38 



The National Geographic Magazine 



periment stations, boards of agricul- 

 ture, and geological surveys, as well as 

 with other bureaus and divisions of this 

 department of the government. An 

 assistant has been furnished to the War 

 Department to organize a soil survey 

 in the Philippines. The area surveyed 

 and mapped during the fiscal year was 

 over 14,500 square miles, or not far 

 from 10,000,000 acres, making a total 

 survey to date of over 14,500,000 acres. 

 This area is distributed in twenty-five 

 states and territories and in Porto Rico. 



PUBLICATIONS 



The publication work of the depart- . 

 nient has been unprecedently active. 

 The total number of publications is- 

 sued was 757. The total number of 

 pages of new matter edited for publi- 

 cation was 81,184. The aggregate 

 number of copies of all publications 

 issued was 10,586,580. Of this num- 

 ber 6,150,000 were Farmers' Bulletins, 

 and of these the Congressional distri- 

 bution took 4,289,126. Including the 

 Year-book and other reports paid for 

 by special appropriations, the cost of 

 the publication work amounts to about 

 $800,000, but the number of publica- 

 tions is still inadequate to supply the 

 demand. 



GROWTH OF INDUSTRY 



The Secretary concludes his report 

 with some interesting figures illustra- 

 tive of the magnitude of the agricul- 

 tural industry. In 1900 the fixed 

 capital of agriculture was about twenty 

 billions of dollars, or four times that 

 invested in manufacture. In that year 

 there were nearly five million seven 

 hundred and forty farms in the 

 country, covering eight hundred and 

 forty-one million acres, four hun- 

 dred and fifteen millions of which con- 

 sisted of improved land. According 

 to the returns of the last census, about 

 fort}- million people, or- more than half 



of the total population in 1900, resided 

 on farms. Of the twenty-nine million 

 persons reported as engaged in gainful 

 occupations, ten million — more than a 

 third — were employed in agricultural 

 pursuits. The produce of American 

 agriculture in 1899, including farm 

 animals and other products, aggregated 

 nearly five billion dollars. The most 

 valuable crop was Indian corn, $828,- 

 000,000; then hay and forage, $484,- 

 000,000 ; then cotton, $324,000,000 ; 

 wheat returned $370,000,000, and oats 

 $217,000,000. The animals sold and 

 slaughtered during the year were val- 

 ued at over $900,000,000, the products 

 of the dairy gave $472,000,000, while 

 poultry and eggs returned -over $281,- 

 000,000. The concluding statement 

 of the Secretary is that results in the 

 work of the government for agricul- 

 ture are justifying expenditures, and 

 "the future will still further show the 

 value of science applied to the farm." 



EXTRACT FROM PRESIDENT ROOSE- 

 VELT'S MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, 

 DECEMBER, 1902 



In no department of governmental 

 work in recent years has there been 

 greater success than in that of giving 

 scientific aid to the farming population, 

 thereby showing them how most effi- 

 ciently to help themselves. There is no 

 need of insisting upon its importance, 

 for the welfare of the farmer is funda- 

 mentally necessary to the welfare of the 

 Republic as a whole. In addition to 

 such work as quarantine against animal 

 and vegetable plagues, and warring 

 against them when here introduced, 

 much efficient help has been rendered 

 to the farmer by the introduction of 

 new plants specially fitted for cultiva- 

 tion under the peculiar conditions exist- 

 ing in different portions of the country. 

 New cereals have been established in 

 the semi-arid West. For instance, the 

 practicability of producing the best 

 types of macaroni wheats in regions of 



