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be sure to increase the efficiency of both the stations and the office of the stations 
in the Department. I think, therefore, that we are to be congratulated upon this 
change, which brings us into still closer union, and that we may look forward to 
mutually profitable relations and more cooperative work in the future. 
But I promised you to say a few words about some of the new lines of work which 
the Department has taken up. One of the Western newspapers made a remarkable 
announcement last March, to the effect that the Department of Agriculture had just 
"elected a professor of astrology." We have long known that the moon was sup- 
posed to have a great influence on some departments of agriculture, but we had 
never heard it suggested before that the stars had anything to do with crops. It 
did not take us long, however, to find out that the usually infallible editor referred 
to our new officer, the " agrostologist " — a title that the country newspapers have 
been struggling with ever since. 
The Department of Agriculture has always recognized the importance of the inves- 
tigation of our forage resources, and through its Division of Botany it has made 
many valuable contributions to our knowledge of them. In view of the growing 
importance of grasses and forage plants at the present time, when the methods and 
objects of farming in many sections of our country are undergoing a radical change, 
the honorable Secretary of Agriculture recently decided that this subject required 
more attention than the Department was able to give it with the present force of 
the Division of Botany. He therefore employed a special agent to prosecute inves- 
tigations upon grasses and forage plants. 
No country in the world possesses such vast forage resources as ours, and in none 
are the plants which compose that forage more various. Our botanist informs us 
that there are over 3,500 different kinds of grasses in the world, of which over 700 are 
known to grow within our territory. There are, besides, many useful forage plants — 
not grasses — such as the clovers and alfalfa. The annual hay crop of the country 
has an estimated value of $600,000,000 and more than 14,000,000 head of cattle are 
supported upon our grazing lands. The maintenance and improvement of these 
resources is a matter of importance to every citizen of the United States, and of 
direct and vital interest to every American family. Upon it depend the vast meat 
and dairy interests, and to a great extent the more important methods of maintain- 
ing the fertility of our agricultural lands. 
In our great territory, including lands of many different elevations and climates, 
much exploratory work yet remains to be done upon our native grasses, and by con- 
tinued examinations it can not be doubted that useful species new to agriculture will 
from time to time be found. In the arid regions of the West and Southwest are 
nutritious grasses and other native forage plants whose introduction into culture, if 
carefully undertaken, could not fail to greatly benefit these sections. The importa- 
tion of the native or improved forage plants of other countries has in some cases 
resulted in much benefit to our agriculture, and doubtless many other plants can be 
found and tested with regard to their adaptability to our climate and soils. The 
study of grasses for special purposes, as for example, for binding the drifting sands 
along our ocean and lake shores; for holding the embankments of our great rivers, 
which frequently overflow and sweep away farms, w T hile they cover others with 
destructive d6bris, materially broadens the interest in grasses and makes this work 
of practical importance to many other classes of citizens. 
Considerations like these have induced the Secretary of Agriculture to recommend 
to Congress the establishment of a separate Division of Agrostology for investigat- 
ing glasses and forage plants, with special reference to their use in those sections of 
our country where they are at present little known. The establishment of such a 
division would demonstrate to the citizens of this and other countries that our 
National Government fully recognizes the primary importance of the grasses in the 
rural economy of the nation. It will be the function of the new division to instruct 
our people in the habits and uses of these plants; to examine their natural history 
and adaptability to our different soils and conditions; to import, test, and introduce 
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