248 ANNUAL liEPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



He is authorized and directed to make rules and regulations, to be 

 approved by the Postmaster General, under which injurious insects 

 may be mailed, transported, etc., interstate. 



The Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of the Treasury, and 

 the Secretary of Commerce and Labor are to make uniform rules 

 and roirulations for carrying out the })rovisions of the food and drugs 

 act, and to make uniform rules and regulations for carrying out 

 the provisions of the insecticide act of 1910. 



A National Forest Reservation Commission was created, consist- 

 ing of the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of War, the Sec- 

 retary of the Interior, two members of the Senate, and two members 

 of the House of Representatives, to consider and pass upon lands 

 recommended for purchase for the protection of navigable streams. 



An appropriation was made in 1912 to be expended by the Sec- 

 retary of Agriculture, in cooperation with the Postmaster General, 

 in improving the condition of the roads used in rural delivery and 

 for ascertaining benefits in the operation of the Rural Delivery 

 Service to local inhabitants in transportation of products. 



OFFICE OF THE SOLICITOR OF THE DEPARTMENT. 

 IMPORTANT AND FAR-REACHING LAWS. 



During the 16 years covered by this report there have been a num- 

 ber of important and far-reaching measures enacted by Congress 

 designed for the protection of the health, w^elfare, and prosperity of 

 the people of the United States. These measures are the culmination 

 of scientific w^ork and investigation of the Department of Agricul- 

 ture, which exposed conditions requiring legislation to remedy them. 

 Some of the more important acts referred to are the act of February 

 2, 1903, for the suppression of contagious, infectious, and commu- 

 nicable diseases of live stock; the act of March 3, 1905, which is an 

 enlargement of the above act; the act of May 25, 1900, commonly 

 known as the Lacey Act ; the act of June 29, 1906, coimnonh^ known 

 as the 28-hour law; the food and drugs act of June 30, 1906; the 

 meat-inspection law of June 30, 1906; the insecticide and fungicide 

 act of April 26, 1910, and the plant quarantine act of August 20, 1912. 



All these statutes commit to the Secretary of Agriculture not only 

 the details of their administration, but also the duty of enforcing their 

 penal provisions. Hence it is that the Department of Agriculture 

 has been charged with the execution of some of the most important 

 penal statutes of the United States. 



That such should be the case is directly due to the fact that the 

 penal statutes referred to have grown out of conditions which were 



