Miscellaneous. 



348 



adaptation to different parts of the country, this industry is pointed to as one 

 which has become well established in favoured localities, whose farming side has 

 been greatly benefited by scientific investigation. In 1897 there were but nine beet- 

 sugar factories in the country, with a combined output of thirty thousand short 

 tons of sugar ; the estimated output for 1905 is two hundred and eighty thousand 

 short tons. Similarly, rice culture in the Southern States, especially Louisiana and 

 Texas, has been exploited and encouraged by the introduction of Japanese varieties, 

 and has grown very greatly in extent. 



In addition to the important investigations of the Bureau of Animal 

 Industry on contagious diseases of animals and their means of control, the meat 

 inspection in its charge has steadily increased. Upon this work depends in 

 very large degree a foreign trade worth millions of dollars yearly to American 

 stock raisers. This year the inspection covered sixty-six million live animals 

 before slaughter, and over forty million carcases after slaughter, representing 

 an increase in this work of about 33J per cent, in the past eight years. The 

 inspection work has also been extended to other food products intended for 

 export, and to all foods imported into the United States, for which purpose 

 branch laboratories of the Bureau of Chemistry have been established in the 

 Ports of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, New Orleans, San Francisco, and 

 Chicago. A system of food standards has also been worked out as a basis for 

 guidance in Federal, State, and municipal food inspection. 



And so on throughout the report. Taking up the work of the different 

 bureaus and divisions, the Secretary points out the more important lines of 

 development, and enumerates the many lines in which investigations have been 

 prosecuted with practical application to American agriculture. The showing is 

 indeed a gratifying one. The presentation is clear and direct, and affirms how 

 definite has been the aim in the development of the Department's work along 

 the various lines of activity. No one can read the report without a fuller 

 appreciation of the extent and the ramifications of the Department, and of the 

 very many ways in which it is serving the farming public and contributing 

 to the general welfare of the country. It is as broad in its sympathies as the 

 relationships of the industry it stands for, and no legitimate interest withiu its 

 scope will fail to awake a responsive chord when it appeals to the Department 

 for aid. 



But the very breadth and diversity of the interests concerned suggest 

 that the Department cannot be sufficient unto itself, and the Secretary is not 

 unmindful of the other agencies which have contributed in such an important 

 degree to this great work. He makes appreciative acknowledgment of the services 

 of the agricultural experiment stations as co-operative agencies, and of their 

 importance from both a local and a national standpoint. 



The Secretary outlines as the twofold object of the Department that of 

 adding to the sum of intelligence of the man, and increasing the productive 

 capacity of the acre, and he adds that, "in this important work it has the 

 hearty co-operation ot the State agricultural colleges and experiment stations 

 all of them working with the Department of Agriculture towards the same 

 great end." By means of the close relations which have existed "the range and 

 effectiveness of many agricultural investigations have been enlarged, and it has 

 been possible to bring the Department's work into vital touch with agricultural 

 industries and agricultural people. . . Not only have the stations been a vital 

 factor in making the Department's work more effective, but they have by their 

 own investigations lifted American agriculture to a higher plane." 



