Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1904-12-09


ment them.
Bureau of Corporations.
The Bureau of Corporations has made
careful preliminary investigation of many
important corporations. 1t will make a
special report on the beef industry. The
policy of the bureau is to accomplish
the purposes of its creation by co-opera
ton, not antagonism; by making con-
structlye legislation not destructive pros
ecution, the immediate object of it's in
Quiries; by conservative investigation of
law and fact, and by refusal to issue
incomplete and hence necessarily inaccu-
rate reports. Its policy being thus one
OF open inquiry into and not attack
upon business, the bureau has been able
to gain not only the confidence, but, bet
ter still. the cooperation of men engaged
in legitimate business.
The Department of Agriculture.
The Department Of Agriculture has grown
into an educational institution with a fac
ulty of two thousand specialists making re-
search into all the sciences of production.
me Congress appropriates, directly and
indirectly, six millions of dollars annually
to carry on this work. 1t reaches every
State and Territory in the Union and the
islands of the sea lately come under our
flag. Cooperation is had with the State
experiment stations, and with many other
institutions and individuals. The world is
carefully searched for new varieties of
grains, fruits, grasses vegetables, trees,
and shrubs, suitable to various localities in
our country; and marked benefit to our
producers has resulted. The activities of
our age in lines of research have reached
the tillers of the soil and inspired them
with ambition to know more of the prin-
ciples that govern the forces of nature with
which they have to deal. Nearly half Of
the people of this country devote their en-
ergies to growing things from the soil. I'm
til recent date little has been done to
DEia hasa e., &lNos,
In most lines Of human activity colleg
trained men are the leaders. The farmer
had no opportunity for special training I'M
til the Congress made provision for it forty
years ago. During these years progress has
been made and teachers have been pre-
pared. Over five thousand students are
i'll attendance at our State Agricultural
Colleges. The Department Of Agriculture
has given facilities for postgraduate work
to five hundred young men during the last
seven years, preparing them for advanced
lines of work in the Department and in
the State institutions. The facts concern
ing meteorology and it's relations to plant
and animal life are being Systematically
inquired into. The seasons of the cyclones
OF the Caribbean Sea and their paths are
being forecaSted with increasing accuracy.
The cold winds that come from the north
are anticipated and their times and in
tensity told to farmers, gardeners, and
truiterers in all southern localities. We
sell two hundred and fifty million dollars
worth of animals and animal products to
foreign countries every year, in addition to
supplying our own people more cheaply and
aDundantly than any other nation is able
20 provide for it's people. The Department
of Agriculture, by careful inspection of
meats, guards the health of our people and
gives clean bills of health to deserving ex-
ports: it is prepared to deal promptly with
imported diseases Of animals, and maintain
the excellence of our hocks and herds in
this respect. Strenuous efforts are being
made to import from foreign countries such
&c ~ fn yi0r 10
calities. Seven years ago we bought three
fourths of our rice; we helped the rice
growers on the Gulf coast and they now
supply home demand and export to the
islands of the Caribbean Sea and to other
growing countries. Wheat and other
grains have been imported from light-rain-
fall countries to our lands in the West and
Southwest that have not grown crops be-
cause Of light precipitation, resulting in an
extensive addition to our cropping area and
our home making territory that can not be
irrigated. Ten million bushels of frStclass
macaroEi wheat were grown from these
experimental importationS last year. Fruits
suitable to our soils and climates are being
imported from all the countries of the Old
Weird. The soils of the country are get
ting attention from the farmers stand
point. and interesting results are following
rhe reclamation of alkali lands is progress
ing, to give object lessons to our people
i'll methods by which worthless lands may
be made productive. The insect friends
and enemies of the farmer are getting at
tention. Careful preliminary work is being
done towards producing our own silk. The
crop-reperting system Of the Department
of Agriculture is being brought closer to ac-
curacy every year.
Irrigation of Arid Lands.
During the two and half years that
have elapsed since the passage of the
c!amatiOI act rapid progress has been made
in the surveys and examinations of the OPP
pGrtunitieS for reclamation in the thirteen
States and three Territories of the arid
West. Construction has already been be-
gun on the largest and most Important of
the irrigation works, and plans are being
completed for works which will utilize the
funds now available. The larger problems
have been solved and it now remains to
execute with care, economy, and thorough
ness the work which has been laid out
Each project is taken up on the ground by
competent men and viewed from the stand
point of the creation of prosperous homes
and of promptly refunding to the Treasury
the cost of construction
Our Forest Reserves.
1t is the cardinal principle of the for
est-reserve policy Of this Administration
that the reserves are for use. Whatever
is to be avoided by every possible means
But these resources must be used in such
Il way as to make them permanent The
forest policy of the government is just now
a subject of vivid public interest through
out the West and to the people of the
United States in general The forest re
serves themselves are of extreme value to
the present as well as TO the future welfare
of all the western public-land States. They
affect the use and disposal of
the public lands. They are of special i'm
portance because they preserve the water
supply and the supply of timber for do
nestle purposes, and promote settlement
under the reclamation act. Indeed, they are
essential to the welfare of every one OF the
great interests of the West.
Pensions.
The veterans of the Civil War have a
claim upon the Nation such as no other
body of our citizens possess. The Pension
Bureau has never in its history been man
aged in more satisfactory manner than is
now the case.
Progress of the Indians.
The progress of the Indians toward civil
ization. though not rapid, is perhaps all
that could be hoped for in view of the cir
cumstances. Within the past year many
tribes have shown. in degree greater than
ever before. an appreciation of the neces-
sity of work. This changed attitude is in
part due to the policy recently pursued of
reducing the amount of subsistence to the