Very considerable importance is recorded in the manner of seed distribution. A special feature has been the encouragement of school-garden work thereby.

The work of the forest service has been greatly developed. Of the eleven persons employed July 1, 1898, only two were professional foresters. To-day the forest service employs 153 professional foresters out of a total force of over 800 persons. An important achievement of this service during the past few years has been to enlist the sympathy and cooperation of lumbermen and forest owners, and the secretary urges that the work of education continue until public opinion will not tolerate heedless waste or injudicious loss. In the saving of waste the service has added vastly more to the national wealth than its total expenditures during its entire history. The control of the forest reserves, embracing property worth in cash at least $250,000,000, has been transferred to the forest service. This property is administered at a cost of less than one-third of 1 per cent. of its value, which increases at the rate of 10 per cent. per annum. The service continues to afford important aid to private forest owners.

The Bureau of Chemistry has conducted important investigations relating to our cereal products and prepared meats. The latter included a systematic examination of canned goods. Its practical experiments have developed the fact that, without exception, the addition of the ordinary preservatives to foods is prejudicial to health. The secretary argues the need of protecting the public from these evil effects by legislation. The Bureau of Chemistry inspects all food products intended for export where the exporters desire such inspection, which enables them to send foods to foreign countries with a certificate of inspection

foods inspected 712 out of 3,576 invoices were of a character forbidden by law. Elaborate studies have been made of insecticides, in cooperation with the Bureau of Entomology, and also of materials furnished under contract to the United States government. In this work the Bureau of Chemistry has cooperated considerably with other departments of the government.

In spite of the activity of the survey force of the Bureau of Soils, there are on file at the present time requests for mapping 215 counties in 40 states and territories. The bureau has made a special study in regard to the alkali soils and into the problem of soil fertility. In this work the problems encountered in the field depend for their final solution on the work in the laboratory. The purpose of the soil survey is to indicate the most economical method of securing the best results in handling the various soils and in the production of food products from them. The surveys already made aggregate 63,000,000 acres in 44 states and territories. The soils adapted to special crops such as the grape, the apple, citrus fruits, the sugar-beet, alfalfa, rice, corn, cotton, etc., have all been made subjects of special study based on the field surveys. The demands for reports of the surveys are numerous and varied, all classes seeming to be interested in them. The investigations of this bureau into the question of soil fertility and manurial requirements have attracted general attention and much comment. As the bureau's methods of investigation are becoming more thoroughly understood they are being gradually adopted for scientific work by investigators outside of the department. Much practical work has been done in the reclamation of alkali lands. Important work in regard to tobacco has been continued in Texas, Ohio, Virginia and Connecticut. necticut. The secretary recommends in

vestigations of the same kind in the tobacco districts of several other states.

In discussing the work of the Bureau of Entomology considerable space is devoted to the Mexican cotton boll weevil, in the work against which this bureau has had the active cooperation of the Bureau of Plant Industry. It is also cooperating with the Louisiana Crop Pest Commission and the Texas Experiment Station. The subject of dissemination of the weevil through cotton gins has been very carefully investigated, and important results have been obtained, resulting in recommendations to the ginners calculated to greatly reduce this danger.

Of recent years important work has been done by the Bureau of Entomology in the introduction of the fig fertilizing insect of South Europe, the introduction of a parasite of the black scale so injurious to citrus and olive crops in California from South Africa, and the introduction with success in the southern states of a parasite of the San Jose scale from China. Useful insects are also sent abroad at the request of foreign departments of agriculture.

Fruit growers in California and other states testify that their operations have been rendered much more profitable through the information derived from the investigations of insects injurious to fruit. The insects damaging forests, injuring stored fruits, carrying diseases, affecting live stock, and injuring field crops have all been the subject of study by the entomologists of the department.

In 1902 the Bureau of Entomology undertook once more a systematic effort to introduce the culture of the domestic silkworm into the United States. Guaranteed eggs were purchased in Italy, skilled reelers were brought over from France, and mulberry trees were distributed to persons desiring to experiment.

erable information is given as to the saving from insect losses resulting from the work of the Bureau of Entomology. The actual loss to agriculture through injurious insects is almost beyond computation.

The work of the Bureau of Biological Survey includes the determination of the boundaries of the natural life zones of the United States and the corresponding crop zones. The chief purpose is to ascertain the boundaries of natural life zones with a view to aiding the farmer in selecting crops best adapted to his locality and in avoiding crops unsuited to it.

