The Farmers of the United States 



4 1 



have been made daily throughout the 

 year, besides special warnings of gales, 

 cold waves, frosts, heavy snows, floods, 

 etc., which have been issued for the 

 benefit of commercial and agricultural 

 interests. Forecasts are issued, more- 

 over, for the first three days out of 

 steamers bound for European ports. 

 The river and flood service had several 

 opportunities to demonstrate its useful- 

 ness and growing efficiency, and owing 

 to the advices and warnings of the Bu- 

 reau the dangers of the great ice gorges 

 in the Susquehanna, Allegheny, and 

 Ohio rivers were much minimized. 



The national weather and crop bulle- 

 tins were issued from 143 section cen- 

 ters. Besides the extensive distribution 

 of the forecast cards, over 5,000 railroad 

 stations have been supplied with bulle- 

 tins, and the Bureau has availed itself 

 extensively of the rural free delivery 

 and the rural telephone system, so 

 that forecasts are quickly disseminated 

 throughout a large territory at a mini- 

 mum of expense. 



MOUNT WEATHER OBSERVATORY 



The main building of the Weather 

 Bureau Observatory at Mount Weather, 

 Va., has been completed, and the phys- 

 ical laboratory to be erected in another 

 year is being planned. When the equip- 

 ment is ready apparatus will be utilized 

 to explore the atmosphere to altitudes 

 of from 3 to 10 miles. 



During the year arrangements were 

 perfected for a generous increase in the 

 number of daily telegraphic weather re- 

 ports, and the Secretary reports several 

 submarine cables laid. The Weather 

 Bureau has now t 58 stations completely 

 equipped, while 130 steel towers with 

 improved equipment for displaying 

 storm warnings are now installed along 

 the shores of the Great I^akes and the 

 Atlantic and Pacific seacoasts. 



INSPECTION OF ANIMALS AND MEAT 



Besides safeguarding the live-stock 

 industry at home, the department is 



fostering the foreign trade. The total 

 export of animal products in the past 

 fiscal year exceeded $223,000,000. The 

 total inspections for export were — for 

 cattle, 790,496 ; for sheep, 534,850 ; and 

 for horses, 3,293. There was a great 

 increase in the number of cattle and 

 sheep exported, but a considerable re- 

 duction in the number of horses. The 

 loss on cattle in transit to British ports 

 was but 0.17 per cent, and on sheep 

 0.94 per cent. Clearances of vessels 

 carrying live stock numbered 774. 



The inspection of import animals calls 

 for the utmost vigilance in order to pre- 

 vent the introduction of animal diseases. 

 Importations of pure-bred animals were 

 light, but a very large number were im- 

 ported from Mexico for breeding pur- 

 poses. 



Inspection of animals and their prod- 

 ucts was maintained at 51 establishments 

 in cities. Of ante-mortem inspections 

 about 65,000,000 were made and of post- 

 mortem 40,000,000, an increase in both 

 cases over the previous year. The micro- 

 scopic inspection of pork is restricted to 

 that destined for countries requiring it, 

 and the number of carcasses inspected 

 in 1904 was 313,445, of which 2,643 

 were found to be trichinous. 



PRODUCING NEW BREEDS OF ANIMALS 



Preliminary steps have been taken to 

 conduct feeding and breeding experi- 

 ments in several states looking to the 

 development of breeds of animals suit- 

 able to our conditions of climate and 

 soils and capable of meeting the demands 

 of commerce at home and abroad. 



The spread over several of the moun- 

 tain states of a cattle mange required 

 vigorous intervention by the depart- 

 ment. It was necessary to detail a large 

 force of experts to supervise the dipping 

 of the herds in order to eradicate the 

 parasite. Cooperation with most of the 

 states has been arranged, and the rest 

 promise to secure state legislation to 

 compel all flock and herd masters to 

 clean their stock. 



