both in equity to the purchasers and in furtherance of the permanent interests of the United States. It is exceedingly desirable that such legislation also authorize the department to make such modifications in contracts entered into hereafter. Unforeseen contingencies are apt to occur in the handling of this important class of national forest business. Unlike the usual contracts to which the United States is a party, the Government in these transactions is a seller of materials. The conditions under which such sales are made make it essential that greater leeway be given the administrative officers in modifying the terms of such sales than now exists, both in the interests of equity and fair dealing toward the citizens who use the national forests, and in the interests of the Government itself in developing a stable market for their products.

The attached memorandum is designed, therefore, to give the Secretary of Agriculture requisite authority to modify both present and future timber-sale contracts.

There are probably upward of at least 3,000 outstanding timbersale contracts. The depression in the lumber trade in many portions of the West and in other lines of industry, particularly mining, has made it impossible for many of these operations to continue. In many of them extensions of time and reductions in the amount of timber to be cut each year will be necessary to permit the plant to remain idle while the lumber market is so broken and to resume operations and complete the contract when more normal conditions are restored. In others it is necessary, in justice to the purchaser and in recognition of unfavorable conditions which were wholly unforeseen at the date of the execution of the contract and beyond the control of the contractor, to terminate the contract without requiring the removal of the remaining timber. This applies particularly to cases where mining and other local industries have shut down, leaving the purchaser absolutely without a market. A large number of sales have been made for strictly local markets of this character with no other channel for the disposition of the timber cut. When such markets cease to exist an arbitrary enforcement of the terms of the contract would mean not simply the ruin of the operator but the wasteful cutting of timber which can not now be used.

The equitable adjustment of such cases will have a very marked effect upon the ability of the department to sell additional bodies of national forest stumpage. If our purchasers who find themselves so embarrassed, on account of conditions beyond their control and unforeseen when the contract was executed, are forced arbitrarily to comply with its terms at whatever financial loss, they and other purchasers will discontinue buying national forest timber. If, on the other hand, a more liberal policy can be followed in straightening out these differences, equitable to both parties, western operators will be encouraged to buy national forest timber. Unless such adjustments can be made I fear that our opportunities to increase timber sales and receipts from this source will be greatly restricted.

The object of the proposed amendment is not to favor purchasers of timber in any way detrimental to the public interests. The contract price will not be changed. None of the permanent interests of the public in the timber or in its ultimate disposition will be sacrificed. The amendment is designed simply to enable the department to adapt

its sale contracts to actual conditions which necessarily change from time to time and to deal equitably with its purchasers in the mutual interest of the Government and the citizens buying timber from it.

It must be borne in mind, furthermore, that contracts of this character are wholly different from the general class of Government contracts in which the United States is a buyer of commodities. In these national-forest contracts the Government is in the market to sell commodities. It has enormous quantities of standing timber on the national forests, much of it overmature and decadent or fire killed, which should be cut with the least possible delay. It is strongly to the interests of the Government to take any action which will encourage lumber operators to buy this timber. Wholly aside, therefore, from the dictates of equity and justice, it is essential that this authority to modify sale contracts be secured to put the sales business upon a basis which is satisfactory to the industry and increase its volume to the amount which is desired. If this legislation is not secured, the resulting handicap in selling national-forest timber may result in a material reduction of the receipts which would otherwise be obtained from this source.

Under the decision of the comptroller, the Secretary is without power to modify these contracts unless we secure this provision of law.

Senator CHAMBERLAIN. In other words, the Government might have to enforce a contract against a bankrupt contractor? Mr. ZAPPONE. That is the idea.

Secretary WILSON. They sometimes want more time.

The CHAIRMAN. We come now, I think, to the Bureau of Chemistry, and I think it is a good place for us to take a recess.

Senator GORE. Before we take a recess I should like to ask the Secretary one question and see if he can work it out. In regard to the buying of these garden seeds, could it not be arranged so that Members of the Senate or House could file an application at a certain time, designating what sort of seed he would like to have, and if he does not do it by that time then let you go on as you do now and buy stock as you do?

