Miscellaneous. 



346 



Such a review as this is extremely useful as well as interesting, for it will 

 enable the general reader to get a proper perspective of the Department's work, 

 and furnish convincing evidence to legislators and others who are watching tlie 

 growing appropriations for this branch of the Government. Growth has been so 

 steady that it is necessary to pause and view the Department in retrospect in order 

 to realize the extent and character of the changes which have been involved. The 

 appropriations have more than doubled in the past eight years, although it had 

 required more than forty years to reach the figure they had attained in 1897. This 

 large increase in itself suggests the desirability of a report as to what has been 

 accomplished in the upbuilding of a great Federal Department, and in the pro- 

 motion of agriculture as a national industry. By anticipating a call for such a 

 showing the Secretary indicates his desire to keep the public fully posted in this 

 respect and to still further strengthen confidence in the Department. 



In order that the magnitude of the interests consigned to him, as well as 

 the far-reaching influence of this basal industry upon other industries, may be 

 properly appreciated, Secretary Wilson prefaces his resume with some striking 

 statistics of agricultural production. He estimates the wealth of production on 

 farms in 1905 at $6,415,000,000, "the highest amount ever attained by the farmer 

 of this or any other country, a stupendous aggregate of results of brain and muscle 

 and machine." This is an increase of thirty-six per cent, over the census figures 

 of six years ago. It is not only sufficient to supply the wants of eighty-three 

 millions of our own people, but last year farm products to the value of $827,000,000 

 were exported. The enormity of the non-agricultural industries which are directly 

 dependent upon the farmer and his extraordinary productive ability is likewise 

 supported by striking figures. 



In a recent address Secretary Wilson said that when he came to the Depart- 

 ment he found it necessary to build it up and strengthen it, before he could render 

 the aid he had in mind to the agricultural colleges and experiment stations of the 

 country. One important measure of the extent to which this upbuilding has taken 

 place is found in the personnel of the Department. The total number of persons 

 on the rolls of the Department in 1897 was 2,443, including 925 who were rated as 

 scientists and scientific assistants. Last July there were 5,446 persons on the 

 rolls of the Department, 2,326 of whom were rated as scientists and scientific 

 assistants. These figures show an increase of over 3,000 persons in the total force, 

 and of 1,401 in the scientific staff. 



This increase in personnel and in appropriations nas naturally gone hand 

 in hand with the development and extension of the Department's work. Taking 

 up the different branches, the Secretary points to some of the more important 

 developments and achievements as indicating the lines along which growth has 

 taken place, and illustrating the methods by which the Department seeks to work 

 for the practical benefit of the farmer. There has been important reorganization, 

 such as bringing together several straggling divisions into a Bureau of Plant 

 Industry ; and other lines have been enlarged and strengthened and developed 

 into bureaus. 



The work in forestry, for example, which has grown to a position of such 

 recognised importance, may be said to be a product of the past eight years. At 

 the beginning of 1898 the Division of Forestry employed eleven persons, six of 

 whom filled clerical or other subordinate positions. Practically all of its work 

 was office work. The actual introduction of forestry began in 1898, when, with 

 the offer of practical assistance to forest owners in the management of their tracts, 

 "the field of action shifted from the desk to the woods." The growth of interest 

 in forestry, in conservative lumbering, in forest reservations, and in education in 



