THE HARVARD COLLEGE D APR 18 002 RR 2005.16.4 CURRENT ENCYCLOPEDIA VOL. I. No. 2. AUGUST 15, 1901 AGRICULTURE, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF.-This department of our national government had its origin in the efforts of such men as George Washington and Benjamin Franklin to make the government contribute to the promotion of agriculture. The establishment of a National Board of Agriculture, corresponding to the British Board of Agriculture, was one of the measures which President Washington strongly urged upon the attention of Congress. The propriety of giving national aid to agriculture was early considered by committees of both houses of Congress, but the indifference of the farmers and constitutional objections long prevented any legislative action. Meanwhile our consuls and naval officers abroad were sending home seeds and cuttings for new crops and aiding in the introduction of new breeds of domestic animals. When the federal government was first established the principal charge of the issuing of patents was given to the Department of State, and when seeds and plants were received from consuls they were distributed through the Patent Office. Thus it came to pass that when, in 1836, that office was made a separate bureau and Hon. Henry L. Ellsworth, of Connecticut, was appointed Commissioner of Patents, he. considered it within the proper scope of his office to help the farmers of the country by distributing seeds and plants. In 1839 he secured an appropriation of $1,000 "to be taken from the Patent Office fund, for the purpose of collecting and distributing seeds, prosecuting agricultural investigations, and procuring agricultural statistics." In 1854 the policy of appropriating money from the Patent Office fund was abandoned, and in the following year the whole amount ($39,000) drawn from that fund in the interest of agriculture was reimbursed and thereafter such appropriations were drawn directly from the treasury. The same year the annual appropriation for agriculture was increased to $35,000 and has never since been less than that sum. In 1855 an arrangement was made with the Smithsonian Institution for procuring and publishing meteorological statistics. A chemist, entomologist and botanist were also employed and a propagating garden was begun. The first annual report of Commissioner David P. Holloway, of Indiana, contained a bold and able plea for the creation "of a Department of Productive Arts, to care for all the industrial interests of the country, but especially for agriculture." a law by the approval of President Lincoln on of the agricultural division of the Patent Of- He immediately proceeded to organize the Congress adopted a portion of the Commissioner's plan and passed a bill establishing a Department of Agriculture. This act became NORMAN J. COLMAN. First Secretary of Agriculture. Mr. Newton's administration was terminated by his death in 1867. The succeeding commissioners were Horace Capron, of Illinois, 186771; Frederick Watts of Pennsylvania, 187177; William G. LeDuc, of Minnesota, 1877-81; George B. Loring, of Massachusetts, 1881-85; Norman J. Colman, of Missouri, 1885-89. A Division of Botany was organized in 1868, a Division of Microscopy in 1871, and the Divisions of Pomology, and Ornithology and Mammalogy, and a section of Vegetable Pathology in 1886. Studies on animal diseases were begun, which resulted in the establishment of the Bureau of Animal Industry in 1884. On the passage of the Hatch act (March 2, 1887) providing for the establishment of agricultural experiment stations in the States and Territories, the Office of Experiment Stations was organized in the department in 1888. By an act of Congress approved February 11, 1889, the department was made an executive department and Commissioner Colman was appointed as the first Secretary of Agriculture, serving in this capacity to March 4, 1889. Jeremiah M. Rusk, of Wisconsin, was Secretary of Agriculture from 1889 to 1893. Under his administration the Division of Records and Editing (now the Division of Publications) was established (1889) and the Weather Bureau, which had been a branch of the Signal Service of the Army, was transferred to the Department of Agriculture in 1891. The publication of the popular Farmers' Bulletins and of the Experiment Station Record was also begun. The third secretary was J. Sterling Morton, of Nebraska (1893-97), under whose direction the Divisions of Agrostology and Soils, the section of Foreign Markets and the Office of Road Inquiry were added to the department. Important investigations on the food and nutrition of man were inaugurated and the first numbers of the department Year Book were published. During this period the force of the department was very largely brought into the classified civil service. Since 1897 James Wilson, of Iowa, has been secretary. Under his administration the resources, force and publications of the department have greatly increased and its influence has rapidly grown. It has been brought into much closer relations with the State agricultural colleges and experiment stations through the extension of co-operative enterprises and the admission of the officers and graduates of these institutions to its laboratories as students, or to a share in its service as assistants or "scientific aids." Among the notable enterprises inaugurated or greatly extended during this period are the investigations on irrigation and on sugar beets, the exploration of foreign countries for new seeds and plants, the survey of soils in different States, the establishment of experiment stations in Alaska, Hawaii and Porto Rico, and the popularization of the results obtained at the experiment stations in a series of publications known as Experiment Station Work. Finding that the work of the department had outgrown the existing form of organization, Secretary Wilson has undertaken its reorganization with a view to securing more efficient administration and the further extension of scientific and technical operations. At its recent session (1900-1901) Congress authorized the establishment of four new bureaus: the Bureau of Plant Production (comprising the former divisions of Botany, Vegetable Physiology and Pathology, Agrostology, Seeds, Pomology, and