Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-07-30
Brought Intelligence to Work.

Brought intelligence to Work.
''In 1855 Secretary Wilson went to Iowa.
and there he labored on a farm and was
very successful. He brought intelligence
TO his work. lie was a husbandman in
the highest sense of the term. He did not
skim the soil. IIe did not starve his crops
any more than he starved his mich cow
lie rotated his crops and never planted
seed In field that was hungry for an
other sort of seed. He catered to the ap-
petltes of his lands, and though his har-
vests were bountiful the fertility of the
SOIL was never impaired. That is what it
is TO be q farmer, Secretary Wilson spends
great deal of time and devotes great
deal of thought to teaching some millions
OF American farmers how to do that sort
of farming.
In Congress and Legislature.
"l1e was three times sent to the state
legislature. and the last time he was
speaker. He was three times In congress,
and always member of the committee
on agriculture. Men like Kasson, ALI
son, Hepburn, Henderson, Dolliver, Cous-
ms, Lacey, and that other James Wilson
ne left to attend to the politics of the ma
tional legislature. 1t is not at all impos-
| sible that the Hon: Walt Butler could tell
osophy that would astonish him. The
secretary has also served on che state
railroad commission and was regent of the
state university. He was director of
the United States experiment station and
professor of agriculture in the Iowa col
lege at Ames. In 1897 he was appointed
secretary of agriculture by President Nc
kinley. Perhaps there is no man in the
world better fitted for such position by
temperament or by experience.
MT. Wilson was born among the scenes
that gave Inspiration to the wonderful
genius OF Robert Burns, and while vet a
lad he sang the songs of this master of
the human heart and delyed in the soil
that made so churlish returns to the la
Dor of the noblest plowman of all the
sons of Adam. He came to the new
world hardy Scotch lad. reared to toll,
fit to toll, and with appetite for no bread
not earned by toll 1t is thrifty and
hardy race, that Scotch, and it is not
too much to say that for numbers 1t has
done more for civilization than any other.
1t is in all climes where men think and
work.
Some Things Taught.
''NIr. Wilson has sunk his identity in his
office. His soul is in his work because he
loves 1T. His endeayor is to teach the
American farmer to make two ears of
corn grow where one grew before and to
cause two blades of grass to spring up
where one was before. Mr.. Wilson does
not harbor one single political idea that
John Sharp Williams would not love to
see starve to death, but Mr.. Williams
has the profoundest admiration for the
person of the secretary, and has lauded
his work to the skies. The American farm.
er wastes too much of his own energies
and too much misdirects the energies of
his land. He draws altogether too much
on his capital; that is, he skins the land
that his office is to husband. 1t was only
yesterday that he was taught the lesson of
crop rotations, and he has not yet half
| learned 1t. He seems to think that figs
come from thistles, and never has a
thought about the virilty of the seed he
plants. lie is only just beginning to learn
| that field hungry for clover is not the
best for tobacco, and that it does not pay
| to plant corn where black eyes peas will
not sprout. Experience is beginning to
teach him that the same grass and grain
| that will make a T00-pound bullock of a
scrub calf will make a 1,400-pound steer
of Shorthorn. And that is very val
liable lesson. He is gradually coming to
| know that there is diuerence in the
yield of butter of different cows. And
soon he will discover that a good COW eats
no more and requires no more care than
a poor COW. Then there Is the matter OF
poultry and eggs. The farmer will find
| that it is as easy to have l.rifty hens as
yagrant ones. and that eggs are never de-
MED to intelligent, patient and conserva.
tive care. By and by he will find out that
grass is a good thing for hog, and that
a COW pea is good for both hog and land
| He has yet to learn that every farm
should have its flock of sheep, and that
one sheep is worth a whole pack of sheer
killing dogs.
/ ..These are some of the lessons Secre
tary Wilson is trying to teach the Ameri
can farmer.
| Experiments With Soils.
"rhe secretary makes something of q
hobby of soils. He proposes to have
grown in this country Sumatra tobacco
\ and Egyptian cotton and macaroni wheat
He is meeting with extraordinary success
in these endeavors. These things come
! from his study of soils. There is a fig IN
the orient that was the delight of the
children of the sun that Saladin led tc
battle. Tt was an important part of the
4 food of that fiery race, and for centuries
and centuries it grew nowhere but in that
! far off country. Secretary Rusk brought
that fig to California and it fiourished
| MS tree, but was barren as to fruit
Secretary Wilson set about making it pro
| ftable and imported some bugs from
! the orient that fortified it and thus the
Smyrna fig of California is growing to bt
an important fruit industry.
Cotton Improved.
| 1.-THE secretary undertook to improve the
quality of cotton grown In the southern
states. The Sea Island cotton would moi
grow on upiands, and the secretary sci
about cross of the two. The result il
fiber twice as good as the original upland
| and half as good as the Sea Island. Thai
one experiment, not an accomplished task
will be worth many hundreds of millions
to the south before the new century has
| filed out It's first quarter. He is doing
| his utmost to improve all farm seeds, an(
is making admirable progress. Every ex
| pertinent station is school, and ey
cry agricultural college find coadjutol
| in him.
Destruction of Forests.
| zone great work deserves specil men
tion. All over this land, north, south
east and west, on places once fertile now
waste, you will see hilsldes from cal
windows CALLED, barren, bleak, bare
waste. They once had the forest prime
| val, and their fertility became sacrifice
| to the ignorance of the American farmer
These places can be restored and will be
They invite timber culture, and one day
| they will be covered with trees, and focks
and herds will feed on the grasses that
grow under them and between them
There Is plenty of level lands in this
| country for the plow. Restore the tree,
to the hillsides and supplement them Will
the vine and the grasses, and our rivers
| will return to their good behavior. Flood.
will be less disastrous and droughts less
| fgreQuent,