EDITORIAL. 315 



The agricultural experiment stations in Alaska, Hawaii, and Porto 

 Rico have been established and placed upon an efficient working basis 

 under the present administ ration and the in line nc*- and assistance of the 

 Department have thus spread to these remote possessions. The investi- 

 gations in problems relating to irrigation from an agricultural stand- 

 point, as distinguished from that of engineering , have been inaugurated 

 and organized upon ;i comprehensive scale. This work has proved so 

 eminently practical and so important to irrigated agriculture that it 

 has grown rapidly in extent and in the scope covered in its studies. 

 ( )ut of it have sprung the work in land drainage, which has already 

 demonstrated great possibilities of usefulness, and the still newer 

 investigations upon agricultural machinery, so that there has been 

 created and put into operation a new feature of work covering the 

 whole range of rural engineering, as a highly important division of the 

 Department's activities. 



The Weather Bureau has greatly extended the range of it- observa 

 tions and investigation, which has been attended by increasing effi- 

 ciency and a wider application of its work. It is now said to be the 

 most highly developed weather service in the world. The work in 

 economic entomology has been extended to many new lines of studj 

 upon injurious and beneficial insects of the farm, garden, forest, and 

 household, and has been more than doubled in scope, not to mention 

 the extensive scale on which the Bureau ha- worked in the campaign 

 against the cotton-boll weevil. The soil survey has been entirely 

 developed during the present administration, and constitutes the first 

 systematic attempt to make a comprehensive soil survey of the Qnited 



States. 



The Secretary points to the successful eradication of the foot and 

 mouth di>ea>e in New England, and the diverse efforts which have 

 been made to onset the evils of the cotton-boll weevil in the Southern 

 States, both prosecuted with special appropriations for the purpose. 

 In the latter connection, as well as independent of it, the breed- 

 ing and selection of plants and varieties better adapted to special 

 conditions or uses has been a conspicuous feature; and closelj related 

 to it is the introduction of plant- from foreign countries. In L898 

 Secretary Wilson secured authority to use a small portion of the Con 

 gressional seed fund for agricultural exploration, which has resulted 

 in extensive introduction of seeds and plants which have been tested 

 the country over. The Largest collection of date palm varieties iii the 

 world has been secured in this wa\ . and several important cereal intro- 

 ductions have been made, such as durum or macaroni wheat, the Span- 

 ish Select oat. and t he Sixty-day oat. Durum wheat was first introduced 

 from Russia in the spring of L899. It is estimated that from twelve 

 to fifteen million bushels of this wheat were grown this year in the 

 three States of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota, ami that 



