The total appropriation for the Bureau of Plant Industry is $674,930, an increase of $62,200 for its work in vegetable pathology and physiology, botanical investigations, studies of the pomaceous fruits and their preservation, and experiments with grasses and forage plants. These increases will enable carrying on the plant breeding work on a somewhat larger scale to secure crops resistant to alkali, disease-resistant beets, and the improvement of Indian corn. More extensive investigations and field trials will be made of the nitrogen-fixing organisms in growing leguminous plants; and among the plant diseases the Texas root-rot of cotton and the California vine disease will receive special attention. The increase for botanical investigations will be used for developing the studies of poisonous plants, particularly on the western ranges. The fund for the purchase of seeds for congressional distribution is increased by $20,000, being now $290,000, but an additional $10,000 is allowed to be expended out of this fund for the introduction of seeds and plants from foreign countries, making the fund for that purpose $30,000.
The amount for the Bureau of Forestry is increased to $350,000, which is $58,140 more than the current appropriation, and will enable an extension of its forestry and timber investigations and the preparation of working plans for owners of woodlands.
The Bureau of Soils receives $212,480, $42,800 more than the present year. The increase will be used in expanding the soil survey and the tobacco work, which is in charge of this bureau. Surveys will be made the coming year in thirty-two states, which shows the wide distribution of this work. The tobacco investigations will be confined principally to experiments with the Cuban filler tobacco in Alabama, middle South Carolina, and eastern Texas, where soils have been located similar to those on which it is successfully grown.
The scientific staff of the Weather Bureau is increased somewhat, an assistant chief being added, and the bureau is authorized to erect five new observatories and to establish cable communication between Block Island and Narragansett Pier, with terminal buildings and equipment at each place. Its total appropriation amounts to $1,248,520.
The appropriations for the experiment stations in Hawaii and Porto Rico are increased to $15,000, making them uniform with the stations in other states and territories, and $5,000 is appropriated for taking up the farmers' institute work with a view to assisting the organizations in the different states and territories and making them more effective means for the dissemination of the results obtained at the department and at the agricultural experiment stations. These increases bring the total amount for the agricultural experiment stations and the Office of Experiment Stations (including irrigation investigations and investigation in human nutrition) up to $895,000.
The Division of Statistics is raised to the grade of a bureau and given an increased appropriation of $15,500 for general maintenance, making a total of $156,660.
Other items carried by the act are $85,300 for the Bureau of Chemistry, an increase of $11,600; $77,450 for the Division of Entomology, an increase of $10,000; $51,850 for the Division of Biological Survey, an increase of $6,000; $229,320 for the Division of Publications, $105,000 of which is to be used for the preparation and printing of Farmers' Bulletins; $16,000 for the Division of Foreign Markets; $35,000 for Public Road Inquiries, an increase of $5,000; $20,000 for the Library; and $138,210 for administrative, contingent and general expenses.