Gardens and Grounds, and the section of Seed and Plant Introduction), and the bureaus of Soils, Forestry and Chemistry (taking the place of the divisions with the same names). The annual appropriation for the department for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1902, is $3,862,420, exclusive of the regular appropriation of $720,000 for the State agricultural experiment stations. The number of its paid employes is over 3,000, of whom more than 2,000 are engaged in operations connected with its scientific work. It issues some 500 different documents annually, of which it prints about 7,000,000 copies. The Year Book alone has an edition of 500,000 copies. While it has important administrative duties and a seat in the President's cabinet, the Department of Agriculture is chiefly a scientific establishment for the investigation of agricultural problems and as such is the greatest in the world. The department is at present very inadequately housed. Several of its buildings are located in the beautiful park lying between the grounds of the Washington Monument and the Smithsonian Institution. This park contains a great variety of trees artistically planted by Mr. William Saunders. Other buildings are located in different parts of Washington City. By direction of Congress plans are now being drawn for a new main building. The present organization and duties of the department may be summarized as follows: OFFICE, OF THE SECRETARY.-James Wilson,* Secretary; J. H. Brigham, Assistant Secretary; Andrew Geddes, Chief Clerk. Through this office the Secretary "exercises personal supervision of public business relating to the agricultural industry," appoints the officers and employes of the department and directs their operations, enforces general regulations and exercises control of the department buildings and other property. WEATHER BUREAU.-Willis L. Moore, Chief; appropriation, $1,148,320. The Weather Bureau has charge of the forecasting of the weather; the issue of storm warnings; the display of weather and flood signals; the gaging and re'porting of rivers; the maintenance and operation of seacoast telegraph lines, and the collection and transmission of marine intelligence for the benefit of commerce and navigation; the reporting of temperature and rainfall conditions for the cotton interests; the display of frost and cold wave signals; the distribution of meteorological information in the interests of agriculture and commerce, and taking of such meteorological observations as may be necessary to establish ar.d record the climatic conditions of the United States. The bureau maintains 179 fully equipped meteorological stations and 3,325 stations where voluntary observers make records of temperature and rainfall. It also publishes the Monthly Weather Review. BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY.-D. E. Salmon. Chief; appropriation, $1,154,030. The Bureau of Animal Industry makes investigations as to the existence of dangerous and communicable diseases of live stock; superintends the measures for their extirpation and makes original investigations as to the nature and prevention of such diseases. It inspects live stock and their products slaughtered for food consumption, import and export animals, and vessels for transportation of export cattle; maintains quarantine stations for imported neat cattle; supervises the interstate movement of cattle and reports on the condition and means of improving the animal industries of the country, including dairying. During the present year *James Wilson of Traer, Tama County, Iowa, was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, August 16, 1835; migrated with his parents to Connecticut in 1852 and to Iowa in 1855, where he engaged in farming; served three sessions in the State Legislature, during the last of which he was speaker of the house; was a member of the 43d, 44th and 48th Congresses; served as member of the State Railway Commission, as regent of the State University, and for six years as director of the agricultural experiment station and professor of agriculture at the Iowa Agricultural College. its inspection work has been extended to include dairy products intended for export. In 1900 the bureau inspected over 53,000,000 cattle before slaughter and issued certificates of inspection for 438,138,233 pounds of beef, 272,050,663 pounds of pork, 680,897 pounds of mutton and 188,800 pounds of horse flesh. BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY.-B. T. Galloway, Chief; appropriation, $491,680. The Bureau of Plant Industry is charged with the investigation of problems relating to the improvement of plant production, except those connected with forestry. Among the subjects included in its work are the following: The native plant resources of the United States and its island possessions; the natural history, geographic distribution and uses of grasses and forage plants; the reclamation of ranges and pastures; the classifying and improvement of fruits and other horticultural plants; the purity and germinating power of seeds; the control of weeds; plant physiology and pathology; the breeding of improved varieties of plants; the exploration of foreign countries for seeds and plants for use in the United States. It also has charge of the purchase and distribution of the seeds sent out through members of Congress; maintains plant houses and gardens for testing, propagating and disseminating exotic and economic plants; conducts the Arlington experimental farm, and has the care of the department grounds. BUREAU OF FORESTRY.-Gifford Pinchot, Chief; appropriation, $185,440. The Bureau of Forestry gives practical assistance to tree planters and to farmers, lumbermen and others in the conservative handling of forest lands; has charge of the forest management of the public forest reserves of the United States in cooperation with the Department of the Interior; investigates methods and trees for planting in the treeless West, as well as forest fires and other forest problems. (See FORESTRY, page 65.) BUREAU OF SOILS.-M. Whitney, Chief; appropriation, $109,140. The Bureau of Soils investigates soils in their relation to crop production, surveys and maps the soils of different regions |