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 MlimwmmiMi.E''^''^' Secretary of 
 
 3 1924 003 378 894 
 
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U. S» Department of Agriculture" 
 
 Office of Information 
 
 RELEASE - AFTERNOON PAPERS. FRIDAY. MARCH 12. 1920 
 
 ADDRESS OF E . T . MEREDITH , SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE , BEFORE 
 THE MERCHANT'S ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK, HOTEL 
 ASTOR, FRIDAY, MARCH 12, 1920. 
 
 It is with a great deal of pleasure that I ^ome here to-day and have the 
 privilege of talking with you; and in saying "talking" I mean that. I d© not 
 hope to entertain you as an orator. I siaply wish to tell you how I look 
 upon the duties that have been assigned to me and how those duties are related 
 to you; to point, if possible, td some things that you should do, because 
 there is no doubt, as I hfipfe to be able to show you, that the Agricultural 
 Department touches you every day in more places than any other department of 
 the Government . 
 
 I fear that if I should ask the average business man what he knows of 
 the Department of Agriculture, and what he thinks of it, he would say, "Why, 
 there is such a department, I know, but I am not a farmer." Yet, the Depart- 
 ment of Agriculture is performing for you every day, over and over and over, 
 in your business matters, in your evefy day life, services that I fear many 
 have failed to realize. I hope to talk to you as your representative who 
 has been in Washington making a preliminary survey of the plant you have 
 there, of the organization, to tell you s-ome of the things it is doing, and 
 to ask you, if I may, whether or not it is worth the money. 
 

I am going to tell you my purpose: If I can have you go from 
 this room saying, "I am going to take more interest in agriculture, I 
 am going to take -more interest in the Department of Agriculture , I am 
 going to support in every way I can — by telling others, with financial 
 support, with cooperation — the work that is going on there," then I 
 shall feel that it was very much worth while to have come here. 
 To "Sell" Service of Department. 
 
 I feel, in the first place, that, in the short time I shall be at 
 the head of the Department of Agriculture, if I simply add myself to the 
 4,000 men and women in the department at Washington, as earnest workers 
 as there are in the United States in any line of activity, there will be 
 then 4,001 of us , and I will have added only one-fortieth of one per 
 cent to that department. 
 
 I hope to make myself more effective than that, so it will be my plan, 
 as one of the things that I shall do — aside from helping in the product 
 of the organization, aside from keeping it going smoothly — to "sell" the 
 service of the department, if you like, to more men and to more women 
 in America than are now using it. 
 
 The product of our organization is service; and it is a wonderful 
 service. I wish I had the time to tell you of it in detail. I wish 
 we had the time it takes to play nine holes of golf, or the time it 
 takes to attend the theater in an evening. Then I might possibly get 
 started. I haven't that time, and I do not expect to run over my time, 
 but I do hope to give you some idea of the importance and the size of 
 this organization. 
 
^^ 
 
 Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this bool< is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924003378894 
 
-3- 
 
 In -the firot place, we have 21:, 000 eraployeea , something over '4,000 
 
 ■•.•of them in Vfeshington and 17,000 throughout the United States. The 
 17,600 come in contact day after day with the farmers and with the busi- 
 nesa men throughout the country. They have to do with the- county, agent 
 
 .work, with the eradication of diseases among live stocl?-,'.. plant diseases, 
 insect pests, market reporting, weather service, the protection of the 
 forests, and thousands of other activities . 
 
 The Department of Agriculture is divided into seventeen bureaus . 
 The present regular appropriation is approximately thirty- three millions. 
 When you say, however, that you are appropriating 33 millions for agri- 
 culture you are hardly telling the real fact. It is really something 
 .like ten or twelve millions', because approximately two million dollars 
 
 ,-is set aside for the Weather Service, some six million dollars for the 
 Forest Service, and provision is made also for the maintenance, in part, 
 of -the meat inspection service, for the administration of the Food and 
 Drugs Act, and so on, so that the actual amount of money spent by the 
 Department directly for agriculture is, in round numbers, ten or twelve 
 millions of dollars . I v/ould like to have you business men get that 
 firmly fixed in your minds, that it is not thirty-three million dollars, 
 but only ten or twelve millions . 
 
