EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. XXIV. April, 1911. No. 5. 



The growth of the National Department of Agriculture during 

 the past ten years has far exceeded that of all of its preceding his- 

 tory. This was pointed out by Hon. Charles F. Scott, chair- 

 man of the House Committee on Agriculture, in submitting the new 

 agricultural appropriation bill last winter. Its growth as marked 

 by a decade has been phenomenal, viewed either from the standpoint 

 of its scope and authority, its material resources, or its personnel. 



As a full fledged department with a Cabinet minister at its head, 

 the Department dates only from 1889. But if we go back to 1839, 

 when $1,000 was appropriated for " agricultural statistics," and in- 

 clude every dollar appropriated out of the Treasury of the United 

 States for agricultural purposes down to and including the year 

 1900, the total sum is, as Mr. Scott pointed out, only $45,102,616, 

 while the aggregate of all the money appropriated from the end of 

 1900 to the end of the current fiscal year reaches a sum nearly double 

 this, or $90,012,058. For the fiscal year 1901 the appropriation for 

 maintenance was $3,304,265.97. This year the Department has at its 

 disposal $15,470,634.16. " Ten years ago the total number of per- 

 sons employed in the Department was 3,388 ; this year if all the rolls 

 were called an army of 12,480 men and women would respond." 



Under the bill which the committee submitted, and which after 

 considerable discussion and amendment received the signature of 

 President Taft March 4, provision is made for an even greater de- 

 velopment during the ensuing year. The aggregate amount carried 

 by the act is $16,900,016, which by far exceeds that granted in any 

 previous measure, and is $887,950 in excess of the estimates sub- 

 mitted by the Department. 



There is an apparent increase over the appropriation act for 1911 

 of $3,412,380, but of this $720,000 is only nominal, since it merely 

 replaces what has hitherto been provided automatically as a perma- 

 nent appropriation to the State experiment stations under the Adams 

 Act. It will be recalled that by the terms of that act as subsequently 

 construed in the appropriation act for 1907, definite appropriations 

 were made only until July 1, 1911. The action taken by Congress 

 now provides for the continuance of the Adams Fund on the same 



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