Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-02-18

croscone in ono hand and its test tube in
the other it would find no similar force 10
do it battle. for nowheG else under the
sun are many scientific men oahueo
together in one cause. Nowhere since the
beginning of time has so large working
organization of scientists been built up
Here would be line of men mile
long, practically all of whom might, with
authority. write before their names the
handle Doctor Here would be the
greatest collection of r. SIS and PHI DIS.
NJ SIS and Ii. DIS. ever shown under one
tent Here would be an array of spectacles
that would make a Boston institute for
lady teachers green with envy. Lex1cons
sufficient to translate into United States
the scientific terms they would use IN
describing how a frog hops could not be
found in the Congressional Library. 1t
would be a scraggly line from military
standpoint. yet one that Is hShtlnS the
greatest battles of them all.
Here would be found a body OF men
nearly every one of whom is an au-
thority upon some certain thing that mas
10 do with the well-being of the crops
that grow on Uncle Sans wide acres,
and therefore, with the well-being of the
ninety millions. One might be an au-
thority upon the boil weeNil that attacks
the cotton of the south: another would
third could tell how to establish and
breed muskrats at a profit: fourth how
to make turkeys hugely tat at TnanKs-
giving: fifth how to induce the peach
to mate with the apricot: sixth how to
distinguish between butter and oleomar-
garine, and a seventh why the winds
blow from Medicine Hat. The gamut
might thus be run throughout the list,
for here are men who know practical SCI
ence-a science that affects the everyday
life of all the people.
The Department OF Agriculture has
been going at breakneck pace for
twenty years along the line Df develop
ment Today 1t employs nearly 1900
people Yet in 1900 there were
but 5000 employees of the department,
and in 1890 but q thousand. OF these
1900 employees Of the present time, one
in five is scientist There are dozen
great scientific bureaus in the depart
ment and the chiefs of these bureaus
are the division commanders of this
scientific army. The commander-in-chief
is griZzled veteran of soil and science.
James Wilson. who bears the title or
Secretary of Agriculture.
The biggest division of this bookish
fighting force comes under the bureau or
animal industry. Most OF the scientists
i
of telling when the product of the great
packing houses is good or bad. and the
great mass of their work is in connec-
ton with the enforcement of meat In
spection regulations. In the bureau of
plant industry there are 6OO scien-
fists whose sole interest is the man
ner in which plants grow. Over In the
forest service are 300 degree men who
study the trees of the nation from every
conceivable standpoint. ranging from the
little bugs that bite them to the great
bridge timbers into which they may be
cut. The bureau of chemistry has go
men who chiefly interested in de-
termining what food is good or bad. and
in tying the can to Fido when he mas
querades as corn beef The office or ex-
pertinent stations has more than hum
dred scientists who are tickling the soil
of all the states to ascertain what man
ner of smile of productiveness may re-
suit There are 300 scientists whose bust
ness il is to add fuel to that ever-pres-
ent topic of small talk, the weather.
There are scientists studying roads, soils,