Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-04-09

take the farm and manage 1T himself. In
some other parts Of the country the wages
are less"
Where Our Money Comes From.
''Are we farming any better now than We
did In the past, Mr.. Secretary
Very much So" replied Secretary Will
son. And we shall farm better in the
future than we are doing now. We are
learning every day and are steadily adding
to the aggregate of our crops. What we
produce now is beyond conception. Our
wheat crop amounts to 6oo,0oo.UO bushels
every year, and IL Is worth in the neigh
borhood of s400.O00,00
THE value of the gold and silver mined
In the United States is not half that and
all the gold mines of all the world did not
produce as much by S1o0,0000j0 in 1902.
The corn crop is worth more than twice as
much as the wheat crop. 1t is now bring
ing in $1.00o,O00.00o year. and for our
oats alone we raise enough to equal value
of million dollars for every working day.
The crop amounts TO billion bushels, with
value of $30O.oo0Ooo. Our hay crop in
many years is worth more than the total
product or all the gold and silver mines OF
the world, and the cotton crop last year
sold for more than a half billion dollars.
These figures are enormous. There is moth
ing like them anywhere and We have not
begun to approximate. the ma ximum of our
farming possibilities
Uncle Sans New Crops
mo" said the Secretary reflectively
I'VE do not know what we have nor how
rich We are. We are discovering some new
thing every day which adds enormously to
our national wealth The Agricultural De-
partment has become one of Investigation
and research. We have men travelling over
the world looking for new plants and seeds.
Some time ago IL seemed impossible that
we could raise figs. We planted the trees,
out could get no results. At last, on the adj
wee or our specialists, we imported a little
insect from Smyrna to fertilize the trees,
That Is, to carry the pollen from enc place
to another. That little bug did the busi-
ness, and we are now raising excellent figs
on the dry highlands of the west We pro-
duced more than 800 0a0 pounds last year.
and we are just beginning
do you see that macaroni%' the Secre-
tary went on, as he picked up a paper to
which some pipe stems of white macaroni
were sewn. That macaroni was made in
America from american wheat which
grows on land that will raise no other
grain grain. We studied the wheat and the soils
which produced it, and this is the result.
We raised 100000 bushes of macaroni
wheat last year, and the day will come
when we will be shipping 1t to Italy.
New Cotton for the South.
There on the mantel," the Secretary
continued you may see a frame contain
ing samples of cotton. The cotton at the
right has short staple. That is the COM
mon cotton raised on the uplands all over
the south Those long silky fibers on the
left are from the famous sea island cotton,
tie highest priced and best known to the
world. That cotton will grow only on the
Islands off the coasts of Georgia and South
Carolina We have planted its seeds on the
upldnds, but could get no results. Then
we took the upland plants and married
them to the sea island plants, and the re-
suit is we have produced the cotton which
you see between the two in the frame. It
Is not so long the sea island cotton. but
1t is far longer than the upland cotton.
That cotton, the child of the two other
kinds, will grow the uplands and the
breeding of it will add millions OF dollars
to the value of our cotton crop. We are
now experimenting on the best varieties of
the Egyptian cottons of which we import
S1,OOooO0 worth every year. We have had
good results, and will soon raise all We
want
another important item is rice" said
the Secretary. I'VE used to import nearly
all We consumed We raised $4,000 600
pounds last year, and are now sending
rice TO Cuba and other countries We
are doing a big business in sugar. We
have begun to raise il from sugar bects
and our product last year of that kind
of short sweetening was $4,000 oCO pounds,
enough to give thirty pounds to every fam
lily in the United States. six and one
half pounds for every man, woman and
child in the country. We have fifty fac
tories now running making that sugar,
and could if the matter were prop
erly handled produce every pound of sugar
we use.
A Great Scientific Institution.
Indeed" said the Secretary II doubt
IL the people know what a scientific in.
stitution the Agricultural Department 10,
Aside from its other business 1t is now
a post graduate university devoted 70
training men to original scientific re-
search along agricultural lines. We have
had 496 students here, most of them
college graduates whom have been
training for this kind of work. About half
of that number have already been given
positions in the Agricultural Department
and elsewhere. Indeed, l could find places
for scores more if had them. The British
minister ASKED me for man to send
to the Bermudas to investigate some
matters there. Another of our specialists
has been recently employed by the gov.
eminent of Cuba and / understand he ID
to get 5000 a year. / have an appli.
cation for man to take charge OF
a agricultural school which Is being
established in the middle west at a good
round salary and there are other openinge
along other lines. Indeed. the day OF
the time farmer is pa ssed and the day
of the scientific agriculturist is here"
FRANK G.. CARPENTER