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.
[Illustration: ear of corn]