EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. XXXII. April, 1915. No. 5. 



The act making appropriations for the support of the Federal De- 

 partment of Agriculture for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1916, 

 has, like its immediate predecessors, considerably more of interest for 

 tlie genei-al public than as a mere routine measure. As the activities 

 of the Department have been expanded and new functions have been 

 given it to perform, a great institution with over 16,000 employees 

 has been developed which, in its various phases, touches most inti- 

 mately the daily life of the whole American people. In consequence, 

 the act providing appropriations for the maintenance of such vast 

 enterprises as the federal system of research and demonstration, the 

 weather forecasts, the food and drugs control, the meat inspection, 

 the campaigns against plant and animal pests, and many others has 

 immediate significance as an annual review by Congress of these mani- 

 fold lines of endeavor, and as a renewed expression of its opinion 

 as to the kind and amount of work to be undertaken and the details 

 of the organization to carry it on. 



The latest of these acts, signed by President Wilson March 4^ 1915, 

 in the closing hours of the Sixty-third Congress, carries a total of 

 $22,971,782. The act for the current year appropriated $19,865,832, 

 but if comparison is attempted there should be added to this the sup- 

 plemental grants authorized in the deficiency appropriation act of 

 January 25, 1915, of $2,500,000 for the foot-and-mouth campaign, 

 $35,000 for citrus canker studies, and $349,243 for general expenses 

 of the Forest Service in consequence of the disastrous forest fires of 

 1914, which increased the total to $22,750,075. This is but $221,707 

 below the aggregate in the new act. 



As a matter of fact with a few exceptions, notably the large in- 

 creases for marketing investigations and some additions for inspec- 

 tion and other regulatory work, the existing projects are in the main 

 continued with the same allotment of funds as at present. Likewise, 

 comparatively few new lines have been provided, the policy appar- 

 ently being one of maintenance rather than of further extension at 

 this time. There are, however, many changes as to legislation em- 

 bodied in the act, and a regrouping of a number of the projects under 



the new plan of departmental organization. 



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