THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



187 



THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



THE WORK OF THE DEPARTMENT 



OF AGRICULTURE UNDER 



SECRETARY ^YILSO^'. 



The annual report of the secretary 

 of agriculture is a record of scientific 

 investigation and attainments by the na- 

 tional Department of Agriculture for the 

 past eight years. The broad relations 

 of the department's work give the re- 

 port a wide general interest, and it 

 illustrates anew the many practical 

 benefits which may accrue to every-day 

 affairs from intelligent and well-di- 

 rected research and experimentation. 



Secretary Wilson assumed charge of 

 the department in the spring of 1897, 

 and has been at its head since that 

 time. This unusual period of service 

 has been marked by rapid developments 

 in work and organization, and by the 

 elevation of the department as a scien- 

 tific institution and in public estima- 

 tion. The appropriations during this 

 period have more than doubled, as 

 has also the personnel of the depart- 

 ment, and the scientific staff has in- 

 creased from 925 in 1897 to 2,326 at 

 present. Viewing the department's 

 work in retrospect, it is somewhat sur- 

 prising to note how many of the fea- 

 tures which have brought it into 

 prominence date from the present 

 administration. The work in forestry, 

 for example, which has assumed a posi- 

 tion of such widespread importance, 

 has been almost entirely developed dur- 

 ing the past eight years. With the 

 offer of practical assistance to forest 

 owners in the management of their 

 tracts, ' the field of action shifted from 

 the desk to the woods'; and this was 

 the beginning of a comprehensive move- 

 ment, resulting in the formation of an 

 intelligent public opinion and sound 

 national sentiment which are rapidly 

 placing the handling of forests and of 



the forest reserves upon a more en- 

 lightened and conservative basis. 



The agricultural experiment stations 

 in Alaska, Hawaii and Porto Rico have 

 all been established and placed upon 

 an efficient working basis under the 

 present administration, and the in- 

 fluence and assistance of the depart- 

 ment have thus spread to these remote 

 possessions. The investigations in 

 problems relating to irrigation from an 

 agricultural standpoint, as distin- 

 guished from the strictly engineering 

 features, have been inaugurated and or- 

 ganized upon a comprehensive scale. 

 This work has proved so eminently 

 practical and so important to irrigated 

 agriculture that it has grown rapidly 

 in extent and in scope, its appropriation 

 having increased nearly tenfold. Out 

 of it have sprung the work in land 

 drainage and the still newer investiga- 

 tions upon agricultural machinery, so 

 that operations covering practically the 

 whole field of rural engineering have 

 been inaugurated as an entirely new 

 feature. 



The breeding and selection of plants 

 and varieties better adapted to special 

 conditions or uses have been developed 

 into a conspicuous feature, as has also 

 the introduction of plants from foreign 

 countries. Agricultural exploration for 

 this purpose was instituted by the 

 present secretary in 1898, with a small 

 portion of the congressional seed fund 

 which he was given authority to ex- 

 pend for that purpose. This has re- 

 sulted in a vast number of introduc- 

 tions, such, for example, as the date 

 palm, Turkestan alfalfa, Japanese rice, 

 durum or macaroni wheats, and nu- 

 merous other cereals. Durum wheat was 

 first introduced in 1899, and has proved 

 of such advantage in semi-arid lands 

 that about twenty million bushels were 



