BUREAU OF DAIRY INDUSTRY

No. 5. Dairy investigations

Page 34, line 3: Strike out "$26,599" and insert "$53,500"; increase, $26,901. The purpose of this amendment is to restore the increase of $26,901 submitted in the Budget estimates under this item, but disallowed by the House, consisting of (1) $20,301 for investigations of milk and butterfat production of dairy cows; and (2) $6,600 for work in the utilization of milk in the manufacture of milk products, as follows:

1. An increase of $20,301 for milk and butterfat production investigations, consisting of:

(a) Four thousand five hundred dollars for development of breeding investigations.-Breeding experiments have been under way for a number of years at the Beltsville Station in which different systems of mating are being compared for their efficiency in determining the hereditary factors for high levels of production. One part of the experiment calls for the use of unrelated sires that have shown by progeny tests that they possess in their hereditary make-up the factors for high-producing ability. Since the hereditary make-up of a sire cannot be determined before he is 6 years of age and, on the average, the sires are not definitely proved before they reach the age of 8 years, and since the average age at which fertility ceases in bulls has been around 11 years (the maximum age that any sire in our experiments has reached with vigor of fertility being 16 years), it becomes necessary from time to time to purchase proved sires. The experimental projects in breeding at the Beltsville Station require the use of four to five sires of proved ability. The increase recommended will provide for the purchase of sires that have been proved to possess the hereditary factors for high level of production.

(b) Eleven thousand dollars for the development of a herd of dairy cattle genetically pure for a low level of milk production.-The establishment of a pure low-producing herd of dairy cattle is needed to supplement and strengthen the breeding investigations being conducted by making available needed material for crossing with pure high-producing groups. These crosses will aid in clearing up controversial questions and theories regarding a number of factors controlling milk production, lack of dominance or partial dominance of high over low, or vice versa, sex linkage, and other theories now being advanced without adequate experimental backing.

The females in the low-producing herd will provide supplementary postmortem material for determining the possibilities of physical deficiencies which may be associated with the lack of milk-producing ability. The work will also throw light on the relationship of accepted type of ability to produce.

Approximately 25 females and 1 male will be required at the beginning of this project. Future sires for use in the project will develop from the foundation stock. A total of 40 head would be the maximum number of animals used in the project at any one time.

(c) Four thousand eight hundred and one dollars for additional facilities at regional dairy experiment stations.-This increase will provide additional facilities for the breeding, feeding, and management experiments conducted at seven regional dairy experiment stations. During the past few years droughts have so seriously interfered with the raising of feed crops that the budgets of these stations have had to be used almost entirely for the purchase of feeds to maintain the experimental breeding herds, although the size of the herds has been materially reduced. In some cases the herds have had to be reduced to animals so young in age that certain phases of the investigational work had to be temporarily abandoned. The increased funds will provide for the purchase of proved sires for rebuilding the breeding herds of these stations and for the repair and improvement of buildings and the replacement of equipment which have deteriorated to a marked degree during the past few years.

2. An increase of $6,600 for research in the utilization of milk in the manufacture of milk products, consisting of:

(a) Two thousand six hundred dollars for development of commercial sources for utilization of skim milk, buttermilk, and whey.-In the manufacture of butter, cheese, and other major dairy products there is produced annually about 25 billion pounds of skim milk, 3 billion pounds of buttermilk, and 41⁄2 billion pounds of whey, containing 22 billion pounds of digestible nutrients. This is about two-thirds of the total nutrients in the milk from which it originated. Converted into pork or poultry, only about 10 percent of the digestible nutrients is recovered as human food. The farm value of this material for

feeding purposes may be estimated at $100,000,000, while, if it could be converted into material directly available for human food, its value would be about doubled.

There are two lines of approach to this problem. The several ingredients of milk may be separated and converted into material having uses in various industries. These include casein for paper coating, adhesives, paints, imitation wool, and probably many other fields not yet explored. Milk sugar has possible applications in explosives, candies, and foodstuffs. A second possibility is through combination with cereals, fruits, and other farm products to develop new foods or to improve the palatability, nutritive value, and keeping quality of those already established. The existing personnel is inadequate to handle this problem.

