The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1899-09-12
OUR SECRETARY OF AGRICUL.
TURF.


tary Wilson is republished from the
Saturday Evening Post:
The most picturesque figure in the
Cabinet to day is james Wilson, OF
Iowa-a typican American, though,
paradoxically enough, he was born in
Scotland. OF all the secretaries who
hold positions under President Nc
Kinley, he ia the most approachable,
No dragon guards his outer door, but
any visitor is welcome to ''Walk right
in" and chat with him. He likes the
newspaper correspondents, and is fond
of telling them that he has been for
many years a working newspaper man
himself. Indeed this is true enough,
inasmuch as he was quite famous in
the West as a writer on agricultural
subjects long before he entered the
Cabinet.
"Sit down, sonr' the Secretary will
say to the newspaper man who may
chance to look in on him in the hope Of
getting a lit of news. Then he will
wheel around in his leather covered
arm. chair and, twirIing his eyeglasses
by the string, will talk off in ten min
utes the material for a column Of mat.
ter perhaps, full of striking sugges
tions, and put in a qIaint and vivid
way that keeps the correspondence
pencil flying, lest he miss something,
Mr.. Wilson likes to have it under
stood that he owes all that he is to the
soil-that he himself is q product Of in.
telligent farming. One Of his stories
describes how, when he came to this
country in 1852, from Ayrshire, Scot
land, the eldest Of a family OF four
teen children, his father set him to
work to help improve a few acres Of
rather barren land In Connecticut.
The elder Wilson thought he knew
what the land wanted to make it fruit
full, and as no bone mills existed in
those days, he went around in q wagon
and gathered up all the butchers bones
and such other animal remains that
could be secured. Then he Obliged
young Jim and his brothers to go to
work on them with hammers and beat
them to powder, which was employed
as a fertilizer with most favorable n
suits. The Secretary says that this
bone breaking was the hardest toll he
aver did in his life.
Three years later, when he was
twenty, he went to Iowa, l-caGing in
Tama coonty, and started at farming
for himself. Out there he has long
been known as ''Tama jim" to dis
tinguish him from another James Will
son.
While in Congress, where Mr.. Will
son servad three terms, he joined Will
liam II. Hatch, of Missouri, at that
time Chairman Of the Committee on
Agriculture, in an effort TO secure legis
lation for the suppression # hat dan
gerous and very contagious disease
among cattle. pleuro pneumonia. Much
opposition was offered by the States
Rights people, who did not approve of
Interference by the Federal authorities
but ''Tama jim" declared that the mis-
chief was spreading. that it's existence
was concealed it many of the States,
and that infected animals were even
to be found in the Distric5 of Oolum-
bia. To demonstrate his proposition,
he secured the killing Of a diseased
COW on a farm in the District and act
ually brought a slice of one Of its lungs
to the House in a basket ard passed it.
around for inspection.
Thanks to his determined eforts, t.
much neededlaw was at length passed,
and, as a result, pleuro pneumonia has
been practically stamped out in the
States. 1t was this legislation
that made ghe Bureau of Animal In.
what it is to day, giving to 1t
administrative po yer, and enabling it
to control the transportation and quar-.
ansjning OF stock.
Mr.. Wilson owns several farms in
Iowa, two of which are managed by
MS sons. He is a widower, and his
household in Washington is conducted
By his only daughter. As might be
supposed, he is very prominent in
agricultural affairs in his W State,
and he sometimes say that the four
years he is spending in Washington
are only a vacation allowed him by
the Agricultural College at Ames,
Iowa, in which he is Professor of Agri
culture, holding at the same time the
position of Director of the agricultur ira
experiment. station connected With
that institution When he ceases to be
} member of the Cabinet he wall 20