Secretary WILSON. I think it would be practicable.

Senator GORE. I would like to have some wheat or corn or alfalfa seed in my State, and by filing the application in time, before you make the purchase regularly, then you could supply this demand?

Secretary WILSON. The department used to do that in the old times, furnish seeds to the new countries, and yours is new. There would be no difficulty in our finding alfalfa seed and finding some finer specimens of winter seed.

Senator GORE. With this garden seed every year you go around and around in the same place. You get nowhere. With alfalfa and corn and wheat it would be different.

Secretary WILSON. Yes; there is no trouble. If you make application in time, we can get the stock you want.

The CHAIRMAN. The subcommittee will now take a recess until 2.30 o'clock p. m.

Accordingly, at 1 o'clock and 30 minutes p. m., the subcommittee took a recess until 2.30 o'clock p. m.

AFTER RECESS.

The subcommittee reassembled at the conclusion of the recess.

STATEMENT OF HON. JAMES WILSON, SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE-Resumed.

BUREAU OF CHEMISTRY.

The CHAIRMAN. At the time we took a recess we had reached page 48 of the bill. On line 17 of page 48 it is proposed to strike out the words "two thousand seven hundred and sixty" and insert in lieu thereof the words "three thousand," so as to make the line read, "One chief food and drug inspector, three thousand dollars."

Secretary WILSON. That man has charge of all the inspection and has charge of all the inspectors. I think we estimated $3,250 for him and the House made it $3,000, and then it went out on a point of order.

The CHAIRMAN. Is there any further statement that you desire to make, Mr. Secretary?

Secretary WILSON. With regard to line 17?

The CHAIRMAN. Yes.

Secretary WILSON. Well, I will simply repeat that this man is in charge of all the inspectors of the pure food business; he is in charge of the whole of them. Mr. Campbell is an exceedingly efficient man. There are about 50 of them who get samples of adulterated and misbranded drugs. We estimated for $3,250 and the House made it $3,000 and it went out on a point of order, so we have put it in again at $3,000, where the House committee put it.

The CHAIRMAN. The next amendment is on line 21, page 51, to strike out the words "twenty-five" and insert "fifty," and to add at the end of line 22 the following proviso:

Provided, That of this sum the Secretary of Agriculture is hereby authorized to expend not exceeding five thousand dollars for the purchase of all right, title, and interest in and to the Marsh test for detecting artificial coloring matter in whisky, the same being covered by letters patent eight hundred and thirteen thousand seven hundred and twenty-eight, which payment shall include full satisfaction for any and all use that may have heretofore been made of the said process by the United States.

Secretary WILSON. The President of the United States himself ordered this put in our bill. A man named Marsh invented some method of detecting artificial coloring matter in whisky, and our people found it beneficial and used it, and the President says the man ought to be paid.

Senator WARREN. I introduced an amendment to cover that, so as to have it come in in a regular way. The amendment is in printed form.

The CHAIRMAN. We will consider it as a proposed amendment when we take up the amendments.

Secretary WILSON. The amount of the appropriation is not increased?

Senator WARREN. Mr. Secretary, on this enforcement of the food and drug law it was six hundred and twenty-five thousand and you asked for six hundred and fifty thousand. Would that include this five?

Secretary WILSON. Oh, yes; it would include the five.

BUREAU OF SOILS.

The CHAIRMAN. The next amendment is on page 52, line 10, inserting after the word "dollars" the words "one soil cartographer, $1,600.

Senator WARREN. That is a new employee, is it?

Mr. ZAPPONE. It is a new employee.

Secretary WILSON. We wanted that, but the committee did not allow it.

Senator PAGE. What is meant by cartographer?

Secretary WILSON. He makes the maps for the soil work.

Senator GUGGENHEIM. He is an expert map maker?

Secretary WILSON. Yes.

Senator PAGE. The language of that would be this: "One soil cartographer, $1,800; one soil cartographer, $1,600." It means two of them, does it?

