REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 31 



the meat inspection and veterinary service of the Bureau of Animal 

 Industry. 



To remove from the Department of A<:^riculture the meat-inspection, 

 and veterinary work would, I beheve, be a great detriment to the 

 work of this Department and to the agricultural and live-stock inter-^ 

 ests, without any corresponding gain in efTiciency or advantage to the 

 public, and would result in increased expenditures rather than in 

 economy. 



The most important function of the Department of Agriculture ia 

 to study means for ])roviding a sufficient and wholesome supply of 

 food for the ])eople of the country. With the rapidly growing popu- 

 lation, without any corresponding increase in the area of land, and 

 with the increasing prices of the necessaries of life, it becomes more 

 essential that the Department should aid in the development and 

 introduction of methods of agriculture which will increase and 

 consen^e the supph' of food. This work relates not only to the 

 production of field corps but to the breeding and raising of ani- 

 mals. The production of meat and dairy animals involves not only 

 problems of breeding, feeding, and handling, but also those of study- 

 ing, preventing, curing, and eradicating animal diseases. It would 

 be utterly impracticable to separate the work relating to diseases fron\ 

 that relating strictly to animal husbandry. These various subjects 

 are parts of a single great problem which is primarily agricultural, not- 

 withstanding its relation to human health. 



With regard to the meat inspection, experience in this and other 

 countries has shown that this work can best be done by and under the 

 direction of veterinarians. In the work of the Department of Agri- 

 culture it has been found that some of the same men can be utilized 

 at difTerent seasons of the year in meat inspection and also in other 

 work. For example, the field work for the eradication of diseases of 

 animals is carried on mostly during the summer, while the work of 

 slaughterhouses is heaviest during the winter; and it is thus found to 

 be practicable and economical to shift men from one to another of 

 these branches as the needs of the service require. 



If any of these lines of work were transferred from the Department 

 of Agriculture to the proposed Department or Bureau of Public 

 Health, the work of the former Department would be seriously crip- 

 pled, and in order for this Department to continue its work efficiently 

 it would have to replace a large part of the organization so transferred. 

 This would inevitably result in a duplication of work and expenditure, 

 instead of the supposed economy which is one of the arguments given, 

 in favor of such a transfer. 



I can not see that it is at all essential to an efficient public health 

 organization that there should be included in such organization work 

 which more properly belongs in the Department of Agriculture, or 



