24 THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Thus another victory had been won by the persistent and, 

 for the most part, intelHgent expression of public opinion. 



Period of Expansion, 1889 to 191 7 



Agriculture has been defined as "the art or science of 

 cultivating the ground, especially in fields or in large quanti- 

 ties, including the preservation of the soil, the planting of 

 seeds, the raising and harvesting of crops, and the rearing, 

 feeding, and management of live-stock. "^^ The organic act 

 of 1862, which is still in effect, authorizes the Department 

 "to acquire and diffuse . . . useful infonnation on subjects 

 connected with agriculture in the most general and compre- 

 hensive sense of the word . . . ." 



Even with this broad scope of activity, it is difficult to see 

 how some of the many laws which are now administered 

 by the Department of Agriculture can logically be classed 

 as agricultural legislation. On the other hand, it is asserted 

 by an eminent authority,^" that extensive and far-reaching 

 as the operations of the Department now are, they do not 

 yet in all respects cover the field marked out for it in its 

 charter. 



The period which we are now considering, more than any 

 previous one in American history, is characterized by the 

 wide-spread assertion, on the part of the federal govern- 

 ment, of what has been called its police power ; that is, its 

 power to regulate and supervise the conduct of individuals 

 in the interest of the general welfare of society. Much of 

 this type of legislation fills the modem statute books of the 

 lesser units of government as well. Why there should have 

 been such a great demand for legislation of this character 

 we shall not stop to consider in detail. The great number 

 of health and safety laws in recent years, according to Pro- 

 fessor Freund, " represents less a change of legislative 

 policy than a change of conditions that had to be met by 



" Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, quoted in Dillard v. Webb, 

 Ala. 474. 



"* A. C. True in Annals of American Academy of Political and 

 Social Sciences, vol. xi, p. 10. 



