The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1920-09-02
LONG CAREER Of
"TAMA jim" ENDS
JAMES WILSON,, SECRETARY or
AGRICULTURE IS YEARS,
DIES AT TRAER
INTRODUCED DURUM N NORTHWEST
Visited His Son, J. w. Wilson, in
Brookings on Many Occasions
IS Years Old.

"Tama Jim" Wilson, former secre-
tary of agriculture and prominent as
an educator and contributor to the
agricultural science and welfare of the
nation. died at his home at Traer, Ia,
last Thursday at the age of IS years.
His son, Prof. J. w. Wilson, head of
the animal husbandry department at
South Dakota State college, was at
the bedside at the time of his death.
"Tama Jim" Wilson was quite well
known in Bookings, having visited
his son here on numerous occasions.
Those who knew him well had a genu-
inc affection for the c%ongenial old gen.
tleman and are deeply grieved to learn
Of his death. He had been in poor
health for several months, but still
was erect and vigorous, a man six feet
tall, all bone and muscle.
Mr.. Wilson was head Of the depart
ment Of agriculture for fifteen years.
in the cabinets of Mckinley, Roose.
welt and Taft, during which he con-
tributed largely to the phenomenal
agricultural development of the United
States. His long service in the cabi-
net constitutes a record. Mr.. Wilson
was an Iowa farmer. Born August
Is, 1885, he was the son of a Scotch.
man, who left Ayrshire, Scotland, in
1852 to settle his family in the United
States. Near Traer the family
founded the new home, and in that
neighborhood the son James began
farming on his own cou as early
as 1861, and at the same time began
his political are with election to the
Iowa state legislature. In 1872 he was
sent to congress and served in all three
terms. He was regent Of the Iowa
university from 1870 to 1874, and for
six years prior to becoming secretary
of agriculture, he was director OF the
state experiment station and professor
of agriculture at the Iowa State Agri-
cultural college. His application of
science to agricultural practice brought
him to such national prominence that
President Mckinley made him secre-
tary of agriculture March 4, 1897.
Secretary Wilson introduced into the
United States a great number of val
liable crops which hitherto had been
successful only in foreign countries.
Among these was durum wheat, which
came to yield nearly $50, 600, 900 a year
to the farmers Of the northwest. He
thus extended the possibilities of wheat
growing far beyond the former eli
matte limits. Under his administration
the beet sugar industry also was de-
veloped, a serum for hog cholera was
discovered, the whole country was
aroused on the subject of tuberculosis
in cattle, and the care and handling
OF milk was systematized and i'm
proved. Sample sections of good roads
were built in almost every state, and
communities were instructed how to
build good roads with their local ma
terial. The forests were studied and
remarkable advances made toward the
conservation OF them, and the replant-
ing OF the ~deforested areas. In connec-
ton with the departments active
work, the official agricultural litera-
ture was developed to the end that
departmental bulletins became of
great value among the farmers, pre-
scented as they were in simple Ian
guage along practical lines.