reported by the English officials as pleuro-pneumonia were shown by the American inspectors to be only broncho-pneumonia, a noncontagious form of lung disease. In every case, moreover, by a system of tagging the cattle for identification, it was shown that the cattle so condemned had never been exposed to pleuro-pneumonia. The condemnations soon ceased.

Improvement in transportation of cattle by sea. In 1891 Mr. Plimsoll, whose work for the English sailor had established his reputation as a philanthropist, came to this country to lecture against the inhumanities attending the transportation of American cattle to England. That such inhumanities existed was notorious, and Mr. Plimsoll's crusade was greatly encouraged from selfish and interested motives by British stockmen who believed that the effect of the agitation would be unfavorable for the marketing of American cattle. A bill was quickly drawn at the Department after a consultation between members of Congress interested and the Department authorities. This was pushed through at the close of the session and approved on March 3, 1891. It placed the supervision of the cattle quarters of all vessels engaged in the trade under the control of the Secretary of Agriculture. So effectual did this legislation seem to be that Mr. Plimsoll was satisfied and gave up his self-imposed mission. The results have been found so satisfactory that insurance rates on cattle have been reduced from $8 to $1 per head. Basing the calculation upon average annual shipments, this represents a saving of millions of dollars yearly.

Texas fever. Texas fever among cattle was got under control. The disease had occasioned heavy losses and had baffled all efforts at prevention except by strict quarantine against Texas cattle at certain seasons and under certain conditions. Its appearance was attended with considerable mystery. Stockmen and veterinarians alike had been watching it closely for more than twenty years, and all were puzzled by some of the facts observed. The solution of the most important question in the connection is told in the report of the Bureau of Animal Industry for 1890, as follows:

It has long been suspected by cattle owners that the appearance of the disease in Northern cattle was in some way connected with the ticks distributed by Southern cattle. This hypothesis has, however, been generally discredited by scientific men, and indeed the evidence in favor of it was very slight and intangible. It seemed, however, worthy of investigation, and the result has been to obtain indisputable evidence that the disease is produced by ticks from Southern cattle.

Ticks taken from Southern animals and placed upon pastures which could have been infected in no other way so infected these grounds that susceptible cattle placed upon them contracted the disease in the same length of time and were as seriously affected as were other susceptible cattle placed upon pastures in company with Southern cattle. Again, young ticks that were hatched from the eggs of large ticks picked from Southern cattle were placed upon susceptible animals and produced the disease.

Establishment of the Weather Bureau.-The Weather Bureau was established as a part of the Department service in 1891 by transfer of the work, with men, buildings, and apparatus, from the War Department. Prof. Mark W. Harrington was appointed chief, and organized the new branch in its present quarters at Twenty-fourth and M streets NW., Washington, D. C. The necessary substations of the War Department Signal Service throughout the country were turned over to him. Six hundred new stations were added within a short time, bringing the total up to 1,200, and in three months the cooperative observers had increased to 2,200. Plans were made and put in execution as rapidly as possible for increasing the usefulness of the Bureau to commerce and agriculture by extending the system of frost, flood, and storm warnings and otherwise reaching all classes of the people. Local forecast officials were appointed in more than twenty cities, and they were directed to give out forecasts and warnings for their localities based on their information as related to local conditions. The cost of the service for the first year was $861,840.83. Experiments and improvements. In the Fifty-first Congress $70,000 was appropriated for irrigation experiments in the region from Dakota to Texas along the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains. Hundreds of artesian wells were sunk, and the problem of the use of the underflow was considered, though not investigated, and a report on the whole subject was made in 1892.

Experiments in sugar production were continued by the distribution of 15,000 packages of sugar-beet seed to 8,000 farmers and by the examination of varieties of sorghum with a view to securing that which would yield the largest amount of sugar. The experiments with beets were not successful chiefly because of a lack of care by farmers in cultivation and in taking samples for analysis.

The importation of parasite enemies of scale insects was begun, and the citrus-fruit groves of California were saved from threatened destruction by the scale pests through the successful introduction of a ladybird (Vedalia cardinalis). An effort was also made to introduce parasites for the destruction of the Hessian fly.

Experiments in rain making by use of explosives in the arid regions were made under a special appropriation by Congress, but were unsuccessful.

The investigation of silk reeling was continued for a time, but in 1891 the experiments were discontinued. The industry was found hopeless except with constant aid. The destruction of live-forever as a troublesome weed in some of the Eastern States was accomplished by means of a parasitic fungus. Valuable botanical investigations were made, and 12,000 specimens were added to the herbarium.

SECRETARY MORTON'S ADMINISTRATION.

