26 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



be a storm, and if the weather report says a storm is coming- 

 on, or a hurricane, you know very well he enters a safe harbor 

 and waits for the storm to pass. So with the vegetable grower. 

 If he hears the warning of a coming frost you know that he 

 goes out and covers up his plants. You know that the orange 

 grower also if he sees the cold wave flags flying, goes out to 

 his orchard and banks up the trees and prepares his rosin to 

 burn, and all things of that kind, in order to protect his trees 

 against injury. So with other industries. That is the way 

 the thing goes. I think we can safely say that thirty millions 

 of our people know of the weather bureau of the Department 

 of Agriculture and its work, and no matter how we may be 

 inclined to laugh at these reports and joke about them, never- 

 theless down in our hearts we respect them, and the fellow who 

 has property values dependent upon the weather is pretty sure 

 to use them as a true criterion of what the weather is to be. 

 The man who has property values depending upon the weather 

 follows those reports almost certainly and surely. That shows 

 what their real value is regarded as being in any line of work. 

 The next great work of the Department is the bureau of 

 animal industry. Next to our plants animals are the greatest 

 source of our wealth. What is the bureau of animal industry 

 doing? That comes a little more closely to us because we are 

 studying animals and plants more particularly, and yet I ven- 

 ture to say that few of us realize what the bureau of animal in- 

 dustry is doing for us, for so much of their work is done in an 

 indirect way~ In the first place, it has an enormous inspection 

 bureau. You will remember that a large share of our wealth 

 comes from foreign commerce, and that this foreign commerce 

 is largely governed and controlled by the condition of the ani- 

 mals that we put upon the market, and if it were not for the in- 

 spection which the United States Government carries on 

 through this bureau it would be practically impossible for us to 

 ship cattle with the ease with which we ship them today. This 

 bureau is not only charged with carrying on this enormous in- 

 spection work, studying how to do it with the most effective- 

 ness, but they are also studying the diseases of animals with 

 which we have to contend. If there is anything that creates 

 consternation in the farmer's mind it is to have his stock taken 

 sick with a disease which he is powerless to combat. Let us 

 consider a few of the diseases which the Department is study- 



