The Mena weekly star., 1907-06-27

Iccts.
 Washington, June 25.-F. D. Co burn, secretary of the Kansas board of agriculture, must be unusually careful with his crop statistics and lis advice to the Kansas farmers in the future Secretary James Wilson of the departmnt of agriculture Is on his trail, hoping to pick up some thing on Coburn's fame as an au thority on agriculture.
 Watch everything Coburn Ioes; read everything Coburn puts out and report any mistakes or misstate ments Cobum makes to me-" Is the order which Wilson has given to his own army of experts. And the ex perts are watching and reading Co burns stuff very carefully. So far they have found no mistakes or mis statements to report to their chief
 Secretary Wilson is greatly net tied over couple of jabs which MT Coburn has given him. Both have tended to humiliate Wilson among the farmers of the country. But Coburn was right in both in stances.
 I've years ago Secretary Wilson put Kansas in the class of arid states Coburn could not stand fol that, and he issued pamphlet show ing that Kansas produced more thai Iowa, the home of Mir. Wilson; tha in the production of wheat and corn combined Kansas led all states in the Union; that Kansas farmers had more money on deposit per capiti than the farmers of any other agri cultural state, and lot of informa tion of that kind, which disereditcd the Wilson statement that Kansas was an arid state.
 Then, to rub salt into the wounds 1t just happened that Wilson had some speaking engagements In west ern Kansas and had to use boats tc get to the place on account of heavy rains. Coburn gave the western newspapers the tip. and they print ed cartoons of Wilson doing arid Kansas in boat. The drubbing that Coburn gave him caused Wilson to make numerous explanations. and 1t has always stuck in his craw.
 When the green bug was devasta ting the Kansas wheat fields re gently, out of the goodness of his heart Secretary Wilson decided tc give the Kansas farmers some advice as to how to beat that bug in tn, future. He wrote letter to Secre tary Coburn and asked that it b. printed in the Kansas papers. Tn it Mir Wilson advised Kansas farmer to plant turkey red wheat. He said that in 1897 he made some expert ments and found that turkey red spread out and withstood the ravage of bugs better than any other kind It was great on the stool, etc.
 Cuburn printed the Wilson letter all right. Then he gave out a state ment himself showing that for the past 20 years Kansas had produced practically no other kind of wheat
 
 country then began to poke fun at Secretary Wilson for making expert ments in 1897 with turkey red wheai which Kansas had grown successfully and almost exclusively for a decade
 The federal agricultural depart ment to be held up as ten years be hind the times. grated on MT. VII sons nerves In fact 1t was the straw that broke the camers back. He couldn't endure the grilling O Coburn any longer. without trying tc get even. So he gave the order to his experts.
 'I have read Coburn's last biennial report of a thousand pages or more from cover to cover" said one O. Mir Wilson's experts. and l could not find thing that We could attack. It should be used as a text book in every agricultural college in the world. But I dare not say so to my boss