The San Angelo press. (San Angelo, Tex.) 1897-1907, 1901-12-06
Remarkable Development of
Agriculture.

"hShiuS UOu, NON. - ne
NTH annual report of the secre.
tary OF agriculture, is consider.
ably larger than in former en- RS,
rejecting thereby the great
growth and development during
his administration.
The secretary suggests that
with the enormous interests our
stock raisers have at stake, and
Inspection or quarantine afford
ing, after all, relative. not AL
absolute guarantee OF protection,
IL might be well for tins country
TO follow the example Of Great
Britain and exclude live stock
from other countries entirely
The meat inspection service III
volved the inspection AT tunes ct
slaughter of nearly 37.000,OUC
animals. OF the more than s.
QUO, 600 Gait g inspected, the cou.
demned carcasses were about
one.iou ia Of per cent; of The
$500 COO sheep, one Ien,h Of l
per cent, and oil "a, 100000 hog ,,
one third of per cent. LII the
control of indigenous diseases.
l. 500, 600 inspections we're made
aud over As 900 cars disiulecied
in the Texas fever service alone.
In com batting the disease know II
as black leg" the bureau dis
tributed over 500, 900 doses of
vaccine. the result being To re-.
duce losses in affected herds To
less than | per cent. where form.
erly IL was III most cases about |
10 per cent To ala IN detecting |
tuberculosis IN cattle and gan
ders in horses, over Al 600 doses |
of tuOerculin aud Z 900 doses of |
maIlein have been supplied
The secretary points out the sc
rious evil resulting from II syS
ten OF state inspection, which. If
II became general. would effect
ually prevent the marketing Of
live stock in some sections, auu
"o''N VI hSlI VI IlIV uN'
fu!ness OF federal inspection.
He regards the present condl.
ion as so menacing 10 The inter.
esls OF The cattle industry in the
West and South west hat he has
requested the attorney gener
To co operate in bringing the |
matter before the supreme court
for decision as to the cons itu
tionality of these state laws.
This request has been favorably
received and The assistance of
the department OF justice prom
ised.
Referring 10 the grazing lands.
he says probably 400,000.00O |
acres of public domain has no
agricultural value except for
pasturage. 1t is at present an
open com mon, with no laws for
its protection or disposal. He
refers that the frequent conf cts
OF the farmers under irrigation |
with the stock and recon
mends, as remedial and beneti
cial mea sure, the leasing of the !
grazing rand in such a way as |
not 10 interfere with the home
steader. The rentals. he believes. |
would amount ia the aggregate |
10 a large sum, which could be |
appropriately applied 10 the re |
clamatlOn of the lrrigable lands.
He points out that such leasing
is not an experiment, as it has
been successfully tried, although |
in limited way, in Colorado,
Idaho, Montana, Nebraska. Utah |
and Wyoming. He winds up the
discussion of this subject by
presenting the following conclu
Sions:
/. That private enterprises
will have to be supplemented by
public aid in the construction of
certain classes of irrigation
works if we are to secure the
largest development; Of Western
agriculture.
2 The reservoirs located in
the channels of running streams
should be public works. ...
3. That the first step toward
national aid for irrigation should
be the passage of enlightened |
codes of water laws by the
States is to be benefited.
T. That the land laws should |
be modified by repeating the des
ert act and by requiring cultiva.
tion as well as residence on q
homestead
5. That the nonirriag ole graz
ing lands should be leased in
small tracts so as to unite the ir.
rigable and the pasture lands
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