402 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. [Vol. 36 



and distribution of agricultural food products, with special ref- 

 erence to the manipulation of markets or the control of food sup- 

 plies. The Secretary of Agriculture is empowered, in the discharge 

 of the duties required by the act relating to the Bureau of Markets, 

 to administer oaths, examine witnesses, and call for the production 

 of books and papers. The establishment of an additional experi- 

 ment station in Alaska and of a weather bureau station at Green- 

 ville, South Carolina, are authorized. Provision is made for a 

 $75,000 laboratory building on the Department's experimental farm 

 near Arlington, Virginia, as permanent quarters for the testing and 

 research work of the Office of Public Roads and Eural Engineering. 

 The act also contains authority to purchase 150 acres of land at 

 Chico, California, in connection with the plant-introduction work, 

 and about GOO acres for the Morgan Horse Farm near Middle- 

 bury, Vermont. 



The Plant Quarantine Act of 1912 is amended in two important 

 particulars. The Secretary of Agriculture is now given discretion- 

 ary power to quarantine any State or Territory when in his opinion 

 such quarantine is necessary to prevent the spread of a dangerous 

 plant disease or insect infestation. The scope of the quarantine 

 itself is broadened by the inclusion of stone or quarry products or 

 any other article deemed capable of disseminating a dangerous plant 

 disease or insect infestation. 



The appropriations carried in the new act aggregate $25,929,113. 

 This is an apparent decrease of $1,019,739 over the total in the cur- 

 rent act, but if comparison is attempted between the two fiscal years, 

 allowance must be made for the sum of $2,000,000 appropriated in 

 the act for the fiscal year 1917 for purchases of land under the Appa- 

 lachian Forest Reserve Act but not to be expended until the follow- 

 ing fiscal year. If the aggregates are corrected accordingly, the 

 appropriation available for 1918 becomes $2,980,261 in excess of that 

 for 1917, or slightly over eleven per cent. 



The new act also carries another increase, in common with several 

 other appropriation acts for the support of other branches of the 

 government, in the form of an indefinite appropriation of such 

 amount as is necessary for additional compensation during the fiscal 

 year of certain full-time employees of the Department. Those re- 

 ceiving less than $1,200 per annum are gi'anted a salary increase of 

 ten per cent, and those receiving from $1,200 to not more than $1,800, 

 one of five per cent. Persons receiving a part of their salaries from 

 outside sources under cooperative arrangements with the Department 

 are not included in this provision. It is estimated that about 12,000 

 of the more than 17,000 employees of the Department will be affected, 

 and that approximately $900,000 will be expended for this purpose. 



