Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-03
WORTH OF THE WORK
Annual Operations of the Agri-
cultural Department.
ESTIMATES OF THE CHIEFS
Value They Put on Their Scientific
Activities.
TOTAL FooTs UP. 1921, $4,000
Immense Savings Claimed in Behalf
of the People of the United

There has always been lot of talk about
the probab value in dollars and cents of
the work of the various bureaus of the
Agricultural Department, but no one at
tempted to put down the estimates in black
and white until Representative Littlef1eld of
Maine as chairman of the House commit
tee on expenditures in the Agricultural De-
partment, begun an investigation of the
financial affairs of the department. AS an
appendix of the committees report the es-
Inmates of the various chiefs of bureaus
in the department as to the annual money
value of the work done by their assistants
are given. Many of the estimates are, un-
fortunately, in the future tense, but others
are set down as having present value.
Under the weather bureau the annual
value of cold wave and frost warnings to
affected industries is estimated at $4,000;
storm warnings on the great lakes and
seaboard, in addition to a great saving OF
human lives, $4,000; flood warnings and
river stage predictions, $5,0o0: daily tenn
perature changes and weather forecasts,
5000; total of S30,OOO.
The chief of the bureau of soils modestly
fixes the annual money value of the work
of his bureau at $9,0O0,OO0.
Plant Industry Saving.
Inc cnle1 OF the bureau VI pidll iiluustiS
thinks 500 100000 would about cover the
good, in real money, that his bureau does
every year Of this sum he credits ST.
0O0, 900 to the Investigations of peach leaf
curl" 100000 to the prevention of wilt
of sea island cotton disease of the COW
pea, 100000; pear blight work. S1,OOO,OOO:
cold resistant oranges, as soon as they
come into general bearing S2oO,0OO; tan
gerine. orange. grape FRUIT and pineapple
will be worth S150,O00.
The chief of the bureau of animal in
dustry thinks his bureau is worth sJU,3SO,-
80 annually to the government. or this
total $2J.0UOCOO is credited to Iueat IN
spection 81 600 GO to the good that results
from dipping sheep; tick eradication, 5000
900; ''maladie du colt, whatever that may
be- OOC0; milk fever treatment, So, lO7 ,ICO:
chicken diseases, 100000.
Prof. Wiley's Estimate.
Prof Wiley. chief of the bureau of chem
istry, estimates the annual value to the
American people in cash of his poison
squad experiments at 100000. The to-
tai for his bureau is estimated at s10,25o,-
900. The investigation in sorghum syrup
is put down as having an annual value of
81, GOo,0oO. Collaborative work in the study
of the effect of environment upon the
quality of sweet corn DR.. Wiley figures
out as worth 500. 600 a year in real money.
The annual value to the people of the
United States of the work of the office of
public roads is fixed at sSI3,175,
The chief of the bureau of entomology
figures out that his bureau does 81, 150GJO
worth of cash good year. OF this sum
he credits s5,OOO.COO to the money saved
annually from the introduction of the Aus
tralian lady bird beetle" and s250G00 from
the importation of the black scale para
site.
The chief of the bureau of biology esti-
mates the value of the bureaus work at
$3.50. 0G0 year cash, and the chief of the
forest service closes the estimates with one
of Si6.JO0OCO These estimates figure out
the tidy little sum of s231 $685. OU q year
that the Department of Agriculture is
worth to the people of the United States.