30 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



moro ofrici(Mit, not only to tho benefit of the farmer himself, but 

 also to the safe<ji;uar(lin<]j of our National independence. The wisdom 

 of Concjress in aiding agriculture in the past, through the Federal 

 Dej)artment and the state colleges and experiment stations, as well 

 as the advisability of giving even greater fostering attention in the 

 future to our most fundamental industry, is thus made plainly 

 manifest. 



PROPOSED DEPARTMENT OR BUREAU OF PUBLIC HEALTH. 



Within the last few years there has been developing a strong 

 sentiment in favor of the Government making larger provision for the 

 promotion and protection of human health, and at the last session of 

 Congress several bills providing for the establishment of a Depart- 

 ment or Bureau of Public Health were introduced. Although I am 

 in hearty accord w4th the general object of providing better facilities 

 for work in the interest of the public health, I find that most of the 

 particular plans which are being urged upon Congress and which are 

 represented by some of the bills referred to would probably have a 

 disastrous effect upon a large part of the important work being carried 

 on by the Department of Agriculture. 



The bill which has been most widely indorsed and actively pressed 

 provides for the creation of a new Executive Department to be known 

 as the Department of Public Health, and for the transfer to that 

 Department of " all departments and bureaus belonging to any depart- 

 ment, excepting the Department of War and the Department of the 

 Navy, affecting the medical, surgical, biological, or sanitary service, 

 or an}^ questions relative thereto," and for the transfer specifically 

 of the Bureaus of Entomology, Chemistry, and Animal Industry of 

 the Department of Agriculture. The effect of the language above 

 quoted, if fully carried out, would be to transfer the Department's 

 biological work relating to plant life, such as is carried on by the 

 Bureau of Plant Industry and the Forest Service. Other bills intro- 

 duced in Congress provide for a Bureau of Public Health and for the 

 transfer to that Bureau of only certain portions of the work above 

 mentioned. 



It can readily be seen that the effect of the bill first mentioned, 

 which is being seriously pressed upon the attention of Congress, 

 would be to disintegrate the Department of Agriculture and to take 

 away from it work which it properly performs and which clearly 

 has no logical place in a Department or Bureau of Public Health. 

 Even though some of the more unreasonable features should be 

 dropped, it is seriously proposed to place in the Department or 

 Bureau of PubHc Health the work relating to the enforcement of the 

 Food and Drugs Act now carried on by the Bureau of Chemistry, and 



