Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1906-03-23
Ram MAY BATTER
DOWN A TRUST
imported Animal Dies With a
Stomach Full Of Rubber
Made From Weed.
INVALUABLE DISCOVERY
Agricultural Department Is Interested
and 1t Isn't Stretching Matters to
Say Combine Doesn't Like Way
This Ram Butted In.

Washington, March 19-The possihilI-
ties Of American agriculture have once
more been illumined in q most inter-
,esting way, props Of the demise of a
$500 Shropshire sheep out in Colorado.
Ordinarily the death of even SO aristo-
eratic q sheep as this would not be of
national note; but in the present in
Stance 1t seems to have opened a way
to breaking the rubber trust.
A man at Durango, Colo, had a big
flock of sheep, and q year ago sent to
England for a high grade ram. The
brute came in due course in a glass
case. He was turned loose TO pick n
living from between he rocks, and
presently the existence palled on him.
He became homesick, worried, lost APP
petite and died. Being a noble beast
of his kind he was honored with an
autopsy.
In his stomach was found a remark
able accumulation OF a certain kind OF
weed that the common garden sheep
had been eating without difficulty, but
which seemingly had been too much for
the imported ram. This weed is very
common in that country, and has al
ways been utterly despised. Investiga-
ton showed that in various stages of
indigestion it a filled the sleeps
stomach, and In the last stage it looked
like rubber. Analysis showed that it
was q crude rubber.
Honor Where Honor Is Due.
The sheep was buried with hon0rs
and the stomach sent away for further
investigation. As a result sixteen tons
OF the curious weed were gathered n
being boiled down n subjected TO
processes approximating as nearly as
possible to hat Of digestion in a
Sleeps insides, turned out some hun
dreds of pounds of good rubber.
This week a man came to Washing
ton with sections of garden hose, rub
Der shoes, rubber heels, rubber balls,
packings for steam engines, etc, all
made by the rubber that is boiled out
Iof this weed. He showed them, to-
,gether with samples of the rubber
weed, on q long table In the house
corridor. Members ana senator's gath
cred about and heard with the great
est interest the tale OF the sheep tina
had died in an elastic cause. There
was no doubt about the rubber. 1t
was as good Para rubber as ever a
naked heather lugged out of the wilds
of the upper Amazon and traded for
jumping jacks, gilded ornaments and
glass beads.
New Concern Butts In,
Accordingly q monument was placed
over the sleeps grave IN a company
of Michigan men was incorporated to
make the rubber. They took up the
matter of getting land, and the secre-
tary of agriculture recommended that
$500 acres be turned over to the con-
Germ for use in developing the plant
and opening an experimental manu-
featuring business. The man with the
garden hose and things was their
agent. The bill has already been re-
ported out of committee II without
doubu will pass.
The company win proceed at once, in
cooperation with the department of
agriculture, to develop the plant. Hor-
ticultural experts will be assigned to
develop its rubber producing qualities,
and a factory will be built. The plant,
now known as the rubber plant, has
n scientific name SO long that 1t had to
be coiled in order to load it on the cars
for shipment here in connection with
the rubber samples. II has a remark
ably high per cent. OF rubber juice in
ii, and Secretary Wilson'S preliminary
examinations have convinced him that
1t can be grown over n very wide Sec
ton of the semi-arid and mountainous
area.
Untold Possibilities.
AS the rubber industry is now a ire
mendous one, the possibilities of his
weed can hardly be calculated. IT grows
luxuriantly in places where almost
nothing else can survive, and has long
been known as utterly worthless. Yet
today Ii is the most priced recent dis
covery of horticulture, for the worlds
demand for rubber is fast o~utrunning
the supply, and prices have been adj
vancing for years. The prospect OF
America supplying the worlds rubber,
at half OF present prices, II then
making an immense industry OF it; OF
great areas being converted to this in
dustry, and that in the least productive
region of the continent; of turning arid
wastes into the most valuable fields on
the continent--these and others are
considered serious possibilities that
may result from this discovery.