the South, and in the heart of the corn belt. Some of them lost in rural population during the preceding decade, while others are losing for the first time now. On the other hand, many rural counties in the Northwest, the West, the South, and the coast States have been gaining.

There is every reason to believe that the same causes which account for a relatively decreasing agricultural population in former decades have been at work during the past 10 years. The increased standards of living of the American people as a whole have caused a great expansion in all industries centering in cities; and the industrial bid for workers, accelerated by conditions during and immediately following the war, has been a strong magnet exerting a pull upon workers in agriculture.

The following table shows the percentage of the total number of persons employed in all American occupations who were engaged in agriculture from 1820 to 1910:

We may expect for 1920 a lower percentage than for 1910; in fact, it will not be surprising if the complete returns show that only 30 per cent of our workers are farmers. It is true, of course, that increased efficiency in farming operations, resulting from the use of new and better machinery and the application of scientific knowledge, has consistently lowered the demand for labor in certain kinds of farm work, and that the labor thus released has been the first to yield to the call of the city. It is a well-known fact, also, that Army life and its accompanying set of new associations detached from farming and from rural life a considerable number of farm youth. Whether this loss is a permanent one no one can say, but, in any event, it must be considered unusual.

THE REAL CONCERN OF AMERICA.

The real concern in America over the movement of rural population to urban centers is whether those who remain in agriculture after the normal contribution to the city are the strong, intelligent, well-seasoned families, in which the best traditions of agriculture and citizenship have been lodged from generation to generation. The present universal cry of "keep the boy on the farm" can and should be expanded into a great public sentiment for making country life more attractive in every way. Neither force nor exhortation

will keep people in the rural districts if they are to be deprived of the benefits of modern social, educational, and other opportunities. But when farming is made profitable and when the better things of life are steadily brought, in increasing measure, to the rural community, so that farm families need not give up farming in order to satisfy their desires for the best that modern civilization affords, the great motives which lead youth and middle age to leave the country districts will be removed. In order to assure a continuance of the best strains of farm people in agriculture, there can be no relaxation of the present movements for a better country life, economic, social, and educational.

THE HAZARDS OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION.

Given a sound basis of distribution, the curtailment of the so-called hazards of production-plant and animal diseases, insect pests, predatory animals, and rodents-with resulting increased yields per acre and reduced costs of production, will go far toward insuring a just measure of prosperity to the producer, with a fair scale of prices to the consumer. If the increasing population of the Nation is to be fed from the available farm lands in the United States, the efforts to reduce or eliminate such hazards must be prosecuted more vigorously in the future than ever before, and the fundamental research work which constitutes the basis of these efforts must have proper appreciation and support.

PLANT DISEASES.

The toll exacted by plant diseases is appalling. Every season, and in substantially every important producing region, they constitute a heavy handicap on crop production. When it is remembered that the cost of producing diseased and healthy crops, up to the time of harvest, is practically the same, it is clear that plant diseases are a grievous and dangerous overload on our agriculture. It has been estimated that in 1919 field diseases were responsible for the loss of approximately 190,000,000 bushels of wheat, of 78,000,000 bushels of oats, of 200,000,000 bushels of corn, of 86,000,000 bushels of potatoes, of 58,000,000 bushels of sweet potatoes, of 18,000,000 bushels of apples, and of 1,742,000 bales of cotton. The department for many years has been doing everything possible to reduce these and other losses, and excellent results have been secured in many directions.

One of the most significant activities now under way is the effort to reduce the tremendous losses from wheat rust, aggregating in some years as much as 200,000,000 bushels. Scientific investigation has proved that the fungus which is responsible for the disease gets its

start in the spring on the common barberry plant, and a vigorous campaign, therefore, is being conducted, in cooperation with the various States, to eliminate such plants. More than 4,600,000 barberry bushes have been located and of these 3,500,000 or more have been destroyed. Progress also has been made in developing a method for controlling wheat scab, which caused in 1919 the loss of nearly 60,000,000 bushels of wheat; a convenient method of testing seed corn for germination and of eliminating disease infection before planting has been devised; and much has been accomplished in working out practical control measures for other injurious plant diseases.

INSECTS.

The work of controlling insect outbreaks has presented many difficult and complex problems. The task, begun in 1917, of exterminating the pink bollworm, which experts in this and other countries regard as probably the most destructive pest of cotton, gave promise of success; but a new and serious situation has been presented by the discovery of the insect in a district in Louisiana not heretofore known to be infested and by its reappearance in southeastern Texas. The efforts to eradicate the pest are being prosecuted as vigorously as possible, but they are necessarily handicapped by the failure of the State of Texas to establish and enforce noncotton zones

in the infested areas. Whether eradication can be accomplished in the circumstances is problematical, but, nevertheless, no steps should be omitted to prevent the additional drain on the South's most important money crop which the spread of the pink bollworm to other sections of the cotton belt would involve.

