Show written tor for this rapa UNCLE SAWS SAMS BOSS FARMER copyrighted 1896 by br frank 0 carpenter carpentsy washington D C march 18 one of the most important members member of president mckinless McKin leys cabinet is tho secretary of agriculture he has to do with the bettering of the farming interests ot of the united states which are said to be in a worse condition today than they have been at any time since captain tairi john smiths colony went through the terrible privations of the starving time at jamestown in in the first half ballot at the seventeenth century heretofore the republican majorities of ohio indiana and illinois have come from the farmers but at the last election mckinley was saved by the vote of the cities the future of the present regime depends upon making things better for the farmers they are in in fact the ruling class of the united states there are m more a V of them than of any other profession by the last census forty four out of every hundred persons in the united states were engaged in agricultural pursuits we have bave today in in ane neighbor neighborhood hood of farms which are worth all ah told more than thirteen billion donars dollars we make a profit in in g good oo 00 d years of some thing like two billion dollars out of farm products and it is upon the farms that we depend to a large extent for good or bad times it the farmers are doing well money flows like water and the sun of prosperity rity shines when they ara re doing it the dark clouds of discontent anarchy socialism and false financial be breed eed theories and adversity reigns you will thus see that the secretary of agriculture aeri culture is now a very important la lac c tor who is the man that mckinley has chosen what kind of a man is he what is he be going to do I 1 can answer these questions in part in the chat which I 1 ahad had with secretary james wilson at the AUTi agricultural Cultural department today I 1 had letter of introduction to the new secretary a ft senator W B allison and detary from y my card was sent in I 1 was aa abon r as admitted admits ed A tall angular plain looking man ot of about sixty years of age began ss as I 1 entered the door by the to pet up get time I 1 had reached his desk he was on his long right arm was stretched Us hia fee feet t out t toward oward mine and his horny hand cordial old fashioned shake IL ft awas was ve me J tames aarif a s wilson the new secretary ot of the nan man who is known the west as one of the best farmers allver A ever mississippi valley and who is cmok of the noted among agriculturists everywhere the most practical to of up one so be ing date authorities upon everything con added with farming he asked me to bos ested d and aria for an hour we chatted toh himself the american about b 0 ut a r tam F and what uncle sam might do jume r 0 mr wilson is a goodwalker good talker for ite bun vace e is slightly metallic and bi his I 1 s out at the rate of about two ads come landred per minu minute te he has as many had abraham expressions as hamela ea and his bis talk is as full of ideas as full of meat H he is a well is educated abed man and once or twice in in of his home in scotland he ng from burns giving the jobed pas passages sages broad scotch as it was used by the poet some of his verses as he agbo his farm not far fallowes fallowed fall owed the plow on om that t upon which secretary wilson from time lime to time as we born 4 y awas awed talked the clerks would bring in in papers abd letters for the secretary Secre P s advice or and I 1 could see how rapidly dhow carefully mr wilson hancz handled he w was s not at all disturbed ha business the interruptions and I 1 noticed by ov hatic that be followed each letter line by line writh his bis finger before he put his bis signa tare to it I 1 saw several other instances rf chis careful business ways at one briod I 1 in n the conversation a clerk ht i in n a requisition for a horse As abioye it down before the secretary he the horse which this new animal add d that nat displace had been in the service to botne me department twenty four years and ala th this warrant authorized one of the clerks to go up to virginia and buy an other who is the man who is to do the buying asked the secretary he is the assistant veterinary professor of the department was the reply well said the secretary send him is I 1 want to see what he knows about chorse before I 1 send him out to buy one during my chat with searel secretary ary wilson A ackim asked him how he came to know anything about farming he replied 1 I was born a farmer and I 1 was brought up amid the traditions of the tiem term M my ancestors for generations nave maye made their living by tilling the soil I 1 was waft born near ayr scotland my faher wanted to come to america be fore he was married but his bis parents could not let him the journey to AI america erica then was about as an much of an lader taking as a trip to the moon would be b today so father settled down upon the farm in n scotland there I 1 was born and there I 1 lived until I 1 was sixteen then we all came to america we settled first in connecticut and farm farmed ed near norwich about three years 1 later a ter my father got the western lever fever and we moved out to iowa iowa was at that time far west we came there