The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-12-04

material still incomplete will be practically in
hand and the census can certainly be closed
| by the 4th of March 1895. After that the reys-
| ion and proof reading necessary to bring out
the volumes will still be required. The text of
the census volumes has been limited as far as
| possible to the analysis of those presented
| when Is In accordance with law; this has caus-
| ed more or less friction and in some instances
| individual disappointment, for when the com
missioner of labor took charge of the work
| he found much matter on hand which ac-
cordlng to this rule he was compelled to dis
| card.
Inc census is being prepared according to
| the theory that it is designed to collect facts
and certify them to the publc-not to elabo-
| rate arguments or to present personal views.
AGRICULTURE.
The secretary of agriculture in his report
reviews the operations of his department for
| the last fiscal year, and makes recommends
| tiOns for the further extension OF Its useful-
ness. He reports a saving i'll expenditures
| during the year of six hundred thousand
| dollars, which is covered back into the treas
ury. This sum is % per cent of the entire
appropriation. A special study has been
made of the demand for American products
| in all foreign markets, especially Great
| Britain. That country received from the
| United States during the nine months ending
September 80, 1894, 305, $40 live beef cattle.
| valued at Szo,oOu,UOU. as against 1oz,oll cat-
| tie valued at $16,63 000-during the same
period for 1898. During the first six months
| of 1894, the United Kingdom took, also,
| 112 100000 pounds of dressed beef from the
| United States valued at nearly $4,000 ,000.
The report shows that during the nine
months preceding September 30, 1894, the
United States exported to Great Britain 222.-
$4,000 pounds of pork; of apples 1,90O,0oo
bushels, valued at $2,5OO,O0O; and OF
hnrSpS q S11 value OF
$139 per head.
There was a falling off in American wheat
exports of 10, 900 bushels and the secre-
tary is inclined to believe that wheat may not
in future be the staple export cereal product
of our country but that corn will continue to
advance in Importance as an export on
account of the new uses to Wnlch IL Is coh-
stantly being appropriated.
The exports in agricultural products from
the United States for the nscal year ending
June 80. 1894, amounted to S62S, b4,O3S.
being 72.2S per cent of American EXPORTS OF
every description, and the United Kingdom
of Great Britain took more than o. per cent
of all farm products finding foreign markets.
The department of agriculture has under
taken during the year two new and import
ant lines of research; the first relates to
grasses and forage plants, with the purpose
of instructing and familarizing the people as
to the distinctive grasses of the United States
ana teuclllR Iu6lu now W
foreign forage plants which may be adapted
to this country; the second relates to agricul-
tural soils and their production. involving
the ANALYSIS of samples of soils from all sec
lions of the American union, to demonstrate
their adaptability to particular plants and
crops. Mechanical analysis of soils may be
of such inestimable utility that Is
foremost in the new lines of agricultural re-
search and the secretary therefore recon-
mends that division having it in charge be
permanently established in the department.
The amount appropriated for the weather
bureau was 1851 100. OF that sum $13S,500,
or IA per cent, has been saved and is returned
TO the treasury. AS illustrating the useful
ness of this service, it may be here stated
tnat the warnings which were very generally
given of two tropical storms occurring In
September and October of the present year
resulted in OBTAINING safely in port YES
sells valued at 1886 913, laden with car
goes of probably still greater value.
What is much more important and gratlfy-
ing. many human lives on these shlpS were
also undoubtedly saved.
The appropriation to the bureau of ami
NAL industry was $s5O,0OO and thes expendi-
lures for the year were only $49o, 429.24 thus
leaving uneXpended $500, 570.76.
The inspection of beef animals for export
and interstate trade has been continued, and
Il. GA, 056 head were inspected during the
Il
4% cents for 1898. The amount of pork
microscopically examined was 3o,437 1897
pounds, against 20,677, 410 pounds in the pre-
ceding year. The cost of this inspection has
been diminished from So cents per head in
1898 to 81 cents in 1894.
The expense of inspecting the pork sold in
1894 to Germany and France by the U. S.was
SsS;922.1O. The quantity inspected was
greater by 100000 pounds than during the
preceding year when the cost of such in
spection was $172, 367.0S. The secretary of
agriculture recommends that the law provid-
ing for the microscopic inspection OfeXport
and interstate meat be so amended as to COM
pei owners of the meat inspected to pay the
cost of such inspection ;and call attention to
the ar guments presented in his report in sup
port of this recommendation.
The live beef cattle exported and tagged
during the year numbered 363, $50. This Is
an increase of 50. 1913 head over the previous
wear. The sanitary inspection of cattle
shipped to Europe has cost an average of
10. 70 cents for each animal and the cost of in
specting southern cattle and the disenfection
of cars and stock yards averages 81 cents per
animal.
The scientific inquiries of the bureau of an
imal industry have progressed steadily dur
the wear. Much tuberculosis and mallein
have been furnished to state authorities for
use in the agricultural colleges and expert
losis and CHAMBERS.
Quite recently this department has pub
lished the results OF its investigations of bo-
vine tuberculosis and its researches will be
vigorously continued. Certain herds in the
District of Columbia will be thoroughly in
spected aud then will probably be supplied
adequate scope for the department to intell-
igenrly prosecute its scientific work and fur
nish sufficient material for purposes of illus
tration, description and definition. The
sterilization of milk suspected of containing
the bacci of tuberculosis has been during
the year very thoroughly explained in leaf
let by DR.. d. E. Salmon, the chief of the
bureau, land given general circulation through
out the country.
The office of experiment stations which is
part of the United States department of ag-
rculture, has during the past year engaged
itself almost wholly in preparing Tor publica-
ton works based upon the reports of agri-
cultural experiment stations and other inst-
buttons for agricultural inquiry in the United
States and foreign countries. The Secre-
tary, in his report for 1898, called attention
to the fact that the appropriations made for
the support of the experiment stations
throughout the Union were the only moneys
~