EEPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 5S 



An amendment to the present law regarding renovated or process 

 butter, so as to apply to this product the provisions of the meat- 

 inspection law so far as they may be appUcable. 



NEW EXPERIMENTAL FARM. 



Under an item in the appropriation act for the Department of 

 Agriculture for the current fiscal year an experimental farm at 

 Beltsville, Md., has been purchased for the use of the Bureau of 

 Animal Industry. This farm ^dll provide facihties that have long 

 been needed for experiments and investigations in breeding and feed- 

 ing animals and in dairying, so that work of tliis kind can be kept 

 separate from that relating to infectious diseases as carried on at 

 the Bureau's experiment station at Bethesda, Md. 



BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. 



The Bureau of Plant Industry has continued its studies of plants 

 in all their relations to agriculture. 



PROBLEMS IX PLANT PATHOLOGY, 



The crown-gall of cultivated plants has been shown to be cross- 

 inoculable to an astonishing degree. Galls have been produced on 

 various species belonging to widely different families by pure-culture 

 inoculations mth Bacterium tumefaciens isolated from the Paris 

 daisy. This organism has been inoculated many times successfully 

 into the peach, rose, hop, sugar beet, white poplar, and other sus- 

 ceptible plants. That from the crown-gall of peach has been many 

 times inoculated into the Paris dais}^, sugar beet, hop, and other 

 plants. Successful cross-inoculations have also been obtained with 

 the organisms isolated from the crown-galls of many other plants, 

 among them apples affected with hairy-root, the cause of which has 

 so long been a matter of conjecture and dispute. 



A destructive tumor disease of limes and other citrus fruits has 

 been shown to be of fungous origin and to attack not only limes, on 

 which it was first observed, but oranges also, while artificial infections 

 have been produced on pomelo, lemon, and Citrus trifoliata. M3"ce- 

 lium has been traced in the stem from 1 to 2 feet beyond any external 

 sign of infection. 



An extensive study has been made of the bud-rot of the coconut 

 palm, which has caused enormous losses. The cause of the disease 

 has been determined and extensive experiments carried on ^^'ith a 

 view to its prevention and eradication. 



Considerable work has been done during the past j'ear upon a new 

 spot disease of cauliflower. The cause has been determined, a bio- 

 logical study of the parasite made, and many experiments carried on 

 to determine the conditions under which infection takes place. 



