VOL. LXIV
INDIANAPOLIS, MAY 22, 1909.
NO120
"TAMA JIM.'
By Mrs. O. C. Cunningham.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
"Tama Jim," otherwise James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture, was born
in Ayrshire, Scotland, August 16th,
1835. Here,    amid  the     picturesque
scenes and historic beauty of which
Burns, the poet, sings, he followed the
plow while yet a boy and committed
to memory the lines of Scottish poetry,
which he loves to recall at the age of
seventy-five. "When "Tama Jim" was
seventeen his parents came ___^_^_
to America and settled in
Connecticut. Later they removed to a farm in Iowa.
The family was poor ana.
"Tama Jim" being the eldest of fourteen children
was often denied the ordi-
narycomforts of life, andas
soon as he was capable was
obliged to help himself.
For several years he taught
school near Old Buckingham and West Union, la.,
and the story is told that in
several instances his
finances were so low that
he was obliged to go barefoot to his school-room.
Later he became successful
and was enabled to buy the
farm, which is today valued at $50,000.
He went into politics,
was a member of the state
legislature, being Speaker
of the House during his
last term and was afterward a member of the TJ.
S. Congress for three terms.
Later he became director
of the Iowa Experiment
Station and Professor of
Agriculture at    Ames.       It =
was here that President McKinley,
looking for a man to manage his farms
and his farmers throughout the country, found the right man. James Wilson was a practical farmer as well as a
man of science, a man who understood
the needs of the land and who could
sympathize with and help the humblest
person   who  worked  with  the  soil.
People are often questioning as to
what is Wilson's real title to fame, and
the answer comes readily that he is the
only man who has held one cabinet job
for ten years. But the people who are
contented with this answer are not acquainted with the read man. They
know little of his genius, (for it has
been said that he who can make two
ears of corn grow where one grew before is a real genius) they have not
considered the hard labor and intense
thought which he has given to his
chosen profession. Before his time the
Department of Agriculture was simply
the comic department of the government, and to him was allotted the task
of making the work worth while. He
proceeded on the theory that he was
there not merely to keep the farmers
quiet,—as others had attempted to do,
not merely toadminister, but todevelop
the industry which he represented, and
to literally make the department.
When he entered the department it
(onsisted of a roll-top desk and a few
workers. Today he has thousands of
men working under him, for the cause
of Agriculture in our country. And
here I oiight give you a statement of
his own  work,  from  a  personal  letter
which the writer has in her possession.
He says: "Whenever we find a locality of farmers needing help we make it
a hobby to help them. We took up the
discovery of grains and legumes suitable for our dry-lands west of the 100th
meridian, hunted the world over, and
found both grains and legumes that
would grow in dry conditions. We have,
now some fifty million bushels of wheat
grown where no other wheat will grow.
"We took up the work of making our
own sugar and helped the people with
facts  regarding  the  proper  soil   condi-
title "Tama Jim." It is not a title of
scorn or derision, but one of affection.
It was given at first to distinguish him
from other James Wilsons who were
prominent at the time and now old
settlers in Tama County, Iowa, talk
lovingly of "Tama Jim," for he is a
man who inspires affection. He is the
old-time type of gentleman, the type of
Abraham Lincoln and others who have
long since passed away. And he is
a man who is respected everywhere for
he bows to no man, not even to the
president  himself.
Live   Stock  Water  Reseirvolr.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
The        accompanying photograph
shows how many farmers, in Southern
Indiana, conserve for the use of their
live stock, the water afforded by the
generous showers of spring and early
summer.
The reservoir shown here is found on
the farm of Charles Lester, about three
miles south of Bloomfield, Greene
County, and is one of the largest of its
kind to be seen in that section of our
State. This artificial pond is situated
— at the base of a steep eastward sloping hill. High
-•lay embankments       are
thrown up on three sides
of the enclosed area. The
side next to the slope of
the hill is open, thus permitting the free entrance
of the water into the pond,
whenever the rainfall Is
ample enough to cause a
good run off. Since the
banks and bottom of the
reservoir are composed of
clay soil there is scarcely
any loss thru seepage,
hence the quantity of
water stored up during the
rainy season can be carried
over to the months in
which droughts frequently
occur, thus providing ample water supply for the
•Tm animals in such times
of stress. One only finds
these storage ponds on
farms where the water
supply from wells, springs
or streams is insufficient.
