The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1912-12-24
MAKES LAST REPORT
er MEMBER OF THE CABI-
VDD TELLS OF PROGRESS OF
THE NATIONS FARMS.
rHf OUTPUT HAS DOUBLED
=, Farm Production Was ST.
le"l'' ooo 600 Sixteen Years Ago
60 532, 600, 900 Now. Uplift
,u,.iculture and Rural Life.

ooO 600, 900 SlAuooh S0
go. 532, OOO, 900 Now. Uplift
Agriculture and Rural Life.
m,gHINGTON, d. C.-After six
cars, a record of service in the
''' .,,o+ Secretary of Agriculture VIII
cav today submitted to President
sI the last annual report he will
49, ~. as head of the United States
n aaartment of agriculture. The re-
wy is more than a review of the
". Years work; it contains a sum-
p'', Of the agricultural advance of
49, country during the venerable sec
..tory's term of public service.
"Tbe record of sixteen years has
lam written" he says. "It begins
IAN YEARLY farm production of $4,-
noO oo0 900 and ends with SO, 5S2,-
ana 400. Sixteen years ago the farm
:. was a joke of the caricaturist;
,r he is like the stone that was
.,iocted by the builder and has be-
anne the head stone of the corner.
Tbo filler of the soil was burdened
Ian debts, but prosperity followed,
nd grew with unexampled speed.
poginnings have been made in a pro-
auction per acre increasing faster
tban the natural increase of popula-
inn There has been an uplift of
agriculture and of country life.
During the past sixteen years the
farmer has steadily increased the
wealth production year by year, with
tbe exception of 1911. During the
sixteen years the farmers wealth
induction increased i41 per cent.
Most productive of all agricult-
uraI years in the country has been
1912, The earth has produced its
greatest annual dividend. The sun
and the rain and the fertility Of the
sail needed not the human controver-
sies. but kept on working in co-opera-
tim with the farmers efforts to util-
lie them. The prices at the farm are
generally profitable and will continue
tbe prosperity that farmers have en-
loved in recent years. The total pro-
duction of farm wealth is the high
est yet reached by half a billion dol
lars. The grand total for 1912 Is
estimated to be 1852, 1000. This
is more than twice the value OF the
farm wealth in 1896"
More than $1O5,OOO,OOO,O00 is the
grand total of farm wealth produc-
ton, the report says, during the past
sixteen years, an amount equal to
about three-quarters of the present
national wealth.
The most effective movement CO.
ward the reduced cost of living is the
production of greater crops, says the
secretary. and this move, he declares,
is due to the work of the department
Of agricultural colleges and expert
ment stations and to the help OF the
press in publishing every movement
to help the farmers. The nation, ne
adds, forgot it's farmers in the gener-
al scheme of education of past years
and few philanthropists thought OF
them when giving for education, put
they are waking UP and thinking Tor
themselves and congress has been
good to them.
tells of the growth IN some Instances
The great and growing movement
carried on by the department for az
ricultural betterment, he declares,
has been sustained solely by one
man, not by a few men. A cholce
corps of scholarly experts in their
special lines of endeavor has been
growing in membership, in breadth
Of view, and in the practical appllca-
ton of their efforts.
The department is prepared TO
continue and increase its public ser
Vice. During sixteen years 1T mas
Progressed from the kindergarten
through the primary, middle and up
per grades of development until now
1t has a thousand tongues that speak
with authority"
From department with 2,444 en-
ployes in 1897 and an appropriation
Of $3,272,902 it has increased to
1883 employees at the beginning OF
the present fiscal year with an ap-
Mopriation this year of almost Szo'-
100000. Whereas there are now o.
700 requests every week for depart
ment publications there were Dull
QUO in 1907; and during this period
100000 copies have been dis
hbuted In soil investigation an
area of 623, 1000 square miles, equal
70 that of Germany, France, Great
Britain, Ireland and Italy, has oeen
covered.