Complimentary Banquet to Luther Burbank 



ruary 13th, and served to March 6, 1889 — twenty-one days 

 — when President Harrison, having been inaugurated, ap- 

 pointed Jeremiah M. Rusk of Wisconsin Secretary of Agri- 

 culture. He was succeeded four years later by J. Sterling 

 Morton, of Nebraska, who served during President Cleve- 

 land's term. 



President McKinley, who was inaugurated March 4, 

 1897, appointed James Wilson of Iowa, who has served con- 

 tinuously since that time. Secretary Wilson has proved him- 

 self to be a most thorough and efficient public official. He 

 possesses in an eminent degree high executive ability, with a 

 thoroughly practical as well as scientific and technical 

 knowledge of every bureau in the Department of Agricul- 

 ture. 



The appropriation for the support of the Agricultural 

 Department has averaged during the past three years over 

 $5,000,000 per annum, and that of the present fiscal year, 

 which commenced July ist, amounts to $6,692,690. This 

 sum seems large, but it has and will continue to return one 

 hundred fold in benefits to the people of our country. 



The Secretary of Agriculture places the estimate of the 

 value of the farm for the year 1904 — after excluding the 

 value of farm crops fed to live stock — at $4,900,000,000; 

 three and one-half times the value of all minerals produced 

 in this country, including coal, iron ore, lead, copper, gold 

 and silver. From year to year the cultivators of the soil 

 have, aside from sustaining eighty millions of people in our 

 own country, contributed food and raw materials for manu- 

 facture to millions of people in foreign countries. The 

 farmer's balance of trade has increased from year to year 

 until in 1903 the excess of exports of farm products over the 

 imports amounted to the enormous sum of $422,000,000. 



. . 20 . . 



] 



