December 20, 1901.] 



SCIENCE, 



959 



of the station. At the same time, the 

 amount of teaching required of station of&- 

 cers has been materially reduced. 



The experiments of the station in Alaska, 

 with headquarters at Sitka and subsidiary- 

 stations at Kenai, on Cook Inlet, and at 

 Eampart, in the Yukon Valley, are re- 

 garded as distinctly encouraging. From 

 all the evidence received at the Depart- 

 ment, it seems clear that agriculture may 

 be sufficiently established in this Terri- 

 tory to serve as an important aid to the 

 mining, lumbering and fishing industries. 

 During the year a station has been estab- 

 lished in Hawaii. Among the first work 

 at this station was the planting of taro, 

 with the special object of studying the dis- 

 eases seriously affecting that crop. Prob- 

 ably 50 per cent, of the working population 

 in these islands depend on taro for their 

 daily food, and, owing to these diseases 

 and the attendant deterioration of the crop, 

 the price of taro has increased 500 per cent, 

 in the last decade. Some other diseases of 

 fruits and vegetables call for study, and 

 poultry experiments have been inaugurated 

 with a view to increasing the supply of 

 poultry. It is reported that live chickens 

 sell in Honolulu at $15 a dozen and eggs at 

 40 and 50 cents a dozen. Hogs bring from 

 10 to 17 cents a pound on the hoof, and ex- 

 periments have been undertaken in the 

 feeding of swine with various tubers and 

 roots. 



The station at Porto Eico has not yet 

 been fully established, owing to the difficulty 

 of securing suitable land for the purpose. 

 In the meantime, such investigations will 

 be undertaken as can be pursued on lands 

 leased or loaned by persons ready ^to engage 

 in cooperative work with the station direc- 

 tor. Some preliminary investigations in 

 coffee culture have already been arranged 

 for. 



The Secretary earnestly recommends that 

 the annual appropriations for all these sta- 



tions be increased to $15,000, the same as 

 the National Government contributes at 

 present to all of the other stations in the 

 various States and Territories. 



The Philippines. — He regards it as ex- 

 tremely desirable that agricultural investi- 

 gations should be undertaken in the Philip- 

 pine Islands under the War Department 

 and in cooperation with the Department of 

 Agriculture. In furtherance of this work, 

 the Secretary recommends an additional 

 appropriation of $15,000 for the ensuing 

 fiscal year ' to institute agricultural inves- 

 tigations in the Philippines and, if feasible, 

 to locate and maintain an agricultural ex- 

 periment station there.' 



Agricultural Education. — An increase in 

 college-extension work in agriculture is 

 noted and stress is laid on the movement 

 for the establishment of secondary schools 

 of agriculture and the introduction of the 

 elements of agriculture into the rural 

 schools, as hopeful signs of progress in agri- 

 cultural education. The Secretary suggests 

 that his Department, already giving aid to 

 rural schools in various ways, should take 

 a still more active part in encouraging this 

 work. He recommends encouragement by 

 distributing seeds and plants to establish 

 school gardens, by furnishing schools with 

 collections of specimens of insects, of plant 

 diseases, and other illustrative material, 

 and by supplying the teachers with such 

 publications of the Department as may be 

 useful to them. 



Aid to Farmers' Institutes. — He reviews very 

 fully the great development in the work of 

 farmers' institutes. In 1899 over 2,000 

 farmers' institutes were held in this coun- 

 try, attended by over half a million farmers. 

 These were held in forty-three States and 

 Territories. The Secretary thinks that 

 there is room for much useful work by his 

 Department in aid of this and other move- 

 ments for the education of our farmers in 

 the improvement of our agriculture. He 



