Evening star., 1926-06-06

T ISTORIANS already are re-
ferring to the establishment
of the Department of Agri-
Il i culture in 1862 as one of the
important points from which
to measure American progress. The
department, born in the brain Of
George Washington. has developed in
half a century from a 'winsome, wee
thing" to an organization numbering
more than 81 200 people whose actfvi-
ties personally affect the welfare pf
every man, woman and child In the
Nation.
President Wilson declared in 1917
that the department is "the greatest
practical and scientific agricultural
organization in the world" Yet few
people realize the scope Of its activi-
ties or it's many splendid achieve
mentS that contribute 70 the welfare
of the country. Nearly every house
wife knows, for example. that the de-
partment teaches methods Of canning,
but she probably never suspects that
It inspects the meat that comes on
her table and guarantees the purity
of every legitimate dose Of medicine
that she gives her children.
Nearly every man knows that the
department sends out some free seeds
to people sometimes, but he probably
does not know that it has introduced
from the far corners Of the earth 10,-
900 new plants, many OF which fur
nish products that are now in daily
use on the tables OF the Nation, or
that its experiments with a cattle tick
led to the revelation OF the mosquito
as the cause OF yellow fever and ma
laria, and made possible the digging
Of the Panama Canal.
In the departments personnel are
many recognized world authorities,
each on the particular subject that he
has made his specially. This story
may illustrate the point: There is in
Washington an old newspaper CORE
spondent who comes very close TO
having a mental encyclopedia OF all
subjects pertaining to agriculture and
allied industries. A young newspaper
man said to him:
You must have spent q great deal
of time, during all the years, digging
into books in the Library of Con-
gress.'
In my 50 years here" was the re-
ply, "I have never opened q, book in
the Library of Congress. | happened
to find out. right at the beginning.
that If got interested N any subject,
there was soma Han IL the Depart
ment of Agriculture who knew more
about it than had ever been printed
on it. I hunted that man out and
talked to him-and the system has
never failed me yet.
The achievements of these authori-
ties through the years constitute a
romance of American history. They
include the control of tuberculosis in
cattle. which was responsible formerly
for the death of thousands of people
annually who contracted the disease
from milk or other animal products;
the establishment in this country Of
Durum wheat which is now a
$4,000, 900 industry; the successful
war against plant and animal In
sect pests and diseases that, un-
checked, would ultimately render agri-
culture impossible on the American
continent.
THE animal industry service of the
= department had its beginning as
a. veterinary experiment station In
1873 to combat pleuro-pneumonla,
which was prevalent among live stock
at that time. The disease was wiped
out. Foot and mouth disease has re-
peatedly invaded the United States,
but each time has been held In check.
Hog cholera used to ravage the farms
in terrific outbreaks. Many man,
with a snug fortune in pork on the
hoof when he went to bed, has arisen
in the morning to find the whole
herd sick of cholera and has seen
his money go to feed the buzzafds.
Department veterinarians. through
long experimentation. developed a
system of administering serum and
VIRUS that made il possible to con-
troll the disease.
Chambers and farcy and dourine,
deadly diseases of horses for which
there was no cure, used to De COM
mon. They are now reduced to an
occa sional case. Less than two dec-
ades ago sheep scabies was prevalent
throughout two-thirds of the United
States. 1t exists today only in small
and scattered areas. Nearly the same
is true of cattle scabies. Through
the accredited herd plan, Through
prohibiting the shipment of diseased
animals in interstate commerce, ana
by various other means, tuberculosis
in cattle Is being brought under con-
troll and the department is pushing
toward final eradication of the disease.
There used to be a great mystery
about splenetic fever, or Texas fever,
in cattle. If cattle from the Southern
ranges were driven North, while they
might not have the fever themselves,
they seemed to communicate 1t to
Northern cattle. But the transmits
sion was not by any known means.
Finally. the veterinarians of the de-
was transmitted by tick that the
cattle brought with them from the
Southern ranges. The idea was
scoffed at. Medical men referred to it
as ''the romance of pathology"
But the department experts took
the ticks and scattered them over
pastures whore no Southern cattle
had ever been Northern cattle
turned on those pastures developed
the fever. The contention was proved
and finally scientifically demonstrated.
The discovery opened up the whole
ffeld of ineect causation of disease.
Not only the veterinary world, but
the medical world, accepted it. 1t
led to the discovery of the mosquito
a. the bearer of malaria and yellow
fever. 1t has made possible the con:
troll Of one of the most deadly plaques
that the human race ever knew, and
has removed from mems minds the
terrible fear that used to be so COM
mon when nobody knew when or
where a scourge of yellow fever
might appear
FEDERAL meat inspection is an
other big activity. Every piece
Of meat and every can OF meat