Connecticut western news., 1908-01-23
UNCLE SAM'S GRANARY.

Probably there has been no factor tending to quiet the fears of the peo- pie of the country touching the possi- bility of the prolongation of the recent financial furry and the approach of hard times equal to the inspiring and optimistic annual report of Secretary James Wilson of the department of agriculture, wherein he makes public the enormous addition to the material wealth of the country as the result of the agricultural operations of the year 1907. This total he places at $7,412,- 100000, which exceeds the value of the 1906 crops by over $6O0,000,000, the crops of the years 1904 and 1905. by over a billion dollars each and is 07 per cent greater than the value of all crops raised in the country in the year 1899. How stupendous Is this source of the country'S material wealth is the more fully realized in MT. Will sons own language when he says that the crops of eight years, if equal in value to that of 1907. would pay for duplicating every mile of steam rail
 
 terminals, rolling stock and all other property. In thirteen years their value would equal the present banking DOW CT of the country, including capital, surplus deposits and circulation, while in seventeen years they would replace the banking power of the world" Among the several items which join to make this stupendous grand total corn stands at the head with d value of $1,3500C0.O00, cotton $675, ,O00,O0O, hay $G6OO00,CO0, wheat $500,O00,O0O, oats $360O00,00O, potatoes $190,OO0O00, bar ley $115,000,0O0. alfalfa $100,000,OO0, sugar, molasses and sirup $95,000,000, tobacco SGT 100000, beet sugar $G0,000,- GOO, durum wheat S30,000000, fiaXseed $26OOo.000. rye $23,000000. rice $10,- 5OO00O, buckwheat $10,O00,000 and hops $5,0O0,000. Besides these items, the value of dairy products is placed at $S0O000,000, of poultry and eggs $G0O0OO,OO0 and of animals either sold from or slaughtered on the farms of the country $1,2I000O,O00. The ex- ports of farm products reached a total value of $1,055, 100000, passing the billion mark for the first time in the history of any country and exceeding by $T9,000,0O0 the high record of the previous year. Referring to the prog reSS of irrigation. the report states that the area now under ditch is 100000 acres, surface equal to the improved farm land of Georgia or Michigan and equal to one-third of tfie cotton area. Continuing, the report states that, in service looking to an increase of the grain crops of the country, the depart ment of agriculture has had super vision of the pure food law, has waged warfare against the green bug, the cot ton boil weevil, the cattle tick, tubercu- losis in hogs and cattle, in addition to numerous other plant and animal pests and diseases. Secretary Wilson is one of a very few public officials who seem to possess the faculty of making their annual reports interesting. The one in question is the most so of any which has ever been issued by the depart ment, and this not alone because of the marvellous showing which it makes but also because of the manifest en- joyment which Secretary Wilson de rives from performing the task. Ev- cry family in the land which Is inter ested in the material welfare of the country and its continued greatness as a world power should possess a copy of this annual report.