Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-07-23
NOT WHAT He WANTED
BULLETINS RECEIVED BY A
MICHIGAN FARMER.

There is a farmer out in Michigan whose
views as to the value of the Agricultural
Department as a national institution have
been sadly changed. A letter received at
the department in the past week con-
tanned q plaintive wall from the dtsil-
lusioned soil tiller
The Honorable Secretary OF Agricul-
ture," he begins. steemed Sir take
my pen In hand to write you about the
Agricultural Department. l don't sup
pose you want TO hear from me, but I
want you to read this communication. AS
I help to pay your salary you ought to do
it 1 will be- as short as ! can.
Il have been a farmer all my life. and
there amt any mortgage over my head
amt generally regarded as q kicker, I
don't think the world owes me d living
ana I sure am hog for work. Neither do
think I know 1t all and some time ago
when 1 heard you had experts find out
about everything and send advice to
farmers I thought 1t was fine. l asked my
Congressman what l should do to get
some of this free advice and he told me
to write to the Publication division of the
agricultural department. mentioning his
name l did so. saying I farmer
that didn't know it all and that I was
AFTER some bulletins TO nSlp me IN my
farming
Along about week later" continued
the writer "a package came for me and [
was real tickled, and after me and Alirandy
had finished supper and the dishes was
wiped l sets down and opens the package,
intending to absorb some of that free In
forna ton right there on the spot, having
concluded that Ia been farming too long
in the old ignorant way But III be hon
swaddled If / wasn't surprised when pick
ed up the first bulletin to see that II was
called a preliminary study of the germina
ton of the spores OF agarieuS campestris
and other basIsomycetous fungi Mr.. Sec
rotary, I'm plumb ignorant, but l never
tackled crop like that, and amt going
to. l looked through the book. but couldn't
make head or tail Of 1t. so / just laid 1t
aside and picked up another. That there
first one. / says to myself slipped in by
mistake.
when l opened that second bulletin III
be dodgasted If 1t wasn't more outlandish
than the first. 1t was about the formation
OF the spores in the sporangia of rhizopus
nigracans and of phycomyces nitens. With
out going too much into my feelings when
1 read that thing I'll continue. The third
bulletin I picked up about the physo-
logical role of mineral nutrients in plants.
which didn't mean whole lot to me; the
fourth told how to cultivate the Central
American rubber tree and the fifth was
about wither-tip and other diseases of cit
rous trees and fruits caused by colletotri-
chun gloesperioides. You can believe me.
Mr.. Secretary. when | tell you that ! amt
going to plant any rubber trees out here in
Michigan, and that L don't give a cuss
whether it's the colletotrichum gloesporio-
ides or something else that don't agree with
citrous trees because | amt got any
The next one of these valued documents
which met my eye," the farmer went on to
say. was about the permatogenesls and
formulation of zamia, and the next was
about the North American species o. spar
tina That last was real welcome because
I'd heard about 1t before somewhere but
otherwise 1t wasn't valuable. because /
amt ever going TO plant II on my farm
II was little bit encouraged but the
next one l looked at set me back, for It
was about experiment in range improve
ment In central Texas That was in plain
English, but l amt much interested as
1 might be in things down that way; but |
guess I'll keep the bulletin by me in case
should ever move. The next one looked
at was about copper algicide and dis
infectant in water supplies. l was plumb
poisoned by a copper kettle once and I've
got fine spring on my place. besides a
windmill which pumps water out of we'll
for the stock
There were only three more of them
books left, the farmer sadly wrote land
they were all disappointing One of them
told about the methods for controlling and
reclatming sand dunes. of which there amt
any my farm; the second was about
the prickiy pear and other cacti as food
for stock and which riled me some, as L
amt man naturally cruel TO animals, and
the last of the batch called budding
the pecan I've read in the papers about
looping the loop and If budding the pecan
Is anything similar I can't see by heck, |
what its got to do with farming.
Hoping that you'll read this letter and |
that got the wrong package by mistake |
not wanting to think unkindly of you and |
the agricultural Department. remain. with |
respect. --"