HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 423 
Mr. Price. Yes, sir; we have. 
Mr. Bowrg. On preserving ties? 
Mr. Price. We have a couple of very good bulletins. 
Mr. Bowrs. I wish you would send me one or two. 
Mr. Pricr. I will be delighted to do so at once. 
The Cuarrman. Are there any further questions? 
Mr. Bowtz. Ihave finished. “He has told me what I wanted to know. 
Thereupon, at 3.02 o’clock p. m., the committee adjourned. 
i 
CoMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE, 
Sanuary 16, 1904—2 o'clock p.m. 
Hon. James W. Wadsworth, chairman. 
STATEMENT OF HON. JAMES WILSON, SECRETARY OF 
AGRICULTURE. 
The Cuarrman. As weannounced yesterday, the Secretary of Agri- 
culture is before us for the purpose of giving us a résumé of the work 
of his Department, and any other information he sees fit to give. Mr. 
Secretary, we have had a very interesting time hearing your subordi- 
nates. I think the committee will join me in saying that you have a 
bright set of men over in the Department. 
ow, Mr. Secretary, please proceed, and we will ask you questions 
as you go along. 
Secretary Wruson. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, 
I take it for granted that the hearings that you have had have brought 
out the details of the work of the Department along the several lines 
in which it is being prosecuted, so I will speak briefly about the gen- 
eral policies of the Department under your charge and direction here, 
such matters as the several bureau chiefs and scientists might not have 
to consider in their more limited spheres. 
The remark that the chairman has just made furnishes a suggestion 
with regard to the Department. We have a fine lot of scientists. 
The world has not, I think, as many scientists along the several lines; 
no one country begins to have such an organization as we have. 
When I came down here first, with President McKinley, in 1897, I 
had in my mind the wisdom of helping the experimental stations to 
strengthen ‘themselves with regard to their scientists—I knew they 
were weak—and to help them with regard to their work in the several 
lines in which they ought to engage. And, looking the Department 
over, I discovered that the first thing necessary was well-equipped 
scientists, educated men, who could take hold of such work as the 
people in the various localities of the United States and various States 
and Territories needed to have done. To that end we have been 
encouraging young men of character and education, such as we could 
get at agricultural colleges preferably, to come to the Department and 
specialize. I brought it to the attention of the committee in those 
days, and got a word or two put in the law giving me authority to do 
it. It has turned out well. 
We have brought into the Department altogether 496 young men, 
up to the time I wrote my last report, who have been studying any 
special line of work the people of our country want done. Iam more 
