NATIONAL AID 



character of the soil they are using. Along 

 with this the farmers are shown, by practical 

 demonstration, tlie importance of diversifying 

 their farming. A portion of the money neces- 

 sary to carry on this work is provided by the 

 states, but the major portion comes from the 

 general government. 



The Bureau of Forestry, elsewhere referred 

 to more at length, is now one of the virile 

 divisions of the Department; the Weather 

 Bureau, which has become of incalculable 

 value through its warnings of cold waves, 

 frosts, floods, storms of all types, and the like, 

 now a branch of the Department, comes into 

 particularly intimate relations with those who 

 gain their livelihood from the earth, and more 

 especially since the introduction of rural deliv- 

 ery of the forecasts by telephone ; the En- 

 tomological Bureau has come prominently to 

 the fore in its efforts to combat the cotton-boll 

 weevil, an appropriation of two hundred and 

 fifty thousand dollars on the part of the na- 

 tional Congress in aid of the work indicating 

 the interest taken; the Bureau of Animal 

 Industry not only keeps a check on the pro- 

 duction of undesirable meats at home by reason 



361 



