THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



613 



Atlantic Ocean, western and northern 

 Europe, and northern Asia. With this 

 substantial basis for the forecasting of 

 the weather, the bureau issues storm 

 signals, flood signals, and other mete- 

 orological information for the benefit of 

 agriculture, commerce, and navigation. 

 The Forecast Division receives in charts 

 twice daily telegraphic reports of the 

 prevailing weather conditions through- 

 out the field of observation, and is able 

 to give reliable information to shipping 

 through 255 special storm-warning sta- 

 tions over and above all the weather- 

 bureau stations along the lakes and sea- 

 coast. The Climatological Division, 

 with more than 3,600 meteoro- 

 logical stations, supplies, at the Gov- 

 ernment's expense, gratuitous informa- 

 tion to all parts of the country by tele- 

 phone, raihvay, telegraph, train service, 

 regular mail service, and rural free de- 

 livery. There are many other divisions 

 of this one bureau, each with its special 

 and valuable work. 



The Bureau of Animal Industry covers 

 everything relating to the live-stock in- 

 dustry. It deals with the investigation, 

 control, and eradication of diseases of 

 animals, the inspection and quarantine 

 of live stock, the inspection of meat and 

 meat-food products, with animal hus- 

 bandry and dairying. The bureau has 

 been able, from time to time, to stamp 

 out diseases of cattle which have threat- 

 ened the whole cattle industry of the 

 United States. 



The Aleat Inspection Division is now 

 carried on at 702 establishments in 196 

 cities. Closely allied to this is the Path- 

 ological Division, studying the diseases 

 of animals, and the Division of Zoology, 

 which collects and describes animal 

 parasites of all kinds ; the Experiment 

 Station, studying all these questions in 

 their bearing on the public health, and 

 questions of heredity in animals and 

 the making of better and stronger stock. 

 Closely allied to this is the Animal 

 Husbandry Office, dealing with the 

 breeding and feeding of farm animals, 

 poultry, etc. 



It is impossible to outline the thirty- 

 two separate and distinct groups consti- 

 tuting the Bureau of Plant Industry, 

 through which plant life is studied in 



all its known possible relations to agri- 

 culture. There are laboratories of plant 

 and forest pathology, investigations of 

 diseases of fruits, plant-life history 

 investigations, together with experi- 

 mentation in cotton breeding, corn, to- 

 bacco, drugs, and poisonous plants and 

 tea culture, sugar beets, fruits, grains, 

 forage crops, etc., with other groups 

 devoted to farm management, crop 

 technology, soil bacteriology, water pur- 

 ification, alkali and drought resistance, 

 and many other useful lines of work. 



The Bureau of Chemistry is conduct- 

 ing original investigations on hundreds 

 of different lines, which have already 

 resulted in untold good to the public 

 health, to the prosperity of the Amer- 

 ican farmer, and is adding every day 

 contributions to the stock of scientific 

 knowledge of the world. 



The Bureau of Soils has surveyed 

 and mapped and analyzed the soils with 

 reference to their utilities, always in 

 connection with their climatic surround- 

 ings, 147,107 square miles of land in 

 forty-seven states and territories. It 

 sends out circulars and bulletins and 

 reports containing detailed descriptions 

 of soils and agricultural conditions, 

 with suggestions for the improvement 

 of crops and methods of cultivation, 

 with large scale lithograph maps show- 

 ing the distribution and the relations of 

 soils to climate and organic life. 



The laboratories take up such ques- 

 tions as alkali and fertilizers, and with 

 the many experiment stations ofiter free 

 to the whole people invaluable informa- 

 tion on soil management, utilization, 

 erosion, and questions of fertility. 



The Bureau of Entomology, or the 

 "War Department," in the field of agri- 

 culture, is what we might call the Gov- 

 ernment Bug Industry, and has a fasci- 

 nation all its own. There are bugs 

 which destroy plant life and animal life. 

 There are big bugs and little bugs. It 

 costs the farmer to feed these terrifying 

 and insiduous armies of Lilliputian 

 Huns and Vandals more every year 

 than it costs to run the United States 

 Government, including the pension roll, 

 the army and the navy, and this for the 

 vegetarian bugs alone. This does not 

 count those which leave with man and 



