Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1908-09-17
Scientific Aid Invoked by the Cow
eminent in His Interest.
Important Results Accomplished
During the McKinley-Roose-
welt Administration.

pletely cOntrovert the Democratic
charge that the government is neglect
ing the farmer.
During the last eleven years Presi-
dents Mckinley and Roosevelt have
aimed to bring the Department of Ag-
riculture to the help of our farmers in
all sections of the country and have III
structed the Secretary of Agriculture
to use all endeavors to help the tiller
of the soil toward greater efficiency
and more economic production; to
make the American acre more potent
in growing crops. The Congress during
the last eleven years has quadrupled
the amount of money invested in agri-
cultural research and demonstration,
to give the American farmers help in
their opera tons on the farm, to feed
our people well and cheaply, and en-
able them to compete with the outside
world. 1t has provided for over two
thousand scientists, specialists in their
respective lines, who are in touch with
our farmers in all sections of the
country, gathering information and
preparing it for issue in departmental
publications, of which nearly seventeen
million pieces were given out in 1907
to go into our country homes, dealing
directly with what is uppermost in the
minds of our growers Of plants and
animals at the time Of publication.
Science Applied to Development of
Agriculture.
The education of specialists in APP
piled science to meet the demand Tor
research under the Federal Government
and under State institutions has be-
come a prominent feature of depart
mental work. Graduates of our agrl-
cultural and other colleges are drafted
into the Department of Agriculture and
prepared for scientific research along
the lines demanded by the producers OF
our country under all our varied con-
ditions. Within the last eleven years
nearly sixteen hundred young men have
had postgraduate instruction In the
sciences of agriculture. The Depart
ment of Agriculture and the State eX-
pertinent stations are actively cooper
ating with regard to unsolved prob
lens that affect the farmer throughout
our States and Territories and in the
islands of the sea that have lately
come into our possession.
New markets for our surplus produc-
ton are being sought in foreign coun-
tries, and scientific inquiry is being
made into the preparation of our eN-
ports for foreign markets Uncertainty
with regard to the magnitude of our
crops at home is being removed by
careful statistical inquiry, to the end
that more accurate knowledge with re-
gard to production may mitigate the
evils Of speculation. Inquiry is also
being made into the productions of
competing countries, in order that the
American farmer may know what he
has to meet in foreign markets
New Products for American Farms.
Strenuous efforts are being hide to
encourage the home production OF
articles we have been importing from
foreign countries. During the last
eleven years there has been an Increase
in the production of sugar from beets
which makes the product of 1907
amounting to 100000 toIfs, over thir
teen times that of 1896 and it's value
fifteen times. Eleven years ago we
produced only one-fourth of the rice
consumed in the United States. The
fostering work of the Federal Govern
ment has enabled the rice growers t.
produce more than the equivalent Of
our home consumption and foreigl
markets are being sought for the sur
plus There was an increase in thu
production of rice from 97,0O0,0Ot
pounds in 1896 to an average of TIC,
100000 pounds during the last fou
years.
Scientific research by the Bureau 0
Soils demonstrates the fact that w
can produce at home the fine tobacco
for which we have been paying owe
twenty million dollars year to for
eign countries. Our explorers hav
searched foreign lands for grains, lee
umes, fiber plants, teas, etc., for intro
duction into sections Of the Unite
States suitable to their production
The producing area for grains has bee
extended westward into the dry re
gions of our country through the il
PRODUCTION of plants that are at HON
where the rainfall Is light Nearl
fifty millions of bushels of wheat ar
being grown in regions that have here
tofore been unproductive.
Eradication of Diseases of Farr
Animals and Products.
The Federal Government is studyin
the diseases of domestic animals wit
a view to their complete eradication
Our animals and their products go
foreign countries with bills of healtl
fulness. The American meats are I'll
most wholesome in the world, as I'll
world now knows. An imported di
ease of domestic animals was prompt
stamped out within a year at an q.
penditure of 100000, to prevent
from spreading throughout the countl