744 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXII. No. 571. 



and a promising tea farm has been estab- 

 lished in Texas. 



Very considerable importance is re- 

 corded in the manner of seed distribution. 

 A special feature has been the encourage- 

 ment of school-garden work thereby. 



The work of the forest service has been 

 greatly developed. Of the eleven persons 

 employed July 1, 1898, only two were pro- 

 fessional foresters. To-day the forest ser- 

 vice employs 153 professional foresters out 

 of a total force of over 800 persons. An 

 important achievement of this service dur- 

 ing the past few years has been to enlist 

 the sympathy and cooperation of lumber- 

 men and forest owners, and the secretary 

 urges that the work of education continue 

 until public opinion will not tolerate heed- 

 less waste or injudicious loss. In the sav- 

 ing of waste the service has added vastly 

 more to the national wealth than its total 

 expenditures during its entire history. 

 The control of the forest reserves, embrac- 

 ing property worth in cash at least $250,- 

 000,000, has been transferred to the forest 

 service. This property is administered at 

 a cost of less than one-third of 1 per cent, 

 of its value, which increases at the rate of 

 10 per cent, per annum. The service con- 

 tinues to afford important aid to private 

 forest owners. 



The Bureau of Chemistry has conducted 

 important investigations relating to our 

 cereal products and prepared meats. The 

 latter included a systematic examination of 

 canned goods. Its practical experiments 

 have developed the fact that, without ex- 

 ception, the addition of the ordinary pre- 

 servatives to foods is prejudicial to health. 

 The secretary argues the need of protecting 

 the public from these evil effects by legisla- 

 tion. The Bureau of Chemistry inspects 

 all food products intended for export 

 where the exporters desire such inspection, 

 which enables them to send foods' to foreign 

 countries with a certificate of inspection 



which, as a rule, is accepted. Of imported 

 foods inspected 712 out of 3,576 invoices 

 were of a character forbidden by law. 

 Elaborate studies have been made of in- 

 secticides, in cooperation with the Bureau 

 of Entomology, and also of materials fur- 

 nished under contract to the United States 

 government. In this work the Bureau of 

 Chemistry has cooperated considerably 

 with other departments of the government. 

 In spite of the activity of the survey 

 force of the Bureau of Soils, there are on 

 file at the present time requests for map- 

 ping 215 counties in 40 states and terri- 

 tories. ^The bureau has made a special 

 study in regard to the alkali soils and into 

 the problem of soil fertility. In this work 

 the problems encountered in the field de- 

 pend for their final solution on the work in 

 the laboratory. The purpose of the soil 

 survey is to indicate the most economical 

 method of securing the best results in 

 handling the various soils and in the pro- 

 duction of food products from them. The 

 surveys already made aggregate 63,000,000 

 acres in 44 states and territories. The soils 

 adapted to special crops such as the grape, 

 the apple, citrus fruits, the sugar-beet, 

 alfalfa, rice, corn, cotton, etc., have all been 

 made subjects of special study based on the 

 field surveys. The demands for reports of 

 the surveys are numerous and varied, all 

 classes seeming to be interested in them. 

 The investigations of this bureau into the 

 question of soil fertility and manurial re- 

 quirements have attracted general atten- 

 tion and much comment. As the bureau's 

 methods of investigation are becoming 

 more thoroughly understood they are being 

 gradually adopted for scientific work by 

 investigators outside of the department. 

 Much practical work has been done in the 

 reclamation of alkali lands. Important 

 work in regard to tobacco has been con- 

 tinued in Texas, Ohio, Virginia and Cbn- 

 necticut. The secretary recommends in- 



