114 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



in special cars on good-roads trains. Models have also been exhibited 

 with pictures at various fairs and expositions. There has been a 

 large demand for talks on good-road subjects. It has been possible 

 to assign men for only part of this service. There have been a total 

 of 1,135 lectures and addresses given. The total attendance at such 

 meetings was 208,472. 



RECORD OF SIXTEEN YEARS. 



HISTORY OF THE DEPARTMENT'S SERVICE. 



MANY SUBJECTS OF WORK AND ACCOMPLISHMENT. 



Sixteen years have been of interest in the history of this department. 

 Bureaus have been created and expanded. Lines of research, investi- 

 ga^tion, and demonstration have been multiplied. Congress has piled 

 duty on duty from year to year. The corps of experts needed in the 

 increasinir amount and variety of service has grown greatly. The 

 department has become a great agricultural university for postgradu- 

 ate work. Discoveries for the benefit of farm practices and improve- 

 ments of old ones have been countless. The department has both 

 promoted and begun a revolution in the art and science of agri- 

 culture. Its influences for agricultural betterment have penetrated 

 all regions of the national domain. At the close of a long admin- 

 istration, filled with accomplishments, it is fitting that the record of 

 16 years should be written. 



EXPANSION OF THE DEPARTMENT. 

 EMPLOYEES AND APPROPRIATIONS. 



Compared with present proportions, most of the department 

 bureaus of 1897 were small, were getting small results from their 

 work, and were confined to few lines of investigation and endeavor. 

 The whole department had on its pay roll in that year 2,444 persons. 

 The number grew to 6,242 in 1906, and rapidly increased to 9,107 in 

 the following 3^ear on account of the enforcement of the meat-inspec- 

 tion law and expansion of work in forestry. The number has in- 

 creased steadily since that time until on July 1, 1912, 13,858 were on 

 the pay rolls of the department. 



During the period under review the paid employees of the Weather 

 Bureau have about doubled in number and are now 2,051. The em- 

 ployees of the Bureau of Animal Industry have increased from 777 

 to 3,311, and of the Bureau of Plant Industry from 127 to 2,128. The 

 work in Forest Service was so small in 1897 that the paid employees 

 numbered only 14. The number increased to 939 in 1905, to 2,012 in 

 1907, to 3,636 in 1910, and to 4,127 in 1912. 



