30 THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



The United States Grain Standards Act,®=^ authorizing 

 and directing the Secretary of Agricuhure to detennine and 

 estabhsh official standards to be used in interstate and for- 

 eign commerce in grains, and the United States Warehouse 

 Act,"^ authorizing the Secretary of Agriculture to issue 

 licenses to, and require bonds from, owners or managers of 

 warehouses used for the storage of agricultural products, 

 who desire to conduct their business under federal control, 

 furnish striking evidence of the ever increasing scope of the 

 central government in general, and of the Department of 

 Agriculture in particular. 



When Congress, as a part of the legislative policy it has 

 adopted, specifically authorizes and instructs an executive 

 department or officer to perform certain functions, it is, of 

 course, incumbent upon that body to appropriate the neces- 

 sary funds as the need therefor arises. Such is the case 

 with most of the statutes which have been enumerated 

 above. Very much, in fact, the major part of the work of 

 the Department of Agriculture derives its legal authority, 

 not from the enactment of permanent laws, but from the 

 appropriations that are made by Congress from year to 

 year. This is particularly true of the experimental, investi- 

 gational, and educational activities. Many divisions, and, 

 indeed, entire bureaus owe their existence to the annual 

 appropriation acts ; and would cease to exist by the mere 

 failure of Congress to appropriate the necessary funds, 

 without the repeal of any existing law. 



It would be outside the scope of the present study to 

 attempt to give anything like an adequate idea of the present 

 work of the Department of Agriculture when viewed as a 

 whole. Much less would it be possible to give any depend- 

 able estimate of the value of this work to the people of the 

 country. From its beginning in 1839 up to April, 1917, the 

 Department of Agriculture cost the people of the United 



0239 Stat. L. 482. 

 63 39 Stat. L. 486. 



