REPORT OF THE SECRKTAKY OF AGRICULTURE. XXXIX 



being grown by the Department from nuts gathered from selected 

 trees in all parts of the country. 



It is believed that some such plan as outlined for the distribution of 

 the special crops mentioned above can be applied also to the general 

 distribution of vegetable and flower seeds. It will certainly be an 

 advantage to intelligently district the country and send into each dis- 

 trict only such seeds as are likely to improve its conditions. This will 

 obviate the necessity of having to secure such immense quantities of 

 single varieties, a task which is often difficult to perform. It will fur- 

 thermore enable the Department to gradually introduce into the dis- 

 tribution rarer sorts, and to drop these after the first year or two, 

 leaving the demand for them to be supplied by the trade. When the 

 Department has secured the seeds and plants which it is believed are 

 best adapted to certain districts, its responsibility, to a certain extent, 

 ends, as it looks to Senators and Members of Congress to place them 

 in the hands of such of their constituents as in their judgment will 

 make the best use of them. Due notice, however, will always be given 

 of every special distribution, and in addition all information that the 

 Department possesses will be furnished, so that the recipients may act 

 intelligently in handling whatever may be sent out. Carrying out the 

 work as here outlined it is believed will result in good to the entire 

 country, as is the intent of the existing law. 



BUREAU OF SOILS. , 



The Division of Soils was organized in the Weather Bureau in 1894 

 by Executive order. In 1895 it became an independent division in 

 the Department, with an appropriation of $15,000. In 1899 the func- 

 tions were enlarged to include the mapping of tobacco soils and other 

 necessary tobacco investigations, with a total appropriation of $26,300. 

 In 1900 the appropriation was increased to $31,300. In the act ap- 

 proved March 2, 1901, the Division was reorganized into a bureau, 

 with an appropriation of $109,140, and in joint resolution No. 8 of the 

 same Congress provision was made for the printing annually of 17,000 

 copies of the FieVi Operations of the (then) Division, at an estimated 

 cost of $20,000; 3,000 to be distributed by the Senate, 6,000 by the 

 House, and 8,000 by the Department. 



This remarkably rapid evolution of the soil work of the Department 

 from a subordinate division of the Weather Bureau to a bureau organ- 

 ization of its own, within a period of six years from its inception, is 

 based wholly upon the economic importance and value of the work, 

 the careful and conscientious administration of its affairs, and a thor- 

 ough understanding and appreciation of its aims by the people upon 

 which the liberal support accorded by Congress has been granted. 



The Bureau of Soils is charged with the study of soil problems in 



