464 Journal of Agriculture, Victoria. [10 Aug., 1918, 



The Department is under tlie control of a Secretary for Agriculture 

 ■ — a professional man — and a Board of seven, appointed by tlie 

 Governor. Government by Boards appears to be tbe usual method of 

 control of Departments in America. These Boards are necessary, 

 because there are no Cabinet Ministers in the States. The Governor 

 is the controlling power, and in most States a large number of the 

 higher administrative officials, and many of the Boards of Control, 

 change with each change of Governor. It is rather interesting to note 

 that in Ohio an Advisory Board of three has been appointed to prevent 

 overlapping in the agricultural work of the State. A law was passed 

 appointing the Secretary of Agriculture, the Dean of the College of 

 Agriculture at the State University, and the Director of the Agricul- 

 tural Experiment Station as a Board to control all agricultural develop- 

 ments which affected more than one of these three interests. 



At the State Fair I saw a building which would interest you. It 

 was a huge Coliseum — a building erected primarily for the judging of 

 stock at the State Fair. Americans lay much stress on stock judging, 

 and at most fairs there is some building set apart where spectators may 

 witness the judging of cattle and horses. This Coliseum is 325 feet 

 long and 225 feet wide, with a single cantilever roof, tied underneath 

 by steel girders. The arena is 190 feet long and 110 feet wide, and is 

 magnificently lighted. The cost was 200,000 dollars (£41,600). It 

 will seat 12,000 people, and has proved to be a great educational factor 

 in the State Fair. 



The Department of Agriculture at Washington is a colossal institu- 

 tion — colossal in organization, scope of its work, and in results it is 

 achieving in war work. It must be giving the nation good dividends, 

 because Congress is appropriating almost incredible sums for its activi- 

 ties, and frequently appropriates millions of dollars more than the 

 Estimates provide for. 



I had planned to spend three weeks at Washington, and thought I 

 could acquire a very thorough knowledge of its work. There are no 

 less than sixteen huge bureaux — animal industry, plant industry, forest 

 service, chemistry, soils, entomology, biological survey, crop estimates, 

 States Relation Service (extension work), niral engineering, markets, 

 rural organization, farm management, weather service, publications. 



The Secretary for Agriculture (Mr. Houston), who is a member of 

 President Wilson's Cabinet, spent a whole moniing in giving me the 

 history of the development of the Department, its main lines of work, 

 and the chief regulatory, investigational, and extension activities of 

 the Department. He then arranged with the chiefs of each bureau to 

 give me a bird's eye view of the work each bureau is doing. 



I found that it took at least a morning for each head of the bureau 

 to sketch the main lines of work of their Departments, and I shall have 

 to content myself with these general views, supplemented with some 

 details in the plant industry, soils, farm management, animal industry, 

 markets, rural organization bureaux, and the States Relation Service. 

 The Department has over 18,000 employees, and is housed in 40 separate 

 buildings in various parts of the city of Washington. Some of the 

 buildings axe immense structures, a-nd exceed in size the whole group 

 of buildings in the Treasury Gardens, Melbourne. ; 