The boll weevil causes enormous damage to the cotton crop. But the Department's experts, after many years of painstaking experiments, have now found a successful method of controlling the pest by dusting the plants with calcium arsenate. As a result, the manufacture and sale of this product has reached very large proportions. Through its enforcement of the insecticide and fungicide act, the purpose of which is to insure a high standard of purity and efficiency in insecticides and fungicides used in combating plant diseases and insects, the Department is keeping off the market a great many tons of calcium arsenate of poor grade which, if used, not only would fail to control the boll weevil but would seriously damage the cotton plants.

THE CORN BORER.

The campaign against the corn borer, a dangerous enemy of corn. is actively under way. The insect, so far as now known, is apparently confined in this country to New England, New York, and a township in Pennsylvania, and everything possible must be done to prevent

its spread to the great corn belt of the Middle West. Two infested areas have been discovered recently in Ontario, Canada, one of them just across the lake from Buffalo and the other extending for 50 miles in either direction from St. Thomas. These areas, comprising approximately 12,000 square miles, constitute what is probably the worst infestation in North America at the present time. The officials of the Bureau of Entomology and the Federal Horticultural Board have been in consultation with the Canadian entomologists, and will cooperate with them, so far as possible under existing law, in the effort to prevent the spread of the insect into the United States at points far removed from the present infestation in this country.

THE GIPSY MOTH IN NEW JERSEY.

For years the department has successfully prevented the westward spread of the gipsy and brown-tail moths, great enemies of orchards and forests as well as of shade trees. It has been discovered recently, however, that a large area in New Jersey is infested by the gipsy moth, which apparently was brought in from Europe years ago, and that trees from this area have been shipped to a number of points, thus indicating the possible occurrence of the insect in other sections of the country. The Congress will be requested, at its next session, to appropriate sufficient funds to undertake the extermination of the pest in New Jersey, and, in the meantime, all shipments of trees from the infested area are being followed up as closely as possible in order to determine the other points at which the insect may have become established.

EMERGENCY FUND TO COMBAT INSECT OUTBREAKS.

Every year demands are made upon the department, as in the case of the gipsy moth in New Jersey, for assistance in dealing with sudden and serious outbreaks of injurious insects which often cause damage amounting to millions of dollars. As a rule, no funds are available for this purpose, and the department, therefore, is unable to take prompt and effective steps to eliminate the pests or to prevent their spread. If repressive measures were immediately undertaken, it might be possible to completely exterminate them; otherwise, the outbreaks may get entirely out of hand and make necessary greatly increased expenditures, not to eradicate but merely to control them. It would be highly desirable, therefore, to provide a special appropriation, in the nature of an insurance fund, which could be used to meet emergencies of this sort, and a recommendation to this effect has been incorporated in the estimates.

PREDATORY ANIMALS AND RODENTS.

The systematic campaign to curtail the losses caused by predatory animals and prairie dogs, ground squirrels, and similar rodents on the western ranges has been continued. It has been estimated that these pests destroy annually more than $300,000,000 worth of live stock, crops, and range grass. The hunters in the service of the department killed more than 25,000 predatory animals last year, and perhaps an equal number were destroyed by poisoning campaigns, resulting in a saving to the live-stock industry of more than $6,000,000. It may be added that, since the work was begun in 1915, the skins of the animals destroyed have been sold and the net proceeds, aggregating more than $240,000, turned into the Treasury.

LIVE-STOCK DISEASES.

Much headway has been made by the department toward the eradication or control of live-stock diseases. The campaign against tuberculosis in cattle, begun three years ago, has aroused increasing interest among live-stock owners and State officials and has received their active support. On June 30, 1920, 3,370 herds, approximately three times the number at the beginning of the fiscal year, were officially accredited as free from tuberculosis. In addition, 16,599 herds have successfully passed one test. A total of 695,364 animals were examined during the year, resulting in the slaughter of 28,616 reactors. Applications for the testing of herds, however, have continued to accumulate more rapidly than they could be handled with the available force of veterinarians. Near the end of the fiscal year 4,740 herds were on the waiting list to be tested.

Tuberculosis is one of the greatest menaces to the live-stock industry of America. The elimination of the constant losses caused by it would materially reduce the hazards of the industry and would tend to place it on a more stable basis. The rapidity with which the disease can be stamped out depends upon the amount of money appropriated for the work. The more money that is available in the immediate future, the more quickly will the losses be reduced and the larger will be the areas freed from the scourge.

Considerable progress has been made in the control of hog cholera, the greatest limiting factor in swine production. It has been estimated that, as the result of the activities of the Department of Agriculture and of its cooperating agencies in combating this disease, a saving amounting to $41,000,000 annually is effected. There were formerly 140 veterinarians assigned to this work, but the number has been reduced to 54 because of a curtailment in funds. The swine industry is one of the most important branches of our agriculture, and it is highly essential that the losses from cholera