The Grit-advocate., 1903-04-17
Roosevelt on Farming.

In hs speech at Sioux Falls, s D.,
One Of the greatest and most benef-
cent measures passed by the last Con-
gress. or indeed by any Congress in re-
cent 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 measures that have been put
| upon the statute books of the nation
have done more for the people than this
law will firmly believe, directly and
indirectly accomplish for the states in
| question
The Department of Agriculture de-
votes its whole energy to working for
the welfare of farmers and stock grow
ers. In every section of our country
| 1t aids them in their constantly increas-
ing search for better agricultural ed
| ucation. 1T helps not only them. but
all thp nation, in seeing that our eX-
poHsst meats have clean bills of health
and that there is rigid inspection of all
meals that enter into interstate COM
merce. Thirty-eight million carcasses
werc inspected during the last fiscal
year Our stock growers sell forty
five 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 prod
ucts to foreign countries amounts to
over six hundred million dollars year,
and there is no branch of its work TO
which the Department of Agriculture
| devOtes more care. Thus the depart
men has been successfully introducing
a macaroni wheat from the headwaters
of the Volga. which grows successfully
/ in ten inches of rainfall. and by this
meals wheat growing has been success
| fully extended westward into the semi
| arid region. Two million bushels of
| this wheat were grown last year; and
| being suited to dry conditions. il can
F, 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 refrigera-
| ton and through methods Of handling
| and packing. On the Gulf coasts of
Louisiana and Texas. thanks to the Dc
partu-ant of Agriculture. a rice suitable
to the region was imported from the
Orient and the rice crop is now prac-
tically equal to our needs in this coun
try. whereas a few years ago it sup
piled but one-fousth 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
chang made in the entire West by the
extended use of alfalfa
Moreover. the department has taken
the lead in the effort to prevent the
defOrcstation CT the country. While
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 lifetime
have seen wonderful changes brought
about by this tree planting here in your
own state and in the states Immediately
around it.
There are a number Of very import
ant questions, such as thai 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
numbcr 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
great advance has been made in the di-
rection Of finding ways by which the
government can help the farmer to
hell> himself-the only kind of help
which self respecting 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.
and the nature of his work. to a pre-
eminent degree. the qualities which we
like to think as distinctly American in
considering our early history"