AMERICAN DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4289, 23 February 1901, Page 2 (Supplement)

AMERICAN DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

SOME VAIM'ABLE INFORMATION. The agricultural Department of the I'nited States comprises a, number ol divisions, each of which is well equipped for the particular lino of work entrusted to it. A summary of tho operations of the several divisions will show how efficiently the great organisation at Washington discharges the duties for which it was created.. The Weather Bureau is experimenting successfully witu wireless telegraphy. Messages have been sent over ol) miles of rough country. The prospect of further improvement is very promising. Tho Bureau of Animal Industry deals with the farm live stock of the fJuited States. It inspects meat for inter-State and international trade; it examines pork with the microscope lor countries requiring sucli inspection; it inspects vessels that carry animals to foreign countries, looking to their adaptability ; it inspects imported animals to protect the home herds; it experimeuls with swine diseases through serum treatment; it experiments with blackleg in cattle through distribution in vaccine with prospects of eradication, and with sheep scab with like prospects. Babies exists among dogs aud other animals m the district of Columbia aud adjoining States that can be exterminated whenever public sentiment will permit this restraming of dogs from lining for a term sufficient to pay the period of incubation. The Bureau finds that- Texas lover among cattle exists in i'uertoiico. and continues experimental ion wild mos and other remedies. The w ork of the Division of Chemistry during tho year has embraced the extent and character of food adulteration, an examination of horseinoat, a study of soils, sugar-beet investigations, experimentation on foreign food products, and co-operation with other departments, with legislative brandies of the Government, and with other divisions of the Department of Agriculture. In connection with the Division of Entomology, it is .stated that the Smyrna fig is now successfully grown on the Facuic coast as a resit I c of the importation, by this division, of tho insect that fertilises the blossoms. Over six tons of this fruit were grown and packed in the past season. A life history of this insect lias been prepared far publication. An African insect inis been imported that preys upon the olive scale. A fungoid disease of grasshoppers has been imported from Natal that has destroyed swarms of locusts in Colorado and Mississippi. The Division of Botany undertakes the testing of seeds as

to purity, germination, and trueness to name, the average purity of seeds sent out last year being 1)7.3, aiul the average germination 91.4; experiments with home-grown and foreign clover seeds, and methods of seeding land with Bermuda grass; supervision of the introduction of seeds and plants from foreign countries, and distribution among State experiment stations and others making research; investigation of poisonous stock plants and preparation of reports ; inquiring into tropical plants of Puertorico ; and the introduction of Hungarian wheats. By the Division of Vegetable Physiology and Pathology the diseases of cereals and plant breeding wore studied during the past year. The. most important work - of the Division of Pomology was that connected with the fruit g’:.: play at the Paris International Exhibition. 'Grasses are the greatest agricultural sources of wealth, and the Division of Agrostology gathers, studies and distributes them. The Division of Biological Survey is studying the Belgian hare, and ascertaining what niay be expected of it. Congress has given the Department of Agriculture authority regarding the importation of animals from forcountries, and this division is in charge of the execution of the law. The work of the division of soils comprises mapping in several States; tobacco investigations, growing Sumatra tobacco under shade, with the prospect of saving annually to American citizens, producers and consumers 15.000,00 b dollars; experiments in improvement of the aroma of filler tobacco grown in Pennsylvania and Ohio; and growing Cuban type of cigar filler in Texas and Puertorlco. The Division of Forestry is competing wit U the lumbermen and tree planters.