Albuquerque daily citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1895-1903, 1903-04-06


greatest and most benefcent measures
passed by the last congress- or indeed
by any congress in recent years, Is the
irrigation act, which will do for the
states of the great plains and the
Rocky Mountain region at least as
| much as ever has been done for the
states of the humid region by river
and harbor improvements. Few meas
ures that have ben put upon the stat
ute books of the nation have done
more for the people than this law will,
firmly believe. directly and Indirect
ly accomplish for the states In ques-
ton.
The department of agriculture de-
votes its whole energy to working for
the welfare of farmers and stock
growers. In every section of our coun-
try it aids them in their constantly in
creasing search for a better agricul-
tural education. 1t helps not only
them, but all the nation, in seeing
that our exports of meats have clean
bills of health, and that there is rigid
inspection of all meats that enter into
interstate commerce. Thirty-eight mil
ion carcasses were inspected during
the last fiscal year. Our stock grow
ars sell forty-hve million dollars
worth of live stock annually, and these
animals must be kept healthy or else
our people will lose their trade. Our
export of plant products to foreign
countries amounts to over six hundred
millions dollars q year. and there is na,
branch Of its work to whinh. the de-
! partment of agriculture devotes more
care. Thus the department has been
successfully introducing q macaronf
wheat from the headwaters of the Vol
ga, which grows successfully in ten
inches of rainfall, and by this means
wheat growing has been successfully
extended westward into the semi-arid
region. Two million bushels of this
wheat were grown last year; and be-
ing suited to dry conditions it can be
used for forage as we'll as for food for
| man.
The department of agriculture has
been helping our fruit men to establish
markets abroad by studying methods
of fruit preservation through refriger-
alton and through methods of handling
and packing. On the gulf coasts Of
| Louisiana and Texas, thanks to the
department of agriculture, rice suit
able to the region was imported from
the Orient and the rice crop Is now
practically equal TO our needs in this
| country, whereas a few years ago it
supplied but one~fourth OF them. The
most important of our farm products
is the grass crop; and to show what
has been done with grasses, | need
only to allude to the striking change
made in the entire west by the extend
ed use of alfalfa.
Moreover, the department has taken
the lead in the effort to prevent the de-
forestation of the country. Where
there are forests we seek to preserve
them; and on the once treeless plains
and the prairies we are doing our best
to foster the habit of tree planting
among our people. In my own life
time | have seen wonderful changes
WIOuSHl dDOuI ny lHlS tree pIdutiuS
| here in your own state and in the
states Immediately around it.
There are a number Of very impor-
tant questions, such as that of good
| roads, with which the states alone can
deal, and where all that the national
government can do is to cooperate
with them The same is true of the
education of the American farmer. A
number of the states have themselves
started to help in this work and the
department of agriculture does an i'm
mense amount which is in the proper
sense of the word educational and ed
ucational in the most practical way.
1t is therefore clearly true that a
great advance has been made in the
direction of finding ways by which the
government can help the farmer to
help himself-the only kind of help
which a self-respeeting man will ac-
cept, or, | may add, which will in the
end do him any good. Much has been
done in these ways, and farm life and
farm processes continually change for
the better. The farmer himself still
retains, because of his surroundings