St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1911-12-13
AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT.
Sec. Wilson's Annual Report Deals
With Gold Storage.

AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT.
Sec. Wilson's Annual Report Deals
With Gold Storage.
The consumer pays ST for food; ;
the farmer gets less than so cents
of it; who gets the rest?"
That is a question which Secre-
tary Wilson of the Department of
Agriculture asked in his annual re-
port. The secretary does not at
tempt to answer it. He does ex-
plain in some detail the results of
an investigation his department has
just concluded into the effect of
cold storage on the wholesomeness
and cost of food. His investigation
leads him to recommend publicity
for the amount of food in
cold storage, just as the department
now gives publicity to the condition
of crops from month to month.
Instead of food remaining in stor-
age for longer than a year or two
years, as rule, the secretary de-
c1ares that his investigation showed
that receipts into cold storage are
entirely or very nearly exhausted by
the deliveries out of cold storage
within ten months.
Long storage is the exception, the
secretary asserts. Warehousemen
explained to the department that eX-
cessively long storage was due to
lawsuits and other circumstances of
an monumental nature. The cost
of storage, including storage charge,
interest and insurance, is considered
as barrier to very long storage.
Cold storage, the secretary re-
ports, has raised the cost of living
by increasing the annual price level
for butter and eggs.
The secretary says that an exam
ination of the record of prices gives
much speculation in some years by
the men who keep commodities in
cold storage.
He refers to an apparent mis-
take of the storage men in over
estimating the consumption of eggs
by the public at exorbitant prices
last winter with the result that in
the spring the storage men had to
sell eggs at remarkable low prices
and sent abroad the largest amount
of eggs ever exported in order to
get rid of the supply. The secretary
declares that the warehousemen
ought to be required to send to
Washington each month the amount
of commodities placed in storage so
that the public may be able to judge
of the future trend of prices.
A great variety of subjects are
dealt with by the secretary in his
report. He says that the day is not
far distant when the United States
paky-Tarfi:
will cease, to import potash. Florida,
Kentucky, Tennessee and Idaho are
mentioned as repositories.
recommendation is made that all
government agencies that conserve
health should be grouped together
in one bureau.
The success of the department in
the southern states through object
lessons in the fields, is pronounced
to have been such as to justify the
extension of the work to all states.
The department announces that
the corn crop is moving northward
by seed selection.
The American systems of renting
land are declared to be faulty and
result in soil robbing. It is suggest
farms, even if the land owners must
furnish them, and that there be a
rotation of crops.
After years of experimentation,
the department says that Egyptian
cotton can be grown in southern
California and bulbs in the state of
The finest dates from the Sahara
desert succeed in the southwestern
states.
Poultry prices for the past year
are estimated to have been worth
100000.
The foresters of the GForestd
The foresters of the Forestry Bur-
eau are learning by experiments how
to reforest 10000 acres in a year.
The secretary says that ten times
this much must be planted annually
to cover all the bare acres in gen
Grafton.
eve are sending explorers to the
ends of the earth for new plants
and getting them" says Secretary
Wilson.-[St. Adams Messenger.