84 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the farmer along that line is to follow up the man who carries the letters 

 to the farmer's house with the forecast for that day. I don't see any 

 reason why the farmer should not get it, as well as the man who lives in 

 town. And I will get it sooner or later, and as fast as they extend the 

 rural free deliveries, the forecast will follow along. I will make a great 

 deal of fuss until they do. The rural free delivery is going to pay. The 

 farmer is taking more papers, he is writing oftener, and he is going to 

 be a profitable customer for Uncle Sam all along the line. I might say 

 another thing in regard to the weather bureau. We are establishing a 

 wireless telegraphy along the coast. We think it will give the indications 

 of the weather several hours sooner. This is not the wireless telegraphy 

 that comes from any other source. We are studying it out ourselves, 

 and we are just as far along as anyone else is though we don't make very 

 much noise about it. We expect to use it 150 miles down in the Cape 

 Henry neighborhood very soon. 



The bureau of animal industry is another. The weather bureau spends 

 11,100,000 a year, the bureau of animal industry does also. We have 

 started out to exterminate several of the diseases now found among the 

 herds of the United States. Sheep scab we expect to exterminate, black 

 leg in calves and young animals. We are doing it by sending the vaccine 

 to the farmers so they can use it freely, and send it for nothing. The 

 vaccine we send out is genuine. It touches the spot every time, and it is 

 certain that if the farmers throughout the country will use that on their 

 young animals and prevent any outbreak, the bacilli will die out. It 

 must die out. 



We are looking into the condition of domestic animals at home 

 and abroad. We have the healthiest animals in the world. We permit 

 importations of animals from Great Britain, but we have restricted 

 matters so closely that we will not let them ship in any foot and mouth 

 disease. We won't let them land unless they are examined for tubercu- 

 losis. I suppose the people of Canada and Great Britain are just as 

 honest as anybody, but we won't allow their cattle to come in unless our 

 own veterinarians examine them. The British are finding that they 

 must test those animals themselves, and word came to me the other day 

 that the less respectable herdsmen over there are threatening to antici- 

 pate our test. Those of you who have read up on tuberculosis and the 

 tuberculin test, know that if you test an animal today and then test it 

 again next week, it will not respond. If I catch those people doing that 

 I will shut out British cattle to the last hoof. We have just as good blood 

 here, and they must not try any of those tricks on the people of the United 

 States. We are determined to protect the health of our cattle. 



I might call your attention to something that is being done that would 

 be interesting to Michigan people. We are getting new varieties of wheat. 

 The way by which you get varieties of wheat is to hybridize. We are cross 

 breeding wheats in the United States and selecting from the hybrids. 

 We are cross breeding so as to get cold resisting varieties. Selecting 

 from these hybrids a gain of several bushels to the acre has been made 

 in the way of progress. We cross the Japanese variety of orange with 

 the Florida orange. Out of five thousand young hybrids, if we get one 

 sweet orange, we will revolutionize the growing of oranges all over the 

 United States, because the beautiful seedless naval orange that grows 

 on the Pacific coast sprang from one tree that we still have in the 

 department of agriculture. We have set out five thousand young hybrids, 



