202 departmental reports. 



Work for the Civil Service Commission. 



The Director of this Office has continued to act as the general repre- 

 sentative of the Department in matters relating to examinations held 

 by the Civil Service Commission for technical and scientific positions 

 in the Department. The number of papers received from the Commis- 

 sion, recorded in this Office, and rated b}^ examiners in the Department 

 during the year was 260. Besides the regular examinations 22 special 

 examinations were held during the year. The register for "scientific 

 aids," confined to graduates of the land-grant colleges, continues to be 

 a useful one, and an increased number of appointments has been made 

 from it during the past year. In some branches of the service the 

 number of eligibles on this list has not kept pace with the demand. 

 The "scientific aid" register has, however, to a considerable extent 

 taken the place of the register for "assistants," and for that reason 

 the regular examinations to fill the latter register have been discon- 

 tinued. A j)lan for combining the "scientific aid" and "assistant" 

 registers witli a view to j)roviding a system for tlie entrance of com- 

 petent ' ' scientific aids " into the classified service has been approved 

 by the Commission. The partial reorganization of the Department due 

 to the establishment of new bureaus has caused a temporary increase 

 in the number of special examinations. 



Experiment Stations in Alaska. 



The fourth appropriation for agricultural investigations in Alaska 

 was made for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1900, but a portion of 

 this ai)propriation was made available in the spring of that year. The 

 appropriation was $12,000, and its terms were the same as those in the 

 previous year, authorizing the Secretary of Agriculture to expend this 

 fund "to investigate and rei)ort to Congress upon the agricultural 

 resources and capabilities of Alaska, and to establish and maintain 

 agricultural experiment stations in said Territorj^ including the erec- 

 tion of buildings and all other expenses essential to the maintenance 

 of such stations." 



Prof. C. C. Georgeson has been continued as special agent in charge 

 of these investigations, with assistants at Sitka and Kenai, in the coast 

 region, and Rampart, in the interior. The chief new feature of the 

 investigations during tlie past year has been the more thorough studj'^ 

 of the agricultural possibilities of the interior, especially the Yukon 

 Valley. For this i)urpose Professor Georgeson made a journej' throu<> h 

 the interior between June 19 and September 18, 1900. A detailed 

 account of this investigation was given in Professor Georgeson's report 

 for 1900 (Bulletin No. 91 of the Office of Experiment Stations), of 

 which he has made the following summarv : 



I was accompanied by one assistant, Mr. Isaac Jones, who was to remain in the 

 interior and take charge of the work we might undertake there. We went in via 

 Skagway, over the railroad to White Horse, and by boat down the Yukon to Daw- 

 son, at which place we arrived July 3. We found no boats at Dawson going down 

 the river, none having come up from St. Michael at that time. I therefore bought 

 a scow, in whicli we packed our outfit, and I hired a man to help us navigate it 

 and sent it adrift down the river on the evening of July 5. We stopped at Eagle, 

 the first town in American territory, and at Circle City. At the latter place we 

 were compelled to abandon the scow and take a boat, for the reason that we 

 doubted our ability to work it tlirough the stretch of ;]()() or more miles across the 

 Yukon Flats. We found small gardens both at Eagle and Circle, and at the for- 

 mer especially these gardens were numerous and promising. We found that 

 potatoes and nearly the entire list of hardy vegetables were doing nicely. 



