crops to feed
their animals, rotating grains and
grass. These grass lands will yield
wheat as abundsntly 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. "It can be
grown where corn cannot; it can be
grown where grasses cannot. Wheat
is the highest priced cereal, the favorife
food in Latin countries. 1t is always
a cash larticle. New settlers in new
countries reached by new railroads
are generally men of small means, and
they first produce wheat in their new
locations, because it is a cash article.
One of the States in the Middle West
now producing little or no wheat could
in a 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 be-
cause it does not pay. To illustrate: :
I was director of the Iowa Agricultural
Experiment Station for six years. We
found that one specimen of Russian
wheat would produce in that locality
iorty 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 foodstuff for ami
mails. We know that sixty pounds of
average wheat will make thirteen
pounds of live hog, and it is extern
sively fed when the price drops down
low. Wheat is the most nutritious of
all grains. Its nutritive value is de-
termined by the ratio existing between
the bulk of nitrogenous and carbon
aceous matter in the cereal. Wheat
has one part of digestible nitrogenous
to 81 Of carbonaceous; oats, 1 to q;
rye, to ~; barley, to 8; corn, to
10; rice, to Is; peas and beans, l to
2 or 8. Nothing comes nearer to be-
ing a complete ration for human be-
ing than the army hardtack furnished
to our soldiers, unless it be milk, and
you can't always get that.
"When you civilize man he wants
wheat and beefsteak. The nitrogenous
element in food is sought by all classes
and nationalities of people. To baked
potatoes man adds buttermilk. The
New Englander is partial to pork and
beans; the one balances the other.
Oatmeal and skim milk make q proper
combination. The Chinaman, who is
reported 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
worlds wheat lands, or, at least, 80
far as we are concerned, those of the
United States are all under cultiva-
ton. Sir William is unduly excited,
and his emotion is caused by lack of
appreciation, if not knowledge, of
the resources of our country. He ad-
vocates increased electrical agitation
Of the atmosphere as the only method
Of precipitating the nitrates in the air
and thus replenishing the productive
powers of the earth. It is much bet.
ter, it seems to me, to plant clover aud
other legumes, which produce the
nitrates much faster than electrical
disturbances. 1t puts them where
they are wanted, too, while an electri-
cal agitation might visit itself in vio-
lence and destruction upon your
neighbor's property, where it could by
no possibility do any good in any
event."
Secretary Wilson spoke of his trip
to the Genesee Valley, which, he SAID,
illustrated his contention.
The first great wheat growing of the
country was done there, but the peo-
pie now feed live stock on the grass
growing in the old wheat fields, and
buy their flour at Minneapolis, get
ting it for less money than it would
cost them to make it. And yet these
same grass lands could now produce
as much wheat as ever, and would if
it paid. Congressman Wadsworth,
Chairman of the Committee on Agri-
culture in the House, who is fattening
700 steers on his place, and his neigh
bors as we'll find it more profitable TO
farm that way than to follow the prac-
tices of the early day, producing moth
ing but grain"
WISE WORDS.
We cannot always oblige, but we