 When you realize some of the results that have been accomplished 
 
 with "only ten or tvrelve millions," you vi;ill put the em.phasis on the 
 "only," because it is a mere trifle compared with the results. 
 
How Department Affects Every American. 
 I want to point out some of the places that the department comes 
 in contact with you. In the first place, realize this, that the industry 
 the Department of Agriculture is designed especially to serve has an in- 
 vested capital of over eighty billions of dollars . You can take all the 
 railroads in America, all the manufacturing institutions- iron, steel, 
 and all the rest — some seventy-five other industries — add them aUto- 
 gether, and you will have just met the capital invested in this business 
 of agriculture. The agricultural and live stock product last year was 
 twenty-five billions of dollars, equal in one year to our national debt 
 at the present time — one-half the wealth of France, 
 
 Isn't it a big subject? Isn't it something worthy of attention? 
 Isn't it something worthy of this "only ten or twelve million dollars?" 
 
 How do these bureaus come in touch with you? Take one feature of the work 
 
 the 
 of /bureau of Animal Industry. Why, the ham you ate this morning for 
 
 breakfast was passed upon by an inspector of the BurftaU trf Jtolmp.L IjateiiB^ 
 try*. The method of handling your eggs in storage and transportation 
 has been studied and improved; the Bureau of Chemistry has seen to it 
 that there are no injurious ingredients in your catsup. When you ^ut 
 maple sirup on your cakes, it has seen to it that if the product was 
 labeled maple sirup it was maple sirup. The cotton in your automobile 
 tires is stronger and more durable than that used in the past, because 
 the department has developed long-staple cotton industries; has taught 
 farmers how to produce cotton of better fiber. Your clothes— the depart- 
 ment touches you there not only through its T,/ork with cotton and wool but 
 
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 through ita extremely valuable results in developing dyes and dye materials 
 which will help to make us independent of foreign supplies . Your shoes — 
 the specialists have developed methods of treating leather that prolong its 
 life, and other specialists are teaching farmers how to prepare hides and 
 skins with the least damage and waste . Your medicine — the department sees 
 to it that the labels on it do not say it is a remedy for such and such a 
 thing unless it actually is a remedy . Even in your recreation hours the 
 department is with you . Its protective hand reaches out to the wild birds 
 and animals and provides game for your hunting. It keeps the National 
 Forests spick-and-span for your vacation. 
 
 The Weather Service is a part of the Agricultural Department. You 
 know that it puts out the storm signals; you know it forecasts the weather, 
 but do you know that it influences the icing of the cars for your fruit? 
 Do you know it influences the shipment of your vegetables? There are a 
 dozen places that the Weather Service touches you that you do not realize . 
 
 Good roads have been devised and tested by the Bureau of Public Roads, 
 and the wear and tear under all sorts of traffic conditions have been 
 studied by it. This bureau will supervise the expenditure of Government 
 and State -funds for roads in the next twelve months of considerably more 
 than half a billion dollars . Did you ever stop to think that the head 
 of the bureau receives only |6 ,000 a year? 
 
 The Men Who Serve You. 
 
 I wish I had the time to tell you something about the men and 
 women employed in the Department of Agriculture. There isn't a more 
 
earnest , more loyal group of men and women in America than I have found 
 in this department . A young man who ia of the utmost importance to the 
 department and to me, so far as my effectiveness is concerned, had on 
 his desk, when I came to the office, an offer from a commercial concern 
 of an income of $325 a month more than what the Government paid him. 
 He asked me what I would advise. I said, "I would advise you to take 
 it, and then I will veto it, because you must not take it, in the interest 
 of the hundred millions of people in America." He is vital to the de- 
 partment. He did not accept the offer. There was a chemist who has had 
 seven offers. He is now drawing $5,000 a year. His last offer was 
 $16,000; he turned it down, saying, "No, I will serve." 
 
