The contract program is operated from MarAd 

 headquarters in Washington, D. €.144 



National Advisory Committee on Oceans and 

 Atmosphere 



The Department of Commerce uses a wide vari- 

 ety of advisory assistance including several 

 groups from NAS/NRC. One advisory committee 

 of considerable interest because of its broad 

 scope is the National Advisory Committee on 

 Oceans and Atmosphere (NACOA), established 

 by the Congress in 1971. Its 25 members, 



who may not be full-time officers or employees 

 of the United States, shall be appointed by the 

 President and shall be drawn from State and 

 local government, industry, science, and other 

 appropriate areas. 145 



Commerce provides staff, information, personnel, 

 and administrative services and assistance, but 

 the Committee's purview is marine and atmos- 

 pheric matters throughout the Federal Govern- 

 ment. NOAA is one responsibility of the Commit- 

 tee, but the Secretary of Commerce has called 

 upon it for guidance in other areas, such as ocean 

 engineering. It reports annually to the President 

 of the United States, the President of the Senate, 

 and the Speaker of the House of Representatives 

 by way of the Secretary of Commerce, who must 

 forward the report within 90 days with his com- 

 ments. 



Department of Agriculture 



Early History 



When President George Washington requested 

 Government support for agriculture, the Congress 

 declined to approve, even with the option of ap- 

 proving without an appropriation. !■'(< About 1839, 

 federally supported agricultural research began in 

 the Patent Office under its first commissioner, 

 Henry Ellsworth. He collected statistics, distrib- 

 uted seeds, and in 184 1 , he became a strong advocate 

 of the application of chemistry to agriculture as 

 taught by Liebig. Ellsworth's successors, howev- 

 er, were less aggressive, so demand grew for a 

 Department of Agriculture and a system of agricul- 

 tural schools, 147 both of which were established by 



Congress in 1862. The first commissioner, Isaac 

 Newton, established a chemical laboratory and 

 professorships in botany and entomology. By 

 1870, there were divisions of chemistry, horticul- 

 ture, entomology, statistics, seeds, and botany, to 

 which was added a division of microscopy. The 

 Division of Botany was the custodian of the Na- 

 tional Herbarium from 1867 until 1896, when it was 

 transferred back to the Smithsonian. '48 



The new Department of Agriculture had serious 

 troubles. First, it was embarrassed by its failure 

 to solve the problem of Texas cattle fever. 

 Second, an autocratic commissioner had thor- 

 oughly antagonized the Nation's botanists. 149 In 

 addition, the Department was severely criticized 

 in Science, and had such a poor reputation for 

 solving problems that the Department of the In- 

 terior was called upon when there was a plague of 

 locusts in the mid-1870's. In the 1880's continen- 

 tal Europe restricted imports of U. S. meat prod- 

 ucts because of infection that the Agriculture 

 Department could not eradicate. Gradually the 

 Department reorganized into problem-solving sci- 

 entific bureaus. 



Shortly after 1900 the Department of Agricul- 

 ture turned from responding to problems to taking 

 an active part in seeking them out.'-'^o This growth 

 of scientific competence required university help, 

 and Agriculture called upon the land-grant col- 

 leges by cooperating with the States which con- 

 trolled them. 



A Bureau of Animal Husbandry was created in 

 1884 and solved its first problem, pleuropneumo- 

 nia, by 1890. With help from Cornell University and 

 a much better understanding of the relation of germs 

 to disease (based heavily on European research), 

 Texas fever was curtailed by 1893. Its eradication 

 required further study of the tick, which had been 

 found to be the disease vector. '-''' 



The entomologists moved into the field to work 

 on the gypsy moth and the boll weevil. 



By 1916 the metamorphosis of the Bureau of 

 Entomology into a new scientific agency was 

 virtually complete, and it was proving its 

 worth so regularly that its position in the gov- 

 ernment was not only secure but taken for 

 granted. 1'^- 



In 1898 Congress authorized experimental im- 

 portation of plants and seeds; this act led to a 

 new generation of explorers. Studies of exotic 

 plants and their indigenous soils and climates led 

 to experiments in this country with such products 



'■"Communication from MarAd to NSB staff. 



'■"Public L.aw 92-125. 92nd Congress, H.R. 2.587, Aug. 16. 

 1971. 



'■^''Dupree, pp. l.'>-16; U.S. IXrpt. of Agriculture. Century of 

 5erv/ce(GPO: Washington, DC, 196.^), pp. 2 3. 



'■•'Dupree, pp 1 10-1 1.3; Cenlury of Service. op. cit., pp. 5-6. 



340 COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS AND HISTORICAL TRENDS 



'•""Dupree.pp. 1.50-l.'i6. 

 l''''lbid.,pp. I.'>4-I.S6. 

 '^•'Ibid.. pp. I.'i8-I6.3. 

 '"^'Ibid., pp. 164-166. 

 '"Ibid., p. 16.3. 



