EDITORIAL. 503 



State experiment stations this region is rapidly becoming one of 

 considerable agricultural importance, and dry farming, has come to be 

 recognized as an important factor in our future agricultural progress. 



In discussing the present and future of irrigation and dry farming, 

 the Secretary makes the following significant statements : " In 1896 

 the irrigated acres in this country numbered about 8,000-000 ; in 1908 

 the number was about 13,000,000, and when projects now in the course 

 of execution by the Eeclamation Service and by private individuals 

 under the Carey Act are executed, the total irrigable area will be 

 18.000,000 acres. It therefore appears that during the period under 

 review steps have been taken and much progress made toward placing 

 under cultivation immense areas of desert land by means of irrigation 

 and of so-called ' dry land ' by means of suitable cultural systems. 

 The foundation has already been prepared for the advent of millions 

 of people on previously unproductive land to pursue agriculture in 

 many of its features under conditions which promise prosperity and 

 an enormous addition to the Nation's permanent wealth and to its 

 annual production. In these two lines of agricultural development, 

 in which this Department has already been concerned in the agricul- 

 tural phases, there is much work for it in the future." 



In harmony with the growing sentiment in favor of better con- 

 servation and utilization of our natural resources, " instruction in the 

 conservation of the soil and its fertility by all available means has 

 been incessantly carried on by the Department, the experiment sta- 

 tions, agricultural colleges, and by private publications." 



A fuller knowledge has been gained of the nature of plant diseases 

 and of the immense losses they cause and their ravages " have been 

 supjjressed and avoided during the period under review in a far 

 greater degree than ever before. A true science of plant pathology 

 has been founded and the discovery of the causes and treatment of 

 diseases has led to many improvements in mechanical methods of 

 utilizing fungicides. Still greater advances have been made in the 

 direction of plant sanitation, and improvements in the environment 

 of plants as well as in the plants themselves have increased produc- 

 tion, both in quantity and in quality. No part of the work of the 

 Department and the experiment stations jdelds a more direct cash 

 return than this." 



The Secretary's review shows in brief the great progress that has 

 been made in the period considered in the discovery and introduction 

 of effective methods of control . of injiirious insects by means of 

 natural enemies, insecticides, and improved methods of farm man- 

 agement; in the acquisition and dissemination of more exact knowl- 

 edge regarding useful and injurious birds and other wild animals; in 

 impro^dng methods of marketing farm products ; in control of animal 

 diseases and inspection of meat products; in improving dairy meth- 



