SbB ROSA. 



173 



dried nuts and the skins of growing fruits is puerile. 

 Experience and chemical analysis are worth more 

 than fanciful exaggerations. There is no record 

 that a person has ever been injured by eating fruit 

 which was sprayed in its early stages. 



* * 



AGRICULTURE is more than tilling soil or 

 raising produce. It is a factor in civiliza- 

 tion. It does not take its place among the great 

 factors in the evolution of the race simply because 

 it furnishes food for the hungry, nor because it was 

 Adam's occupation, nor again because it holds man 

 naer to nature. It is great because of the recip- 

 rocal relations which exist between it and other 

 great elements of civilization. Not only do other 

 arts depend upon it, but it depends upon them. It 

 is profoundly influenced by all the arts of life. Of 

 recent years, transportation has overturned it. The 

 farmer is fond of thinking that inasmuch as the 

 food of the world comes from the soil, his occupa- 

 tion should be the first to thrive. But he is learn- 

 ing, fortunately, that agriculture can not dictate all 

 things. The world owes no man a living until he 

 earns it. So the study of agriculture is become 

 two-fold. It is a study of particular methods of 

 farming, and it is a study of the broadest principles 

 of trade throughout the entire globe. It is a factor 

 in political economy. It is in this dignity of view 

 that our greatest educators are approaching agri- 

 culture. The inevitable laws of trade are teaching 

 us that we must look for relief in cheaper and better 

 products, not in higher prices. And it is significant 

 that the only way to cheapen production is by the 

 application of more labor and greater skill. 



A man who possesses no particular knowledge of 

 farming may still sweep the horizon of agriculture 

 with the keenest vision, and he will discern failure 

 and encouragement where they are least expected 

 by the farmer. This boldness of view is admirably 

 illustrated in the following extract from an address 

 by President Adams of Cornell : 



" The processes of transportation have revolutionized 

 agriculture. In past ages it was not uncommon for 

 famine to sweep the land of half the people. It was 

 not until this century that means were found for trans- 

 planting the superfluities of one country to cheaply sup- 

 ply the wants of another. It is only 100 years since 

 improved roads were constructed in England. The 

 steam engine, the steamship and the railroad are pro- 

 ductions of the nineteenth century. Until 1870 it re- 

 quired 2,200 tons of coal to propel a steamship of 3,000 

 tons, leaving only 800 tons of freight capacity. In i860 

 it cost $3.56 to transport a ton of freight a mile; now, 

 with the introduction of Bessemer steel rails, the cost is 

 reduced to an average rate of of a cent per ton 



per mile. The resources of southern Russia, India and 

 Australia are made available in the same manner as our 



own. A laboring man can get a year's food for his 

 family transported 1,000 miles for the price of one day's 

 labor. It is no longer profitable for any farmer in east- 

 ern United States to farm in the old haphazard way. 

 We must do as they are doing in the old world. In 

 England crops have increased two-fold, in Germany 

 three-fold during the century, while in the United States 

 there has been a continual decrease in yield per acre 

 year by year. The time will come when a reaction will 

 set in. The call will then come to the farmers of the 

 east to increase their production. There is a better time 

 in the near future for the eastern farmer." 



* * 



WHY wouldn't it be a good plan for the secre- 

 tary of Agriculture to make a slight im- 

 provement on this " seed boodle " business 

 by devoting at least a portion of the ^100,000. ap- 

 propriated "for new and rare seeds, plants, cut- 

 tings, etc.,"yi?r plants and cuttings? We under- 

 stand that not a dollar is so expended nowadays. 

 Why not, Mr. Secretary Rusk ? You know well 

 enough that a mighty small portion of this great 

 amount — equal in effect to 000, 000 set apart for 

 this purpose at 5 per cent, interest — is actually 

 used for "new and rare seeds," to say nothing of 

 the plants and cuttings. By-the-way, we would 

 like to see an exact statement of the goods that 

 were really bought and sent during any one season, 

 i88g-go included. It would be mighty interesting 

 reading to see whether our elevated Department of 

 Agriculture is any improvement in this respect over 

 the old agricultural bureau. We hope and suppose 

 that it is ; but with the keeping up of this free seed 

 racket in ever increasing proportions, we think it 

 would puzzle even so astute a novelty specialist as 

 Uncle Jerry Rusk to find enough of "new and 

 rare" seeds on which to expend that ?ioo,ooo 

 every year. They don't come done up in that 

 kind of packages, unless forsooth, he lays in a 

 cargo of seed of some new cauliflower, for ex- 

 ample. Seriously, the horticulturists, especially the 

 pomologists of the country, are entitled to t'he con- 

 sideration in the matter of " new and rare plants 

 and cuttings " which it is provided by law should 

 be theirs. New fruits and most ornamental trees 

 and shrubs, etc., are better and more quickly and 

 chiefly disseminated in this way than in any other, 

 and many can be propagated true in no other way 

 than by cuttings and similar methods. The United 

 States Department of Agriculture in many cases 

 might secure rare and valuable fruits, trees, etc., 

 from remote countries, through our consuls, far 

 more reacily than any private importer. As a 

 starter, Mr. Secretary, why not follow out Prof. J. 

 L. Budd's suggestion in these columns, and send for 

 the giant peaches of South Turkestan ? And you 

 will get seeds in this case, too ! 