ten years in advance of the railroad father entered some land and I 1 worked with him three at years ars when I 1 took up some land of 01 my own well I 1 have been farr farming from that day to this but mr secretary said 1 I it what kind of a farmer are you uncle jerry rusk when he was secretary of agri culture told me that part of his life he bad been a farmer aimer and part of it an agriculturist I 1 asked him what he meant by that and he said that the farmer was the man who made money by farming and that the agriculturist was the man who spent lots 0 of f money on experiments but usually came out behind yes replied r lied the secretary with a aff laugh and another definition of th the e two term is the farmer farms t the he farm but the agriculturist farms the farmer I 1 well I 1 dont know what you mi might 9 bt call me 1 I believe beleve 1 in in practical scientific farming I 1 have made morley money in farming at least I 1 have made my farm I 1 had ba nothing when I 1 started and I 1 have now a farm of a thousand acres and a good one how much is land worth in iowa it depends on the land was the reply within the past two years I 1 have paid as high as 62 an acre for land plenty of our land is worth 75 an acre and almost everywhere in iowa farm lands are worth as high as 40 40 per acre 11 but mr secretary can the farmers in make ake money out of land at such prices Is there any money in farming and would you advise a young man to td I 1 zo go into it to make money the most of our farmers in iowa are making money replied mr wilson if your young man is the right kind of a young man if he has a liking for farming and has enough business sense to farm rightly he can do well in buying a farm however he should go out to look at the land with a spade in his hand and should know that some kinds of land are hardly cheap at an any price he should study the soil and age the markets and become a farming manufacturer instead of a mere raiser of raw materials for other people to make money out of them what do you mean by that mr secretary re tary said 1 I 1 61 I mean just what I 1 say replied mr wilson it is the farm manufacturers who are making the money today it is the men who are taking their raw materials and turning them into meat and selling the meat djao ajio are making the money it is the fellows who are selling the grain who are losing take my region I 1 live in the greatest corn belt on the globe we raise millions upon millions of bushels of indian corn there are six states including iowa which produce over a billion bushels of shelled corn every year the price of this corn if sold is only thirteen cents a bushel if you turn it into meat it will bring you lorty forty cents a bushel that is the difference between good and bad farming it is the difference between thirteen cents and forty cents the difference between a big profit and a big loss the poor farmer sells his gran gram and keeps poor the good farmer turns it in to meat and dairy products and gets rich look at it the corn is worth thirteen cents a bushel in iowa it is shipped east and it is sold for cents a bushel to tb a man there who turns turna it into meat and makes a profit or it way may even go across the atlantic and be turned into meat by one of the farmers in england who will pay seventy five cents a bushel for it think of the chance that the farmer who raises it has to make money over the others 1 I suppose that is the kind of farming you do mr secretary yes was the reply 1 I have been raising corn for more than forty years and I 1 have bave never sold a bushel I 1 raise hogs and stock and I 1 feed all the grain that I 1 make speaking of europe mr secretary what do you think of that count country as a market for our corn secretary lusk rusk you know sent an agent into europe to introduce it there they nicknamed him corn meal murphy mr murphy estimated that thai we could easily increase the value of our corn crop at least one hundred million dollars a year by toe the foreign demand I 1 that is all imagination I 1 replied sec detary wilson front dont believe a word of it the european farmers dont want our corn they know that corn is very poor in nitrogenous matter it does not make good manure the percentage of nitro nitrogen g en bevorn in corn is only about i to zo 10 while fla flax seed and cotton seed meal are almost half nitrogen the european farmers have to nave have food that chat will enrich their lands so they import the refuse of our oil mills by the thousands of tons did you ever realize that we are the great paint users of the globe we use more paint than any other people and we import quantities of flax seed from india and other countries to make linseed oil much of the refuse of this seed goes to europe the farmers there understand its value and we who ought to keep iclet it go we on the r hand import nothing from europe that adds to our material wealth one of our chief imports for instance ins is sugar this is largely made up of starch now the starchy elements of plants come from the air sugar is not good bood for manure you might cover a field eld two feet deep with sugar and it would not raise a crop still we pay other countries more than than a hundred million dollars a year for it it is practically paying a hundred million dollars a year for air think of