CADET 1st CLASS, UNITED STATES
NAVAL ACADEMY, ANNAPOLIS, MD., U.S.A.
When his father was ordered from Berlin to Russia, by General Rusk, at the request of the Grand Duke Sergius, the uncle of the present Emperor, the Secretary of Agriculture appointed him as special agent and secretary to take his father’s place in Germany, and much of the success of this propaganda is fairly attributable to his valuable assistance, together with that of Colonel Murphy’s wife, who recently died in Brussels. This extraordinary and gifted woman gave the last fifteen of the best years of her life to this work; in fact her whole life, no less than her pen has been devoted to the welfare of others. The two daughters also worked together with the same energy and enthusiasm as their father, for no one man could have accomplished such phenomenal work in so short a time.
The exports of our American corn (maize) was only 24,000,000 bushels of 56 lbs. each in 1888, less than four per cent. of our production. The year after the commencement of this propaganda, which Colonel Murphy undertook on his own initiative and sole expense, unaided by anyone, the exports went up rapidly, and in 1901 were over 213 million bushels, and every acre of land on the corn belt has doubled in value in the last fifteen years. This result proves the value of the work done by this propaganda in showing the people of Europe the value of maize as human food, which was formerly only considered as fit food for animals. This family deserves a place on the roll of grateful remembrance.
Transcriber’s Notes
Obvious errors in punctuation and spelling have been fixed.
[Page 14]: “El Penon” changed to “El Peñón”
[Page 15]: “Cherubusco” changed to “Churubusco” and “Charlet Bent” changed to “Charles Bent”
[Page 17]: “tete-dupont” changed to “tête de pont”