HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 447 
so Many more scientific agricultural books every year than they were 
formerly. 
Secretary Wixson. For quite a while, if [ rermember. there was not 
any increase for that. 
The Cuarrman. For the last three years we have increased it. It 
was increased $3,000, was it not, last year? 
Secretary Witson. The library needed that. There is a very careful 
little Vermont lady in charge. She is exceedingly efficient, and she is 
building up that library along scientific principles, and the scientists of 
the Department are greatly pleased wath, her work; and IJ hardly think 
we can deny them access to all that is published in their line that is 
worth having. 
The Cuarrman. It has doubled since 1896. 
Secretary Witson. The whole Department has doubled since 1896. 
The Cuarrman. The library has doubled since 1896. 
Secretary Wiison. Exactly; the whole Department has. 
The Cuarrman. More than doubled. 
Secretary Wixson. It is interesting to state that you are giving as 
much money for agriculture as the income of Harvard, Yale, Colum- 
bia, Chicago, and Leland Stanford universities, all put together. 
Indirectly you are giving us $6,000,000 a year, and the world has no 
parallel to it; and we are doing the work that you know is doing. 
We sent out last year nearly 12,000,000 pieces of agricultural litera- 
ture; and until the Department of Agriculture began building up 
this literature, there was no agricultural literature in the world. 
I have works on agriculture 150 years old, and I can take one of 
them and compare it with the average country farm editorial, and they 
are about word for word now. But are we furnishing the people agri- 
cultural literature? See what the effect is in the great West. The 
Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Record-Herald and the Chicago Inter 
Ocean each find it necessary to put ina farm column everyday. There 
is a demand for it all over that country. 
Mr. Grarr. The smaller papers are taking that up? 
Secretary Wiison. Surely. I edited one of these myself for ten 
years before coming here. 
The CHatrman. Every newspaper circulating through the country 
has an agricultural column. 
Secretary Wrison. They are getting it. The great Chicago dailies 
tell the tale; and some of their highest paid men are doing that kind 
of work. 
The Cuarrman. How near are you through with the tea investiga- 
tion? 
Secretary Wrison. We are just setting out a big orchard in Texas. 
We have a lot of things to study along the tea line. I have seena 
good many birthdays, but 1 expect to live to see the day when we will 
pick tea with a span of horses and a reaping machine, going down one 
side and coming up the other. You can not limit the ingenuity of the 
American people. : ee : 
Mr. Ropry. Has it been determined that the possibilities will be 
equal to that? —_ 
‘The Cuarrman. Who ever thought we would cut wheat and bind it 
at the same time? ; io 
Secretary Wiison. That is an extreme statement, but it is not impos- 
sible. It is in the minds of a good many men now. 
