AGRICULTURAL LEGISLATION. United The history of agricultural legislation in the United States dates back to 1862 when Congress granted to the several States 30,000 acres of land for each senator and representative in Congress with which to endow at least one agricultural college. In the same year the United States Department of Agriculture was established by law of 15 May. The first State to pay serious attention to agriculture as a scientific subject worthy of serious study on the part of the government was Connecticut which established the first agricultural experimental station at the Shef field Scientific School in 1877; and it was not until 11 years later that the United States Department of Agriculture was created by law an executive department (21 May 1888) and the Secretary of Agriculture made a member of the Cabinet. In 1891 the Weather Bureau was transferred from the Department of War to that of Agriculture; and in 1905 the National Forest Reserves Department was handed over from the Department of the Interior to that of Agriculture, which, from this time on, con tinued to gain control of every part of the government activities related in any way to agriculture. Thus strengthened, it soon began to show its power for good. Chiefly through its instrumentality the Meat Inspection Law of 1906 was passed, and the National Pure Food Law, after a long and bitter struggle, finally became a fact. Control was also secured over interstate transportation. The sum of $150.000 was secured from Congress, in 1907, to fight the Texas cattle fever in the South, and the moth pest in the Eastern States. The tendency of the Federal laws passed from this time on, in the interest of the development of agricul ture, was to give more and more power and resources to the Department of Agriculture and to place in its hands the control of prod ucts intended for interstate shipment The Appropriation Act of 1908 provided large sums for the continuance of the agricultural work already in hand and its rapid extension through more efficient administration. The care and
extension of the national forests, the enforce ment of pure food and drug inspection and the campaign against the extension of all kinds of cattle diseases were specifically aided by this act The amplification of the activities of the National Weather Bureau and the more ex tended study of tuberculosis in cattle were also to receive much more serious attention than heretofore. In all these advances of the Federal legislature and the Department of Agriculture the various State governments followed, at first hesitatingly, then with in terest, and finally with enthusiasm.
This national propaganda work dates from the reorganization of the Department of Agri culture in 1901 when it was put upon a more scientific basis and each of its various depart ments regulated and their functions defined by law, which added four new bureaus, namely, (1) Plant Industry; (2) Soils; (3) Chemistry; (4) Forestry. During the following year the effect of this reorganization was seen in the appropriation of $3,862,420 (in addition to the previously granted for State aid) for the agricultural work in hand. By the close of 1909 laws had. been passed in every State of the Union and in all the Territories includ ing Hawaii, Guam, Alaska and Porto Rico, for the establishment of experimental agricultural stations maintained or supported in part by Federal funds. The Adams Act raised the level of the experimental work of American agricultural stations and induced the State legislatures to undertake more practical opera tions. A Federal law passed in 1910 regulated the manufacture, sale and interstate tram portation of adulterated or misbranded insec ticides and fungicides; and it was at once adopted by 15 States. In 1911 the sum of $2,000,000 was appropriated until July 1915 for the purchase of lands located at the head waters of navigable streams, and their mainte nance as national forests; and stringent meas ures were provided for the control of foods, feeding stuffs, fertilizers, seeds and other agri cultural interests.