for their further coordination with similar lines of work in the various States. It is proposed that these directors shall not be subject to removal except for cause. The reason for this is obvious. In an institution such as the Department of Agriculture stability of tenure is absolutely essential if the best results are to be secured. FUNDS FOR 1922. The estimates of the Department of Agriculture for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1922, aggregate $41,989,384, representing an increase of $10,276,600 over the appropriation for the current year. Of this increase, $950,000 for combating foot-and-mouth disease, $100,000 for fighting and preventing forest fires, and $100,000 for the control of emergency insect infestations, amounting in all to $1,150,000, are merely insurance funds and will be used only in case of necessity. Each and every item in the estimates has been carefully canvassed, and the amount suggested represents the minimum that, in my opinion, should be provided for the maintenance and prosecution of the work of the department. It should be borne in mind, in this connection, that the appropriation for the regular work of the department during the fiscal year 1921 was reduced by $2,186,977, the total amount provided representing a reduction of nearly $6,000,000 below the sum recommended in the estimates for that year. If the increase proposed is allowed, it will be possible to restore to their former status and to develop properly the important activities which have been discontinued or seriously curtailed because of the lack of funds. It will be possible also for the department to pay better compensation to its earnest and efficient workers-provided, of course, the present limitations on salaries are increased as recommended-and thus to check, in part at least, the abnormal turnover in personnel; and, lastly, the department will be placed in position to attack important agricultural problems which are pressing for solution, to enforce more completely the regulatory laws instrusted. to it for administration, and to provide for the more effective administration and protection of our great national forest properties. AGRICULTURAL AGENCIES EXPECTED TO HELP. Our great agricultural industry is in the midst of a difficult and trying period. It is confronted with numerous and complex problems, and the people of the country are rightfully expecting the agricultural agencies of the Nation-the Federal Department of Agriculture, the State agricultural colleges and experiment stations, and the State Departments of Agriculture-to render increasingly important service in working out ways and means of solving them. These institutions can not hope to measure up to their responsibilities in this respect unless they are properly equipped and are placed in position to secure and retain the services of the best trained. men and women in America. A review of the activities of the department during the past year clearly indicates not only that it will be unable to give proper study and attention to the new and vital matters of national concern now demanding its attention and action, but that it can not even maintain its present standard of service to American agriculture, and through agriculture to the people of the country, without more adequate support. Unless a considerably increased appropriation is granted for the next fiscal year, it will be impossible for this great organization to deal effectively with the problems before it and it will be compelled, in many vital projects, to mark time. I recognize full well the necessity for economy in governmental expenditures, especially in view of the great financial burdens thrust upon us by the war and the present unsettled conditions; but, in my opinion, it is not true economy to fail to provide the necessary facilities and personnel for this productive branch of the Government, which is returning to the Nation manyfold, in terms of wealth created or saved, the expenditures made by it. I have already discussed briefly the personnel situation in the department, but I wish to reemphasize it here. Important units are in danger of going to pieces because of the lack of funds to prosecute the work at hand or because present limitations on salaries make it impossible to maintain a sufficient personnel to conduct their operations effectively. This is no exaggeration. In one of the most important bureaus-one dealing with serious economic problems--8 of the 16 divisions are without directing heads because the vacancies could not be filled at the available salaries. One-half of the work of the bureau is now without adequate leadership. A similar situation exists in many other bureaus of the department, and unless it is shortly remedied stagnation will be the inevitable result. Hope of early justice in the matter of salaries and better equipment for work have encouraged many men and women to stay with the department so far, but they can not be held indefinitely if they are to meet with repeated disappointments. I am confident that no citizen of this country, in private or public life, who has an understanding of the work of the department, of the handicaps under which our present-day agriculture is laboring, and of the national problems involved in maintaining supplies of food and raw materials sufficient for our constantly increasing population, will fail to give his sympathetic support to measures which promise increased strength to the Nation in its most basic industry, the foundation of all other industries-agriculture. Respectfully, THE PRESIDENT. E. T. MEREDITH, Secretary of Agriculture. REPORT OF THE CHIEF OF THE WEATHER BUREAU. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, WEATHER BUREAU, Washington, D. C., October 8, 1920. SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith a report of the operations of the Weather Bureau during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1920. Respectfully, Hon. E. T. MEREDITH, Secretary of Agriculture. C. F. MARVIN, It seems appropriate in this report to lay special emphasis upon the limitations which now surround practically all the activities and service the Weather Bureau is charged by law to render. For several years the annual appropriations of the Bureau have remained practically stationary, while costs for services and supplies of all kinds have advanced greatly. To the difficulties these conditions bring in maintaining the service of meteorology applied to the interests of agriculture, commerce, and navigation at its proper standard of completeness and efficiency there are added the necessities of meeting, as far as possible, the new demands created by simply the normal growth of the Nation as well as needs which are now a permanent part of national existence as a result of war experiences and developments. Meteorological service for aeronautics and military operations must be supplied. The Weather Bureau is the logical Federal agency for this purpose and needs the strongest possible support of Congress and the people to enable it to meet all its new obligations. Every national activity, industry, and interest has become aroused to the immediate practical value of weather advices, warnings, forecasts, and information in the daily sequence of affairs. Aviation and the aerial mail service are protected and assured a greater percentage of safety and success by a foreknowledge of flying conditions. The total number of stations now equipped to render the special free-air data required is only 11, to represent the continental United States. Even supplemented by about an equal number of reports from Army posts and Naval bases, the number of stations is ridiculously inadequate and must be increased to meet the present demands and future growth of aviation. Limited personnel, whose rate of pay has remained stationary with stationary appropriations, has compelled the Bureau to make numerous curtailments of useful activities. For example, it was formerly the custom for employees of the Bureau to prepare daily the large glass weather maps on the principal exchanges, boards of trade, |