Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 August 1892 — WORK FOR FARMERS. [ARTICLE]

WORK FOR FARMERS.

What Harrison’s Aministration Has Accomplished. A BOOM FOR AGRICULTURE. The President’s Relations to Secretary Rusk. Success of Efforts to Introduce American Products to New Markets. Washington Correspondence N. Y. Tribune. To any one impartially -reviewing President Harrison's administration no one feature will seem to stand out more prominently among the many excellent ones that characterize it than the earnest work done on behalf of the American fafcnj&r. At tbe time that the present administration came into power profound depression seemed to be the prevailing sentiment among A slight but steady diminution in the prices of most of the staple Agricultural products had been going on for some years, amounting in the aggregate to a considerable per centage of she average crop values, and this resulted in a depression necessarily severely felt by a class accustomed to measure even their prosperity by a moderate standard of prqtit. During the very first year of Mr. Harrison’s administration, the adverse current which seemed to threaten the- country’s agricultural prosperity was arrested and then turned back, so that to-day—to change the figure-—the cloud which a few years ago seemed to rest so gloomily upon American agriculture has beenlight-i ened, and the future once more holds ouf bright promises to the American farmer. The first good stroke of work done bv the present administration on behalf of the farmers was the selection of J. M. Husk soy Secretary of Agri culture. -Many people were disposed to regard the Department of Agriculture with the indifference, or, what was worse, with the good natured contempt-with which it had been regarded in years gone by by many citizens and not a few public men. Many persons Tailed "to ~ realize that the change effected in the condition of the department by the legislation which made it an executive department of the government and placed its head among the official advisors of the President, was one Of grave importance and called for the exercise o t the utmost wisdom in tbe selection of a suitable person to fill the new Cabinet office.

Not so the President. Realizing that his nominee would be practically the first Secretary of Agriculture, of the United States; that upon hrai would devolve the responsibility of showing to the country whether the elevation of the department to its present rank was a wise or unwise measure; that his administraten, in fact, of this important department would be the test of its future value to the farmer, and consequently to the whole country, Pressident Harrison wise determined that new Secretary must be not only a man of affairs, but a man endowed with exceptional good sense, with energy and persevetence, and, above all, thoroughly familiar with the conditions of agriculture, thoroughly in sympathy with, the farmers, aud -enjoying to the full their confidence. Such were the conditions that led to the selection of General Rusk. , THE RIGHT MAN. v .Having selected a Secretary whom he believed to be the right Ttfan in tlie\right place, the President extended to him the fullest confidence, lending him all possible influence in carrying out such measures as seemed necessary to enlarge the scops and sphere of the Department and to entend its power for the' benefit and advantage of agriculture. In no department of the government have the tangible results obtained been more important or more gratifying than those secured by the adminis- j tration in the Agricultural Depart-ment-results affecting directly the happiness, and" well being of theft. 000,000 farmers of the United States, with their families and their hired laborers, nearly one-half of the population of the Union —and indirectly the prosperity of every branch of industry and of every class of people in the country. When the administration came into power, the live stock interests of the country were at a low ebb. Vexatious regulations and restrictions, and in some countries prolonged quarantine, discouraged and hampered Ijhe shippers of live stock for export, while the meat tyade, especially that id pork, which is of the most importance to the greatest number of farm*, ers, was practically strangled by oppressive restrictions and costly inspections, and in the case of the last named product by absolute phohibition in most of the countries of Europe. The growth of the pork trade so thriving and rapid during the seventies, was not only checked but greatly reduced during the follopspg decade, resulting in a disastrous glut of the home market, a corresponding depreciation in prices and( general depression among,,pork producers. An admirable system of inspection bas been devised and carried out in the teeth of much opposition, based mainly on allegations of impracticability and costliness, with the result not only that both these allegations have been triumphantly refuted, but that prohibitions against American pork have been removed by Germany, Denmark, Austriaf'France, Italy and Spain, and this important product now goes .to nearly every portion of the globe without discrimination pb restrictions. From fe >tember, 1891, to April, 1,892. infit sive f imore than 20,000,000 pounds of inspected pork h»ve b;en exported, •gjpefrv’H*"