it id why cant we prevent that mr secretary by raising our own sugar 21 we ve can replied secretary wilson and I 1 have already taken steps to encourage the growth of the sugar beet in this country we are now sending out our beet seed to different parts of the mis sis sippi valley there is no doubt but bat that we can raise the sugar beet and we ought to make all of our own sugar we are n now 0 w paying a year to other countries for this product we get a vast amot ut nt of beet sugar from germany and a great deal of cane sugar from cuba I 1 believe the time will come when we will raise all wo we need you were speaking of germany mr secretary said I 1 are the germans to be allowed to discriminate against ainest out our meat products without cause as they have in the past no was the reply we shall stop that thata I 1 think we have already begun movements toward that end we have given orders through the treasury department part ment that no meat shall be allowed to go out of this country that has not been inspected by the agents of this department part ment every piece of meat that is carried abroad will have a certificate of inspection it the germans discriminate against such meat they must show the reason why and if they cannot there will certainly be a discrimination against them as to the things which they send to this country this matter of foreign trade is a business matter if the germans will not treat us fairly we can easily retaliate we import something like ninety odd millions of dollars worth of goods from germany every year though the balance of trade last year was a little in our favor mr secretary said I 1 you have been connected with the iowa agricultural college are such colleges doing very ve ra much good 0 yes ei indeed they are was the reply ly they hey are making better farmers we the successful farmer of the future is to be an educated farmer my boys went to the agricultural college and they are now on farms and are doing well you can bee what I 1 think of farming by the fact that I 1 trained my boys lor for it and that they intend to make it their life work do you consider farm lands a good investment mr secretary yes I 1 believe that they will rise in value we have a vast population it is steadily growing the world will always need lood food and we have some of the best food lands on the globe the mississippi basin alone could feed and chii is only a small part of our good soil we are already the greatest manufacturing fac turing nation of the globe and our ini mineral resources are such that we will ultimately have an enormous marunac turing population and the supplying of food for uns this will create a great demand for farm products and land will grow more valuable as the country fills up are the farms of the future to be small or large they will probably become sc smaller maller as the population grows will our farmers ever live in villages as the farmers of germany do no I 1 think not secretary wilson 1 I bookfor look for the railroads to travel among the farms and for electricity or some other motive power to carry the farmer and his products to and from the markets rapid transit will bring the farmers sufficiently together I 1 dont think we will ever have the socialism of germany among our farmers what is the cause of the disaffection among the farmers today the low price of farm products is Is one of the causes said secretary wilson this added to the lack of knowledge of how to make the most of their opportunities is keeping many of our farmers poor I 1 dont think the farmers are badly off today those who are in straits are largely men who have begun farming fanning without capital capita and who have not mixed their manure with brains and economy there are thousands of farmers in my state today who are mak jag ng money and there are thousands who will continue to do so how do you like being secretary of agriculture mr wilson and what do you expect to do here 1 1 I cant answer that just yet replied the secretary 1 I am still like a cat in a strange garret and I 1 do not know all of the holes and conners coiners co corners iners I 1 beleve be however that there is much to be done and that we can accomplish considerable by going to work in the right way the re is a revolution going 0 o ng on in our farming me thuds S farming earming will have to pass away and the farmer of the future will put in his licks where they will do cio the most good what we want to do is to show him where to strike we are trying to learn this by means of the experiment stations which are located all over the country then men at these stations are studying the soils the climate and the crops most profitably adopted adapted to their region they are sending out valuable bulletins bule tins giving the results of their experiments and advice to the farmers in regard to different matters I 1 want to see these bulletins go to every farmer who needs them and I 1 have already organized a system to get them into the hands of the right people we have already a list of a hundred thousand names and we will soon have a million we are going to form a syndicate of farm news for the farmers it will be uncle sams syndicate and it will not cost the farmers a cent we will make the diff different rent states do their share in the work but we propose to |