The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1912-12-07
UI son
Secretary of Agriculture
Makes Annual Report
to Congress

WASHINGTON Lee. G----A4Lek 30
teen years, a record OF service in the
cabinet, Secretary Of Agriculture
Wilson has submitted to President
TAN the lase annual report he VIII
make as head OF the United States
Department OF Agriculture The re-
port is more than review OF the
last years work. II contains sum
mary Of the agricultural advance Of
the country during the venerable sec
re,ary.s term OF public service
The record of sixteen years has
been written, he says. 1t begins
with a yearly farm production Of
81 600. OOo. 900 and ends with $685.
Ooo. eco. sixteen years ago. the far
mer was joke OF the caricaturist;
now he is Ike the stone that was re-
jected by the builder and has become
the head stone of the corner. The
timers of the soil were burdened with
debts he adds, -'Out prosperity fol-
lowed and grew with uneXampied
speed. Beginnings have been made
in a production per acre increasing
faster than the natural increase Of
population. There has been an up
ilifr OF agriculture and of country
life.
During the last, sixteen years the
farmer has steadily increased the
iweaIth production year by year. with
the exception Of 1911. During the
sixteen years the farmers wealth
production increased IA per cent.
Most productive Of all agricul-
uraI years in the country has been
I1eI2. The earth has produced its
greatest annual dividend. The sun
and the rain and the fertility Of the
Isoil needed not the human coutro-
VERSES, but kept on working in CO.
operation with the farmers efforts to
utilize them. The prices at the farm
are generally profitable ana viii con
t5nue the prosperity that farmers
have enjoyed in recent years. The
total production Of farm wealth IS
the highest yet reached By half a 1hil-
lion dollars. The grand total for
tis1z is estimated TO be SO, 5S2. eo0'VoV.
This is more than twice the value oil
the farm wealth. in 1893.
More than siO5. 100000. 600 is the
grand total Of farm wealth produc-
;;tion. the report says, during the last
sixteen years, an amount equal 70
about three-duarsers Of the present
national wealth:
The most e6ective move toward re-
lduced cost Of living is the production
OF greater crops. says the secretary
land this move he declares, is due to
Inc work OF the department Of agri-
cultural colleges and experiment
stations and to the help OF the press
in publishing every movement to help
the farmers The nation. he adds
forgot its farmers in the general
scheme of education OF past years
land few phlIanthropists thought OF
them when giving for education, but
they are waking up and thinking for
themselves and Congress has been
good to them
The secretary first takes up the
work Of the various bureaus of his
department in the last year and then
tells Of the growth in some instances
from their foundation. of these bu-
reaus during the time he has been
head of the department He praise"
highly the experts who have worked
under him.
THE great and growing naove1n ent
icarried on by the department. for
agricultural betterment, he de-
iclarss, has not been sustained sole
/ " by one man nor by few men. \
choice corps Of scholarly experts in
| their special lines Of endeavor has
been growing in membership. in
breadth of view. and in the practical
application OF their efforts.
The department is prepared to
continue and increase It's. public ser
vice. During sixteen years it has
progressed from the kindergarten
! through the primary. middle and up
per grades Of development unui now
it has a thousand tongues that speak
with authority
From a department with 2,+4i en-
ployes in 1897 and an appropriation
Of S3,272. S62. it has increased to
1855 employees at the beginning OF
the present fiscal year with an ap-
preparation this year OF almost $50
600. 600. whel cas- there are now
$4,000 requests every week for de-
partment publications. there were but
800 in 1897; and during this period
22S, 600 900 copies have been aistri-
buted. In soil investigation an area
Of 623. 600 square miles. equal to that
60. ro-s.nir