in maintaining remunerative prices for the large proportion of the crop consumed at home.

THE MIDDLEMAN.

In considering the wants of our farmers in relation to the home market, the opportunities for extended observation in relation to prices of agricultural products which the duties of my present position afford me have confirmed me in the strongest manner in my previously formed impressions in regard to the excessive difference between the prices paid for agricultural products in the market by the consumer and those paid on the farm to the producer. This is a serious evil, enhancing the cost of living to our people, while it depreciates the value of our crops to the farmers. A large share of this difference in price is to be attributed to the handling of the product from the time it leaves the farm until it is delivered to the consumer. The condition of our farmers living in the country away from a market center and obliged often to spend an entire day in order to deliver one load of produce at the nearest market or station, and the general tendency of our people to transact business in the quickest way possible, gives to the middleman a prominence and an influence greater than he probably possesses in any other country.

To provide an adequate remedy for this evil is not an easy task, but there is one thing which can be done for the benefit of both producer and consumer, and this duty clearly devolves upon this Department. It is, to keep the public thoroughly informed on the matter of prices of all important farm products. Doing business daily at a market center, the middleman knows what prices he can obtain, and his rule in purchasing-to get the goods he deals in as much below that price as possible— is greatly subserved when he deals with a seller ignorant of the true value of his goods. My earnest efforts have been directed to placing promptly in the farmer's hands the fullest information in regard to the market values of his wares, which will at least save him from the penalty of ignorance and the unscrupulous greed of traders. To extend this work until every farmer in the country may know before he markets his goods just what their value is in the nearest market, is my earnest desire and intention.

DIVERSIFICATION OF CROPS.

In regard to our home market, our chief dependence for its development beyond present limits must be, as I have previously taken occasion to state, in such a diversification of our agricultural products as will enable the American farmer to supplant the foreign one in supplying a large proportion of the agricultural products which we now import. In reviewing the agricultural imports of the past ten months, and noting with satisfaction the effect upon some of them of our present tariff law, it was, nevertheless, strikingly apparent that many

of the agricultural products imported were of a character which could be, and should be, produced in this country.

HOME-GROWN SUGAR.

With regard to the most important of these-sugar-the efforts of this Department afford much encouragement for a home-grown sugar product. The results of the work of the experiment station established in the interest of beet sugar may be regarded as eminently satisfactory, and with regard to sorghum I am happy to be able to state that the process known as the alcohol process, perfected in the chemical laboratory of this Department last year, has, on being tested in the practical manufacture of sugar, answered all reasonable expectations. It is found to so greatly facilitate the extraction of the sugar from the cane as to practically double the yield obtainable by the methods heretofore employed, and this at an increase of cost so trifling as to be practically insignificant. There seems to be no reason why we should not, therefore, look forward with confidence to the day when the one hundred millions of dollars paid by Americans to foreign sugar producers should be turned into the pockets of our own people.

TRANSFER OF THE WEATHER BUREAU.

In all efforts toward diversification in our home-grown products, climatic conditions must be well understood and considered, and in this connection the importance and value to the agricultural interests of the control by this Department of the Weather Bureau can not be exaggerated. On the 1st of October I called upon the Chief of the Weather Bureau, appointed by you July 1, for a special report covering the first three months of his administration of the office, in order that the public might understand the trend of the plans upon which we have agreed for the purpose of enlarging and extending the work of the Bureau, especially in aid of our agricultural interests. Such a report was duly prepared and is now in print, and while the time has been too short to speak of tangible results, the report, nevertheless, shows very clearly the extension of the work in the direction indicated. It is further to be noted with gratification that the transfer of the Bureau to this Department has been generally received with great satisfaction. There has been a truly remarkable development of interest in the work of the Bureau, resulting in a great increase of stations-from 600 to 1,200as well as of voluntary observers throughout the country, these numbering 2,200, an increase in three months of 400.

At the recent meeting of the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations, Prof. Harrington bespoke their coöperation in meteorological work, and his suggestion, I am glad to say, was met with a hearty and prompt response, resolutions being adopted expressive of the sense of the association that every college and station should coöperate in the work, and that the closest relation

should be established between the Weather Bureau and such institutions. I take this opportunity to congratulate you upon the selection made for the important post of Chief of the Weather Bureau, and to express my appreciation of the earnest manner in which Prof. Harrington is laboring for the improvement of the service in perfect sympathy with the lines suggested by me in my last Annual Report.

FARMERS AND THE DEPARTMENT.

