National Geographic Magazine/Volume 16/Number 1/The Farmers of the United States
THE FARMERS OF THE UNITED STATES
"The activities of our age in lines of research have reached the tillers of the soil and inspired them with ambition to know more of the principles that govern the forces of nature with which they have to deal."—President Roosevelt in his message to Congress, December 8, 1904.
The report for 1904 of Hon. James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture, makes a small volume of 114 pages. It is a story of remarkable development and of wondrous wealth. We recommend it for perusal by every reader of this Magazine. The following is an abstract of the report.
Favored with continued prosperity in 1904, the farming element of the people has laid broader, deeper, and more substantial the foundations of a magnificent agriculture. A period of some industrial depression during the last two years has been saved by the farmers from the severer conditions that must otherwise have befallen in consequence of the absorption of a large portion of the readily convertible capital of the non-agricultural classes into great and prevalent speculations.
WEALTH PRODUCED BY FARMERS
As great as the financial successes of agriculture were in 1903, hitherto without equal, those of 1904 advanced somewhat beyond them. While some products have fallen behind in value, others have more than filled the deficit, and the general result is that the farmers have produced in value much more wealth than they ever did before in one year.
One conspicuous item that has contributed to this is the corn crop. The farmers could from the proceeds of this single crop pay the national debt, the interest thereon for one year, and still have enough left to pay a considerable portion of the government's yearly expenses. The cotton crop, valued for lint and seed at 600 millions, comes second, while hay and wheat contend for the third place. Combined, these two crops will about equal in value the corn crop. Notwithstanding the wheat crop shows a lower production than any year since 1900, the farm value is the highest since 1881. Potatoes and barley reached their highest production in 1904; save in 1902, the oat crop was never so large by 60 million bushels. The present crop of rice promises a yield of 900 million pounds—300 million more than ever before.
Horses and mules reach the highest point this year, with an aggregate value exceeding 1,354 million dollars. On the other hand, cattle, sheep, and hogs all show a slight decline.
The steady advance in poultry leads to some astonishing figures. The farmers' hens now produce 1⅔ billions of dozens of eggs, and at the high average price of the year the hens during their busy season lay enough eggs in a single month to pay the year's interest on the national debt.[1]
After a careful estimate of the value of the products of the farm during 1904, made within the census scope, it is safe to place the amount at 4,900 million dollars after excluding the value of farm crops fed to live stock in order to avoid duplication of values. This is 9.65 per cent above the product of 1903 and 31.28 per cent above that of the census year 1899.
Some comparisons are necessary to the realization of such an unthinkable value, aggregating nearly five billions of dollars. The farmers of this country have in two years produced wealth exceeding the output of all the gold mines of the entire world since Columbus discovered America. This year's product is over six times the amount of the capital stock of all national banks; it lacks but three-fourths of a billion dollars of the value of the manufactures of 1900, less the cost of materials used ; it is three times the gross earnings from the operations of the railways and four times the value of all minerals produced in this country.
The year 1904 keeps well up to the average of exports of farm products during the five years 1899-1903, amounting to over 859 millions, while the average for the five years was nearly 865 millions. During the last 15 years the balance of trade in favor of this country, all articles considered, exceeded 4,384 million dollars, but taking farm products alone, these showed a balance in our favor of more than 5,300 millions.
The increase in farm capital the Secretary estimates conservatively at 2,000 million dollars within four years—this without recognizing the marked increase in the value of land during the past two years. The most startling figures shown as illustrating the farmers' prosperity are those presented by deposits in banks in typical agricultural states. The Secretary selects for this illustration Iowa, Kansas, and Mississippi. Taking all kinds of banks, national, state, private, and savings, the deposits increased from June 30, 1896, to October 31, 1904, in Iowa, 164 percent, in Kansas 219 per cent, and in Mississippi 301 per cent—in the United States 91 per cent. A similar favorable comparison may be made as to the number of depositors.
