Evening star., 1902-09-12
WORK, NOT POLITICS
WHAT SECRETARY WILSON FINDS
IN THE WEST.
Corn Crop is Safe-Wheat Crop is
Good-And Beef Will Be
Cheaper.

Talk politics? No. Since my last trip
In Vermont I have been in Iowa, Nebraska
and Indiana and the people in those states
are so busy attending to business and rails
ing crops, and incidentally are nearly all
OF the same political belief, that politics
Is thing not thought Of
This was the statement of Secretary Will
SON, who returned to the Department of
Agriculture today from an extended trip
through the west.
Il was particularly interested on this
last trip in looking over the corn crop.
There has been more hundreds of millions
of dollars depending on the ripening of this
crop this year than the ordinary person
has ever realized. While the crop Is a
little bit late, any danger of it's failure
can now be considered over. The crop is
a good one. While it may not be a record
breaker the quality of the is splen
did, and. with the exception of the south
ern states, the yield per acre is very
heavy. In the south the drouth has some
what affected the corn crop.
The wheat crop of the west this year is
also very fine and what may be considered
as as really the most important crop Of all
the grass crop-is exceedingly good. The
census tells us that there has been a great
increase during the past ten years in the
number of cattle in the United States This
crop of grass. insures lower prices of meat.
l do not believe that the price of meat
however. will ever be as low as it has
been in the past, for the simple reason that
the American people are more prosperous
than ever before and are eating more meat
than ever before. However the exceeding
~ hish prices of meat will be a thing of
the past as soon as the present feeders
get fattened up to a beef condition. An
other thing that will tend to keep the price
of meat a little above the former low price
is the demand of England for our meats
The Cotton Weevil.
The last most interesting item in con-
nection with the work of this department
Is report have just received from Texas,
which states that experiments for the erad-
ication of the Mexican cotton-ball worm
has demonstrated that this disastrous in
sect will not touch Egyptian cotton. The
department has been experimenting with
the raising of Egyptian cotton for several
years with marked success If this last
report proves to be true it will undoubtedly
result in the planting of Egyptian cotton in
Texas in the future.
~ hat may be considered as another i'm
portaht step in agriculture is the progress
the department is making in the develop
ment of a fine tobacco filler Several wears
ago the department began it's work in the
tobacco industry by endeavoring to develop
a wrapper tobacco of the finest quality At
the Paris exposition this wrapper tobacco
took the gold medal on account of it's fine
SILKY quality and light weight. We showed
twenty-five leaves to the pound more than
any other wrapper tobacco produced
1t Is Just as well that filler expert
ments are developing rapidly, as the de-
paftment experiences great difficulty in
Keeping its experts in this line. Just as
soon as the wrapper tobacco had been de-
Felsped commerce bid so high for the de-
partmerts $ experts who had developed 1t
1aIj ts.Iy- Iart
service. I his will undoubtedly be the case
also in The filler line. We are making
these experiments in Ohio and Texas. In
the development of filler tobacco attention
only Is paid to the aroma. This aroma Is
very often found in Havana tobacco, but
not always. The people of the Caribbean
sea follow the tobacco industry exactly as
their grandfathers did. They know what
was done to the crop then and they do the
same now However, the raising Of a sim
gle crop year after year on the same land
Is bound to result In the deterioration of
that crop This is the explanation of why
the quality of Havana tobacco does not run
equally and why much of it has deterior-
ated within the last few years.
A Macaroni Wheat.
A new wheat from Russia from which
macaroni can be made is being experiment.
ed with in the Dakotas We pay foreign
countries SS,O0O,000 a year for macaroni
OF many Years We have been experiment.
ing with our own wheat in endeavoring to
make it successfully, but without the de-
sired results. This new variety Of wheat
however, will obviate this difficulty, and
macaroni factories are now being establish
ed for the manufacture of this product
with the new wheat
Il have just also received report from
one OF our experts sent to Turkestan for
the purpose of getting information regard
Ing an alfa alfa which can be grown in
climate where the winters are cold and the
summers are hot. The alfalfa grown in
this country now was originally obtained
from Snai1 EraSt L.