EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. XXVII. September, 1912. No. 4. 



The act making appropriations for the support of the Federal 

 Department of Agriculture for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1913, 

 is noteworthy for its continuance of the general policies of recent 

 years. Despite a general tendency for retrenchment wherever pos- 

 sible in the public service, no line of work now under way by the 

 Department has been discontinued. The great majority of its projects 

 are maintained on their present basis. Opportunity for additional 

 development has been pro^dded in several cases, and a few new 

 undertakings have been authorized. This outcome may be regarded 

 as especially significant and encouraging, indicating a sustained 

 interest by the people of this countiy in the work of the Department 

 as a whole, and a widespread realization of the importance of its 

 uninterrupted continuation. 



The new appropriation act was not passed until August 10. Dur- 

 ing the interval of nearly six weeks which followed the termination 

 of the preceding fiscal year on June 30, the maintenance of the 

 Department, as well as of most other branches of the Government, 

 was provided for by the passage of special resolutions extending the 

 appropriations, under certain restrictions, on the basis of the act of 

 the previous year. 



The aggregate carried by the act is $16,651,496, which exceeds that 

 of any year except the one immediately preceding, when the total 

 reached was $16,900,016. In the absence of serious forest fires, how- 

 ever, the reduction as compared with 1912 will be more or less nomi- 

 nal, since there has been a diminution from $1,000,000 to $200,000 

 in the fund for fighting forest fires in the National Forests in cases 

 of extraordinary emergency. If this item is disregarded, there 

 is an actual increase of $551,480 for the routine work of the De- 

 partment, and a considerable increase over the original estimates 

 submitted. • 



In its general form the law conforms closely to its immediate pred- 

 ecessor, but in addition to the provisions of a routine nature it con- 

 tains considerable new legislation. This is particularly the case as 



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