The demand which exists for more frequent and intimate intercourse between the farmers and the Department can not be met altogether by the issue of bulletins. The printed document, however valuable, may be interesting and instructive, but can never take the place of personal contact. The intercourse between the Department and the farmers should be reciprocal and not one-sided, and such an intercourse can only be cultivated by the frequent participation of representatives of the Department in the meetings of the numerous agricultural societies and farming associations, at which the farmers themselves are present to discuss the means necessary for the improvement of agriculture. I am happy to say that the need for closer relations of this character seems to be appreciated quite as much by the farmers as by myself, as the increased demands for the representation of the Department at meetings of that description amply testify; indeed, they far exceed my ability to comply with them. I trust that in the near future my facilities in this respect may be greatly enlarged. The general and growing interest shown by all classes in this country in the cause of agriculture and in the work of this Department is becoming daily more manifest. It is seen in the attention devoted to the work of this Department by the public press, including many of the leading magazines of the country, to whose pages a few years ago the subject of agriculture was practically an entire stranger. It is to my mind a most hopeful sign that the minds of Americans generally, especially of those who are devoted to other pursuits, should be inclined to give to agriculture the attention it deserves, and to acquaint themselves with its needs and condition. In connection with this subject I desire to call attention to the interesting series of meetings of various scientific associations in Washington this past summer.

IMPORTANT MEETINGS.

During the months of August and September there were convened in the city of Washington ten scientific associations, in whose work this Department has a large interest, viz: The American Microscopical Society, the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations, the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists, the Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Science, the Conference of American Chemists, the Association of Economic Entomologists, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Geological

Society of America, the International Congress of Geologists, and the American Pomological Society.

Never before in the history of the United States has there been such a convention of scientific students in any one place. Their researches cover almost every phase of scientific inquiry and are full of practical results in almost every branch of domestic economy and human industry, while, as the names of many of them indicate, a large majority of them are devoted especially to the consideration of subjects entering directly into the domain of practical agriculture, and in every one of them, I am gratified to be able to state, questions of vital interest to agriculture received ample consideration. As a natural consequence, the scientific force of the Department had occasion to participate, in some cases largely, in the deliberations of these important associations, and to enjoy the inestimable advantage of personally meeting and conversing on subjects related to their own work with the leaders of scientific thought and research in the country. Moreover, I was especially gratified over the fact that at these gatherings the representatives of the Department were treated with a consideration that fully indicates the appreciation in which the work of this Department is held by the scientific world. In this connection it is proper to acknowledge the great value to agriculture of the six lectures delivered at that time by Mr. R. Warington, F. C. S., before the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations, as the representative of the agricultural experiments of Lawes and Gilbert, at Rothamsted, England. Mr. Warington was the first representative of Rothamsted under the new trust of Sir John Bennet Lawes to Rothamsted, which provides that a representative shall visit America every three years as an exponent of Rothamsted and its work. Mr. Warington met a most cordial welcome, not only from this Department, but from all the leading agricultural scientists in attendance upon the meetings of the associa tion. The lectures were of such high merit that I have authorized their publication by this Department as a portion of the proceedings of the association.

COOPERATIVE WORK.

Before leaving this subject I desire to express my conviction of the necessity for a closer coöperation between the various educational forces which already exist in this country for the advancement of practical agriculture. The thread which connects this Department with the agricultural colleges and stations, themselves to-day recipients of the national bounty to the extent of considerably over a million and a half dollars annually, is a very slight one. It seems to me desirable that, without in any way limiting the independent action of these several State institutions, the connection should nevertheless be greatly strengthened. These institutions have themselves felt the need for coöperation, and deserve the credit for being the first to adopt some systematic method of attaining it, but this effort is limited to them

selves. In addition to these institutions we have some individual, or board of individuals, representing in a special manner the agricultural interests of the State, and we have, moreover, State and national societies devoted to the improvement of stock, to the interests of horticulture, dairying, and other specialties in the line of practical agriculture, together with the institutes established and endowed by law in several States. The efforts of this Department will be directed to an extension of some system of coöperation between these various forces by which each in its proper sphere may work to the best advantage, and each be enabled to derive practical aid and benefit from the others.

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATIONS.

Three meetings having close relations to agricultural interests have also been held in Europe during the past summer, and in accordance with the earnest desire expressed to you in my last report, that the United States should be represented at such international gatherings, I designated Dr. D. E. Salmon, Chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry, to represent this Department at two of them, namely, the International Congress of Hygiene and Demography held in London, August 10-17, and the International Congress of Agriculture, held at The Hague, September 7-12. The selection of Dr. Salmon to represent this Department at the first named was due to the fact that the congress devoted a large part of its attention to the relations of the diseases of animals to those of man, one section being assigned exclusively to the consideration of this important subject.

It gratifies me to be able to inform you that our representative was received at the congress with every mark of consideration, he having been elected an honorary vice-president of the section referred to on receipt of my advice of his appointment, and before he had even presented his credentials. He was also made a member of the foreign council of the section. His being in Europe, together with the fact that two of the important sections of the International Congress at The Hague, the third and the sixth, were devoted to subjects which, in this country, are assigned especially to the Bureau of Animal Industry, determined his appointment as a representative of this Department at The Hague congress also. The same flattering evidences of consideration were accorded to him as a representative of this Department at that congress, of which he was elected first vice-president, a distinction especially honorable in view of the fact that he was, I regret to say, the only representative from this country. I am satisfied that his presence there was in many respects most advantageous to our interests. The mere fact that he would be brought into personal contact at these gatherings with men who, in the several countries of Europe, are called upon to act as the scientific advisers of their respective governments in matters relating to agriculture, and especially in such matters as legis. lation against contagious diseases, inspection of food products, etc.,