The Modern Alchemist 



7«3 



This plant is semi-established in Min- 

 nesota, Iowa, Missouri, Ohio, and is mak- 

 ing its way in Illinois and Indiana. Else- 

 where the growing of this plant is mostly 

 experimental, but with promise of suc- 

 cess. 



Further extension of alfalfa-growing 

 on large areas is a prize that will be 

 worth hundreds of millions of dollars 

 yearly; and it will be won. What has 

 already been secured aided in the rescue 

 of the farm production of this year from 

 the disasters of the weather. 



VALUE OF THE department's WORK IN 

 DOLLARS 



The foregoing striking features of the 

 results of crop introduction and exten- 

 sion within the last few years are some 

 of the illustrations of the wisdom of the 

 great movement of the Department of 

 Agriculture, of the experiment stations, 

 and of the agricultural colleges, to fortify 

 and buttress the agriculture of the nation 

 against misfortune, and to give to it a 

 sort of insurance by multiplying the 

 sources of success. This policy has done 

 much to keep the production of 1907 not 

 only from disaster, but, all things consid- 

 ered, actually to keep it up to an average 

 of recent years. 



It is difficult to express in dollars the 

 value of the work of the Department of 

 Agriculture to farmers, and therefore to 

 the nation, but an attempt to do so was 

 made last winter for the Committee of 

 the House of Representatives on Ex- 

 penditures in the Department of Agricul- 

 ture, which made a total of $232,000,000. 



Fundamentally the work of the depart- 

 ment is concerned with the production of 

 wealth, as by increasing a crop yield per 

 acre by plant breeding ; or the preservation 

 of wealth, as by suppressing insect and 

 fungous pests ; or by enabling farmers to 

 make a fair sale of their products, as by 

 promoting cooperative selling or by giv- 

 ing to the public information of the size 

 of a crop in order that demand may be 

 fairly adjusted to supply. 



FABULOUS WEALTH OE CORN 



Four-fifths of the world's production 

 of corn, as nearly as can be determined, 

 grows in the United States, and in the 

 world's international trade in corn this 

 country contributes one-third to one-half 

 of the exports, not including the products 

 of corn-fed animals. 



Corn is the chief of crops and exceeds 

 every other prominent agricultural factor 

 of national prosperity. It is a human 

 food and more especially a live-stock feed, 

 with striking results. It is one of the 

 great motive powers in the food of an 

 energetic age. The starch of corn be- 

 comes the fat of the hog and the "finish" 

 of the steer. No meat products are so 

 much in demand in international trade 

 as animal fats and oils. 



Fear of a failure or a large degree of 

 failure of the corn crop this year dimin- 

 ished after midsummer and at last the 

 harvest secured 2,553,732,000 bushels — a 

 production that is almost exactly the aver- 

 age of the crops of the preceding five 

 years. There have been three larger corn 

 crops — those of 1899, 1905, and 1906. 



In value the corn crop of this year is 

 much above the high-water mark of 1906, 

 On the assumption that the crop will be 

 sold by farmers at an average price not 

 below the present one, its value is esti- 

 mated to be $1,350,000,000, or 26 per 

 cent above the average value of the pre- 

 vious five crops. Four crops before had 

 exceeded one billion dollars in value. 



The farm value of the corn crop of 

 eight such years as 1907 would pay for 

 duplicating every mile of steam railroads 

 in the United States and pay for their 

 costly terminals, rolling stock, and all 

 property. In thirteen years it would re- 

 place the present banking power of this 

 country in banking capital, surplus, de- 

 posits, and circulation, and in seventeen 

 3'ears it would replace the banking power 

 of the world. 



OUR COTTON UNRIVALLED 



The farm value of the 1907 crop of cot- 

 ton and its seed is estimated to be from 