One section of the Biological Survey is engaged in the study of birds and their various relations to man, especially to determine whether birds damage crops, whether they protect insects either injurious or beneficial, and to what extent they feed upon weed seeds. Thousands of birds' stomachs are examined in gathering facts on this subject.

Other duties of the Biological Survey are the supervision of game protection and introduction assigned to the Department by Congress. Through cooperation with the Department of Justice and with game officials throughout the United States 166 violations of the Lacey Act were investigated and 49 convictions have resulted. Railroad and express companies have lent cordial cooperation in securing a more rigid observance of the game laws.

In discussing the work of the Division of Publications the secretary points out that the terms of the law requiring the department to diffuse information of value to agriculture are mandatory, and the most economical and available means of diffusion is through publication. He maintains that this work has been conducted with due regard to economy, and that every precaution has been taken to lessen the waste inevitably attendant upon any system of

twelve million copies of all publications distributed by the department during the past year nearly 45 per cent. were distributed through senators and representatives in congress, over which distribution, of course, the secretary has no control. He notes with approval a growing demand for the department publications from institutions of learning and other agencies interested in agricultural education.

Referring to the work of the Bureau of Statistics, the secretary says that the development of organizations to fix prices, and in some cases to force temporary changes giving unnatural advantages to price manipulators, has led to the need for a strong and impartial agency to make comprehensive reports of actual facts relating to prospective crops and yields, that all concerned may know how to buy and sell. He describes the various processes of crop reporting, the conditions under which, and the methods by which the reports are made.

The secretary states that as the result of a gross breach of trust on the part of one of the officials, an entirely new method of handling these reports is being devised, which he believes makes it practically impossible for such another breach of confidence to occur. He reports the prompt dismissal of the culpable official and the transfer of the whole matter to the Department of Justice, with a view to the prosecution of the guilty party. He expresses regret that while the department handled the case of its own official with vigor and promptness, no corresponding action has so far reached the traders' end of the line.

Where gamblers interested neither in production nor in consumption disturb values to the injury of both and make loud outery when creatures of their kind bribe officials to betray confidence for the love of money, the responsibility for this leak is shared by every one who to get money without work gambles in farm products. When this form of industry ceases, he adds, these

parasites who tempt department officials will have to work for their bread.

He reports the assignment of Assistant Secretary Hays to take charge of the work of the Bureau of Statistics for the present. Of the Division of Foreign Markets, the secretary says one of its useful lines of investigation in behalf of exporters has been an examination of conditions found in countries which have a surplus in certain agricultural products which meet those of this country in common markets. Another useful undertaking has been to ascertain in detail the quantities and values of the agricultural imports of countries receiving a large share of such imports from the United States. In regard to the possibility of a foreign cotton competition, the inquiries of the department do not reveal that it has any reasonable immediate prospects, and he believes that if such competition is to arise, it will be as the result of years of effort and development. Most of the countries wherein a new production is admitted, moreover, produce a non-competing variety like the Egyptian.

Of the library the secretary reports the present quarters to be inadequate for housing its collection of 87,000 bocks and pamphlets. In addition to space for this valuable possession of the department, the protection from fire is an urgent need. Such protection he anticipates will soon be provided by the new building. The library is found available for information to be given in response to inquiries from all parts of the country, and much valuable material is added to its files through the foreign exchange system.

The work of the Office of Public Roads is primarily educational in character. Its province is to detail experts to give information and advice. In many communities it is found advisable to supplement advice by practical demonstration of effective road building. The total number of ex

perimental and object-lesson roads built under the direction of this office since its organization is 96, with a total length of about 39 miles. These roads were built in 38 states. The secretary proposes to utilize the services of the greatly increasing corps of highway engineers and experts of the office wherever practicable in the construction and maintenance of roads in the forest reserves. In order to secure engineers with the necessary technical training and to supplement such training by special work for highway engineering, graduates of reputable engineering colleges are appointed as civil engineer students in the Office of Public Roads. The work of such students is of great assistance to the office, besides being of practical value to the public. The secretary believes that highway engineering should receive greater attention at the present time in the colleges. A Division of Tests has been organized in the office, primarily to test road materials, but the equipment necessary for this purpose has been also available for testing other materials of construction, such as steel wire for fences, concrete posts, etc.