 It is 30 all through. The men in the department are protecting 
 your food, protecting your crops. Many of them are working more hours 
 a day, with more earnestness, than the average man in our commercial 
 institutions. That is a thing I would like to have you know. It is 
 not new to men who have had contact with Washington in the past, but 
 a large number of people do not realize it, I have not changed my ideas 
 on the subject a particle since I have been there. 
 
 I think it is wrong, I think it is poor advertising — you know 
 I can not get entirely away from advertising — to be talking all the time 
 about the waste, and about the grafters, and soft snaps, and all that, 
 in Washington. I heard a lady say the other day that there were things 
 
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 they did not diacuas in her family before the children, as they were too 
 young to understand; and that she thought it was all wrong for us in Amer- 
 ica to be complaining about the Government, to be saying that this man and 
 that department is inefficient, even dishonest, and so on, because it is 
 ■poor. advertising. There may be somebody standing around who believes you 
 mean it; there may be some foreigner who is not acquainted with our ways 
 over here , and he hears you and goes out and repeats your statements to 
 others. How many of us simply fall into the habit of complaining and criti- 
 cizing? it is poor advertising. Don't do it. 
 
 You will be interested in knowing some of the general results that 
 have been accomplished by this organization of yours. You in New York, 
 the financial center of the United States, are possibly more interested — 
 although every man in the United States is vitally interested — in the work 
 ^;. of the Agricultural Department than the people of any other section of the 
 country. The -question of t?ie live stock that is raised, the volume of the 
 grains that are produced, the sum total of the products from those farms 
 .is the factor that measures your business. There is no doubt about that. 
 You know it full well. So you will be interested in some of the general 
 . results received for the money that has been spent. 
 
 Since 1880 there has been a gradual increase of 25 per cent in 
 the yield per acre of whaat — 25 per cent for the whole 
 country. Notwithstanding the fact that we have placed under cultiva- 
 '.tion.a great deal of new land, that we have, taken deserts and made farms 
 out of them, that we have removed the timber and established farms on the 
 
 cut- over areas , there 
 
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 has been a gradual increase of 25 per cent in the averse;© yield of wheat 
 per acre. Corn, for example, increaaod ten per cent; oata 24 per cent; 
 and potatoes 33 per cent; hay 20 per cent; and cotton 3-^ per cent. The acre 
 yields for other field crops have increased 16 per cent. Better methods, 
 the introduction of improved machinery, the development and planting of 
 larger producing varieties, the elimination of plant diseases and insect 
 pests, are some of the factors giving this happy result. And yet some ask 
 whether the farmer is lying down; whether he is doing his part'. 
 
 How Production Has Gained . 
 
 Production also has kept up with the increase in population. Fifty 
 years ago, or during the period from 1856 to 1874, the average production 
 per capita of the six principal cereals wag 38 bushels. Fjrom 1915 to 1919, 
 it was 52 bushels , an increase of 14 bushels . The production of corn in- 
 creased from 23 bushels to 27 bushels per capita. Wheat increased from 
 6-1/5 to 8 bushels; oata from 6.7 to 13,9 bushels; cotton from 36.5 to 52.7 
 pounds per person; and milk from 84 gallons in 1889 to 96 gallons in 1919, 
 
 Meats have shown a reduction in production per capita, but ws have 
 a larger variety of foods to-day than we ever had before-more fruits, more 
 vegetables, more cereals-and our diet is more varied. In 1900, there were 
 produced 248 pounds of meat per capita; in 1914, 182 pounds, a decrease of 
 66 pounds; and in 1919, 222 pounds, an increase over 1914 of 40 pounds per 
 person . Notwithstanding the reduction in the per capita production of 
 meats , we are still exporting large quantities . 
 
