The Clarksburg telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1874-1926, 1911-12-14
STORAGE IS
RAPPEDBY VIII SON
Secretary of Agriculture Says
That is Cause of High
Prices.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 1.-THE con
sumer pays a dollar for food; the
farmer gets less than fifty cents Of
#. Who gets the rest?"
That is the question. which secrc-
tary Wilson Of the department of az.
r.cuiture asked in his annual report,
The secretary does not attempt to
answer It. He does explain in some
detail the results of an investigation
his department has just concluded into
the effect of cold storage on the whole
someness and cost of food. His inves-
tigatlon leads him to recommend pub
Lefty for the amount OF food in cold
storage, Just as the department now
gives publicity 10 the condition OF
crops from month to month.
Instead of food remaining in stog-
age for longer than year or two
years, as a rule. the secretary de-
clares that his investigation showed.
that receipts into cold storage arc
entirely or very nearly exhausted by
the deliveries out of cold storage with
in ten months"
Long storage is the exception. The
secretary asserts warehousemen ex-
planned TO the department that excess
lively long storage was due 10 law
suits and other circumstances of an
uncommercial nature. The cost OF
storage. including storage charge, in
terest and insurance, is considered as
a barrier to very long storage.
Cold storage, the secretary reports,
has raised the cost OF living by in
creasing the annual price level for
butter and eggs.
The secretary says that an exami-
nation of the record of prices gives
a suspicion" that there has been
much speculation in some years by
the men who keep commodition in
cold storage.
He refers TO AN apparent mistake
of the storage men in overestlmating
the consumption of eggs by the pub
lie at exorbitant prices last winter
with the result that in the spring the
storage men had to sell eggs at re-
markedly low prices and sent abroad
the largest amount of eggs ever ex-
ported in order TO get rid Of the sup
ply. 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 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 i'll
the southern states through object
lessons in the fields, is pronounced to
have been such as to justify the ex-
tension 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. 1t is suggested
that domestic animals be kept on
farms, even if the land owner mus;
furnish them, and that there be a
rotation of crops.
After years OF experimentation the
says that Egyptian cotton
can be grown in southern California
and bulbs in the state of Washington.
The. ,ehayGsh is pronounced to be
a serious pest in the South, Carbon
bisulphid is said TO be a sure remedy.
The finest dates from the Sahara
desert succeed in the southwestern
states.
Poultry products for the last year
are estimated to have been worth
$3.50. 100000.
The foresters of tho forestry bureau
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 genera