Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-11-29
WORK OF THE FARM
Annual Report of Secretary Viii
son.
GENERAL AVERAGE RAISES
Meat Law is Being Rigidly Enforced
Over the Country.
MORE SCIENTIFIC FARMING
Report Says Crops Would Have Been
Raised and Products of Agriculture
Would Have Been Increased.
MORE SCIENTIFIC FA1

THE time of the man and the yield of the
acre become more responsive as more i'm
perative demands are made upon them, "
says Secretary of Agriculture Wilson
| in his annual report made public today. In
this way the Secretary strikes the keynote
| of all the aims of the department to bene-
fit the agriculturist and indirectly the pub
lie.
The meat law is being enforced, the Sec
rotary says, inspection is now made in over a
thousand houses. and thrt cen hundred experts
have been added to the inspection force.
Rules have been prepared foi the execu-
ton of the pure food law; good has fol-
| lowed the operation of the law for the ex-
termination of the cattle fever tick in some
| of the southern states. and beginning
! has been made in the method of grading
grain and the law providing for the humane
treatment of live stock in transit.
| The economic revolution in the art and
science of agriculture continued during
| 1906 says the Secretary. with tremen-
| dous results on the national prosperity.
| The value of crops continues to rush for
ward beyond comprehension; crops are
straining the freight trying abilities of
the railroad The farmer. alive to the i'm
portance of the place that he occupies in
| the nation. offers this yearly account Of
| himself to the people"
| According to the report, corn remains by
| far the most valuable crop, estimated at
81. 1O0.O00.oO0. Next comes the cotton CROP
| which, Including seed, is estimated to be
worth to the growers nearly 500, 900.
| Hay is placed third, at $500 600 O30; wheat
| the fourth crop, S450, 900, &c., oats 5000 O0O,-
| O0J; potatoes. $150GU9,000; barley, $50, &c.
| OUO, gain of y per cent in production in
the past seven years; tobacco 500, 0o0, 900.
Seven years ago the beet sugar crop was
valued at $7,000090 The production in 1906
is placed at $4,000 long tons, valued at
$34, 100000 The value of all kinds of sugar,
syrup and molasses is placed at $I5,000,0o0.
General Average Raised.
ION the whole says the Secretary, crop
values have been neither notably high nor
low in comparison with recent years, but
the high-priced levels in the general aver
age have raised the total crop value some
what compared with 1905. and the high
preceding years. To reach a still higher
point in this series of high annual values is
an achievement worthy of attention"
1t appears from the report that the farm
still overshadows the mill. the factory and
the workshop in providing exports, and with
this surplus beyond the nations need the
farmer has loaded the fleets of all the
oceans. For the fiscal year ending June 80,
1906, this surplus has been exported to the
value of $976.000,0O0. the largest amount
ever reached by agricultural exports for
this or any other country. and exceeding
even the export value of 1901, previously
the record. Among chief exports. cotton
maintains long lead. with a value of
$400, 000. 900. The packing house products
exported amounted in value to $207, 600 600.
The imports of agricultural products, con-
sisting mainly of the same articles year
after year, reached their highest value in
| 1906-s554 100000 These included packing
house products, 500, 600 600; sugar and mo-
lasses, $4,000. 900; coffee, S73O0O 600; silk
$54, 100000; vegetable fibers. $50 900 900;
| 4 M. tNt.., . M 400,
$21 10000 tea $14,GO0O0O In forest
products 1906 shows an import value ex-
ceeding $95,O00.000. against a total value in
exports of similar products amounting to
ST., 000.O GOO.
The favorable balance of trade it is very
plain is due to farm products. For 1905
the agricultural exports exceeded similar
imports by S433. 100000, while the products
of all other industries secured a balance
in our favor of only $50 O0O00O. During the
last seventeen years the exports of the
farmer have exceeded the agricultural i'm
ports by $1,000 000,000 while all other pro-
ducers find themselves at the end of the
same period with total on the debtor side
amounting to $3.50 100000.
If real estate. domestic animals, other live
| stock, implements and machinery are in
| Guided the farmers capital has increased
| since the census valuation by probably eight
| billions of dollars the present valuation
being probably SIS 0OO. 900.
The report contains some interesting fig
ures on meat production. In 1900, 90, 502 600
| meat animals were slaughtered and export
| ed. Every time the clock ticks a second
during ten hours of workday the farmer
drives nine meat animals to the butcher
More Scientific Agriculture.
The report says that "a more scientific
agriculture would have raised crops in ex-
cess of the demands: but when consump-
ton demands and prices sustain, the farmer
will respond, for the doors of knowledge
ond NIL lit
miracle would be required to double or even
| treble the production of cotton per acre. The
corn crop can be increased by one-half per
acre within one-fourth of q century and
| yet without reaching the limit, and the same
may be said of wheat and many other crops
One-fourth of the dairy cows of the country
| do not pay for their feed. and more than
| one-half of them pay no profit The egg
production per hen will be increased by at
| least dozen year within generation,
while some poultrymen foretell double that
| increase If the hens of this year had each
| laid a dozen eggs more than they did, the
| increased value of this production would
| have possibly aggregated $50000,000. The
| farmer will not fail the nation If the ma
| ton does not fail the farmer.
Cotton planters are now out of their for
| mer bondage to future maintenance and in
| the middle west there has been conversion
of million agricultural debtors, paying
| high rates of interest. into financially in
dependent farmers. debt-free and Offering
| their savings to the banks at as small a
| rate Of interest as per cent. Farmers
| are using their new capital to abolish the
waste places of the land and along many
| lines Of improved production. Formerly
| there was an abundance of farm labor and
| scarcity of farm capital. Now these con-
| dtions are reversed: labor is scarce and
capital abundant.
1T is no little qualification to the head
| of the Department of Agriculture in pre-
| senting this picture of the farmers place
| in the economy of the country and pictur-
L Ing tho DnSSihiIitiRq his IN i've
that his department has had an important
share In producing the farmers present
prosperity, and must. If intelligently and
| generously administered. play important
| part in developing his future"
| The will of Capt Oscar Z. Edwards, late
president of the Virginia Pilots Associa-
j ton. has been admitted to probate. The es-