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 The farm worker a have increased in numbers from 5,900,000 in 1870 
 to approx^imately 14,000,000 in 1919, and the production of each farmworker 
 in terms of leading cereals also has increased. In the period from 1856 
 to 1874, each farmworker produced an average of 266 bushels annually. In 
 the period from 1906 to 1914, the average was 406 bushels, while in the 
 five years 1915 to 1919, the average production per farmworker per year 
 was 418 bushels . 
 
 Farmer Doing His Part . 
 These figures are interesting, and particularly so in connection 
 with the discussion of the cause of the high cost of living. The cost of 
 living problem is a mutual one for all of us. It is the farmers' problem, 
 it is the laborers' problem, and it is the business men's problem, and we 
 must all work together mutually to meet the situation . If there are more 
 men on the farms, farming more acres, each acre producing more per acre, 
 and each man producing more per man, giving each and every one of us to-day 
 more of the six leading cereals per capita than we have had before, it seems 
 to me the farmer is doing his part pretty well . 
 
 During the war, in spite of the labor shortage, the farmers, increased 
 their planted acreage by 33,000,000 acres, and their yield by 635,000,000 
 bushels above the average for the prewar period . In response to the de- 
 partment's request to increase the acreage of winter wheat in the fall of 
 1918 to 47,200,000 acres, they actually planted 49,261,000; and the following 
 spring they planted over 22,500,000 acres of spring wheat, which was up to 
 the record. Certainly, we must appreciate that, under the conditions then 
 existing, with the farmers producing food as 
 
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 they produced it, they saved the situation. 
 
 You know that when the war broke out we owed Europe some 
 §500,000,000; and I have no doubt that you were worrying. In fact, it 
 is common knowledge that we were wondering and asking how we were going 
 to pay when we were called upon to do so, Yet, in a single year the ex- 
 ports of farm products from America increased by $500,000,000, and then 
 the balance was on the other side of the ledger. 
 
 Some Specific Things 
 I gave you, a while ago, figures showing something of the gen- 
 eral results that have been accomplished in agriculture by studying 
 plant life, finding better varieties, protecting against diseases and 
 insects, pointing out better methods, and the like. But some of the 
 specific things might be interesting. We can get hold of them better. 
 There were, in Arizona and New Mexico and other parts of the southwest, 
 tens of thousands of acres which grew nothing to speak of, The Agricul- 
 tural Department brought from Egypt a cotton called Egyptian cotton, 
 and today there is no Egyptian who would recognize it. By careful 
 breeding and careful selection you have today a long staple cotton, one 
 of the best cottons in the world, and one which adds to the length of 
 life of every garment made from it. 
 
 What are the results in dollars and cents? Twenty million dollars' 
 worth of cotton last year, because of a department activity, from a 
 source that would not have existed except for that activity. .Twenty 
 
 ' , > 
 
 million dollars a year right along from one line, and we are spending 
 
 for the development of our entire agriculture only ten or twelve million 
 dollars a year*. 
 
- 11 - 
 
 story of Durum Tfheat 
 Take Durum Wheat. The same situation existed. In the 
 great northwest there were thousands of acres of semi-arid land which 
 would not grow crops. So the department went out and found a hardy 
 drouth-enduring wheat, bred it up, developed it. What does it mean 
 to the United States to have produced each year from twenty to f orty- 
 ' five million bushels of wheat on ground Where there would not have been 
 any wheat? You can not tell me, you business men, that you are not 
 interested in that. It cost you perhaps a quarter of a million dol- 
 lars once. A quarter of a million dollars was all that was spent to 
 produce a crop "that, year after year, provides fifty million dollars 
 or mere, and, directly or indirectly, every individual and every 
 business is benefited. There isn't one of you here who does not feel 
 the influence, directly or indirectly, of that extra production, I 
 know you agree with that. Your railroads, your shipping, your banks, 
 and your retail stores, all are affected by it. 
 
