The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-06-24
is AFTER COBURN
Secretary Wilson on Trail of
the Kansas Man.
Would Cripple His Fame as
Agricultural Expert.
ISSUES ORDERS TO MEN
Must Examine Carefully All
COburn Sends Out.
Hope to Find Flaws to Discredit
His Critic.

r. D. Coburn, secretary of the Kansas
board of agriculture, must be unusu-
ally careful with his crop statistics and
| his advice to the Kansas farmers in the
future, says Charles Sessions, in the
Kansas City Journal. Secretary James
Wilson, of the federal agricultural de-
partment, is on his trail, hoping to pick
up something on Coburn that will Grip
pie his fame as an authority on agricul-
ture.
Watch everything Coburn does; read
everything Coburn puts out, and report
any mistakes or misstatements to me-"
is the order which Wilson has given to
his army of experts. And the experts
| are watching and reading Coburn's stuff
very carefully. So far, they have found
no mistakes or misstatements to report
to their chief
Secretary Wilson is nettled over a
couple of jabs which Mr.. Coburn made
at him.
Kansas in the class of arid states.
Coburn wouldn't stand for that, and
he issued a pamphlet showing that
Kansas produced more stuff than
Iowa. the home of Mr.. Wilson; that
in the production of wheat and corn
combined Kansas led all states of the
union; that Kansas farmers had more
money on deposit, per capita, than the
farmers of any other agricultural
state, and a lot of information of that
kind which thoroughly discredited the
Wilson statement that Kansas was an
arid state.
Then, to rub salt into the wounds,
it Just happened that Secretary wilson
had some speaking engagements IN
Western Kansas, and had to use boats
to get to the places on account or the
heavy rains. Coburn gave the Western
newspapers the tip, and they printed
cartoons of Wilson doing arid Kan
sas in a boat.
When the green bug was devastat-
ing the Kansas wheat fields recently,
out of the goodness of his heart Sec
rotary wilson decided to give the
Kansas farmers some advice as to how
to beat that bug in the future. He
wrote letter to Secretary Coburn and
asked that it be printed in the Kan
sas papers In it Mr.. Wilson advised
Kansas farmers to plant turkey red
wheat. He said that in 1897 he made
some experiments and found that tur-
kew red spread out and wfthstood the
ravaees of bugs better than any other
kind. 1t was great on the stool, etc;
Coburn printed the Wilson letter all
right Then he gave out statement
himself, showing that for the past
twenty years Kansas had practically
produced no other kind of wheat
Millers and wheat growers over the
country began to poke fun at Wilson
for making 100 Will
turkey red wheat, which Kansas had
grown successfully. and almost ex-
clusive1y, for a decade before. For the
federal agricultural department to be
held up as ten years behind the times
grated on Mr.. wilson's nerves. In
fact. it was the straw that broke the
camel's back. He couldn't endure the
grilling of Coburn any longer without
trying to get even. So he gave the
order to his experts.
ct have read Coburn's last biennial
report of a thousand pages or more
from cover to cover said one of Mr..
Wilson'S experts, land 1 could not find
a thing that we could attack. 1t
should be used as a text book in every
agricultural college in the world. But
1 dare not say so to my boss"
Secretary Wilson recently added to
his reputation as an agricultural and
cattle sharp by stating that there
should be no objection on the part of
the public to paying the present high
prices for meat, cas- it is all owing to
the good times and high wages paid
everywhere"
Some people contend that Secretary |
Wilson is not a humorist.