DECEMBER 8, 1899. ] 
india rubber. He adds: ‘The feasibility 
of cultivating this plant in the Philippines 
should be very carefully investigated.” 
The Turkestan alfalfa introduced by the 
Department is warmly commended as suc- 
cessfully withstanding drought and cold. 
It is proposed to distribute it widely over 
the arid West, to be thoroughly tested, and 
its introduction is spoken of as likely toadd 
millions of dollars to the annual hay product 
of the country. 
A valuable rice has also been introduced 
from Japan. It possesses a high milling 
quality and is highly superior to the domes- 
tic product, and should it succeed in Louisi- 
ana, hundreds of thousands of dollars will 
be added yearly to the rice-growing indus- 
try. 
In connection with the subject of native 
drug plants, cooperative work is proposed 
by the Department and the Pan-American 
Congress in a technical and scientific inves- 
tigation of these plants ; $10,000 is asked 
for to enable the Department to undertake 
this work. The great increase of cotton 
imports from Egypt, averaging in value for 
the past three years nearly 3? million dol- 
lars, lends importance to the experiments so 
far made with the Egyptian cotton seed im- 
ported by the Department in 1894. While 
a further trial is needed, hope is expressed, 
that with proper management, it will be- 
come well established in the United States. 
Mr. Wilson makes a most urgent plea for 
the erection on the Department grounds of 
new laboratory buildings as a substitute for 
the numerous and inconvenient buildings, 
mostly dwelling houses, now occupied for 
laboratory purposes at a cost of $10,000 a 
year. He has caused plans to be prepared 
of fireproof structures providing an in- 
crease of floor space over the present ac- 
commodations and in every way more suit- 
able and economical, to cost, approximately, 
$200,000. 
The concluding portion of the report is 
_ SCIENCE. 
855 
devoted to a discussion of agricultural edu- 
eation. The Secretary holds that in view 
of the importance of agriculture in the 
economic life of the country, adequate meas- 
ures for the efficient agricultural education 
of our people, nearly one-half of whom are 
engaged in agriculture, are lacking. He 
refers to the impossibility of securing, on 
demand from the Civil Service Commission, 
persons qualified to serve as assistants in 
the scientific Divisions of the Department. 
The training of the necessary experts has to 
be done in the Department itself, and then 
when their full measure of usefulness is at- 
tained, wealthy institutions take them from 
the service by offering much higher salaries 
than the Department is authorized to pay. 
Arrangements have been made with the 
Civil Service Commission to make a register 
of the graduates of the land-grant colleges. 
From this register young men will be se- 
lected to assist in the scientific divisions 
at very small pay, but with special oppor- 
tunities for post-graduate study such as no 
university in the land supplies. By this 
means it is hoped that the Department will 
have a force from which not only to fill va- 
cancies when wealthy institutions take 
away the Department’s trained men, but 
possibly, also, to supply agricultural sta- 
tions and other scientific institutions with 
men of superior scientific attainments. 
This is a step intended to complete the edu- 
cational system provided in the endowment 
of agricultural experiment stations and 
agricultural colleges. The work so pro- 
posed will entail but moderate expense, and 
the Secretary expresses the hope that it 
will meet with the approval of Congress. 
Reference is made to the gratifying evidence 
of growing interest in the subject of ele- 
mentary instruction in sciences relating 
to agriculture, and to the progress made in 
this regard since the Secretary presented 
his last Annual Report. 
During the year the Department issued 
