372 DRY-FARMING 



the experiment stations in this and other countries 

 of the world sliall attack the special problems con- 

 nected with this branch of agriculture. 



The United States Department of Agriculture 



The Commissioner of Agriculture of the United 

 States was given a secretaryship in the President's 

 Cabinet in 1889. With this added dignity, new life 

 was given to the dejjartment. Under the direction 

 of J. Sterling Morton preliminary work of great im- 

 portance was done. Upon the app(jintment of James 

 Wilson as Secretary of Agriculture, the department 

 fairly leajsed into a fullness of (organization for the in- 

 vestigation of the agricultiu-al proljlems of the coun- 

 try. From the beginning (jf its new growth the 

 United States De]:)artment of Agriculture has given 

 some thought to the special problems of the semiarid 

 region, especially that i.>art within the Great Plains. 

 Little consideration was at first given to the far West. 

 The first method adopted to assist the farmers of 

 the plains was to find j^lants with drouth resistant 

 properties. For that purjjose explorers were .sent 

 over the earth, who returned with great numbers of 

 new plants or varieties of old ]:)lants, some of which, 

 such as the durum wheats, have shown themselves 

 of great value in American agriculture. The Bureaus 

 of Plant Industry, Soils, Weather, and Chemistry have 

 all from the first given c(.)nsiderable attention to the 



