706 EXPEKIMENT STATION EECORD. 



The present functions of the Department may be broadly classi- 

 fied as (1) administrative, (2) advisory, (3) investigational, (4) in- 

 formational, and (5) educational. These have been so far developed 

 and expanded that the Department's business vitally affects the daily 

 life of all our people. 



■ Under administrative duties are included those relating to the 

 enforcement of the meat inspection, carried on at nearly one thou- 

 sand establishments in two hundred and fifty-nine cities and 

 towns ; the inspection of foods and drugs, insecticides and fungicides, 

 with regard to both domestic and imported products, which is con- 

 ducted through the laboratory of the Bureau of Chemistry at Wash- 

 ington and its twenty-five branch laboratories throughout the 

 country ; the control and quarantine rendered necessary by sheep and 

 cattle diseases and the inspection of cattle-caiTying vessels; the 

 management of the national forests, embracing one hundred and 

 eighty-five million acres, or nearly three hundred thousand square 

 miles of territory ; the regulation of interstate commerce of game ani- 

 mals and the control of the importation of noxious and other ani- 

 mals; the Congressional seed distribution; the supervision of the 

 federal funds granted to the state experiment stations; and the direct 

 management of stations in Alaska, Hawaii, Porto Rico, and Guam. 



In its advisory capacity, the Department conducts a vast and varied 

 correspondence. Besides this there are some large operations which 

 have in them an important advisory factor. Such, for example, are 

 the daily weather forecasts, the monthly crop reports, the national 

 soil survey, and the cooperative farm demonstration work. Many 

 agents of the Department are now giving much of their time to per- 

 sonally advising the farmers in the districts where they are located. 

 Notable examples of this are the services of the Department's road, 

 irrigation, and drainage engineers. In a similar way this Office has 

 a broad influence on the development of the agricultural colleges, 

 schools, and experiment stations. 



The technical, scientific, and practical investigations of the De- 

 partment now constitute a large share of its business and cover a 

 very wide range. All of the bureaus are engaged in this work, and 

 their projects cover practically every department of agricultural 

 inquiry. They include laboratory investigations in the various sci- 

 ences bearing on agricultural problems, field experiments in many 

 States and Territories, studies of natural conditions and agricultural 

 possibilities on a large scale, the exploration of foreign countries for 

 plants, beneficial insects, etc., the de\dsing of means to defend the 

 farmer against flood or to protect him against the ravages of insects 

 and diseases, engineering studies on road building, irrigation, and 

 drainage, economic studies relating to farm management, cost of pro- 

 duction, etc., etc. 



