6 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



demands for information on the subject, and the existence of dangerous 

 diseases has been more promptly and fully reported than heretofore. 



Scientific investigations in regard to the nature and cause of con- 

 tagious diseases among animals have been constantly in progress, and 

 are throwing much light on the difficult problems which are encoun- 

 tered by those who practically attempt to reduce the ravages of these 

 plagues. An extended microscopic investigation of American pork has 

 been made to learn what foundation there was for the charge of trichi- 

 nous infection which has been brought against it in Europe. 



A great mass of information has been collected in relation to the de- 

 velopment and needs of the various branches of the live-stock industry, 

 with a view of enabling the owners of animals of all kinds to escape 

 preventable losses, and to direct their efforts in the most promising 

 direction. 



The practical direction of the quarantine system, which was trans- 

 ferred to the Department of Agriculture by the Secretary of the Treas- 

 ury in accordance v.ith a recent act of Congress, has been made one 

 of the duties of this Bureau. The professional knowledge of the chief, 

 who must be a competent veterinary surgeon, taken in connection with 

 the information which is being continually received by this Bureau as 

 to the piesence of contagious diseases in those foreign countries from 

 which we import cattle, and the most advanced methods of controlling 

 these diseases, makes it peculiarly appropriate that the protection of 

 American cattle from imported diseases should be in the same hands. 



In a word, the labor of this Bureau has been directed to prevent and 

 control communicable diseases among animals in this country, to pre- 

 vent the importation of such plagues from abroad, and to collect such 

 information as is valuable to the stock-grower and necessary to the 

 profitable development and conduct of our animal industries, and to 

 enable us to secure free entrance for our animal products into the mar- 

 kets of the world. 



Congress has provided for the publication of fifty thousand copies of 

 the first annual report of the Bureau of Animal Industry. This report 

 will be issued simultaneously with this volume, and will contain a vast 

 amount of information of great value to breeding, rearing, and the 

 general traffic in live stock. 



GARDENS AND GROUNDS. 



The work of this division consists, in part, in introducing, propagat- 

 ing, and distributing economic plants, particularly of such kinds as 

 seem worthy of trial and experiment, both in regard to congenial cli- 

 mates and their probable value as furnishing economic industries. 

 Work of this nature is necessarily of a tardy character, and at best is 

 likely to be somewhat limited in useful results. 



Testing new varieties of what are known as small fruits has been a 

 prominent and popular feature of the work of this division, but it is 



