REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 13 



Save all the liquid fertilizers on the farm, in cisterns, to be applied 

 where crops are to grow ; this will recover the greatest farm waste of 

 our times. 



There is great promise in the fact that whole classes of graduates 

 of agricultural colleges go back to the farms, having learned how to 

 make them profitable. 



Our foresters are learning by experiments how to reforest 30,000 

 acres in a year; ten times as much must be planted annually to cover 

 all the bare acres in a generation. It will be done. 



There should be publicity regarding the cold storage of foods, 

 through monthly reports to some Federal authority that would give 

 them to the press, to the end that the people might know to what 

 extent foods were being withdrawn from consumption. 



CROP RESULTS. 



ADVEBSE CLIMATIC CONDITIONS. 

 EXCEEDING ALL RECORDS. 



The climatic conditions of the early part of the growing season 

 of 1911 were adverse to agriculture throughout the country east of 

 the Rocky Mountains in a degree that exceeds all records. The 

 assertion has been made that this country is so large in extent and 

 has such a varied climate, soil, and crops that no nation-wide calam- 

 ity can befall its farmers from natural causes. An extreme test of 

 the truth of this assertion was made this year. 



From early in May until July was well advanced, a period of 

 about 60 days, a series of hot waves of marked severity so early in 

 the summer followed one another in rapid succession over nearly 

 the entire regions of the Mississippi Valley and the Atlantic coast. 



Short periods of more moderate weather occurred locally at inter- 

 vals, giving some relief, but, it is stated by the Weather Bureau, it is 

 probable that during no previous similar period of 60 days has the 

 temperature been so continuously and largely above the average 

 over so extensive a region in the last half century. 



Deficient rainfall made this continuous heat effective against crop 

 production. From January to June the rainfall in Minnesota, Iowa, 

 and Missouri was 19.7 per cent below the normal; it was 25.4 per 

 cent below in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas; 

 27.8 per cent below in New England; 12.4 per cent below in New 

 York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. In the South Central States 

 east of the Mississippi River the deficiency of rainfall from January 

 to June was 10.3 per cent; west of that river, 21.6 per cent; and in 

 the Pacific Northwest, 21.2 per cent. 



