FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 81 



work to be doDe somewhere in regard to soils, I could have a man to 

 send to do that work. 



For example. Porto Rico is under our control. When our people went 

 there, they were poor. Taxes had been put on their industries throughout 

 the generations. People living in Spain owned the laud and never paid 

 any taxes. Taxes were paid by the poor people. I must send a soil thesist * 

 down there to find out the kind of soil there, to indicate to the people where 

 they could succeed with this plant, that plant and the other plant. I 

 began several years ago calling upon the agricultural colleges to send 

 me the young graduates and because we have had them at work teaching 

 them soils in the summer, bringing them into Washington in the winter 

 to give them instructions in and outside of our department, we were 

 ready to send a man to Porto Rico in order to tell the people what they 

 could do with this field. 



While I was director of the Iowa experiment station, T learned a little 

 about the dairy. Dr. Babcock of Wisconsin had told us that the ferment 

 that ripens the cheese is a native ferment in the milk. The flavor of 

 fine butter and cheese comes from bacteria within the product that 

 reaches it after it comes from the cow. Some inquiries came to me in 

 regard to tobacco. I made some investigation and found we were selling 

 thirty million dollars worth of poor tobacco. We were buying $14,000,000 

 worth of high priced tobacco from foreign countries. The question came 

 to me whether we could not do something along those lines. I sent for the 

 bacteriologist and said to him, what does science know about tobacco? 

 What is the reason one cigar sells for two cents and another for half a 

 dollar? Had you made any investigations? I happened to know what Dr. 

 Babcock has found out about the influence that ripens cheese, that is a fer- 

 ment within the milk itself that comes from the cow. Nature provided 

 that and I happen to know that bacteria flavors it, but has this any- 

 thing to do with flavoring tobacco. No one has ever inquired. We 

 wanted an agriculturist and chemist who could analyze a living tobacco 

 leaf. Couldn't be found. Advertised for them, but couldn't find one. 

 Dr. Kedzie could have done it but he wouldn't have thought of leaving 

 you here and going to Washington, but at last we got a little German 

 who was rated a crank in his own country who could do it. No bacteria 

 could live where tobacco was fermented. We found out that tobacco 

 was a specific for bacteria, and we wanted to know what the ferment 

 was. 



The little German went to work, growing tobacco under different condi- 

 tions, and we began to get a little light. We thought we were doing good 

 work and we published it, and the Japanese saw it and came over aad 

 took the little German away. I knew a young man who had taught 

 chemistry and had obtained a Master's degree from Johns Hopkins. I 

 told him my story and he said that he did not know a thing about it. 

 Johns Hopkins never taught that to anybody, and there 1 was. He 

 finally said he would come and work for his board, and there he is now 

 with another young gentleman who has gone through flie same process, 

 and when he knows enough about it, I presume -he can tell us what is 

 in the living plant. So we are educating along those lines. 



The axmen in the sawmill have been at work. They are working up 

 our last pine trees. I am not going to say anything about this, but we have 

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