REPORT OF THE SOLICITOR. 



United -States Department of Agriculture, 



Office of the Solicitor, 

 Washington, D. C, October 1, 1915. 

 Sir : I submit herewith the report of the work of the Office of the 

 Solicitor for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1915. 

 Eespectfully, 



Francis G. Caffey, 



Solicitor. 

 Hon. D. F. Houston, 



Secretary of Agriculture. 



SUMMARY. 



Three phases of the work of this office during the fiscal year 1915 

 are notable: (1) Organization of a section to handle legal questions 

 relating to marketing and rural economics; (2) circulation through- 

 out the department of formal opinions of the Solicitor, rendered 

 upon request of particular bureaus, dealing with matters of interest; 

 (3) greater amount of advice, due to growth among officials of the 

 department in the practice of conferring informally with the lawyers. 

 The volume of usual activities for the same period increased. 



New duties were chiefly in connection with the United States cot- 

 ton futures Act of August 18, 1914 (38 Stat., 693). Appropriate 

 forms were prepared for the establishment and promulgation of the 

 nine grades of official cotton standards; aid was given in drafting 

 regulations for the administration of the act, including a scheme for 

 hearing and determining disputes as to grade, quality, or length of 

 staple, of cotton tendered under a future contract made in accord- 

 ance with section 5 thereof; forms were also drawn for pleadings, 

 conclusions of examiners, and findings of the Secretary, for use in 

 such disputes. 



This office participated with the Office of Markets and Rural Or- 

 ganization in the consideration of 703 disputes under the act, in- 

 volving 44,773 bales of cotton, referred to the Secretary. Six hun- 

 dred and eighty-five of the disputes, involving 44,290 bales and as- 

 sessed costs aggregating $15,460.70, were finally disposed of. The 

 remaining 18 disputes were pending at the close of the year, await- 

 ing information requested from the parties or correction of errors 

 in papers filed. 



In order to familiarize the public with the meaning of various pro- 

 visions of the act and to facilitate its operation, assistance was 

 rendered in preparing upward of 75 opinions, distributed through 



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