 Take the grain and forage sorghums. The southwest could not 
 grow Indian corn satisfactorily, so these men in the department 
 searched the world for other crops that Could be grown there. Last 
 year there were one hundred and twenty-five million bushels of 
 Kafir corn and other grain sorghums produced where before there was 
 none J and a few thousand dollars in the hands of earnest and capable 
 men was responsible for much of this. 
 
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 Saving the Orange Hulls 
 
 Out in California, the department found cull oranges and cull 
 lemons selling at five dollars a ton. It established a citrus 
 fruit laboratory to discover uses for the culls. As a result, 
 the bv-products of lemons last year were 1,500,000 pounds of citric 
 acid, 500,000 pounds of citrate of lim.e, and 50,000 pounds of lemon 
 oil. Twenty concerns are now engaged in the manufacture of products 
 from cull oranges. The total products last year were six million 
 pounds of marmalades, jellies, and so forth. Isn't that cutting waste' 
 
 In northern California there were thousands of acres of 
 land growing nothing. The land was worth five to ten dollars per 
 acre. For less than $200,000 the department introduced and de- 
 veloped a rice, by foreign exploration, research, and careful breed- 
 ing, and today a rice crop valued at |i21,000,000 is produced in that 
 territory. Did that affect your breakfast this morning' Does it 
 co6ie in contact with you' 
 
 You might not have a navel orange today if it were not for the. 
 Department of Agriculture. The oldest tree — among the descendants 
 of the Washington Navel orange v/hich the department introduced from 
 Brazil — is still growing in the greenhouse on the grounds in Wash- 
 ington. Last vear 13,000,000 boxes of California grown navel oranges 
 werfi distributed among the people of this country. 
 
 American Figs and Dates 
 Another thing the department has introduced is the Smvrna fig, 
 but at first the trees would not bear fruit. By careful observation 
 
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 it was found that certain small wasps were the fertilizing agents. 
 
 The wasps were brought over and still the fig-trees were infertile, 
 would not produce. Bv careful observation" and study it was discover- 
 ed that, beside the Smyrna fig, the wasp required the Capri fig' to 
 breed in. The Capri was brought, ^ith the wasp and the Capri fig 
 and the Smyrna fig together, it is all settled and soon America will 
 be producing her oim high quality figs. 
 
 There is an interesting story about dates. There is a date in- 
 dustry in A&erica, and it is producing a better date than vou can find 
 in anv other place in the world. Some of the best dates have but few 
 offshoots a vear through which the trees can be multiplied. The in- 
 ferior dates have twenty or thirty offshoots per vear. To prevent 
 the planting of the inferior trees, the department sends to Egypt for 
 offshoots of the choice varieties. Four thousand" dollars spent how 
 means tens of thousands saved in the future. 
 
 Take the ffotton boll weevil. You know the fight there has been 
 on this pest for years and years. We have been spend ing-money ~ and 
 you men have paid some of it in taxes -- to fight the insect. It has 
 been discouraging work, but the experts of the department did not give 
 up, and now the tide has turned. They poison the weevil's drinking 
 water- His drink is the dew on the cotton leaves in early morning. 
 So they poison the dew and that is the end of the boll weevil. 
 
 Last year this method was tested out on an abandoned farm, 
 where the farmer had said "I give it up," and had moved. The de- 
 partment divided the field into three strips; the unpoisoned strip 
 
- 14 - 
 on one side produced 48 pounds of cotton, the other strip on the 
 other side produced 50 pounds of cotton; the strip down the middle, 
 where the drinking water was poisoned, produced 480 pounds of cotton. 
 ''■That does this mean to America? What does it mean to you that this 
 department should be equipped to do these things? 
 