GENERAL, PROSPERITY OF THE FARMER
The diffusion of well-being among farmers throughout all parts of the country is one of the most conspicuous features of the recent agricultural development. This attracted attention a year ago and is now even more noticeable. The great South is more especially enjoying this growth of well-being, owing to the enhanced value of the cotton crop in addition to the general progress in agriculture. The Eastern farmer, who was long on the verge of bankruptcy in competition with the virgin soil and rapid expansion of the northern half of the Mississippi River Valley, has survived that competition and now enjoys more normal conditions, owing to the creation and maintenance of many large near-by markets by many varied industries. The Pacific coast has long been prosperous, with its world-famous specialties; the mountain states are glad with the fruits and promises of irrigation; in the older prairie states the farmer has seen his land go from $1.25 an acre, or from a homestead gift, to $100 and $150, and the "Great American Desert," as it was called when it was nothing but a buffalo range, is now peopled by a progressive race of farmers, whose banks are filled to overflowing with the proceeds of their products.
EDUCATIONAL WORK
The elements of agricultural science are gradually finding their place in the primary and secondary schools through the instruction of teachers.
We buy over $200,000,000 worth of products from tropical countries that cannot be grown in continental United States. Through scientists sent from the United States to the several island groups the department is instructing the people of our island possessions to grow these things, such as coffee, rubber, fibers, drug plants, nuts, fruits, spices, and the like.
Our farmers buy $100,000,000 worth of machinery every year. A better knowledge of its use and care is necessary. Several agricultural colleges are taking up this inquiry and giving instruction in regard to machinery and farm buildings.
WEATHER BUREAU FORECASTS
The regular forecasts of the Weather Bureau for 36 and 48 hours in advance have been made daily throughout the year, besides special warnings of gales, cold waves, frosts, heavy snows, floods, etc., which have been issued for the benefit of commercial and agricultural interests. Forecasts are issued, moreover, for the first three days out of steamers bound for European ports. The river and flood service had several opportunities to demonstrate its usefulness and growing efficiency, and owing to the advices and warnings of the Bureau the dangers of the great ice gorges in the Susquehanna, Allegheny, and Ohio rivers were much minimized.
The national weather and crop bulletins were issued from 143 section centers. Besides the extensive distribution of the forecast cards, over 5,000 railroad stations have been supplied with bulletins, and the Bureau has availed itself extensively of the rural free delivery and the rural telephone system, so that forecasts are quickly disseminated throughout a large territory at a minimum of expense.
MOUNT WEATHER OBSERVATORY
The main building of the Weather Bureau Observatory at Mount Weather, Va., has been completed, and the physical laboratory to be erected in another year is being planned. When the equipment is ready apparatus will be utilized to explore the atmosphere to altitudes of from 3 to 10 miles.
During the year arrangements were perfected for a generous increase in the number of daily telegraphic weather reports, and the Secretary reports several submarine cables laid. The Weather Bureau has now 158 stations completely equipped, while 130 steel towers with improved equipment for displaying storm warnings are now installed along the shores of the Great Lakes and the Atlantic and Pacific seacoasts.
INSPECTION OF ANIMALS AND MEAT
Besides safeguarding the live-stock industry at home, the department is fostering the foreign trade. The total export of animal products in the past fiscal year exceeded $223,000,000. The total inspections for export were—for cattle, 790,496; for sheep, 534,850; and for horses, 3,293. There was a great increase in the number of cattle and sheep exported, but a considerable reduction in the number of horses. The loss on cattle in transit to British ports was but 0.17 per cent, and on sheep 0.94 per cent. Clearances of vessels carrying live stock numbered 774.
The inspection of import animals calls for the utmost vigilance in order to prevent the introduction of animal diseases. Importations of pure-bred animals were light, but a very large number were imported from Mexico for breeding purposes.
Inspection of animals and their products was maintained at 51 establishments in cities. Of ante-mortem inspections about 65,000,000 were made and of postmortem 40,000,000, an increase in both cases over the previous year. The microscopic inspection of pork is restricted to that destined for countries requiring it, and the number of carcasses inspected in 1904 was 313,445, of which 2,643 were found to be trichinous.
PRODUCING NEW BREEDS OF ANIMALS
Preliminary steps have been taken to conduct feeding and breeding experiments in several states looking to the development of breeds of animals suitable to our conditions of climate and soils and capable of meeting the demands of commerce at home and abroad.
The spread over several of the mountain states of a cattle mange required vigorous intervention by the department. It was necessary to detail a large force of experts to supervise the dipping of the herds in order to eradicate the parasite. Cooperation with most of the states has been arranged, and the rest promise to secure state legislation to compel all flock and herd masters to clean their stock.
