Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1904-12-12

meats. guards the health of our people and
gives clean bills of health to deserving ex-
Iports it is prepared to deal promptly with
imported diseases of animals, and maintain
the excellence of our 4lockS and herds in
this respect. There should be an annual
census of the live stock of the nation.
We sell abroad 100000 900 worth of
plants and their products every wear.
Strenuous efforts are being made to import
i from foreign countries such grains as are
suitable to our varying localities Seven
years ago we bought three-fourths of our
rice; by helping the rice growers on the
gulf coast to secure seeds from the orient
suited to their conditions and by giving
them adequate protection, they now supply
home demand and export to the islands of
the Caribbean sea and to other rice growing
countries. Wheat and other grains have
been imported from light-rainfall countries
to our lands in the west and southwest that
have not grown crops because of light pre-
cipitatiOn, resulting in an extensive addi-
ton to our cropping area and our home
making territory that can not be irrigated.
Ten million bushels of first-class macaroni
wheat were grown from these experimental
importations last year. FruI.s suitable to
our soils and climates are being imported
/ from all the countries of the old world
the fig from Turkey, the almond from
Spain, the date from Algeria. the mango
from India. We are helping our fruit
growers to get their crops into European
markets by studying methods of preserva-
ton through refrigeration, packing, and
handling which have been quite successful.
We are helping our hop growers by import
ing varieties that ripen earlier and later
chan the kinds they have been raising,
thereby frightening the harvesting season.
The cotton crop of the country is threat
ened with root rot, the boll-worm and the
boil weevil. Our Psychologists will find i'm
mune varieties that will resist the root
disease and the bOll-Wofm can be dealt
with, but the boil weevil is a serious men
ace to the cotton crop. 1t is a Central
| American insect that has become acclimated
in Texas and has done great damage A
scientist of the department of agriculture
has found the weevil at home in Guate-
mala being kept in check by an ant, which
has been brought to our cotton fields for
observation. 1t is hoped that it may serve
a good purpose.
We have duplicates of the soils that
grow the wrapper tobacco in Sumatra and
the filler tobacco in Cuba. 1t will be only
a question of time when the large amounts
paid to these countries will be paid to our
own people.
The insect friends and enemies of the
farmer are getting attention. The enemy
great wall of China and is now cleaning up
all our orchards. The fg-fertiIizng insect
! imported from Turkey has helned to estab-
fish an industry in California that amounts
to from so to 100 tons OF dried figs annu-
ally and is extending over the Pacific
coast. A parasitic fly from south Africa
I is keeping in subsection the black scale, the
worst pest of the orange and lemon indus
try in California. Careful preliminary
work is being done towards producing our
own silk. The mulberry is being distrib-
uted in large numbers, eggs are being i'm
ported and distributed, improved reels were
| imported from Europe last year. and two
expert reelers were brought to Washington
to reel the crop of cocoons and teach the
art to our own people
Irrigation.
During the two and a half years that
have elapsed since the passage of the
reclamation act rapid progress has been
made in the surveys and examinations of
the opportunities for reclamation in the
/ thirteen states and three territories of the
arid west. The larger problems have been
4 solved and it now remains to execute with
care, economy, and thoroughness the work
which has been laid out.
Forests.
1t is the cardinal principle of the forest
reserve policy of this administration that
the reserves are for use Whatever inter-
| fereS with the use of their resources is to
/ be avoided by every possible means. But
these resources must be used in such
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 powerfully affect the
use and disposal of the public lands. They
OF special importance because Cnoy pre-
serve the water supply and the supply of
timber for domestic purposes, and so pro-
mote settlement under the reclamation act.
Every administrative officer concerned IS
convinced of the necessity for the proposed
consolidation of forest work in the depart
ment of agriculture The interests of the
nation at large and of the west in particu-
lar have suffered greatly because of the de-
i LAY.
Game Preserves.
! In connection with the work of the for
est reserves | desire again to urge tue i'm
portance of authorizing the resident to set
aside certain portions of these reserves or
other public lands as game refugees for the
preservation of the bison the wap11 and
other large beasts once so abundant in our
woods and mountains and on our great
plains. and now tending toward extinction.
| The canyon of the Colorado should be made
! a national park and the national park sys-
tenn should include the Yosemite and as
many as possible of the groves Of giant
Pensions.
J The veterans of the civil war have
claim upon the nation such as no other
body of our citizens possess. The pension
bureau has never in it's history been man
aged in a more satisfactory manner than is
now the case.
8 Postal Affairs.
/ In the postoffice department the service
has increased in efficiency, and conditions
as to revenue and expenditure continue sat
isfactory. The increase of revenue during
the year was $9,35S,1S1, or SO per cent
the total receipts amounting to $143.3S2,
/ 624. The expenditures were 152362 116.
an increase of about per cent over the
previous year, being thus $S,979.492 in ex-
cess of the current revenue. Included in
| these expenditures was total appropria-
! ton of So 956637 for the continuation
and extension of the rural free-delivery
service, which was an increase OF 81 9o2,-
237 over the amount expended for this pur-
pose in the preceding fiscal year. Large
as this expenditure has been the benefcent
results attained in extending the free dis
/ tribution of mails to the residents of rural
districts have justified the wisdom of the
outlay. statistics brought down to the 1st
| of October, 1904. show that on that date
/ there were 27,138 rural routes established,
serving approximately 12,oE0,000 of people
! in rural districts remote from postoffices,
and that there were pending at that time
1850 petitions for the establishment of new
rural routes. Unquestionably some part of
the general increase in receipts is due to
the increased postal facilities which the
rural service has afforded. The revenues
Ehaye also been aided greatly by amend
ments in the classification of mail matter,
+bo of of no