Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 77, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 May 1907 — MAN’S ACTIVITIES. [ARTICLE]

MAN’S ACTIVITIES.

Agriculture Holds the Leading Place Among Them. At the annual banquet of the Americus Chib of Pittsburg, in honor of the birth of U. S. Grant, Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson, Congressman Grant Mouser of Ohio and Washington Gardner of Michigan were the chief speakers. Wilson spoke on “Agriculture in Our Industries.” He said in part: "Agriculture is a creative force among our industries. The result of the farmers’ work of 1906 was $6,794,000,000, an increase of 44 per cent over the last census year. We exported in 1906 $1,718,000,000 worth of goods of all kinds, and of this 72 per cent was grown from farms and forests. Animals and their products yielded $323,000,000, or 19 per cent, for export after supplying the home demand. Cotton and cotton products exported were $481,000,000, or 28 per cent; grain and products sold abroad were $197,000,000, or 11.5 per cent; and $113,000,000, or 6.5 per cent, was miscellaneous farm products. “Forest products are 7.5 per cent of our exports. We use tobacco extensively and pay around $3,000,000 for importations from Cuba and Sumatra, Porto Rico, Mediterranean countries and Brazilian ports. We raised Sumatra wrappers last year to the extent of $7,000,000 worth. The department, after discovering principles, conducts object lessons on the farms of the people to help them toward better things. “We found in the Connecticut valley and In Florida the same soil that grows the wrapper tobacco in Sumatra, after visiting that country and studying their methods and soils. We found in Alabama and Texas the same soil that produces the filler tobacco in Cuba, after learning what soil is suitable, and last year raised 400 acres of it in those States. We hope in time to grow all the tobacco now imported from Cuba and Sumatra into the United States."