STUDY OF PLANTS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Special efforts have been made to encourage the study of plants in the public schools. The Secretary argues that our system of elementary education leaves no impression on the child's mind of the importance, value, and usefulness of farm life, while in many ways he is brought early into contact with facts pointing to the value of commercial life. He calls attention to the rapid advances made in agriculture along all lines, and notes the need for bright young men in this field, which he believes offers opportunities as great as in any other. The distribution of seed is being handled in such a way that encouragement of plant growing will be a feature of it in connection with public school work.
NEW PLANT INDUSTRIES
Under the head of new industries developed the Secretary enumerates, first, rice, of which, under the encouragement of the department, there has been enormously increased production in Louisiana and Texas. Preliminary estimates give the area devoted to rice in 1904 in these two states at 600,000 acres, and the crop will approximate 650,000,000 pounds. In reference to durum or macaroni wheat the success attending its introduction continues unabated. Probably no less than 14,000,000 bushels of such wheats will be grown this year. The durum wheats are now being handled without difficulty by many millers. These wheats have been found valuable for bread and can be grown successfully where many other crops fail. Efforts are also being made to introduce the raw material for the manufacture of fine mattings.
IMPROVEMENT IN SUGAR-BEET SEED
In regard to the sugar beet the chief effort of the department has been to effect improvement in the seed and to study the diseases with a view to the discovery of remedies. Strains of pedigreed seed are being established in New York, Michigan, Utah, and Washington, having already assumed commercial importance in the last two states. It seems to be a question of but a few years when the entire 5,000,000 pounds used in the United States will be produced at home. American-grown seed has produced beets testing as high as 24 per cent, and the average in all beets tested from American-grown seed in 1903 was 15.8. The average percentage in all beets grown in the United States is but a little over 11 per cent. During the season of 1904, 14,000 pounds of American-grown seed were distributed by the department for testing in comparison with imported seed. The factories also bought 34,500 pounds of American-grown seed. Interesting experiments in fertilizing were conducted, one in particular showing the difference of over twenty dollars per acre as the result of fertilizing with nitrate of soda.
In the matter of developing sugar-beet seeds with single germs, which would greatly diminish the labor of thinning, the Bureau work has been very satisfactory.
NEW CITROUS FRUITS
Early oranges secured as a result of crossing the sweet orange with the hardy Japanese orange are now ready to distribute, and this work will be inaugurated the coming winter. The oranges are valuable for marmelades and may be grown in nearly all the Southern States. Other citrous fruit developed from the investigations of the Bureau of Plant Industry, such as the tangelo, a cross between the tangerine and the pomelo, promise to be exceedingly valuable.
AMERICAN TEA AND AFRICAN DATES
As heretofore, investigation in American tea production has been continued in cooperation with Dr C. L. Shepard, whose gardens now yield from eight to ten thousand pounds of tea annually. The work of establishing a plantation in Texas has also been continued. Encouraging results have also been secured in the establishment of the African date in Arizona and California.
POPPY ALKALOIDS
In Vermont previous success in growing opium poppies has been repeated with even better results. The attempt to cultivate this plant has been made with a view to supplying our demand for poppy alkaloids for medicinal uses. As the result of the repeated experiments, success has at last attended the effort to obtain morphine directly from the juices of the plant. If this can be done commercially, the plants produced in American fields will replace oriental opium as a crude source for morphine.
CULTURAL WORK ON COTTON
Special work has been done on cotton with a view to bringing home to farmers of Texas and Louisiana, especially in the boll-weevil districts, the advantages of better methods of cultivation and the value of early maturing seed.
The Bureau of Plant Industry has had the advantage of closest coöperation with the Texas Agricultural College, and also with the Louisiana authorities. As a feature of the work in the South, diversification farms were established at various places with a view to showing the value and importance of diversified agriculture. The business interests in the respective communities gladly co-operate in this matter with the Bureau, so that they involve but a trifling expense to the government. Thirty-two of these farms have been or are about to be established. Extensive work has been inaugurated in Texas with a view to breeding new types of cotton better adapted to meet the conditions brought about by the invasion of the cotton boll weevil. Reference is made to the discovery of the Guatemalan ant by an officer of the Bureau, and to the transfer of the study and distribution of this ant to the Bureau of Entomology. Mention is also made of an effort to combat the boll weevil by producing a variety of cotton not subject to injury by this pest.