Hon. J. Sterling Morton became Secretary of Agriculture on March 7, 1893. He was born April 22, 1832, in Jefferson County, N. Y., of Scotch-English origin. His ancestors came to this country in the first vessel after the Mayflower, one of them, Nathaniel, being secretary of the colony. His parents removed to Michigan when he was 2 years old, and he was educated in the public schools of Albion, the State University at Ann Arbor, and Union College, from which latter institution he was graduated. He was connected editorially with the Detroit Free Press and Chicago Times; located in Nebraska November 10, 1854, at Bellevue, and April 12 of the following year issued the first number of the Nebraska City News; was elected to the Territorial legislature and reelected in 1857; was appointed secretary to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Governor Thomas B. Cuming in 1858, and served till May, 1861; in 1860 was nominated for Congress and was given the certificate of election, but was unseated by contest; in 1866 was nominated for governor and was defeated by 145 votes, and was afterwards the nominee of his party for that office three times; was the favorite candidate of his party several times for United States Senator; was a practical agriculturist and horticulturist, and contributed largely to the best literature on those subjects. He was the author of the Nebraska Arbor Day legislation, which provides that one day in each year be made a public holiday and be devoted to tree planting, and which has been adopted in forty-two States. He was appointed Secretary of Agriculture by President Cleveland and confirmed by the Senate on March 6, 1893. He died on April 27, 1902.

President Dabney, of the University of Tennessee, was appointed Assistant Secretary of Agriculture on January 1, 1894, and held the place until March 22, 1897, when he became a special agent. He remained in the Department till December 31, 1897.

Charles W. Dabney was born at Hampden-Sidney, Va., on June 19, 1855. He received his early education in his native town and graduated from Hampden-Sidney College in 1873 and from the University of Virginia in 1877. He then went to Germany and studied at the University of Berlin and the University of Goettingen in 1878-80 and received the degree of doctor of philosophy. He also received the honorary degree of doctor of laws successively from Yale and Johns Hopkins in 1901 and 1902. Soon after his return from his studies in Europe he was made professor of chemistry in the University of North Carolina and State chemist. Later he became director of the North Carolina experiment station, and when the Cotton States Exposition was held at New Orleans in 1884-5 he was chief of the department of Government and State exhibits.

Doctor Dabney discovered the phosphate deposits in eastern North Carolina and tin deposits in western North Carolina, and took part in the establishment of the North Carolina College of Agricultural and Mechanical Arts. He was made director of the Tennessee Agricultural Experiment Station and president of the University of Tennessee in 1887, and held that place till called to his present position as president of the University of Cincinnati in 1904.

Development and reorganization of work. The Secretary called attention in his first report to the need of a closer supervision of the State experiment stations and better control of the Federal money appropriated for them. In response a law was passed directing an inspection of the stations and their accounts of the use of Government money. This was welcomed by most of the station authorities and

1893-1897.

was accomplished with good results. The law gave the Secretary power to prescribe the form of annual statements and directed him to ascertain whether expenditures conformed to the requirements of the law of 1887.

Secretary Morton reorganized the Division of Illustrations as a section of the Division of Records and Editing. Subsequently the latter became the Division of Publications, and the document and folding room was also reorganized and made a section of this division. During this administration, also,

the first special appropriation was made for the printing and distribution of Farmers' Bulletins, with a provision that two-thirds of the total number of these bulletins printed are to be distributed by Members of Congress. The number of publications issued, which had increased 300 per cent during Secretary Rusk's administration, again increased over 200 per cent under Mr. Morton, while the increase in the aggregate number of copies printed was still greater. Considerable attention was given to enlarging the Department library, and the suggestion was made by Secretary Morton that the Librarian of Congress should transfer to the Department library one of the duplicate volumes furnished him under the copyright law whenever on agricultural subjects.

The Division of Statistics was organized into three sections as follows: Compilation and foreign statistics; answers to Congressional

inquiries and verification of agricultural statistics; records, files, and comparison of crop reports.

The Division of Agrostology was formed, and consular agents throughout the world were requested to send to the Department seeds of new forage plants whenever found. The Handbook of Grasses of the United States was its first important publication.

The Division of Soils was formed as part of the Weather Bureau. The special need for it was in the demand for information in regard to the relation of soils to meteorological conditions. The Office of Road Inquiry was also established at this time in answer to a general demand for the study of public roads and their improvement. The development of the use of the bicycle contributed notably to this demand. The Division of Microscopy was abolished and its work distributed to the other divisions. A Dairy Division in the Bureau of Animal Industry was established on July 1, 1895, with H. E. Alvord as chief.

The special agents in Europe employed under the special appropriation for extending the demand in foreign markets for agricultural products of the United States were withdrawn, and a new departure made by the organization of a separate section under the Secretary's personal direction for the collection and diffusion of information in regard to the requirements and productions of foreign countries.

The irrigation inquiries were brought to a close and the office discontinued.

Columbian Exposition-Discoveries and advances.-The Columbian Exposition came just at the beginning of this administration. The preparation of the Department exhibit had been placed in the hands of Assistant Secretary Willits under Secretary Rusk, and he was subsequently appointed by President Harrison chairman of the Government Board. He was continued in charge till the Exposition closed and the work was wound up. Of the total expenditures by the National Government for representation at this Exposition the Department's share, as reported by Mr. Willits, was $131,707.71.

The Bureau of Animal Industry devoted considerable time to the study of Texas fever, sheep scab, and tuberculosis; the protection of human life from the dangers of tuberculous diseases was undertaken actively. Inspections of beef and milk were made for this purpose, and directions for the sterilization of milk were sent out for general information. It was at this time decided that inspectors in the Bureau service must pass a civil-service examination, and must be veterinary graduates.

The Weather Bureau made arrangements with the Mexican Government Observatory for exchange of data, and also established a cyclone service in the West Indies. Provision was also made for daily reports by cable from islands of the North Atlantic Ocean and points