EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. 41. July, 1919. No. 1. 



Beginning with its second volume in 1892, the Record has been 

 publishing year by year summaries of the annual acts making ap- 

 propriations for the support of the Federal Department of Agricul- 

 ture. These acts, authorizing expenditures for the Department's 

 work for the ensuing fiscal year, prescribe the scope of most of its 

 activities in considerable detail, and thus have afforded a convenient 

 means of forecasting its program for several months to come. They 

 have also permitted of comparisons with previous years, revealing 

 changes in problems and policies and reflecting current public opin- 

 ion as to the most urgent needs of American agriculture and the 

 ways in which an institution like the Department can render the 

 most effective service to the Nation. 



It has seemed desirable to summarize the latest of these acts in 

 much the same way as in previous years, although direct comparison 

 with earlier legislation is somewhat more complicated than usual. 

 It will be recalled that after the declaration of a state of war with 

 Germany the regular appropriation act for the fiscal year ended 

 June 30, 1918, was supplemented by emergency legislation, known as 

 the Food Production Act aiid carrying additional appropriations of 

 $11,346,400 for the year. The same policy as to agricultural legis- 

 lation was continued the following year, what may be termed the 

 normal activities of the Department without special reference to 

 war conditions being provided for in an appropriation act carrying 

 $27,875,353 for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1919, and a supple- 

 mentary act passed November 21, 1918, carrying $11,031,863 for the 

 emergency activities of the year. The latest appropriation act, how- 

 ever, makes provision for both the normal activities and such of 

 those previously carried as emergency legislation as are to be con- 

 tinued. Mainly because of the curtailment or discontinuance of 

 many of the emergency activities, the aggregate appropriations in 

 the act of $33,900,211, while $6,024,858 larger than those of the 

 previous appropriation act, in reality constitute a decrease of 

 $5,007,005 from the amount carried in the two acts of the previous 

 year. Comparison as regards individual items must likewise be made 

 on the combined basis of the two acts. 



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