(b) Four thousand dollars for further development of the commercial introduction of processes for manufacturing milk products.-This work is handicapped by a lack of efficient machinery for establishing commercially new methods or products on a scale that would have any appreciable effect on the industry. The Bureau of Dairy Industry as a national organization should assume responsibility for building a branch of the industry when such a course is in the public interest. Failure of the Bureau's program to meet conditions is illustrated by the Roquefort-cheese situation. It has been known for many years how to make a cheese from cow's milk which compares favorably with the French sheep's milk cheese. This has been demonstrated on a small commercial scale but has had no effect on the industry as a whole. In the meantime, a Danish Roquefort (made from cow's milk) has been developed, introduced into this country, and is already being sold in rapidly increasing quantities. Every month that passes makes it more difficult to establish an American cheese of similar type.

The Bureau now has ready for commercial introduction a Roquefort-type cheese, a Bel Paese cheese, and a canned Cheddar cheese. The shipment of milk in concentrated frozen form is also another development which presents great possibilities for commercial exploitation. The Bureau should be prepared to give information about equipment required and its cost, construction, and control of curing rooms, cost of manufacture, markets, and other questions which always arise when a new project is proposed. It should be collecting information and establishing contacts wherever local conditions are found to be favorable to the establishment of new manufacturing enterprises. Conditions in Pennsylvania at the present time may be cited as an illustration of how this program would work in practice. There are in that State numerous natural caves and mines, many of which could probably be converted into curing rooms suitable for Roquefort or Bel Paese cheese. Naturally cooled curing rooms are not essential but will be a factor in reducing the cost of manufacture to a point at which the Danish competition can be met.

One Roquefort factory using a coal mine and a Bel Paese factory with artificially controlled curing rooms are already established with good prospects of success. Pending the demonstration that these factories are financially successful, other locations should be found where there is a combination of natural curing rooms, milk at cheese prices, and some agency interested in establishing a factory.

This work should be conducted in cooperation with the State colleges, and as the work progresses someone should be. given sufficient training and experience to permit the eventual withdrawal of the Bureau. As soon as one factory is established and able to go alone, the Bureau men should be moved to a new factory and eventually entirely withdrawn, leaving the supervision of the established factories and the extension of the field to State agencies with only occasional assistance from the Bureau. The Bureau men would then be available for similar work in other sections or on other projects.

At the present time there is a serious shortage of milk in subtropical regions. Milk retails at from 18 to 20 cents per quart and the supply at this price is insufficient. We are informed by the Department of Commerce that there is a market for 8.000 to 10,000 pounds of milk daily in the Canal Zone. It has been demonstrated that milk may be concentrated, frozen, and delivered in consumer packages in excellent condition in the Canal Zone 4 or 5 weeks after it is produced. This can be done at a price probably not exceding 14 cents per quart. Similar conditions, no doubt, exist in Puerto Rico, Hawaii. and the Philippines. Through this new process it should be possible to establish a market for many million pounds of American milk.

Personnel is available for this work but it cannot be carried out on an adequate scale without additional funds for travel expenses. In many of the projects some portable equipment must be provided for proper control of the manufacturing processes.

BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY

No. 6. Forest pathology

Page 37, line 10: Strike out "$127,357" and insert "$134,857"; increase of $7,500 in the proviso.

The purpose of this amendment is to increase the designation of the amount which is to be allotted in 1938 for work on native diseases of forest trees under the McNary-McSweeney Forestry Research Act of May 22, 1928. The House committee increased this item by $7,500 for work in forest pathology at the Appalachian Forest Experiment Station, Asheville, N. C., but failed to change the amount in the proviso.

No. 7. Nematology

Page 38, line 18: Strike out "$43,961" and insert "$48,961"; increase, $5,000. The purpose of this amendment is to restore the increase of $5,000 submitted in the Budget estimates under this item, but disallowed by the House, for investigations on the bulb or stem nematode, particularly in relation to its control in highly cured narcissus and similar bulbs imported under restrictions requiring treatment.