The Secretary believes it to be within the range of possibility that resistant varieties of cotton may be found in tropical America or developed by selection. As a feature of the work in Texas, a special effort has been made to obtain information as to the best methods of combating the cotton root rot, a disease which has been very serious the past season.
FORAGE CROP INVESTIGATIONS
More attention has been given to alfalfa in the eastern half of the United States in the past two years than to any other crop. The department has demonstrated that this valuable crop can be grown in almost every state in the Union. A large amount of information has been gathered the past year as to the carrying capacity of the ranges in various parts of the West. Intelligent management will bring the ranges back to their primitivs state of productiveness, but there is no chance of improving range conditions except where stockmen are able to control the ranges upon which their stock feed. It has also been demonstrated that many new plants may be introduced upon the range successfully. Plants that may be grown upon alkali lands have been studied.
INVESTIGATIONS OF STANDARD GRASSES
Investigations of standard grasses have been carried on, and it is hoped that within a few years it will be possible to offer farmers small quantities of seed of improved forms of all the standard grasses. A considerable number of native American grasses have shown themselves adapted to the regions where at present hay grasses are wanting. It is believed that hay grasses can be found on the Western plains where the average annual rainfall does not exceed 15 inches. It has been found that a number of plants can be made to furnish satisfactory pasture throughout the winter months in the South, and cooperation is planned with Southern experiment stations and farmers to test a number of such plants for winter-pasture purposes.
NEW FORAGE CROPS FOR THE GULF REGION AND THE PACIFIC COAST
The agrostologists are studying the forage value of the velvet bean, beggar weed, Mexican clover, and cassava for for the region adjacent to the Gulf of Mexico. The Bureau of Plant Industry is seeking to provide suitable forage crops for southern Florida, and it is also searching for forage crops to grow alternately with wheat in the great wheat regions on the Pacific coast, so that the farmers may secure more than one crop every other year,
MARKETING OF FRUITS
Much attention has been given to the development of the trans-Atlantic export trade. Large and profitable shipments of Bartlett pears were made from eastern orchards to British markets. It is known that more than 75,000 packages of this variety were exported, while the total shipments of eastern-grown summer and fall pears amounted to at least 165 carloads.
An encouraging beginning has been effected in commercial shipments of American apples to French markets. The most important experimental export work has been done upon winter apples. The proportion exported has risen from less than 1 per cent of the estimated total in 1899-1900 to nearly 4¾ per cent in 1903-1904, a total of over 2,000,000 barrels, valued at nearly $5,500,000.
COLD STORAGE OF FRUIT
The cold storage of fruit has grown to large proportions, nearly 3,000,000 barrels having been cold-stored in the United States during the last winter as a result of investigations during the past year. It is found that the condition in which the fruit is grown and the manner of handling it determine to a large extent its keeping quality and ultimate value. Fruit intended for storage must be handled with the utmost care in picking, packing, and shipping, and stored quickly after picking, in well-ventilated rooms with a temperature from 31° F. to 32° F.
PLANT-BREEDING WORK
Much important work has been done in plant breeding. Great advances have been made in securing new and desirable long-staple cottons. Important results have been obtained in the breeding and improvement of corn and of oats and potatoes. Some of the most important investigations in breeding and selection have been inaugurated in connection with the growing of tobacco. Extensive work has been carried on in Connecticut, and the work has shown unquestionably that the desirable characteristics in the leaf can be fixed in the first year's selection.
CROPS REQUIRING LITTLE WATER
It is believed that a profitable system of agriculture can be developed for the semi-arid area of the United States by securing crops which will grow with a very small amount of water. Considerable progress has been made in this direction.
MEANS OF DESTROYING ALGÆ IN WATER SUPPLIES
The Secretary calls attention to the investigations carried on by the plant physiologist with a view to finding methods of destroying noxious algæ in water supplies, the method consisting in using extremely dilute solutions of copper sulphate. Numerous tests have been made in cooperation with boards of health and water engineers, and the method has been proved remarkably efficient. The fact that one part of copper sulphate to 100,000 parts of water will at ordinary temperature completely destroy the bacteria causing typhoid fever and Asiatic cholera suggests the great usefulness of copper in fighting these and other diseases.
