EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. XXXI. July, 1914. No. 1. 



With the continued enlargement and extension of the functions 

 of the United States Department of Agriculture, the annual appro- 

 priation act providing for its support has become more and more 

 a measure of much public interest. The latest of these acts, signed by 

 President Wilson June 30, 1914, and carrying appropriations for 

 the fiscal year commencing with the following day, is no exception 

 in this respect, again establishing as it does the principle of federal 

 aid to agriculture in the broadest use of the term, providing for the 

 maintenance and development of its manifold activities to a larger 

 extent than ever before, and opening the way to an increased effi- 

 ciency through a reorganization of its Avork. 



The total amount carried by the act is $19,865,832. This is an 

 increase of $1,878,887, or over 11 per cent, over the previous year, 

 and of $804,500 over the estimates submitted by the Department. 

 The increased allotments are distributed throughout the entire De- 

 partment, and while many are designed to provide more adequately 

 for its administrative and regulatory functions, which now absorb 

 nearly two-thirds of the total appropriations, opportunity" is also 

 afforded for the extension of most of its lines of research, and espe- 

 cially for the development of its various forms of demonstration 

 work. 



In its general make-up, the law conforms closely to its immediate 

 predecessor, and in fact is somewhat more rigidly confined to the 

 routine work of the Department. There are, however, a number 

 of items of new legislation. Thus, the Secretary of Agriculture is 

 directed to prepare a plan for " reorganizing, redirecting, and 

 systematizing the work of the Department of Agriculture as the 

 interests of economical and efficient administration may require." 

 This plan is to be submitted to Congress with the estimates of ex- 

 penditures for the fiscal year 1915-16, these estimates being arranged 

 on the basis of its provisions. A special object of the proposed re- 

 organization is the elimination of the possibility of duplication, and 

 the securing of close coordination of related lines of work. 



Another provision increases the maximum salary which may be 

 paid to investigators or others engaged in scientific work from 



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