Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1912-12-11
Secretary of Agriculture Wilson of
Iowa Reviews Work of Sixteen
Years. H
FARM WEALTH ADVANCES
141 PER CENT SINCE 1906
Agricultural Department Has Increas-
ed From 2,444 Employees i'm 1897
to 1883 Employees the Present
Year-WOrk to be Continued.

ociNiS III TIC Sduiucl, GeCIcldTy VI
Agriculture Wilson submitted on Sat-
urday to President Taft the last an
nual report he will make as head of
the United States Department of Agri-
culture. The report is more than a
review of the past years work; it
contains a summary of the agricul-
tural advance of the country during
the venerable secretary's term of
public service.
The record of sixteen years has
been written" he says. 1T begins
with yearly farm production of $4,-
600, 100000 and ends with $685.
100000. Sixteen years ago, the far
mer was a joke of the caricaturist;
now he is like the stone that was re-
jected by the builder and has become
the headstone of the corner" The
tillers of the soil were burdened with
debts he adds, but prosperity fol-
lowed and grew with unexampled
speed. Beginnings have been made
in production per acre increasing
faster than the natural increase of
the population. There has been an up
lift of agriculture and of country life.
During the past sixteen years the
farmer has steadily increased the
wealth production of 1911. During
the sixteen years the farmers wealth
production increased 141 per cent.
Most productive of all agricultur-
al years in the country has been 1912.
The earth has produced it's greatest
annual dividend. The sun and the
rain and the fertility of the soil heed
ed not the human controversies, but
kept on working in cooperation
with the farmers efforts to utilize
them. The prices at the farm are
generally profitable and will contin-
ue the prosperity that farmers have
enjoyed in recent years. The total
production of farm wealth is the high
est yet reached by half a billion dol
lars. The grand total for 1912 is
estimated to be $9,532 900, 900. This
| is more than twice the value of the
farm wealth in 1899"
More than sos, 600, 100000 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 move toward re-
duced 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 Agri-
culture in college and experiment
1stations and to the help of the press
I in publishing every movement to help
the farmers. The nation, he adds,
forgot its farmers in the general
scheme of education of past years
and few philanthropists 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 past year and then
tells of the growth, in some instances
from their foundation; of these bur-
eaus during the time he has been the
head of the department. He praises
highly the experts who have worked
under him.
1.-The great and growing movement
carried on by the department for ag-
ricultural betterment," he declares,
has not been sustained solely by one
many, nor by few men. A choice
corps of scholarly experts in their
special lines of endeavor has been
growing in membership, in breadth
of view and in the practical applica-
tion of their efforts.
1.-The department is prepared to
continue and increase it's public SER
vice. During sixteen years 1t has
progressed from the kindergarten
through the primary middle and up
per grades of development until now
1t has thousand tongues that speak
with authority"
From a department with 2,444
employees in 1897 and an appropria-
ton of $3,272,9O2, it has increased
to 1851 employees at the beginning
of the present fiscal year with an ap-
propriation this year of almost twen-
ty-five million dollars. Whereas there
are now $4,000 requests every week
for department publications, there
were but 500 in 1897; and during
this period 225,000.O0O copies have
been distributed. In soil investiga-
ton an area OF $4,000 square miles,
equal to that of Germany, France,
Great Britain, Ireland and Italy, has
been covered. fftat
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