[CHAPTER 23, Stat. at L., 1895.] [AN ACT Providing for the public printing and binding and the distribution of public documents.] The Annual Report of the Secretary of Agriculture shall hereafter be submitted and printed in two parts, as follows: Part One, which shall contain purely business and executive matter which it is necessary for the Secretary to submit to the President and Congress; Part Two, which shall contain such reports from the different Bureaus and Divisions, and such papers prepared by their special agents, accompanied by suitable illustrations, as shall, in the opinion of the Secretary, be specially suited to interest and instruct the farmers of the country, and to include a general report of the operations of the Department for their information. There shall be printed of Part One, one thousand copies for the Senate, two thousand copies for the House, and three thousand copies for the Department of Agriculture; and of Part Two, one hundred and ten thousand copies for the use of the Senate, three hundred and sixty thousand copies for the use of the House of Representatives, and thirty thousand copies for the use of the Department of Agriculture, the illustrations for the same to be executed under the supervision of the Public Printer, in accordance with directions of the Joint Committee on Printing, said illustrations to be subject to the approval of the Secretary of Agriculture; and the title of each of the said parts shall be such as to show that such part is complete in itself. 2 PREFACE. The Yearbook issued by the U. S. Department of Agriculture is the most important publication of the Department. Its scope is wide and its character general, while nearly all other publications of the Department are limited in scope and special in character. In the Yearbook the aim is to bring together and present in brief popular style the best information available on agriculture and subjects related thereto. The general plan underlying the preparation of the Yearbook contemplates: (1) A general review of the work of the Department and the progress of agriculture during the preceding fiscal year, this feature consisting of the Annual Report of the Secretary; (2) a series of papers on carefully selected subjects prepared by competent scientists and experts employed in all the main branches of the Department; (3) an Appendix setting forth the organization of the Department, up-to-date information concerning the State experiment stations and agricultural colleges, State officials for agriculture, and all the principal societies and associations for the promotion of agricultural interests, a review of events and progress along several important lines embraced in the sphere of departmental activity and observation, and agricultural statistics covering a wide range. The plan outlined above was strictly adhered to in the preparation of the present volume. The report of the Secretary, occupying 186 pages, is somewhat longer than usual, owing in part to the rapid growth of the Department and the extension of its activities and in part to a brief review of progress during the past twelve years. There are twenty-three popular papers, occupying 304 pages. Some of these describe agricultural conditions and manufacturing processes involved in the working up of agricultural products; others are distinctly practical, outlining the means and methods to be employed in agricultural production; still others give first reports on Departmental investigations, which are of special interest to investigators and scientific students. The Appendix, occupying 294 pages, contains the usual directory and review features. In the portion devoted to agricultural statistics there are included a number of new features. After much research a statement of the production and trade in tobacco from the earliest colonial times has been compiled, so that now the progress of two leading crops of the United States-cotton and tobacco-may be traced statistically from the beginning of their commercial importance. The table for cotton was published two years ago and is reprinted with the addition of the most recent data. The progress of our foreign trade in the leading farm and forest products for nearly sixty years can be readily traced by means of the tables of exports and imports of such products since 1851, and from the five-year averages given in these tables the general trend can be followed without the interruption caused by the statistics of any exceptional year. The usual statements of acreage, production, and farm prices of various crops are now more valuable on account of the averages which are given for each geographic division. The relative importance of the United States in the world's agriculture is shown by an increasing number of tables. Among those compiled within the last few years are tables showing the number of farm animals in different countries, the world's production of cotton, wool, rice, tobacco, potatoes, and hops, and for more than a score of commodities the quantities exported and imported by practically all the countries of the world. All statistics in the Appendix are either gathered by the Department itself or compiled from the original authorities. They are therefore the best to be had. Believing that suitable illustrations are of great value not only in making the volume attractive, but in supplementing, elucidating, and enforcing the text matter, the Editor and others engaged in preparing the present volume have given much careful attention to this feature. In all there are eighty-four illustrations, of which twenty-nine are text figures and fifty-five are full-page plates, thirteen of the latter being colored. Jos. A. ARNOLD, Department Editor. WASHINGTON, D. C., July 12, 1909. CONTENTS. Page. Information about Spraying for Orchard Insects. By A. L. Quaintance..... The So-called Change of Climate in the Semiarid West. By Richard H. Sul- Mouse Plagues, Their Control and Prevention. By Stanley E. Piper.... Causes of Southern Rural Conditions and the Small Farm as an Important Use of Poisons for Destroying Noxious Mammals. By David E. Lantz... Instruments for Making Weather Observations on the Farm. By Dewey A. By-products of the Sugar Beet and Their Uses. By C. O. Townsend... The Development of Farm Crops Resistant to Disease. By W. A. Orton..... Soil Mulches for Checking Evaporation. By Samuel Fortier.... |