54 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



water and milk supplies regularly tested and safeguarded. As a 

 consequence, among the inhabitants of the larger communities the 

 ravages of smallpox, typhoid fever, and malaria have been in large 

 measure controlled. The rural districts still have advantages; but a 

 vast deal remains to be done to control such pests as mosquitoes and 

 the hookworm, to eliminate the sources of typhoid fever, and, even 

 more, to give the country districts the advantages of modern hospitals, 

 nursing, and specialized medical practice. 



The economic wastes from insanitary health surroundings and 

 from disease are enormous. It is impossible to estimate their extent. 

 It is even more impossible to assess the amount of existing preventa- 

 ble human misery and unhappiness. The remedy is difficult. Many 

 agencies, some of theni private enterprises with large funds, are 

 working for improvement. States and medical societies here and 

 there are contributing, more or less effectively. The extension and 

 improvement of agriculture, including the drainage of lands, the 

 clearing of swamps, and the construction of good roads, make for 

 betterment. The Department of Agriculture, through its home- 

 demonstration service, is giving valuable aid, and the Public Health 

 Service is increasingly extending its functions, especially recently 

 under an appropriation for this purpose of $150,000. To what extent 

 the further projection of effort is a matter for State or local action 

 remains to be determined, but it seems clear that there should be no 

 cessation of activity until there has been completed in every rural 

 community of the Union an effective sanitary survey and, through 

 the provision of adequate machinery, steps taken to control and elimi- 

 nate the sources of disease and to provide the necessary modern medi- 

 cal and dental facilities, easily accessible to the mass of the people. 

 Respectfully, 



D. F. Houston, 



Secretary of Agriculture. 

 The President. 



