394 ANNUAL EEPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTURE. 



a report made thereon to the House Agricultural Committee, and 

 assistance was given the Bureau of Markets in the preparation of 

 tentative application forms, circulars of information, and the like 

 for use in administering the loan provisions of the bill if it should 

 be enacted. 



Considerable time was given in assistance to about 200 military 

 registrants in the preparation of their questionnaires. 



Under your direction, upon requests of committees or Members 

 of Congress, the office also prepared or assisted in the preparation of 

 proposed legislation not directly related to the war. In addition 

 numerous special items for inclusion in the regular and emergency 

 appropriation bills for the department were drafted and comments 

 and suggestions were made on 65 other bills which had been referred 

 to this department. Besides the assistance rendered with reference 

 to the regulations under war-emergency legislation, this office pre- 

 pared either in wliole or in part numerous other regulations and 

 amendments of regulations for the administration of various statutes. 

 Among these were amendments to and partially completed revision 

 of the regulations for the administration of the grain standards act, 

 and a revision of the standards for shelled corn and wheat; regula- 

 tions for the administration of Federal bird reservations, regulations 

 for the administration of the national forests, regulations for the 

 administration of the Federal aid road act, regulations for the ad- 

 ministration of the plant quarantine act, regulations to govern entry 

 into the United States of tick-infested cattle under the act of August 

 10, 1917, regulations for the administration of the United States 

 standard container act, and also legal forms for the administration 

 of several acts of Congress not related directly to war activities. 

 Among these were orders establishing, modifying, or removing 

 animal quarantine, specifications of grades for white and sweet 

 potatoes and other vegetables, and various forms required in the 

 administration of the Federal aid road act, the warehouse act, and 

 the standard container act. 



In cooperation with the Federal Trade Commission and the Bu- 

 reau of Markets an investigation of grain marketing practices in 

 Chicago and Minneapolis was participated in. This investigation 

 covered a period of approximately seven months. Public hearings 

 on proposed cotton warehouse regulations were attended by repre- 

 sentatives of this office in Washington and 13 southern cotton markets, 

 and representatives of the office attended conferences in Atlanta and 

 New York with bonding and insurance companies relative to the cot- 

 ton warehouse regulations. Public hearings on corn and wheat stand- 

 ards in 15 grain markets throughout the United States were attended 

 by representatives of .this office, and various conferences, including 

 one in New York City, between representatives of the Bureau of 

 Markets and the Food Administration Grain Corporation, relating 

 to grain matters in general, were attended. 



The plan adopted during the last fiscal year, at the request of the 

 Department of Justice, for the preparation by this office of the peti- 

 tions for the condemnation of lands under the Weeks law has ef- 

 fected a substantial saving in time and expense to the Government. 