Secretary WILSON. Yes.

Senator PAGE. Will you give us the necessity for those additions? Secretary WILSON. I estimated for them, but the House did not allow it. That is the shape in which it comes to you.

The CHAIRMAN. Did the committee allow it, and did it go out on a point of order?

Secretary WILSON. The committee did not allow it.

The CHAIRMAN. The next amendment is on line 5, page 54, to insert after the word "and" the words "eighty-three thousand eight hundred and ninety." That has reference to the investigation of soils.

Senator WARREN. You have asked for an increase there?

Secretary WILSON. The demand for soil survey work is growing rapidly, is becoming more insistent, and can not be met with the funds now at the command of the bureau. The demand comes from the State legislatures who are appropriating or proposing to appropriate money to cooperate with and support the soil surveys; from Federal bureaus that require soil surveys as a basis for the best prosecution of their own projects, and from municipal organizations, boards of trade, and prominent citizens throughout the country. I might add, principally from Members of Congress.

Senator PAGE. Do you think this question of soil investigation is really and thoroughly a practicable one, or is there a good deal of uncertainty about it?

Secretary WILSON. No; it is thoroughly practicable.

Senator WARREN. You analyze and get at all the component parts of the soil and then advise what the soil, considering climate and elevation, is most useful for?

Secretary WILSON. Yes; not only mine, but other bureaus can take that up in their own work.

The CHAIRMAN. What you ask is to have the estimate that you made originally, restored?

Secretary WILSON. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Let me suggest, if this is the fact, that it was raised from $155,000 to $165,000 on the floor?

Secretary WILSON. I think it was; that is my recollection.

The CHAIRMAN. That appears to be the fact from the record.

BUREAU OF ENTOMOLOGY.

Secretary WILSON. There is not much on the subject of entomology in this bill.

Senator WARREN. You do not care for that proviso on the top of page 57?

The CHAIRMAN. The proviso that reads "That no part of this sum shall be used on the Atlantic seaboard"?

Secretary WILSON. That, I think, was stricken out. We were not able to see why we should not be able to use some on the Atlantic seaboard, if we desired.

Senator PAGE. What was the idea of striking it out? Did they think you had no use for it there?

Secretary WILSON. That was their theory.

Senator WARREN. They put it in on the floor, not in the committee. Secretary WILSON. They did not think there was any occasion to use it. They wanted it used in other places, and we wanted to use it on the Atlantic coast, if we found a necessity for it.

The CHAIRMAN. Importations from infested countries are coming in there just the same?

Secretary WILSON. Yes, sir.

BUREAU OF BIOLOGY.

The CHAIRMAN. The next amendment is in line 14, page 59. Senator GUGGENHEIM. That is an amendment I do not like-killing the squirrels.

The CHAIRMAN. It is proposed to add at the end of line 14, page 59, the following:

and for investigations and experiments in connection with rearing of fur-bearing animals, forty-three thousand dollars, of which sum three thousand dollars shall be used for the destruction of ground squirrels on the national forests in California;

Secretary WILSON. I will tell you what happened on the Pacific coast. The rat came and brought the flea that brings the bubonic plague, and the San Francisco people chased it out of San Francisco, and they went into the holes of the squirrels.

Senator WARREN. They are not so much squirrels as they are ground rodents.

Secretary WILSON. They call them squirrels.

Senator WARREN. But they do not live in the trees?

Secretary WILSON. No; it is not the tree squirrel. It is a ground squirrel.

Senator WARREN. It is a sort of rodent?

Secretary WILSON. The flea from that squirrel extended way down pretty nearly to Los Angeles, and it went into one of our forests. The California people said they were going to tax themselves to go to work and exterminate that squirrel because it carries the genuine bubonic plague flea. They said "We want you people now to clean that out of your forests." They are in the Monterey Forest, and we put in here $3,000 for that purpose. I am astonished that the California people did not exterminate that long ago.

Senator GUGGENHEIM. Do you think that $3,000 will exterminate them?

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