CXIV EEPOET OF THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE. 



Yet the Department of Agriculture of this country has frequently 

 had to record the loss of men trained in its services, who have been 

 called away to other fields b}" offers of more generous remuneration. 

 The danger of losing good men has never been so great as at the pres- 

 ent time. Last year a foreign government secured one of our tobacco 

 experts at a salarv four times what this Department was giving him, 

 and quite recently the papers have announced that the result of inves- 

 tigations made under his auspices are so promising- that it is believed 

 the demand for American and other imported tobaccos in that market 

 can be stopped and the requirements supplied by home production. 

 Subsequenth" an offer was made to another tobacco expert in the 

 employ of this Department at a salarj' of about three times what he was 

 being paid. This had to be met b}" an increase in his salary, amount- 

 ing to one-third more than the chief of the division who was directing 

 the work was allowed by statutory enactment. As an executive act, 

 this was not good policy nor compatible with the best interests of the 

 Department, biit the work in hand had to l)e provided for, pending 

 further action hy Congress. 



More recentlv still, advances have been made bv several foreis'n 

 governments to secure the services of some of the leading men of the 

 Department, the chiefs of Bureaus, offering such liberal increases 

 over the salaries paid here that it becomes almost a matter of duty on 

 the part of the men to accept. Such acceptances, if carried out, would 

 not only cost the Department some of its leading men, but would also 

 draw awa}" man}' of their subordinates who are now in excellent train 

 ing for valuable work. 



It is apparent in reviewing the work of the past fiscal year that the 

 men who have planned and executed the investigations which have 

 been carried on, have earned for the country many times over the cost 

 of their salaries and the money appropriated for their use. It is an 

 axiom among business men that the more expensive employees are often 

 the cheapest, by reason of their being most productive. The Depart- 

 ment has always been obliged to train its own men, and has only too 

 frequently lost their services when, from their ability' to handle large 

 questions, they have been called elsewhere at more remunerative sal- 

 aries. The Department should not always be in this position of having 

 to train its men in order to get them cheaply, but shoiild be allowed 

 to secure the services of capable men already trained by giving salaries 

 commensurate with the valuable commercial interests to l)e put in their 

 charge. The loss of time necessary to train men to handle these prob- 

 lems is in itself a serious draAvback, and if thev are called elsewhere 

 after receiving their training and before the}' give valuable returns to 

 the Department in the way of productive work, the time and money 

 spent upon their training is largely thrown away. 



In view of these facts, 1 have i^rovided in my estimates for a salary 



