Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-12-05
1t is Regarded as the Most In
teresting of Any Depart
ment Report
DIVA SOILS INVESTIGATED
A Subject of Considerable Interest to
the Hawkeye Farmers Given Much
Attention by the Secretary of Agri-
cuture-Growth of Agriculture Has
Been Remarkable in Recent Years.
special to Times-R Republican.


perhaps which is less dry and there
/ fore so interesting to readers in gen
! eral as well as to our agricultural pop
uIation as is that Of Secretary Will
son.
In our industrial progress during re-
tcent years there has been no more
conspicuous feature than the growth OF
agriculture, which we are beginning
to recognize properly as great science
and there are SO many specially inter-
esting things in the secretary's report
that / scarcely know which to write
about.
! Statistics recently prepared by the
agricultural department show that the
agricultural exports of the United
States for the fiscal year 1902 had a
value of about $760,000,000. In COM
parison with the record breaking fig
ures Of the preceding year, the value
for 1902 exhibits a rather marked de-
cline. Next to the exceptional record
of 1901, however, it is the largest ever
reported, being decidedly above the
average of the decade.
The decline from the hight mark
reached by our agricultural exports
in 1901 was principally due to the
fact that serious shortage in the
corn crop left comparatively small
supply of this important export grain
available for shipment to foreign mar
kets Our exports of corn during 1902
amounted in value to only Slb,Oo0,00o,
while in 1901 we sent abroad consign-
ments worth nearly $S3.oo0,0o0 The
loss to our trade thru the diminished
shipments of this product alone exceed
ed S66.OoO,0o0.
Aside from the extraordinary fall
ing off in corn expectation, the most
noticeable instance of decline occurred
in the shipment of cotton. Our cot
ton exports for 1902 had value OF
1892 000, 900, or about $2S,000,000 less
than the figures recorded in 1901, when
there were shipments worth $315,o00,-
600.
In regard to soil investigation Mr..
Wilson says that during the past fiscal
year a soil survey has been made
around Dubuque. under the charge of
Mr.. E. @. Fippin. Eight soil types
tions to crops reported upon.
Rather strong demands have come
for the continuation and extension of
this work to include the entire state,
but it is proposed to spend but SIX
months during the next field season In
surveying a part Of Cerro Gordo and
Story counties in the interest of sugar
beet production, as well as of general
farming, stock raising, and dairying.
These soil surveys are in the nature
Of general reconnaissance of the area.
They show the conditions which pre-
vail, and the maps show the character
and distribution Of the soils. This is,
however merely a basis for further
work, and 1t is necessary in many cases
that the information thus furnished
and the suggestions which are made
should be followed by further investi-
cations and practical demonstrations
of the efficiency and commercial value
of the suggestions in order to insure
their successful adoption by the resi-
dents of the area. Farmers are pro-
verbally ultraconservative as to their
methods, and are usually, and often
iustifiably. very unwilling to accept adj
provement will surely follow. Such
demonstration work can, in most cases,
be better accomplished by the stations
than by the department of agriculture,
for the station forces have more
intimate knowledge of the conditions
and of the people, and are, as rule,
in closer touch with the people than
is the department, and with these re-
ports and maps they have the basis
for further work in the improvement
OF the agricultural conditions of the
area, upon which they can expend their
full energy and all the resources at
their command. If the soil-survey
work is not followed up on these prac-
teal lines, much of the efficiency and
value of the work Will surely be lost
The secretary asserts that the inter-
est in forestry and a perception of it's
possibilities as great national re-
source have developed so swiftly in the
United States that the discrepancy be-
tween the capacity for government SER
vice of this branch of the department
and its opportunities was never so great
as now. During the past year the bu-
reau of forestry has notably increased
it's store Of knowledge, on which all for
estry depends. and has made large
gains in introducing practical manage
ment of forests of both public and pri-
yate ownership. Its field work has en-
gagged 1872 men and has been carried in
forty-two states and territories.
Thirty-seven applications were re-
ceived during the year, asking advice
for the management of 100000 acres.
The total area now under management,
in accordance with the working plans
of the bureau, is 372,463 acres. A plan
is in preparation for a tract in south
eastern Texas, comprising an area of
one and one-fourth million acres, the
largest private holding of timber land
in the United States.
BY the request of the secretary of the
interior, the bureau of forestry has be-
come his official adviser in matters of
forest policy for the national forest re-
serves, covering over 60,000,000 acres.
Extensive studies were made of COM
mercial trees during the year, and
studies of the forest and its industrial
relations were made in Michigan, Ken
lucky, Ohio, Texas, New Mexico, Ari-
IONA, South Dakota, Wyoming, Mon
tana, California and Iowa. Among the
questions involved were the present
and future supply, forest fires, relation
Of the forests to stream flow, irrigation,
and grazing. The bureau has discoy-
cred less Injurious method of turpen-
tine orcharding than that hitherto en-
ployed.
Corporation with the bureau of