1917] EDITORIAL. 409 



visions are authorized, as well as control measures in cooperation with 

 the States in case infestation occurs. 



The work of the remaining branches of the Department is con- 

 tinued on substantially the present basis, both as to funds and lines 

 of work. The Bureau of Crop Estimates is granted $323,452, an 

 increase of $7,016, mainly for the employment of additional field 

 agents and specialists in truck and fruit crops. The Office of the 

 Secretary receives $412,010, in addition to the allotment of the Office 

 of Farm Management already noted; the Division of Accounts and 

 Disbursements, $44,920; the Division of Publications, $213,990; and 

 the Library $50,160. The Department is granted $112,500, an in- 

 crease of $7,500, for the enforcement of the Insecticide Act ; $50,000, 

 an increase of $10,000, to continue and extend the demonstration work 

 on reclamation projects, and $137,500 for miscellaneous expenses. 

 The allotment of $143,689 is made for rent of buildings in the Dis- 

 trict of Columbia, an increase of $20,000 over the present appropria- 

 tion, and a joint Congressional committee is authorized to investigate 

 the rental situation in Washington and the estimated cost of con- 

 struction of sufficient Government-owned buildings to meet the De- 

 partment's needs. 



Among minor items of legislation not hitherto mentioned, the 

 Department is authorized to loan, rent, or sell copies of its moving 

 picture films, giving preference to educational institutions or asso- 

 ciations for agricultural education not organized for profit. Th3 

 President is authorized to extend the usual invitation to other nations 

 to participate in the 1918 meeting of the International Farm Con- 

 gress, which is expected to be held at Peoria, Illinois. 



In a discussion of the appropriation act as a medium for Federal 

 aid to agriculture, the fact should not be lost sight of that increas- 

 ingly large sums are now available in other ways. Thus, what are 

 known as the permanent and indefinite appropriations for the Depart- 

 ment aggregate for the fiscal year $17,235,000, or nearly three-fourths 

 as much as the total carried in the act itself. The largest sources, 

 namely, the Federal-aid Road Act, the meat-inspection provision, 

 and the Extension Act, have already been referred to, the remaining 

 funds being chiefly for payments to the States as their quota of the 

 receipts from National Forests. There is also the appropriation for 

 the Department printing and binding, this year aggregating $600,000, 

 which is carried in the appropriation bill for sundry civil expenses^ 

 not yet enacted for the fiscal year 1918. 



Of the Federal funds expended outside the Department, the usual 

 appropriation of $2,500,000 will be available for agricultural educa- 

 tion under the Morrill and Nelson acts, as well as the smaller grants 

 for the rural education work for the United States Bureau of Edu- 



