Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1905-02-08
WHAT AGRICULTURlSTS HAVE
DONE.
There Seems to Be a Gold Mine on
Everv Farm.

mere seems TO Be Gold Mine on
Every Farm.
Department reports are rather dull
reading as a rule, but the American
farmer will be vastly entertained and
no doubt flattered by the perusal of
those paragraphs in the report of Sec
rotary of Agriculture James Wilson
which deal with the wealth taken
from the soil by the imam with the
hoe"-a purely figurative term in the
West, where farms are as large as
principalities, and sowing, reaping and
binding are done by machinery almost
as complicated as a printing press.
If the farmer does not think himself
a superior being to the mechanic and
the professional man after reading
about his contributions to the nation
al wealth, as set forth in this report
it will be because there is still mort
gage on his homestead and he is walk
ing the floor nights in painful calcula-
ton about. meeting the interest. 1t
that is the case, he must be the own
er OF a New Hampshire rock pasture
or of wood lot beyond the reach OF
portable saw mill surely he can
not be one of the happy mortals indi-
Gated in the Secretary's Arabian
Nights tale.
There seems to have been go!i
mine on every farm and plantation
outside New England in 1904. The
corn crop foots up almost 2,500,0OO,-
600 bushels, affording a value big
enough to Ray the national debt, with
something left over. Cotton was an
other bumper crop. The Secretary
estimates the value of the lint and
seed at 100000 900. Hay and wheat
together represent value OF more
than 81 ,O00,000,000 1t is estimated
that tia rice crop amounts to 9OO,00O,-
900 pounds, ana oats break all rec
ords except that of 1902. Mr.. Wills III
calculates that the principal crops
will bring $3,5S3,339, 600 wnen they
are all marketed, an increase OF more
than S4OO,OOO,OO0 over 1903. There IS
$1,136,9 40,289 worth OF horses on tie
farms, and of mules S217 ,53l.15,. The
American hen has done a wonderful
years work, and if all the rCusters
were to stand In line and crow their
triumph the salute would make a
much greater volume of noise round
the world than England's drumbea.
Shoulder to shoulder lie hens would
nIo1 hi n
from Cape Cod to the Golden Gate.
They lay 1,666,O0O,0O0 eggs a year,
and in the busy season two weeks OF
their labor would pay years inter-
est on the national debt. And still 1t
is sometimes a problem where to get
/ fresh egg, and how to procure the
money to buy it.
If the Secretary breaks into the fol-
lowing paean, who can blame him.
certainly not the farmer: "An occu
patton that has produced such an un-
thinkable value as one aggregatfng
nearly $5,OO0,O00,O00 within a year
may be better measured by some COM
PARSONS All of the gold mines OF the
CuLlIG WOI1u nave 0OI PAOouSSU oAASN
Columbus discovered America great
er value of gold than the farmers of
this country have produced in wealth
in two years; this years product is
6..er six times the amount of ths Capi
tai stocl. of all national banks; II
comes within three-fourths of bill
lion dollars of equalling the value OF
the manufacturers OF 1900, less the
cost of materials used; it is twice the
sum of our exports and imports for
a year; it is two and half times the
gross earnings from the operations OF
the railways; it is three and half
times the value of all minerals pro-
duced in this country, including coal,
iron ore, golu, silver and quarried
Evo mo Gun