Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-10-04
THRIVING.
ecretary Wilson Shows How the
Good Times Come.
RIGHT PROSPECTS FOR THE FUTURE

RIGHT PROSPECTS FOR THE FUTURE
Under the Mckinley Administration
the Agricultural Wealth of the Ma
ton Increased Enormously-A Com
prehensive Education.
Secretary of Agriculture Wilson, of
President McKinley's cabinet, adj
dressed the crowd at the Stark county
fair on Thursday, September s, and
spoke at length on the advantages of
scientific farming. He urged instruc-
ton, especially on the soil and its prod
ucts, in the schools and colleges, and
said none who are learned in such
branches ever want lucrative employ
ment. He also spoke of the prosperity
of farmers as class during the past
four years and of their bright prospects
for the future, dwelling at length on
what products of this country the peo-
pie of our new possessions can consume
and what they can furnish to this coun-
try. He said:
1.-THE college and university of our day
make ample provision and spread ample
repasts for everybody but the farmer. If
the young man is to cultivate the soil he
knows there is nothing in the intellectual
table that will help him in the field or with
the herd. We should know more of the
droughts that affect so seriously our staple
crops and how to fortify the soil against
them by keeping it full of organic matter
that makes it retain moisture.
1.-THE movement of moisture in different
soils and it's conservation require much
more study to thoroughly comprehend than
the constitution of the United States or
the way of a ship in the sea or a SER
pent on a rock" Much has been observed,
and a good deal written and laid away
n libraries, but very little IS taught in
school or practiced on the farm. Droughts
shorten crops, dry up pastures and destroy
the hopes of communities, while four or
five times as much rain falls during the
year as crops require. Is it not very singu-
tar that more attention is not given to it
by scholars? II one college would make
the movement of moisture in the soil a
speciality, and turn a full faculty toward
its demonstration from every standpoint,
it would bless the country more than any
university under our flag. The south will
probably have 100000 bales less cotton
on account of droughts. Kansas will have
200 100000 bushels less of corn because of
drought, and yet the south has from so
to so inches of rainfall, while Kansas has
five times as much as full corn crop can
use, if evaporation could be controlled or
| limited Six inches of rainfall is about
| what the crop uses, the rest is wasted.
The United States will have 100,O00,000 or
| more bushels of wheat less than an av-
erage crop because we do not conserve
moisture.
''We buy the products of skill from other
| countries, and we buy raw material, the
product of cheap labor. We sell the prod
ucts of skill to other countries, and we
| sell raw material, the product of cheap la
Dor within our own land. A study of this
| condition of affairs will lead us to get a
| correct estimate of our standing compared
| with other countries While we sold $792 :
S11,793 worth of domestic. products from
the United States in 1899, we bought $685.
| ,SS1 worth of agricultural products dur
| ing the same year. We paid $94, 000, 900 for
| sugar, $65, 900 for coffee, SAL 10000 for
hides and skins, $320O0,0O0 for silk, SIS, 00O,-
900 for fibers, SIS, 600 900 for fruits and nuts,
| $S,000,000 for wool, which, however, is only
half as much wool as we bought in 1898.
| Several of these things we can produce
in the United States. Some of them we cam
not on account of climatic prohibition. We
| can produce our own sugar, we can pro-
duce some of the fibers we buy, and much
of the fruits and nuts that we import. I
think 1t is only a question of time when
we can produce as fine tobaccos in some
/ parts of the United States as are produced
anywhere in the world; or at any rate,
If there are some delicately- Favored va
rieties which we cannot produce we will
help our brown men in the Pacific ocean
to prepare them for US. l have no doubt
that we can produce our own tea. EXten.
sive experimentation is being conducted
now, with the help of the United States
government, in South Carolina. The de-
partment of agriculture is in cooperation
with the experiment stations of all the
gulf states along this line. need not tel
an Ohio audience that we can produce
our own wool of all kinds, and we are
getting pretty well along toward doing it
having cut the importation in two between
1898 and 1899.
1.-THE great activity now existing in al
departments of industry in the United
States has had a most beneficial effect OF
the prices of farm animals.
1.-The total increase in the value of tn,
farm animals of the United States from
January /, 1897, to January /, 1900, is s572,
1OS. 522 The decrease in the number O
horses during the last three years ha
been pronounced, although it is becoming
less and less every year. During 1896 tn
decrease was &c., PSI. In 1897 it was 759, SSC
in 1898 it was 4O3 756, in 1899 it 295 604, an,
| in 1900 the decrease in the number of horse
in the United States was l277S3 This de
crease was brought about by the discour
agement to the breeding of horses result
ing from low prices. Now that prices ar
remunerative the decrease Is fading GU
and it is only question of time when a.
increase will begin again. We sold 64,7C
horses last year to foreign countries an
received $7,612056 for them. There is a
active demand in foreign countries TO
horses of all kinds, especially the more val
liable ones.
1.-The principal reason for the bette
| prices for domestic animals is that on
! people are at work everywhere. Goo
wages are being paid. We are sending con
signments of dairy products to Europea
and Asiat.e countries. A few years ag
shipments of that kind would have bee
very profitable, but at the present tim
the American workman uses our butte
and pays such good prices that it reall