and such pork now brings about One cent a pound more in American jnarkqjfcs than the uninspected. v TWO EVILS. - ’ In case of cattle two evils had to be contended with: First, the eon- ‘ tinued allegations, many of them unfounded, of the existence of disease among American cattle —allegations made ip foreign countries largely for the purpose of justifying the restrictions which tended to make the trade unprofitable; and, secondly, the existence in one or two comparatively insignificant sections of the country of pleuro pneumonia, a disease which, however restricted, was a constant menace to the cattle interests and a perpetual argument in the mouths of foreign competitors against the American cattle trade. —To bpeffect-£ ual. measures to remove these difficulties had to be simultaneously carried out, and a consideration of the work to be undertaken was almost staggering, involving, as it did, coinspection by representatives of the“* department in Great Britain of all animals inspected by the British authorities, inspection on this side of all cattle shipped abroad, and more, than that a system of numbering and identifying each individual animal so that any alleged case of disease could • be traced from the source whence it originally came. It meant a thorough investigation of the condition of Uxe cattle throughout t he country, the maintenance of strictest quarantine in those few sections in which pleuro-pneumonia was found, and the enforcement throughout the entire breadth of the country of rigid regulations controlling the transportation of cattle by rail or otherwise from south to north of what is known as the Texas fever line. Under the present administration all this vast amount of work has been undertaken and carried out, so indeed, that on the .single item of insurance of cattle in transit shippers are saving annually $2,000,000 on the prices paid three or four years ago. The dreaded pleuro-pneumonia has been effect-ually-stamped out of every section whereitexisteJthree _ year3-ago r : with but one exception, a single county in New Jersey. With that exception, not a case of the disease has been found in any part of the coil ntry where it previously existed during'the last twelve months, and in the jingle exception noted over two months have elapsed without a hew case' being discovered, whi;le the rigid quarantine ana vigorous measures which have so successfully rid other sections of the country are being there most, thoroughly enforced. Yet this is a disease with which great Britain and many other countries have been unsluceessfully coping for forty or fifty years, with the result that many authorities declare that its thorough extirpation is impossible. It is not too much to say that as the result of the work of the administration Americau cattle and other live stock are in a more healthy dition than the live stock of any othiff- country, and in a more healthy condition than they have been in this country in the last twenty years. '

During the same period the forplus crops have been enlarged by the introduction of products in places where they have been* comparatively unknown hitherto, or at least unused; and the resources and conditions of other countries which might be made available as a .market for surplus crops have been investigated, in order that all dealers in agricultural products might be furnished with information to guide them in seeking new outlets. This has notably been the case as regards the Cen - tral and South American republics and West Indies, with which, as the result of such information aud of judicious treaties, the trade for agricultural products has already been greatly enlarged, and. what is even more a strong foothold has been obtained for American farm products in regions where this trade had been heretofore completely monopolized by British and German producers. -—— ~' -

As an instance of the introduction into certain regions b'f American products hitherto comparatively unused. one attempt may be cited with which the American public is now thoroughly familiar, although for two years the work went on intelligently and indefatigably with barely a worel of recognition or encouragement, namely, the introduction of our American Indian corn into Europe for use as human food. The persistence and intelligence with which this work has been carried on are now beginning to reap their reward: and enlarged demand has been created for corn meal in Great Britain and{-Germany especially, with every prospect that before the present administration closes an American product hardly known in European markets, save as a cheap substitute for cattle feed, will be known in every country in Europe depending upon foreign sources for any part of its cereal food supply, as a cheap and nutritious substitute for other cereal foods. The importance of this work can hardly be overestimated, representing as it does a crop fpr the increase of the resources of the United States* are almost unlimited;and which with every good crop suffers a depreciation in price which frequently has made a smaller crop bring more actual money to the producer than-a larger, for the reason that its value tpid uses are unknown abroad. No demand for the American surplus, save as a cheap substitute for cattle feed, has existed heretofore, only 4 per cent of tjbe crop having been exported during the last decade. *