I30 



CONSERVATION 



fifty state and territorial departments of 

 agriculture, the stock breeders' associa- 

 tions, the sanitary offices in charge of 

 live-stock interests, the horticultural 

 and kindred societies, the state high- 

 way offices and the like. 



But let us turn to the department 

 proper. 



Here is a Weather Bureau, foretell- 

 ing frosts, storms and floods ; and by 

 signals, bulletins and mail and tele- 

 phone service, informing the people 

 that they may protect their interests. 



A Bureau of Soils has surveyed and 

 mapped 147,107 square miles of land 

 in forty-seven states and territories. 

 It studies methods of improving soils 

 and rendering them most productive. 



The Bureau of Plant Industry inves- 

 tigates the best methods of farm man- 

 agement, of crop rotation and the se- 

 lection of soils ; it studies plant diseases 

 and methods of combating them. It 

 seeks to improve the grade of corn, 

 wheat, etc., by breeding, as the grade 

 of stock is improved by breeding. For 

 certain crops, it restores wasted soils 

 by drawing nitrogen from the air and 

 making it available to plants as food. 

 It ransacks the planet for plants which 

 will meet American needs. Blackber- 

 ries and currants have been imported 

 from Northern Korea, and apples 

 from Northern Manchuria ; a collection 

 of twenty-four pears from North 

 China, while bush cherries, plums and 

 peaches have come from Northern 

 Siberia. From Russia and Africa was 

 brought the durum wheat for dry land 

 culture. At an initial cost of $10,000 

 this now produces a crop worth $30,- 

 000,000, in regions where once "the 

 steer roamed over twenty acres to find 

 his living." An Arabian alfalfa yields 

 from seven to twelve cuttings per year. 



The Bureau of Animal Industry 

 seeks to cure the ills to which live-stock 

 is heir. Of these, Texas fever is a type. 

 Its cause is traced to a tick ; its cure, to 

 the destruction of this parasite by meth- 

 ods wholly practicable, as dipping, 

 spraying and the like. This bureau in- 

 spects meat under the law of June 30, 

 1906. In 1907, inspection was conduct- 



ed at 708 establishments in 186 cities 

 and towns and covered 50,999,034 

 animals. Imagine 50,000,000 animals ! 

 Picture them Hned up, ten feet allowetl 

 for each ! The line would reach almost 

 four times around the world. 



The Bureau of Chemistry alone is 

 worth to the country far more than the 

 entire cost of the Agricultural Depart- 

 ment. In the protection of the public 

 health against unwholesome foods^ 

 through the enforcement of the act of 

 June 30, 1906, it is rendering a price- 

 less service. More than twenty years 

 ago, when sugar beet culture in the 

 United States was infantile, the chief 

 of the bureau indicated the areas in 

 which that plant would thrive. In the 

 nine years ending with 1907, the value 

 of its product increased by 543 per 

 cent., and amounted to $45,000,000 — 

 almost four times as much as the en- 

 tire appropriation for the Department 

 in 1907. The sugar beet farms and 

 factories in the United States were 

 worth, in the same year, $60,000,000. 

 Between 1900 and 1905 the acre value 

 of such farms of medium sort increased 

 from $99.47 to $141.96, a gain of 

 $42.49. 



Insect pests annually consume and 

 destroy in the United States values be- 

 yond estimate. The "vegetable bugs" 

 alone lay upon the farmer an annual 

 tax greater than that involved in the 

 maintenance of the entire United States 

 government. Against such pests, the 

 Bureau of Entomology wages a relent- 

 less and unceasing war. It is estimated 

 that this bureau saves the farmer in 

 some single years from $300,000,000 to 

 $400,000,000. 



Even to outline all the work of this 

 great department would far exceed the 

 limits of this paper. The Forest Service, 

 with which the readers of Conserva- 

 tion are so familiar, is but one of its 

 numerous bureaus. But mention must 

 l)e made of the publicity feature. This 

 department runs a great publishing 

 . hottse, sending to the farmers, in com- 

 pact form, the specific information 

 they need in their business. In 1907, 



