EDITORIAL. 5 



Large appropriations are again made for the prosecution of studies 

 with specific crops. Thus, for cotton $91,000 is provided for an inquiry 

 into ginning, grading, baling, and wrapping practices. This Avork is 

 extended to include gin compressing and the distribution of the offi- 

 cial grades of cotton samples, and the appropriation for testing the 

 waste, tensile strength, and bleaching qualities of the A^arious stand- 

 ard grades of cotton is increased from $10,000 to $60,000. For other 

 fiber plant studies, especially with flax, $20,850 is again allotted, as 

 well as $38,000 for acclimatization and adaptation work with cotton, 

 corn, and other crops introduced from tropical regions. The tobacco 

 studies receive $25,000; the cereal investigations $135,405, of which 

 $40,000 is for corn; the studies of grain handling and grading 

 $76,320; those of drug plants $55,380; and those of sugar beets and 

 the production of table sirup and the means of utilizing cane by- 

 products $41,495. For studies in fruit growing, handling, and mar- 

 keting $107,500 is available, together with $56,320 for other horti- 

 cultural work, and $26,690 for the maintenance of the various depart- 

 mental greenhouses and the Arlington Experimental Farm. 



Another large division of the work has to do with plant diseases, 

 S37,000 being available for the maintenance of the general patholog 

 ical laboratory and the herbarium of plant diseases, $52,675 for fruit 

 diseases, $69,510 for those of forest trees and ornamentals, and 

 $46,000 for cotton and truck crops. For plant physiology and plant 

 breeding there is allotted $44,540, together with $22,280 for the 

 I'reeding and physiological study of alkali and drought resistant 

 crops. There is also $35,000 for soil bacteriology and plant nutrition 

 studies, $25,000 for biophysics, $24,000 for economic and s3^stematio 

 botany, $28,700 for studying and testing commercial seed, $5,000 for 

 studies of methods of utilizing logged-otf lands, and $230,380 for 

 studies of crop production and land utilization under arid and semi- 

 arid conditions. 



The Forest Service receives as usual the largest allotment of any 

 Bureau, its aggregate being $5,548,256 as compared with $5,399,679 

 for the previous year. There are also available the various appro- 

 priations under the Appalachian Forest Reserve Act already re- 

 ferred to, certain unexpended balances from the previous year, and 

 an appropriation of $100,000 for fighting and preventing forest fires 

 in cases of extraordinary emergency, this being a reduction from 

 $200,000. The bulk of the appropriation is, of course, to be devoted 

 to the protection and maintenance of the individual National For- 

 ests, with $400,000 for the construction and maintenance of improve- 

 ments, $165,640 for reforestation, $140,000 for studies of wood uti- 

 lization and preservation, $150,000 for forest fire protection, $25,000 

 for range studies, $83,728 for silvicultural and dendrological experi- 



