The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1913-12-16
REPORT OF ACR|-
CULTURE SECRETARY

Inc cCtiCtdi1 VI pun
lished his annual report for the year
1913 on December 8. The report diff
fers in many essentials from those
usually sent out from the department
of agriculture. Instead of merely re-
viewing the agricultural situation,
many broad economic questions are
presented. The secretary calls at
tention to the facts that heretofore
the department of agriculture has of
necessity concerned itself mainly
with the problems of production. He
points out that these problems will be
most urgent for long time. In
creased tenancy, absentee ownership,
soils still depleted and exploited, in
adequate business methods, the rela
tive failure to induce great ma
jority of farmers to apply existing
agricultural knowledge and the sug-
gestions of dependence on foreign ma
tions for food supplies warn us of
our shortcomings and incite us to al
ditionai efforts to increase produe-
tion.
The secretary says there is no
ground for thinking we have yet ap-
proximated the limit of our output
from the soil. As matter of fact
we have just begun to attack the
problem. We have not even reached
the end of the pioneering stage, and
have only in a few localities develop
ed conditions where reasonably full
returns are secured. We have, how
ever, unmistakably reached the period
where we must think and plan. He
says that as nation we are suffering
the penalty of too great ease of liv-
ing and of making a living. It is not
singular, therefore, that we should
! find ourselves in our present plight.
Recklessness and waste have been in
cident to our breathless conquest, and
we have had our minds too exclusive
ly directed to the establishment of
industrial suremacy in the keen race
for competition with foreign nations.
We have been so bent on building up
great industrial centers by every nat
ural and artificial device that we
have had little thought for the very
foundations of our industrial exist
ence.
Good Roads;
A special chapter is devoted to
good roads. For 20 years, it is stated,
there has been steady growth in the
1 Soou-iOdd ihON clHtHb. 81 tDdL IOuaY
about "a states have highway commits
sions or some other form of highway
agency. State appropriations for road
work have increased from two million
ten years ago to forty-three million in
1912. The relation of the Federal
/ government to road construction and
road management is pointed out. The
Federal government should take the
lead in investigational and expert
mental work and should develop
principles of cooperation with the
states in matters of educational and
Unconstitutional work 1t seems de-
sirable that the Federal government
should deal with the state as the low
est unit, through an expert highway
commission as its agency This policy
would eliminate the difficulty of the
Federal government determining To-
cal issues as well as the danger of un.
due centralized Federal control. In
order to stimulate this policy and to
prevent undue inroads on the FEEDER
al treasury, Federal aid, whenever
extended for construction and main
tenance, should be furnished on con-
dition that the states provide an ap-
preparation at least double that voted
| by the Federal government. This
would furnish an automatic check.
The plan should provide for main.
tenance as well as construction, in or
der to prevent the possibility of the
construction of roads many of which
may wear out before the bonds placed
upon them are paid. The secretary
raises the question as to what roads
should be improved. He saws that the
roads of greatest economic and social
Importance are those over which the
products of the farm can be taken to
the nearest railway station and which
minister to the other social and eco-
nomic needs of the community. 1t is
pointed out that no Federal funds
should be expended on any project
until a scheme of road construction
and maintenance within a state has
been developed and agreed upon by
the proper representatives of the
state and of the Federal government.
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