 Fight on Hog Cholera 
 In 1903 three doctors, scientists .in the Department of 
 Agriculture, Drs. Dorset, McBride and Niles of the Bureau of Animal 
 Indtlfltryi discovered the cause of hog cholera. They also worked 
 out an effective method of preventing the disease. Since 1913 the 
 losses from it have been reduced over sixty per cent. The death rate 
 per thousand, which was as high as 144 in 1897 and 118 in 1914, has 
 been reduced to 41 in 1919 . What does it mean to reduce the losses 
 from hog cholera from 144 to 41 per thousand? Just a little matter 
 of 41 million dollars. Wliat does it mean to you business men? ''"/hat 
 does it mean to the homes out there in the country? What does it 
 mean to the boye aad girls who are enabled to go into school and be- 
 come better citizens? What does it mean so far as life in America 
 is concerned? 
 
 The discovery that the mosquito was responsible for yellow 
 fever was based upon the work previously done by scientists of the 
 Bureau of Animal Industry, which proved that Texas fever could be car- 
 ried only by the cattle tick. If it were not for that discovery you 
 might not have the Panama Canal today, because you first had to get 
 rid of yellow fever. 
 
 I say those men made a valuable contribution to the Nation, and 
 
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 that it is not only poor advertising when we talk about them being 
 loafers or inefficient, but it is ungrateful and unappreciative. 
 
 In Dollars and Cents . 
 
 la dollars and cents, the Bureau of Animal Induotry estimates 
 that, in the year Mz^ 1, 1918, to May 1, 1919, hog cholera destroyed 
 2,800,000 hogs in the United States. It destroyed tT;o million eight 
 hundred thousand hogs, and their value, as of January 1, 1918, vrould 
 have equaled", sixty-two million dollars, Sixty-tvi;o million dollars 
 lost. To reduce that ten per cent, or six million dollars, would pay 
 tv70-thirds of the ten or twelve million dollar appropriation for agri- 
 culture. That is just hog cholera. You must remember the v/heat; the 
 cattle tick; the cotton; and v;e can go on and justify the ten or tr/elve 
 millions many times. 
 
 I want to refer to the v;heat rast, which affects every business 
 and every family in America. Millions and millions of dollars are 
 lost because of the black rust in v;heat, v/hich means thousands and tens 
 of thousands to Nev/ York. The common barberry is the host plant of the 
 fungus which causes v,'heat rust; and the Department is cooperating v;ith 
 the States in locating and destroying the barberry bushes, thus greatly 
 reducing the spread or prevalence of the disease — a plant disease 
 that has cost the United States a loss of 200 million bushels of wheat 
 in a single year. What does it mean to you men? V/hat can you afford 
 to pay for it? I suppose it is costing you a penny a year eaVjh. 
 
 There are some who complain about the work of the Agricultural 
 Department. They are the people who go up against the pure food regu- 
 lations, for example, the people who want to put something in your 
 
-16- 
 fo6d that does not belong there. They think they are all right, but 
 your doctor does not agree v.'ith them. These men complain and they go 
 around talking about it and it gets into the papers, while many of the 
 men who are helped in the production of pork and v;heat and all these 
 different things either do not knov/ or forget that they are helped. 
 
 To Advertise The Department. 
 I am going to resolve myself into an advertising manager of the 
 Department of Agriculture, because if I can increase by five per cent, 
 ten per cent, twenty per cent, thirty per cent, fifty, or any other 
 percentage, the number of people — farmers, business men, and others — 
 v;ho are taking advantage of its services, then I feel that I have ac- 
 complished part of v;hat I would like to do in the interest of the whole 
 country. In that I want your help; I want your cooperation; I v;ant 
 you to knov/ what this department is doing. 
 
 I want your help even more directly than that. Do you knov/ 
 that if the daily papers in New York v/ere to say to me today "Mere- 
 dith, V/& would like to run some copy on the garden bulletins and on 
 the home economics bulletins v/hich v/ill teach the young housev/ives 
 hov/ to save. V/e v/ill give you a hundred thousand inquiries", I would 
 have to say, "No, I am sorry, but do not do it, because v;e haven't the 
 bulletins and we cannot print them; we do not have the money." Four- 
 fifths 'bf all the Farmers' Bulletins that are printed must go to Con- 
 gress for the Qongressraen to divide, leaving only one-fifth for the 
 Department to distribute. 
 
