OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 177 



has not already come for separating from this Office the important 

 enterprise which has been organized within it as the irrigation inves- 

 tigations. These investigations are now well established and seem 

 likely to be a permanent part of the business of this Department. / In 

 my judgment they form a sufficient basis on which to create a new 

 bureau, corresponding to one of the great general divisions of agri- 

 cultural science, namely, rural engineering. There are many prob- 

 lems connected with the laying out of farms and other rural estates, 

 as well as parks, which this Department would do well to consider. 

 Among these are questions relating to systems of drainage, water 

 supply and sewage, terracing and other methods for preventing wash- 

 ing of land, landscaping, etc. Moreover, problems relating to farm 

 buildings, implements, and machinery should be studied by the 

 Department. In this country relatively little attention has thus far 

 been given to agricultural engineering and many of its branches have 

 hitherto been almost entirely neglected by this Department. I can 

 not, however, see any good reason for further delay in taking up these 

 important matters, and believe that an efficient Bureau of Rural 

 Engineering would accomplish results of great usefulness. 



By continuation of his detail to the Division of Botany, Dr. E. V. 

 Wilcox completed his part of the investigation on the effects of poison- 

 ous plants on sheep feeding on the ranges of Montana and prepared 

 a report thereon which has been published in Bulletin No. 26 of that 

 Division. He also prepared an article on the same subject for the 

 report of the Bureau of Animal Industry for 1900. During the pres- 

 ent summer he has been detailed to the Bureau of Forestry to aid in 

 conducting an investigation on the effects of grazing sheep in the forests 

 of Wyoming. Mr. D. W. May was detailed for some time to the Divi- 

 sion of Vegetable Physiology and Pathology, where, in connection 

 with Dr. Loew, he made an investigation on the physiological relations 

 of lime to magnesia in plant production, an account of which will 

 appear in a forthcoming bulletin of that Division. Under advice of 

 his physician, Mr. V. A. Clark felt compelled to change his residence 

 from Washington, and after a short period of service in our irrigation 

 office at Cheyenne, Wyo. ,'he left our service, to our great regret. The 

 irrigation investigations suffered a severe loss in the death of Col. 

 E. S. Nettleton, whose service as an irrigation engineer in public and 

 private capacities for many years had been an important factor in the 

 establishment of the great irrigation system of the West. 



The establishment of the experiment stations in Alaska, Porto Rico, 

 and Hawaii, the broader and more intimate relations sustained with 

 experiment stations in this country and abroad (now numbering in 

 the aggregate about 800 stations and kindred institutions), and the 

 enlargement of our efforts for the promotion of agricultural educa- 

 tion have caused a material increase in the general business of the 

 Office and necessitated the employment of some additional clerical and 

 expert service. There is, moreover, considerable additional work 

 imposed upon the Washington office in connection with the super- 

 vision of the stations in Alaska, Porto Rico, and Hawaii. To meet 

 the necessities of this extra work the regular appropriation for the 

 maintenance of this Office should be increased to $35,000. In addition 

 to this, I recommend an appropriation of $5,000 be asked for to enable 

 this Office to undertake the work connected with the promotion of the 

 farmers' institute system in this country,, as suggested on page 195 of 

 this report. 



agr 1901 12 



