Rocky Ford enterprise., 1912-03-22
AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT
Performing Valuable Work for Far
mers of Country

served has been a consistent friend oil
the Department of Agriculture Partio-
ularly is this apparent in the attitude oi
the Chief Executives during the past five
years. During that time the previous
patient and arduous work of Secretary
Wilson. his years of planning. his devel-
o2ment and banding together about him
of great force of scientists, have been
showing tremendous results for good in
the life of the Nation. At the very out
set of his administration, President Taft,
calling attention in his inaugural address
to the deficit then existing in the reve-
nues and the consequent necessity for
rigid economy in expenditures, singled out
this department as the first of several
curtailments in the appropriations
for which would be disastrous. He said,
in the Department of Agriculture the
use of scientific experiments on a large
scale and the spread of information do
rived from them for the improvement of
general agriculture must go on" This
view the President has steadfastly main
tanned. taking occasion in his message to
Congress to urge the appropriations ask
ed for by Secretary Wilson to further the
great purpose of the department.
A series of remarkable reports made
to Secretary Wilson few days ago by
the heads of his bureaus justifies this
solicitude on the part of the President for
the department. Amongst the reports
the people of the Arkansas Valley are
especially interested in those of Prof.
Marsh and other investigators upon nox-
and the Enterprise herewith reproduoes
the brief account of the work:
Whenever insects attack the crops the
dlsmayed agriculturist need not despair.
An appeal to Secretary Wilson will bring
practical advice il the pest is known, and
If it is new an expert scientist starts hot
foot for the scene. Careful microscopic
study follows. fumigation and spraying
are tried. and If these fail. off to foreign
lands goes our scientist where. perhaps,
IN an out of-the-way corner he finds a
parasite that will prey upon the pest
and keep it down to harmless numbers.
No insect was ever studied more closely
than has been the boil weevil by the de-
partment. and the system upon which the
growers in infested States are now Sue
ceeding in raising cotton in spite of the
weevil is based upon these studies. To
fight the devouring moths Of New Eng
land the department has imported nearly
100000 shipments of parasites which
have held the pests in check and pro mise
eventually to destroy them. Insects cause
as much damage to the forests as do fires.
and in five years the department has
demonstrated that this damage can be
prevented at cost W hich comes well
within the range of profitable business
management. 1t has fought successfully
the thrips which threatened the pear.
peach, and other fruits on the Pacific
coast; standardized and cheapened the
processes of fumigation against scale in
sects: routed the grape root worm and
the insects that damage cranberries;
found satisfactory sprays against the
white fly of the orange; devised measures
for the control OF the tick which trans
mits spotted fever; and above all has de-
vised and urged. with iteration and en-
phasis, practical methods to fight the
deadly mosquito and the more deadly
house fly.
A quiet but effective feature of the
departments work is the study of wild
animals and birds in their relation to
farming. At a small cost for this work
the department has succeeded in holding
in check the hordes Of destructive rodents
which annually destroy crops worth mil
lions. But not only are rats and ground
squirrels destructive, they are also infect
ed with plague and transmit this disease
to man, consequently their determination
is imperative, and the department is
bending its energies to this end. A few
years ago an army of field mice invaded
the valley of Nevada and in short time
ate up alfalfa and produce worth $780,
900, and proceeded merrily onward upon
its destructive way until one of the de-
partments scientists, sent to the scene,
perfected method of poisoning the little
pests with hay and strychnine.
To meet the demand for economy in
the use of water among the rapidly de-
veloping irrigation sections of the West,
the department has made elaborate stu
dies which have brought to light an enor-
nous waste of water in conveyance
and has developed and demonstrated
methods for preventing this. In many
districts less than one-half the water
formerly used now suffices to irrigate the
same area. Rice irrigation has also been
given practical assistance and requests
come from hundreds of orchardlsts and
truck growers for advice in installing
pumping plants and the best use OF the
water in irrigatlng. Interest in the re-
clamation of land by drainage. which has
grown with the increased price of land.
has resulted.in demands for assistance in
framing drainage laws, the organization
Of drainage districts. and IN reliable plans
for drainage operations. In the past five