Miscellaneous^ 



60 



f July, 1908 



and gave much time to the extension 

 of publications and of the Library. 

 He intioduced farmer's bulletins. The 

 Division of Statistics was developed. 

 The Division of Agrostology and an 

 agency to obtain new foreign plants 

 from all parts of the world were formed. 

 The Handbook of grasses of thf United 

 States was published. The Weather 

 Bureau was much extended, a cyclone 

 service was established and exchange of 

 data with other Governments arranged 

 for. The Forestry Division made good 

 progress. 



Competitive examinations for service 

 in the Agricultural Department were 

 introduced. 



Secretary Wilson took office in 1897. 

 The Department has advanced exten- 

 sively under his direction. The budget 

 allotment for the Department in 1907 

 was $9,932,940 against $2,448,332 in 1897. 



Since 1897 notable changes have been 

 made in the work of the Department, 

 particularly as regards enquiries into 

 plant diseases, plant breeding, seed and 

 plant testing and investigations regard- 

 ing fruit growing. A Bureau of Forestry 

 has also been established. 



Other branches of the Department 

 which have been changed within the 

 period indicated from a divisional to a 

 Bureau organization with large increase 

 of activities are the Bureau of Chemistry, 

 Bureau of Soils, Bureau of Entomology, 

 Bureau of Statistics and Bureau of 

 Biological Survey." 



The division of Foreign Markets was 

 organized separately from the Division 

 of Statistics in 1898, and a Solicitor for 

 the Department was provided in 1905. 

 Secretary Wilson has given much atten- 

 tion to the encouragement of home in- 

 dustries and sugar, silk and tea industries 

 have thereby greatly benefited. "Agri- 

 cultural explorations for discovering new 

 crops, new varieties of old crops, 

 new methods of cultivation and farm 

 management, new species of desirable 

 domestic animals, new modes of combat- 

 ing diseases of animals and plants and 

 injurious insects, formed important 

 features of the period from 1897-1905. 

 Great progress has been made in tlie 

 studies of plant breeding and soil in- 

 vestigation. Special attention has been 

 paid to such points as food inspection, 

 methods of storage for foreign markets, 

 forest development and management, 

 and a special point has been made of the 

 encouragement of agricultural education 

 by school garden work and prize com- 

 petition," 



One of the most important works done 

 by the Department in recent years has 

 been the establishment in 1903 of practi- 

 cal and direct relations between the 

 Department and farmer's institutes 

 through the appointment of a special 

 agent of the office of Experiment 

 Stations to co-operate with the State 

 and County officials interested in this 

 line of Agricultural Education. "Great 

 advances have been made in the study of 

 meteorological phenomena. Instruments 

 and apparatus for recording weather 

 data were improved and standardised 

 and climatic statistics gathered, com- 

 pared and used in making forecasts, 

 then put in form for future use. The 

 number of stations was increased, in- 

 cluding points on the Caribbean Sea and 

 the Gulf of Mexico, in Bermuda, the 

 Bahamas and the Azores, until the real 

 direction of important progress has 

 changed from practical extension of 

 this kind to a study of scientific pro- 

 blems, such as the study of the move- 

 ments of the atmosphere at much higher 

 altitudes than heretofore commonly 

 reached. For this purpose the establish- 

 ment of a great National Observatory 

 for weather study has been begun at 

 Mount Weather, Virginia, a suitable 

 point in the Blue Ridge Mountains, 50 

 miles from Washington. The watching 

 of storms and floods was continued, and 

 efforts were made to render more 

 efficient service to sea-faring interests 

 and to farmers and business men in over- 

 flowed districts. It has been impossible 

 of course to prevent losses by floods, ice 

 gorges and hurricanes, but the known 

 saving effected has exceeded several 

 times over the costof the entire service." 



"Crop reporting has been continued 

 and improved, and the issue of frost 

 warnings extended. The function of the 

 statistical service of the Department was 

 clearly defined as the rendering of assis- 

 tance to the farmer in receiving a fair 

 price for his products. The reporting 

 of crop prospects was improved and the 

 spread of the information, when gather- 

 ed, studied and printed, was made more 

 effective, especially by a system of post- 

 ing card announcements of results in 

 the 92,000 post offices of the country. 

 The study of foreign market was con- 

 tinued, and reports of trade relations 

 with important nations, based on a 

 study and anlayses of Treasury reports 

 of exports and imports were publishsed. 

 The Crop Reporter, an eight-page 

 quarto monthly paper, was established 

 in 1899 as a means of communication 

 between the Bureau and its thousands 

 of correspondents. , A special agent was 

 maintained in London, chiefly for the 

 purpose of reporting European crop 