The work of the Office of Experiment Stations has greatly increased during the past eight years. Through this office the secretary exercises a certain supervision of the federal funds granted to the experiment stations. He says that the stations have been not only a benefit in making the department's work more effective, but that they have by their own investigations raised American agriculture to a higher plane. He expresses the hope that congress will recognize the need of providing the stations with means to meet the demands made upon them, and states that there is no direction in which public moneys can be appropriated that will bring more certain and lasting returns than in helping the state experiment stations.

tained by stations, the department undertook the publication of a series of popular resumes of practical features of the station work. Over thirty numbers have been issued as a part of the Farmers' Bulletin series. The secretary reports great activity in the development of agricultural education, and through the Office of Experiment Stations the department has taken a leading part in this work. The permanent success of agriculture, he argues, depends upon the technical intelligence and knowledge of the farmers. In this line of work the farmers' institutes, established under the authority of the various states and territories, furnish the most useful agencies. Practical benefit to the people interested is reported as the result of the establishment of experiment stations under the direct control of the department in Alaska, Hawaii and Porto Rico.

Nutrition investigations are conducted by this office and during the past eight years some 200 dietary studies have been made, and not far from 800 experiments in which the digestibility of different foods was determined with healthy men under normal conditions. normal conditions. It has been found as the result of some of these studies that white bread furnished the body with more protein and energy, pound for pound, than whole wheat or graham flour for the same amount of grain, any deficiency in the composition of the white flour being more than offset by its more thorough digestibility.

character and amount of water rights. Experiments are being made to determine how far drainage can be made to protect hillsides from destructive effects of erosion. In the whole country there are 100 million acres of swamp and poor lands, which can be reclaimed only through drainage.

Of the new buildings the secretary says that the structures now being built will cost about one and one half million dollars, and should be completed in two years, by which time it is hoped that further appropriations will be available to continue the building work inaugurated.

Speaking of the growth of the department, the secretary reports the number of persons on the rolls July 1, 1905, to be 5,446. Of these, 2,326 are rated as scientists and scientific assistants. This shows an increase since July 1, 1897, of 3,003 persons on the rolls of the department, of which the increase in the number of the scientific staff in the same period was 1,401.

In conclusion, the secretary says it has been a grateful task to present to the president and thus to the American people a pen picture of the American farmer as he is to-day, to make clear the position of the farming industry, its wonderful productiveness, and its large contribution to the general prosperity of the country. He has also pointed out some of the more important work illustrative of the methods by which the department seeks to benefit the farmer. Its work is two-fold. It seeks to add to the sum of intelligence in the man and to increase the productive capacity of the acre. In this work the department has the hearty cooperation of the agricultural colleges and experiment stations, all working with the department to the same great end. The gratifying evidences of well-being in the farming community, the extraordinary progress made, and the enlarged recognition of the true position of the farming industry in the economic life of

the country are mainly the result of this continued and combined effort on the part of these agencies to add to the sum of the farmer's knowledge, and must be regarded as the triumph of intelligence in the application of scientific knowledge to the tillage of the soil. This he maintains is so true that it would be superfluous to urge the generous maintenance of the department in its grand work.

Great as has been the work undertaken and accomplished, gratifying as have been the results as shown in the first few pages of this report, be it remembered that we are still at the threshold of agricultural development and that the educational work which has led to such grand results has only been extended as yet to a portion of our agricultural population.

SCIENTIFIC BOOKS.

NEWCOMB'S REMINISCENCES.'

WHEN a man lays down the arduous pen of the mathematician, which he has used throughout a long life to the admiration of the world, and takes up in leisurely fashion that of the autobiographer, he is tolerably sure of our respectful attention. But Professor Newcomb has won from us far more than this: he has earned our lasting gratitude by the production of a book which is delightful to read and which makes several contributions to the history of astronomy. Of the eminently readable character of the book it is easy to assure oneself by opening it at random, for on almost every page there is an anecdote or the equivalent, rendered accessible to the lay reader, where necessary, by admirable exposition of astronomical terms and touched infallibly with a genial humor. The variety of topic is specially noteworthy; the author is as much at home in explaining why the United States results from the Transits of Venus were not reduced (because after spending $375,000 on the observations it was found to be impossible to secure $5,000 for the computations see p. 178) as he is in vividly sketching Mr. Gladstone thus:

The Reminiscences of an Astronomer,' by Simon Newcomb. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1903.