CONCLUSIONS I I I 



a large staff of chemists, bacteriologists and veterinarians 

 for the conduct of its normal or ordinary duties ; and since 

 these can be used to a large extent in the enforcement of 

 these health laws without proportionate increase in expense ; 

 the Department of Agriculture would seem to be better fitted 

 to perform this work than is any of the other departments. 

 Aside from the matter of equipment and facilities, the ef- 

 fective administration of these or any other laws is depend- 

 ent upon the character of the responsible administrative 

 officers. Such requisites are quite as likely to be found in 

 the Department of Agriculture as in any other department 

 or service. 



The administration of public health law seems to be the 

 most striking anomaly in the functions of the Department 

 of Agriculture. There are other functions, however, where 

 the difficulty is not in harmonizing them with the! pritaary 

 work of this department, but in delimiting them from the 

 functions of the other departments. This is particularly 

 true, as we have seen, with respect to the work of the De- 

 partment of the Interior. Where Congress, either because 

 of ignorance of the situation or through sheer inability log- 

 ically to divide so many governmental functions among so 

 few departments and independent services, has not clearly 

 defined their respective fields, friction may be eliminated 

 and duplication of effort minimized by proper cooperative 

 relationships between the departments concerned. It has 

 already been shown, too, how extensively this same plan has 

 been followed in the legal and voluntary relationships of the 

 Department of Agriculture with State agencies. This co- 

 operative system of action seems to offer a possible solu- 

 tion for many of the difficu^lties growing out of our federal 

 form of government. 



The i^olicy of the Department of Agriculture in the dis- 

 semination of the results of its researches has frequently 

 been the object of criticism. Roth the character of the 

 various publications and the manner of their distribution 

 have been assailed as ineffective in securing the desired re- 