 There is no politics in the Department of Agriculture. Out 
 of 21,000 positions, there are only four that are not under the Civil 
 
-17- 
 Eervice -- the Secretary, the tv/o Assistant Secretaries, and the 
 Chief of the Weather Bureau. We have only one Assistant Secretary 
 nov.'. The vacancy has been offered to six men, and I pledge you 
 that, outside of one of them, I do not know their politics. I hope 
 that one of the tv;o placeswill he filled by a Democrat and the other 
 by a Republican, because, as a business proposition, as your repre- 
 sentative or superintendent, or whatever term you may v/ish to apply, 
 it is vitally important to you that, on the fourth of next March, 
 there should be someone in the Secretary's office who, no matter v/hat 
 the outcome of the election is, may be allowed to stay there. It seems 
 to me that it is of great importance that there should be no politics 
 in the Department of Agriculture. 
 
 About The County Agents . 
 
 Nov,', I shall briefly refer to the matter of the county agents. 
 Men go from farm to farm saying to the farmer: "Test your seed; get 
 rid of the cattle tick; fight smut in oats; do this and do that." 
 A member of Congress says it is money thrown av;ay. He says: "The 
 crime of the thing is that whenever you appropriate a dollar you must 
 make the States put up another dollar. They are writing and protest- 
 ing about it." 
 
 It is an odd thing that, when the county agent movement was be- 
 gxm the government had to pay practically all the expense, then two 
 dollars to one, then fifty-fifty, while today the States, counties 
 and farmers are" putting up about nine million dollars to the govern- 
 ment's six in order to support the county agents; and yet the 
 
-18- 
 
 Coftgt-essraan to whom I have referred says it is ridiculous and ought to be 
 cut out and is a waste, that these men wear patent leather shoes and 
 high collars and do not get onto the farms. The farmers themselves say 
 they get more direct benefit from the county agent, working under the 
 supervision of the Department of -Agriculture and in cooperation with the 
 State agricultural colleges of America, than they do from any other ■ 
 source in the country. Thirty-eight per cent of them give farm bureaus 
 and the county agent first place, and yet this member of Congress wants 
 to cut down such work because he says it is not economy. 
 
 Men in Congress talk about economy in providing fimds for the De- 
 partment of Agriculture. They think they are carrying out your instructions 
 and your wishes, I have not come here to discuss appropriations, but I 
 have memoranda here regarding some of the lines of work which are to be 
 curtailed. I have not the time to go into them in detail. I shall sim- 
 ply say that vitally important activities are to be cut down if the ac- 
 tion that has been taken on our appropriation bill prevails. Even now 
 I am receiving inquiries for men to go out and help eradicate tuberculosis 
 in cattle, but the answer invariably is, "Yv'e cannot send a man to help you 
 get rid of tuberculosis in your cattle because we haven't the money." 
 
 Will Service Be Kept ? 
 
 I have told you some of the things the Department has done. 
 Are you going to keep this wonderful product — service — from the people -• 
 this wonderful product that you are manufacturing? It is not wholly the 
 problem of the Department of Agriculture, because we are only your agents. 
 You are manufacturing this product, and that product is service. I would 
 like to double the number of customers. I want to increase the sales of 
 
-19- 
 
 this organization. In other v;orda , I want to bring home to every man and 
 woman in America this wonderful service. 
 
 Isn't it a little disappointing and a little discouraging, however, 
 to the men who are giving their efforts and their time to this work not 
 to be equipped? While many of them are grossly underpaid, they do not a.sk 
 the salaries that you pay ', in your establishments . But they do ask that 
 they be properly equipped and that is what I ask for them. That is the at- 
 titude I want you to have towards them. If they are able to accomplish 
 such practical results in eradicating the boll weevil, getting rid of the 
 wheat rust, eliminating hog cholera, stamping out tuberculosis, bringing 
 in new grains , such as Durum wheat , growing rice where it did not grow be- 
 fore , establishing long staple cotton in a new territory — all these things 
 and more — and devote their time at salaries considerably less than those 
 paid elsewhere, certainly it is up to you and me and the rest of our good 
 American citizens to see that they are properly equipped. 
 
