Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1905-05-05
ATMOSPHERIC FERTILIZATION.
A Gift of the Agricultural Department
to the People.

~
to the People.
The American people, says Webster
Ballinger, writing from Washington to
the News and Courier, have become
more or less, to surpris-
ing statements emanating from the de-
partment of agriculture. Organized as
a concession to the rural vote and
with very little thought as to its pos
sibilities, this department was for
many years known as the Cow de-
partment" and was the subject of
many a paragraph, not always ami
mated by kindly spirit.
For the last eight years, however,
under the direction Of a real leader
of men, and a positive force In the
person of James Wilson, the depart
ment has forged ahead until 1t has
taken a front rank in the field Of gov
ernmental activities.
Not long ago Representative Mann
of Illinois, in remarks on the floor OF
the house, stated that in his judg-
ment one dollar spent by the depart
ment Of agriculture was the equiva-
lent, in actual returns to the people OF
fifteen dollars spent in any other line
of governmental activities. and the
facts bear out the Illinois congress
mans statement. We knew, In a va
que way, and have known, that the
agricultural interests are the bone
and sinew of the republic, and all pol
itical partisans are wont to appeal
particularly at election time, to the
man who Is "close to nature" and who
lives the Simple life" as the hope OF
the republic, but concrete facts are
necessary to enable US thoroughly to
the conditions.
Seven Years Of Prosperity.
The Republicans made the air vocal
from the Kennebec to the Rio Grande,
and from Puget Sound to Palm Beach
last fall talking Of the prosperity of
the last seven years and the enormous
balance of trade in favor Of this gov
ernment. AS a matter Of fact, were
1t not for the agricultural products OF
this country there would have been,
every year for the last fifteen years,
balance Of trade against this country
ranging from forty to seventy-five mil
lion dollars a year. In other words
the farmers, with their wheat, their
corn, and their dairy products, have
not only paid the excess Of imports and
exports in other lines, amounting In
ten years to a half million dollars, but
have piled up in the peoples Golfers
surplus fund of over three hundred
millions Of dollars in a single decade.
There Is. therefore, no reason why the
department of agriculture should not
receive, not only attention, but gener-
GUS treatment, at the hands Of con-
gress.
There Is no department Of the gov
ernment where men Of high ability
devote more conscientious effort to
the service Of the people. Secretary
Wilson has grouped around him
corps of scientists whose reputation
has become world wide. When Argen-
tina desired to start a meteorological
bureau, DR.. Willis Moore, Of the de-
partment of agriculture, had to fur
nish the men. When the new Cuban
republic began work along lines SINH
lar to those followed by our govern
ment, they sought, but sought In vain
for some of the scientists Of the bu-
reau of soil surveys to examine their
own agricultural possibilities. France
Great Britain, and other foreign coun-
tries have tried to avail themselves OF
the results of our work, and 1t is safe
to say that today no country in the
world has as efficient and able bu-
reau of agriculture as our own.
Wide Scope of the Department.
Agriculture, according to Mr.. Will
son, is a pretty wide term. 1t includes
a remarkable series Of experiments in
wireless telegraphy. in the crop and
weather bureau service. 1t includes
the treatment of the water of standing
lakes and reservoirs with innocuous
chemicals to remove algae, parasitic
growths and injurious animalcules,
and the work has been successful to
degree that private enterprise and
medical science have not dreamed Of.
Mr.. Wilson has carried on a farmers
against mosquitoes, as In our
boyhood days we fought the crow and
woodchuck, but with much more
methods and correspondingly
superior results. We used to hear
about the man who made
two blades of grass grow where one
had grown before. The department
is making two kernels Of wheat grow
where one has grown before. This
means something. The addition of a
single kernel Of wheat to the head
according to careful statisti-
clans, to an increase Of more than five
dollars in the value Of the
wheat crop Of this country, and Mr.
Wilson's farmers are showing the far
merS of Minnesota and Iowa now 10 DO
it. We used to talk about blight and
wonder what caused 1t. Blight Is sim
ply a germ disease and they treat it
now as in the hospitals one treats
diphtheria and measles. In fact, those
who know have forgotten all about the
department of agriculture being the
Cow department" and regard 1t as 1t
is, one Of the highest scientific branch
es of the governments work. One Of
it's highest paid clerks ranks as stem
ographer and typewriter on the rolls,
and he receives a salary that would
make most men of his profession grow
green with envy, but Mr.. Stenographer
and Typewriter is a university gradu-
ate, an expert lingNist and translator.
and an all round man Of the world.