Highly cured (dry) bulbs, if infested, harbor this nematode in the so-called dormant stage, in which condition is withstands extreme drought, high temperature, and other conditions, making control extremely difficult. Furthermore, the problem of specific host strains of this parasite and their ability or inability to transfer to other hosts such as clover, alfalfa, oats, Irish potatoes, sweetpotatoes, strawberries, etc., is an unsettled matter of great economic importance and should be intensively studied. The hearings before the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, United States Senate, on March 17, 1936, on Senate bill 2983 (74th Cong.), to amend the Plant Quarantine Act of August 20, 1912, and a public conference to consider the desirability of requiring the treatment of all known hosts of the bulb nematode enterable under Quarantine No. 37 held on December 15, 1936, clearly proved the necessity for and the fundamental character of this work for the proper shaping of quarantine and control measures. Factors inducing the nematode to dormancy and possibilities of its revival should be studied, the knowledge of which would be fundamental in the improvement of control methods. Since it is claimed that there exist fixed host strains of this species which do not attack other hosts outside of their rangenarcissus strain, hyacinth strain, alfalfa strain, clover strain, strawberry strain, etc. the exact nature of these strains is to be tested by transfer experiments, from which conclusions may then be drawn as to their significance and possible danger to various crops and as to the value of these crops in rotations for control and their significance in restricting quarantine measures not with respect to the nematode species as a whole but to each strain on certain hosts.

The results also will be of the greatest significance in protecting the domestic bulb industry and such crops as alfalfa, clover, oats, Irish potatoes, sweetpotatoes, etc.

No. 8. Rubber and other tropical plants

Page 39, line 7: Strike out "$40,000" and insert "$46,749"; increase $6,749. The purpose of this amendment is to restore the reduction of $6.749 made by the House below the 1937 appropriation and below the Budget estimates for the investigation of rubber and other tropical plants.

This reduction, if allowed to stand, will result in the curtailment of investi gations relative to the development of disease-resistant strains of the Hevea rubber tree as a commercial source of rubber for the United States and will restrict research with other plants having potential value as commercial sources of rubber or of essential value as crop plants in periods of economic emergency. The development of rubber-producing plants which can be grown on a commercial scale is important in securing a more independent position for the United States in the production and consumption of rubber.

During the past year the price of rubber has almost doubled and the interest in producing rubber in Central America and the tropical regions of the United

States has increased. Intensive experiments to find or develop strains of the Hevea rubber tree resistant to the South American leaf disease have been initiated in Panama, Costa Rica, and at the United States plant introduction garden at Coconut Grove, Fla. We already have a large planting of Hevea trees at Coconut Grove and have made a number of plantings in other favorable locations in Florida where they appear to be thriving. Many of these trees have now reached the fruiting stage and plantings are being extended, using seed from Florida-grown trees which have the advantage of being better adapted to the local conditions than seeds imported from elsewhere in the tropics. The reduction made by the House in this item would result in a restriction of these investigations at a time when the United States is paying a double price for its rubber and may look forward to further increases.

No. 9. Seed Investigations

Page 39, line 20: Strike out "$67,293" and insert "$72,293"; increase, $5,000. The purpose of this amendment is to restore the increase of $5,000 submitted in the Budget estimates under this item, but disallowed by the House, for the enforcement of the Federal Seed Act.

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The elimination of this $5,000 increase will prevent the Department from satisfactorily meeting its obligations in enforcing both the import and interstate provisions of the Federal Seed Act. During the fiscal year 1937 over 16,000,000 pounds of imported alfalfa and red-clover seed were colored under the requirements of the Federal Seed Act. This was a tremendous increase over recent years caused by drought conditions and increased planting requirements, and it is expected that the imports for the fiscal year 1938 will be comparable. cause of the difference in value to the farmer and in price asked for imported and domestic seed, it is exceedingly important that representatives of the Department of Agriculture directly supervise the staining of such imported alfalfa and red-clover seed in order to adequately protect the consumer. The funds asked for in this increase are urgently needed to provide for the travel expenses in connection with the supervision of such staining. Because of the large increase in demand for some kinds of agricultural seeds, State enforcement agencies are requiring additional assistance to protect them from interstate movement of misbranded seeds as provided in the interstate provision of the Federal Seed Act. This necessitates additional funds to aid in the adequate protection of consumers from illegal interstate movement of misbranded seeds. Both of these functions are obligations of the Department imposed by the Federal Seed Act, and it is essential that available funds be supplied to adequately meet these obligations.

FOREST SERVICE

No. 10. National Forest Administration

Page 45, line 25: Strike out "$11,415,950" and insert "$11,515,950"; increase, $100,000.

