Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1901-06-28
RICHES FOR FARMERS.
Secretary Wilson Promises Continued
Mississippi Valley Prosperity.

Mississippi Valley Prosperity.
Chicago, June PA Washington
special to the Record-Herald says:
Secretary of Agriculture Wilson has
some good news for the farmers OF
the Mississippi Valley. AS result OF
series Of Investigations which ne
has made the secretary is prepared
to say that in his opinion the present
high prices of beef and hogs VIII con-
tinue for several years. There may
be and doubtless Will be slight fuc-
tuations of prices upward or down
ward, but the average is pretty sure
to rule high.
"We have now reached an era IN
which the farmer of the Mississippi
Valley is decidedly at the 'front.' SAD
Secretary Wilson. "Never before was
he so prosperous, and l am satisned
his prosperity is not ephemeral. In
vestigations made under my dlrec-
ton show that the corn-feedlng
farmer of the Mississippi Valley must
for a long time to come bear the
brunt of the burden of feeding the
world it's meats and meat products.
This task, I assume, the farmer. OF
the Mississippi Valley is quite willing
to undertake at fair prices.
$40 begin with, our inquiries show
that the world over the consumption
of meat is increasing faster than the
supply. While Argentina, Australia
and South Africa are coming into the
market with their supplies of beef
and mutton, even this rapid develop
ment does not keep pace with the
growing demand for meats. AS the
working people of the world rise to
better conditions, earn their wages
and gain larger share of the good
things of life as a reward for their
toll, they want and get larger
amount of meat for their tables. All
over the world the great industrial
which is such marked
feature of the beginning of the TWEEN
tieth century is bringing into exist
ence race Of meat eaters. Millions
upon millions of people who have
hitherto lived with very little meat
or none at all are now eating it daily
and crying for more.
'In the United States the quantities
of meat consumed are something as
tonishing. In the good times which
now prevail we are nation of beef
steak eaters. The best is none too
good for the humblest. No other peo-
pie in the world eat as much meat
and as good meat as the people OF
these United States.
Enquiries made by agents of the
of Agriculture show con-
clusively that the western ranges are
giving out. The figures show that
in Wyoming and Nevada only about
one-half as many meat-bearing ami
mails are on the ranges as were there
a few years ago. This is due to the
fact that the grasses of that country
will endure only about so much feed
ing and trampling. When they are
eaten out close to the roots, as by
sheep, or trampled by too close feed
ing. they die out and never come back.
To restore the ranges it is necessary
to introduce a new grass, and this
is a work which the department has
taken up in earnest. North of Texas
and all the way through to the Pa
cific coast these conditions generally
prevail
private property has, of course,
been taken care Of, but the great pub
lie ranges have been worked to death.
Why, that splendid river, the Column
bia, mile wide and I do not know
how deep, flows in many places
through a veritable desert that runs
down to within ten feet of the water.
Sheep herders have cared more for
results than for conserv-
ing of the ranges, which is not sur
considering that it is govern
ment land, and that many of the
sheep owners are Frenchmen and 9th
er foreigners who have come over
here to make some money as quickly
as possible and the.l get back home
again. We have even had trouble
keeping their f1ocks out of the gov
forest reservations.
''Now, il follows as surely as that
two and two make four that if the
cannot keep pace with the de-
mand for meats the farmers of the
corn belt must come to the front.
This they have been doing. They
must keep it up.
.'Not only should the prices of
meats keep UP, but corn should not
20 any lower. What this means to
the Mississippi valley every farmer
knows. When farmer can turn his
corn into beef and hogs and sell them
for cents a pound he is getting at
least so cents bushel for his crop,
and many think 60 cents bushel
would be a fair estimate. The farm
er who can raise from fifty to eighty
bushels of corn to the acre and dis
pose of it at such prices by feeding it
out is not going to the poor house.
''There is no other industry in the
United States that stantts today on u
surer and safer basis, with brighter
prospects for the future than that OF
farming and stock raising out in the
great valley of the Mississippi.
s'It is not alone with the corn, the
hogs, the beef and the wheat that the
west ern farmer is doing we'll added
Secretary Wilson. Horses are high.
are doing well raising horses
for the market. There is every pros
peet that the present high prices will
continue. The horse has come back
to his own. He is no longer 81 drug
ina the market. For Z time tbe. i rolley
and the bicycle ran him out, but now
he is on top again.
Every year London consumes las
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