PRESENT FORESTRY SITUATION
The present situation as regards forestry in the United States the Secretary regards as exceedingly hopeful. The lumber industry seems to be awakening to the fact that lumbering with reference to future as well as present profits may be good business. The general adoption of forestry as an established policy now depends primarily on business conditions. Extensive investigations of forest conditions are still urgently needed. Studies which individuals cannot undertake, but which must be made if the wealth-producing power of the country as a whole is to be brought to the highest point, need to be prosecuted in the public interest. The furtherance of that part of this department's work which is directed toward informing the small owner how he can to advantage practice forestry on his own account is of the first importance.
IMPORTANCE OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF FOREST CONDITIONS
There is now no considerable portion of the United States for which the Bureau of Forestry has not at hand special knowledge bearing directly on questions pertaining to the use of the forests. In the work of building up a sound permanent policy for the forests of the national domain, this department continues to render important service, and it is plain that the ultimate function of the Bureau of Forestry as a part of the government administrative equipment is gradually defining itself. The work to which the bureau must hereafter chiefly devote itself includes scientific study of problems having a practical bearing on forest utilization; coöperation with states seeking advice concerning forest legislation, administration, or the formulation of a state forest policy; and, finally, the discharge of any duties assigned to it by the national government in connection with the administration of public lands. The forester is at present the official adviser in technical matters of those departments having in charge forested lands. The greatest need of the West, says the Secretary, is water, and in many states future settlement and prosperity depend absolutely upon its conservation, and this again largely, in many cases wholly, depends upon the preservation of the forests.
The work of planting on forest reserves has been begun in California, Colorado, and Nebraska.
He expresses gratification at the recognition by Congress of the work of the bureau which has enabled it to increase its force within six years 16-fold, and its expenditures 12-fold. That this liberality is true economy is demonstrated by the fact that a single discovery now commomly applied to the production of turpentine is effecting a saving annually equal to the total expenditures of the Bureau for six years.
FOREIGN PLANTS IMPORTED
No less than 1,429 selected kinds of seeds and plants were introduced from foreign countries and established in the United States. These included 350 date suckers representing 42 varieties, 19 varieties of grapes from Russian Caucasus, 33 varieties of mangoes of recognized superiority from central India, 157 bushels of berseem from the valley of the Nile, 2,000 pounds of the famous new barley from Moravia, 200 trees of the hardy Vladmir cherry from Russia (distributed in the Northwest), and many others.
NITROGEN-FIXING BACTERIA
Extensive practical tests were made the past season with nitrogen bacteria for use in connection with the leguminous crops. Results have been even more successful than was anticipated. The several strains of bacteria sent out from the department have proved valuable even on soils containing the uncultivated organisms in abundance. The material for inoculating an acre of soil costs the department about one cent per acre and the farmers scarcely anything to apply it. The demand for the organisms is constantly increasing.
THE SOIL SURVEY
The study of soils and their management with regard to their values for producing crops has been continued. Soils vary greatly in the several states, and a general knowledge of their composition is of prime importance before the tiller can put them to their most profitable use. The Bureau of Soils is mapping the various areas to the end that residents on each may as soon as possible learn the peculiarities with which they have to deal. The department is seeking to introduce plants from foreign countries to diversify American agriculture. A knowledge of the character of the soils from which they come and on which they have been developed is imperative, and suggests the wisdom of becoming familiar with the soils as well as the climate to which these new plants are introduced.
The total area surveyed and mapped by the bureau during the fiscal year was over 29,000 square miles, and the total area surveyed at the close of the fiscal year exceeded 74,000 square miles, or 47,868, 800 acres. During the past year 68 areas in the different states were surveyed. A table presents the area surveyed in 1904, and previously reported in each state, and shows that the total cost of the year's survey was $72,601.41, of which $2,377.57 was paid by state organizations. The cost of work in the field per square mile was therefore $2.21, and the average total cost per square mile, $2.50.
- ↑ Every American is thus eating about 245 eggs a year.