The purpose of this amendment is to restore an increase of $100,000 submitted in the Budget estimates under this item, but disallowed by the House, consisting of (1) $10,000 for timber use; (2) $30,000 for forest-fire prevention and preparedness; (3) $10,000 for recreation and land use; and (4) $50,000 for the maintenance of improvements other than roads and trails, as follows: 1. An increase of $10,000 for handling the timber-sale activity on the national forests. The demand for national-forest timber is rising sharply as building activities climb steadily back toward a normal level. Timber-sale receipts during the first 9 months of the fiscal year 1937 have increased 31 percent over the similar period of the fiscal year 1936. There is every indication that timber sales will continue to expand throughout the balance of the fiscal year 1937 and the fiscal year 1938. As new timber-sale operations are started and as old operations which have been dormant reopen, additional personnel are necessary both for sale preparation and for sale administration. Experienced, trained employees are necessary for all phases of the timber-sale activity, including surveys and cruising, appraisals, and administration of going sales. A force adequate to manage this business is essential because of its importance to dependent communities and industries, the necessity of sustained yield of timber, other requirements of law governing the administration of the national forests, and the desirability of increasing the revenue from the national forest properties.

2. An increase of $30,000 for forest-fire prevention and preparedness.-This increase is needed to strengthen the fire-control organization on the national forests. It will be used for providing a fire-guard force on newly acquired lands, for intensified fire-prevention work, and for the purchase of special fire-fighting equipment.

The bulk of the fire-fighting equipment now owned is of the small hand-tool type, very much the same as that used for many years past. There is imperative necessity to modernize and mechanize the forces of fire fighting. Much good work has been done in the field to develop, adapt, and create newer and better types of heavy equipment, but funds are insufficient to purchase such implements for adequate distribution to the forests.

3. An increase of $10,000 for recreation and land use. This increase is needed for the employment of caretakers for the more intensively used forest campgrounds. The number of visitors to national-forest areas has been increasing at an extremely rapid rate during recent years. The concentration of campers on many forest campgrounds is so great as to endanger the health of the visitors and the very existence of the scenic and economic resources of nearby national-forest areas. The Forest Service has followed the policy of concentrating recreational use of the national forests in localized areas where relatively simple provisions go far to meet the need of this very desirable use. However, during recent years the concentration of visitors on certain public campgrounds has made it necessary to employ full-time caretakers to maintain order, protect the campground improvements from vandalism, dispose of garbage and other debris, supervise the collection of fuel, and maintain fire prevention and sanitation standards. Unless an additional number of campground caretakers is provided for, it will be necessary to allow certain campgrounds to go without adequate attention during the fiscal year 1938.

4. An increase of $50,000 for the maintenance of improvements other than roads and trails. This increase is requested for the purpose of maintaining the buildings, telephone lines, fences, firebreaks, water-development projects, etc., with which the national forests are equipped. Large increases in the number of improvements on the national forests have been made in recent years, and in order to protect these investments and make them fully effective for fire control, utilization, and administration, the current maintenance necessities must be met.

No. 11. Forest-management investigations

Page 47, line 12: Strike out "$620,994" and insert "$660,903"; increase, $39,909. The purpose of this amendment is to restore the increase of $39,909 submitted in the Budget estimates under this item, but disallowed by the House, consisting of (1) $9,909 for investigations in the management of pinion-juniper and other woodland types in the Southwest; (2) $15,000 for investigations in conversion of brushfields in California into timber stands; and (3) $15,000 for planting and reforestation studies in the Central States, as follows:

1. An increase of $9,909 for investigations in the management of pinonjuniper and other woodland types of the Southwest.-Farmers and ranchers throughout the Southwest are largely dependent for fuel, fence posts, and other forest materials upon the pinon-juniper and other woodland types occupying extensive areas throughout this region. These types play a very important role in watershed protection. The pinon nut crop alone brings returns to ranchers and to the Indians approaching half a million dollars annually. These woodlands are consequently of great importance in regional rural economy. Indiscriminate cutting is steadily depleting this essential resource. Management practices must be designed to insure perpetuation of these woodlands and secure maximum growth and yield of both wood and nut crops. No funds are now being expended in this type and the Budget increase of $9,909 is needed to start essential studies.

2. An increase of $30,000 for forest regeneration investigations, to be expended as follows:

(a) $15,000 for investigations to enable the conversion of brushfields in northern California into valuable timber stands.-Worthless brushfields, the result of heavy cutting and repeated fires, occupy more than 2,000,000 acres of potential timberland in north-central California. These now worthless areas, including some of the best and most accessible forest sites in California, are capable of producing 750,000,000 board feet of timber annually. An additional 3,000,000 acres of cut-over timberland lacks seed trees and will succumb to