H. S. Chamberlain.
Live Stock Watering Place on Farm of Chas Lester, Greene County.
tions, the best weather conditions, seed
conditions, etc., and we are now raising
in some years, as high as 500,000 tons
of sugar.      We made a hobby of that.
"Our people were importing rice.
There is a stretch of land along the
Gulf Coast, 50 miles wide and 150 miles
long that was lying waste. We found
in the Orient a rice suitable to that region and have added very much to our
production of rice. Substantially we
produce all we require, and are beginning to feed the people in Porto Rico,
Cuba and the Philippines with rice
from the United States.
"We make a hobby of exterminating
the diseases of animals. We found the
sheep on the mountain range afflicted
with a scab; we have it almost exterminated. We are eradicating blackleg in calves, glanders in horses, and
so all along the line.
"The insect world levies a heavy tribute upon the farmers of the United
States. The cotton boll weevil invaded us from Central America several
years ago. We made a hobby of helping the farmers grow cotton in defiance
of the weevil.
"And so, all along the line, whenever
a farmer is needing help, we yoke up
with him a scientist and help him out.
We have in this Department 10,500
people working for the farmers of the
country. Congress gives us this year
around $17,000,000 to do the work
with."
Is not that kind of work worth
while?
And  now  I  shall  explain  about  the
It has been said that "nobody can do
more with Congress than Secretary
Wilson." He was back of the fight on
meat inspection, consequent upon Upton Sinclair's disclosure of the beef
packing horrors; back of the Beveridge
bill; back of the presidential activities;
back of Dr. Wiley in his work for pure
food; back of numberless other good
things from which the farmers and
many others are deriving so much
benefit.
And so "Tama Jim" is working sida'
by side, with every other farmer, constantly encouraging, always aiding
those who write to him for help. With
such a leader every farmer ought to
feel encouraged to do his best to develop the greatest industry in our country.
Winona Agricultural Institute.
Hut Wliat is the Oil Good For?
A writer says the despised cockle
bur bids fair to become a product of
cultivation. An experiment of making oil from the weed in a mill erected
for the purpose at Vidalia, Louisiana, is
said to have proved successful and the
weed is gathered on a large scale. The
promoters of the plan say the future
may develop a cockle bur plantation in
the place of cotton.
Prof. E. T. Robbins, Assistant Animal Husbandman, Iowa Experiment
Station, has just accepted an excellent
position on the editorial staff of the
Breeders Gazette, Chicago, 111., the
foremost live stock paper in the world.
The Gasoline Engine on
Farm.
I have a three horse power
gas engine with which I run a cream
separator, pump water, run my grindstone, a two hole corn sheller, a feed
grinder and a post drill. I have the
engine mounted on a traction gear
made from an old mower so that I can
move it from one place to another,
making it better adapted for the dif-
fsisnt kinds of work. I believe that
an engine beats every form of power
upon  the farm. When not in use it
cists nothing to keep it. Mine earns
a good man's wages right along.—Wm.
Woodall, in  Kimball's Farmer.
The New Sullan.
The new Sultan of Turkey, is a
younger brother of the deposed Sultan.
He is a man of sixty-five, and for the
past twenty-five years has been, with
his wives and children, practically a
prisoner in his palace at Constantinople, where he was confined after having been adjudged an imbecile. Whether he is really such or not is not known.
The Sultans for the past three hundred
years have had the habit of disposing
of their younger brothers, to prevent
them from heading revolutions, and it
is not improbable that the new Sultan
was imprisoned (instead of murdered)
on this account and not because of any
unusual mental weakness. But from
articles from his pen and Interviews
with him, which have been published,
it is evident that he is not a man of
any strength, mentally or morally. It
is probable that thruout his reign he
will be simply the tool of those who put
him in power.