 Some Men Hiflio Have Left . 
 
 I wish to call attention to some of the men v/ho have left the 
 department during the past year, in order that you may have proper re- 
 gard for and due respect and appreciation of their ability. I have 
 a list here of a few of them. The first on the list is an expert in the 
 Office of Farm Management. He was drawing $3,500 a year, and went to 
 
 a new position at |5,000 a year. The next is another expert in the same 
 
 a large farm implement concern 
 office getting $2,500; he went to/ice iirt'-rr, . .■„-).. 'larvf.. b. C . n ny 
 
 at $4,500 and a bonus. Here is a crop estimator at §2,200 a year, who 
 
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 went to a $4,500 position. In the Bureau of Chemistry one man drawing 
 $3,000 went to a trade association at $5,000. Another receiving $1,500 
 left to be the Eastern representative of a Louisiana concern at $10,000. 
 Fifteen hundred dollars to $10,000 is a big jump, but he is worth it. 
 Another expert who was getting $3 ,700 went with a commercial concern at 
 $10,000. In the Forest Service a man receiving $1,600 left to take charge 
 of a stock farm at $5,000. A box inspector at $2,000 went to a Chicago 
 lumber company at $4,800. A chief of one of the bureaus receiving $4,500 
 resigned to accept a position with a commercial concern at $20,000. These 
 are only a few. I could go on citing such cases for an hour or more, but 
 I want you to bear this in mind: Those ;vho are still there are of the same 
 type and worth the same money in commercial enterprises . All I ask is that 
 they be equipped to do their work. 
 
 Doing a Wonderful Service . 
 My attitude toward these men is that they are rendering a wonderful 
 service . It is up to you and me and everybody to get behind them. Don't 
 give Congress, don't give anybody a.nyif;here the idea that they are slakers 
 and loafers , or wasters ; but give them credit for what they are — public 
 benefactors, serving you and me and every industry in America, because the 
 Agricultural Departm-ent , as I have said, touches you in more places every 
 day, as I verily believe, than any other department of the Government, not 
 only as it contributes to the stability of your business in looking after 
 agriculture, the very foundation of all business, but as 
 
21 
 
 it comoG in contact v;ith your daily lifo. 
 
 Again, I want to urge that you mon should appreciate as much if 
 not more than anyone elso, it seems to mo, what the possibilities of 
 agriculture are; what a wonderful service has been rendered in bringing 
 . into market the millions of bushels of wheat which probably would 
 not have been produced, the millions that virould have gene to waste 
 except for the watchfulness of these men and their study of better 
 methods of breeding and producing grains. 
 
 I do not know when to stop when I get started on this subject. 
 I have only tried to outline in a brief way some of the things that 
 have boon done. I ask your cooperation. I wish I could know whether 
 this idea ,of my being sales manager, of bringing home to the people 
 thisfeervice, of making it of value to more people, of getting more 
 people in touch v/ith it, of having business men realize what it means 
 to them, is the attitude that you would like to have me take, and wheth- 
 er I can be most effective in advertising this department, letting you 
 and ether business men and all the people of America know what it is do- 
 ing, so that they avail themselves of the service of the Department to 
 a greater extent and that the work of the Department may bo still fur- 
 ther broadened and extended. In this I want your help. 
 
 I ask as ycu go along each day that you remember that the farmer 
 is a sturdy fellov/, a good American citizen; that agriculture is the 
 foundation of cur prosperity, our '.cry country, and that in having a 
 helpful, intelligent interest in agriculture and a spirit of coopera- 
 tion in its behalf, you are doing well for yourselves and our W.ation 
 
 a 
 as/ whole. 
 
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