6i4 



CONSERVATION 



beast tlieir trail of disease and death. 

 In the old days of ante-paternalism and 

 anti-paternalism, days of every farmer 

 for himself and the bugs take the hind- 

 most, the black-scale and the grass- 

 hopper, the chinch-bug and the Hessian 

 fly and Texas fly swept unhindered 

 over the domain of the farmer, his 

 homestead open at every angle of his 

 ignorance and his prejudice and his in- 

 dividual helplessness, and the last scenes 

 of the tragedy were generally seen in 

 the auction advertisements, the sheriff's 

 hammer and the pathetic procession of 

 the old man and his wagon full of child- 

 ren driving down the road, if he had 

 saved so much as a horse, to begin life 

 over again as somebody's hired man. 

 Now he drives an automobile, sends his 

 sons and daughters to college, and the 

 bank complains that he loans instead 

 of borrowing money. 



The farmer has been feeding about 

 200,ocx>,ooo pounds sterling a year 

 to one subdivision of his bugs. 

 Nearly half this much is saved to him 

 every year by the Bureau of Ento- 

 mology alone. In other words, because 

 the United States Government is in the 

 hands of those who believe in the social 

 organism instead of a social atomism, 

 this one department of government has 

 revolutionized agriculture and has 

 placed the status of the farmer's pros- 

 perity upon scientific and permanent 

 foundations. 



The wealth of the American farmer 

 to-day is about £6,000,000.000, almost 

 thrice the total wealth of the whole 

 United States before the civil war. The 

 product of the American farm last year 

 was twenty-five per cent on even this 

 enormous investment, and the values 

 of the last year's product of the farms 

 of the United States were £1,500,000,- 

 000. The American farm has produced 

 enough in 1908 to give £100 to every 

 family in the United States. 



Such has been the intelligence and 

 vigor and disinterestedness of the ad- 

 ministration of agriculture under Sec- 

 retary Wilson, that in Mr. Roosevelt's 

 term of office, in the single item of live 

 stock alone, the values have increased 

 from 450,000.000 to 866,000,000 pounds 



sterling. This is largely due to the 

 dissemination of free, scientific litera- 

 ture to the farmers, and other actual na- 

 tional assistance in combating the dis- 

 eases of farm animals. The three crops 

 of wheat, maize, and oats alone have 

 increased to the value last year of £200,- 

 000,000 over the value of those three 

 crops upon the year President Roose- 

 velt was sworn in as President of the 

 United States. During the same period 

 the value of farm land has increased 

 about thirty-two per cent, or from 

 3,300,000,000 to 4,550,000,000 pounds 

 sterling, and this has been due largely to 

 the study and dissemination of litera- 

 ture and practical field help given by 

 the Nation to the farmers in studying 

 the plant diseases and combating plant 

 enemies. 



Two of the most useful laws which 

 Mr. Roosevelt has succeeded in driving 

 through Congress and successfully run- 

 ning the gauntlet of every interest in- 

 volved are the meat inspection act and 

 the pure food law, the latter conducted 

 by the Hon. Mr. Mann. Taking at 

 random a period of four years, the Bu- 

 reau of Animal Industry inspected 

 227,000.000 animals per year, and 148,- 

 000,000 for slaughter. I find in a re- 

 port from the bureau a certain table 

 of the causes of condemnation of car- 

 cassses, in which, roughly speaking, 

 19,000 cattle, 12,000 sheep, 4,000 calves, 

 and 91,000 hogs, besides as many parts 

 of each, were condemned and thrown 

 away on account of the presence of 

 forty-five different diseases. These dis- 

 eases included tuberculosis, cholera, 

 Texas fever, erysipelas, cancer, tumor, 

 abscess, gangrene, tapeworm, trichinse, 

 and thirty-five others. 



Under laisse::-faire we used to eat 

 all this. 



And we didn't know what was the 

 matter with us ! 



It is impossible to give, in anything 

 less than a volume, an adequate idea 

 of what this department alone has done, 

 is doing, and will continue to do, for 

 the American farmer. 



The Post-office Department has made 

 its own contribution in these seven years 

 of Roosevelt by increasing the number 



