(3) Control of injurious insects.
(4) Forestry, embracing the culture of forest trees for wind-breaks, for timber, for nuts and incidental products.
III. In the study of animals some of the problems are:—
(1) Breeds and their comparative values for different purposes.
(2) Foods and feeding, for growth, for meat, for milk and wool.
(3) The diseases of animals, especially those of contagious, epizootic, or parasitic nature.
The stations have done most valuable work along these different lines, and have contributed in a large measure to the introduction of improved varieties of cereals, forage crops, and fruits. In the case of wheat especially, there can be no doubt that the work of the stations has been a factor of great importance in producing large yields, by stimulating the farmers to a more careful comparison of varieties and of methods of culture.
A plan of purchasing and testing most of the so-called new varieties of fruits and grains has been followed by some of the stations, thus enabling the farmers and fruit growers to judge whether such varieties are likely to be superior to sorts already cultivated. It has been part of the work of the stations to expose fraudulent sales of fruit, stock, and fertilizers. Much other work has been and is being done, but the instances given show the value of the investigations made. As has already been stated under another heading, the officers of the experiment stations take an active part in the work of the institutes, and by the frequent issuing of bulletins and their annual reports convey valuable information to the farmer in every department of his work. In many States they have established reading courses for the study of Nature, which are conducted similarly to those in the Chautauqua courses.
In the same connection the work of the Bureau of Animal Industry should be noticed. Possibly no other organization of the government is doing so much to save farmers from loss through disease of stock and educating them to the same extent as this. The organization is made up of men of the highest scientific training, whose lives are devoted to the study of diseases of domestic animals and whose work extends to the testing of remedies, the inspection of meats, the study of foreign markets, and everything that pertains to the interest of the stock growers. No disease can break out in the herds of live stock in any part of the country without this bureau being at once notified of it, and trained officials are sent to study all the circumstances connected with it and to prevent, if possible, such disease from becoming epidemic. Some years ago, when contagious pleuro-pneumonia had secured a foothold in this country, the Bureau of Animal Industry set to work to stamp it out. The Old World was paralyzed by the enormity of the undertaking. Veterinarians in England and Continental Europe laughed at us and considered us fit subjects for lunatic asylums. “Hadn’t they always had it? It cost them millions of dollars annually in cattle, yet they had been unable to stamp it out, and most assuredly we could not do what European veterinarians could not.” They forgot that we were Yankees. It cost us many good hard dollars that were represented by large figures; but we stamped it out, and it has now been years since “Uncle Sam” officially declared the country free from it.
Another work which this bureau undertook was the regulation of vessels in which cattle were exported, and they reduced the losses so as to save from two to three million dollars annually in the insurance of export cattle. The greatest possible care is taken to disinfect vessels in which cattle have been shipped, and strict regulations are established regulating the size of stalls, ventilation, the number of cattle to be carried on any single vessel, and every point which has a bearing on the health and comfort of the animals.