Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1912-12-10
GREAT STRIDES MADE
BY NATIONS FARMERS
Secretary of Agriculture Says
1912 Is Most Fruitful Year
in History
tBy Associated Press.)

WASHINGTON, Dec. 6.-After six
teen years, a record of service in the
cabinet, Secretary of Agriculture Wilson
submitted today to President Taft the
last annual report he will make as head
of the United States department of ag-
riculture. The report is more than a
review of the past years work; it con-
tains summary of the the agricultural
advance Of the country during the ven
cradle secretary's term of public serv-
ice.
1.-THE record of sixteen years has been
written" he says. TT begins with a
yearly farm production Of $4,000, 600. 900
and ends with Ss,532, 100000. Sixteen
years ago, the farmer was a joke of
the caricaturist; now he is like the
stone that was rejected by the builder
and has become the head stone of the
corner" The tillers of the soil were
buroened with debts, he adds, but pros
perity followed and grew with unexam-
pied speed. Beginnings have been made
in a production per acre increasing fas-
ter than the natural increase of popu-
lation. There has been an uplift of ag-
riculture and Of country life
141 PER CENT INCREASE.
During the past sixteen years the
farmer has steadily increased the wealth
production year by year, with the ex-
ception Of 1911. During the sixteen
years the farmers wealth production in
creased 141 per cent.
Most productive of all agricultural
years in the country has been 1919.
The earth has produced its greatest an
nual dividend. The sun and the rain
and the fertility Of the soil needed not
the human controversies, but kept on
working in cooperation with the farm
ers' efforts to utilize them. The prices
at the farm are generally profitable and
will continue the prosperity that farm
ers have enjoyed in recent years. The to-
tai production Of farm wealth is the
highest yet reached by half a billion
dollars. The grand total for 1912 is es-
timated to be $9,5S2, 100000. This is
more than twice the value of the farm
wealth in 1894"
More than sos, 900, 600, 900 is the
grand total of far wealth production,
the report says. during the past six
teen years, an amount equal to about
three-quarters of the present national
wealth.
TO THWART COST OF LIVING.
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 agricul-
tural colleges and experiment stations
and TO the help of the press in pub
fishing every movement to help the
farmers. The nation, ne adds. forgot
its farmers in the general scheme of
education of the past few years and
few philanthropists thought Of them
when giving for education, but they
are waking up and thinking for them
selves and congress has been good to
them.
The secretary first takes up the work
of the various bureaus of this depart
ment in the past year and then tells Of
the growth in some instances from
their foundation, of these bureaus dur
ing the time he has been head of the
department He praises highly the ex-
perts who have worked under him.
EFFICIENCY INCREASED.
'The great and growing movement
carried on by the department Of agri-
cultural betterment," he declares, has
not been sustained solely by one man
nor by a few men, A choice corps of
scholarly experts in their special lines
of endeavor has been growing in MEM
bership, in breadth of view, and in the
practical application of their efforts.
"The department is prepared to con-
tinue and increase its publts service.
During sixteen years 1t has progressed
from the kindergarten through the pri-
mary, middle and upper grades OF de-
until now 1t mas a thousand
tongues that speak with authority"
From a department with 2,444 en-
ployes in 1897 and an appropriation of
S3,272,9O2, it has increased to 1883
employees at the beginning of the
present fiscal year with an appropria-
ton this year of almost $4,000, 900.
Whereas there are now $4,000 requests
every week for department publications,
there were but 500 in 1897, and during
this period 225,OO0,OO0 copies nave
been distributed, In soil investigation
an area of $4,000 square miles. equal
to that of Germany, France, Great
Britain, Ireland and Italy, has been
covered.