CONTENTS. Page. Origin, Value, and Reclamation of Alkali Lands. By E. W. Hilgard. The Manufacture and Consumption of Cheese. By Henry E. Alvord....... Climate, Soil Characteristics, and Irrigation Methods of California. By Imports of agricultural products for the years ended June 30, 1891 to 1895. Total values of exports of domestic merchandise since 1890.. Exports of raw cotton from the United States since 1890... Production of certain fruits and nuts, mostly semitropical, in the United States in 1889, and the quantities and values imported from 1890 to 1895, Educational institutions in the United States having courses in agriculture. Agricultural experiment stations in the United States, their location, direct- II. Alkali lands in the San Joaquin Valley, California.. III. Cocoanut grove near Palm Beach, Fla., showing effect of freeze.. IV. Pineapple plantation at Jensen, Fla... Page. Frontispiece. 118 172 272 486 486 501 V. (1) Early harvest blackberry, single wire trellis, Benton Harbor, Mich.; (2) early harvest blackberry, Hill system, Falls Church, Va.... VI. Plan of irrigation by terraces and check levees VII. Furrow system of irrigating an orchard in California.... VIII. View of exhibit of U. S. Weather Bureau at Atlanta Exposition. IX. Fig. 1.-General view of exhibit of Department of Agriculture at Atlanta Exposi X. Fig. 1.-Monographic display of Southern economic timber trees; Fig. 2.-Botanic 1. Diagram showing progress of ni- trification in a solution seeded 2. Diagram showing relation of tem- perature to rate of nitrification.. 3. Diagram showing amounts and composition of alkali salts at various depths in partially re- claimed alkali land on which bar- 4. Diagram showing amounts and composition of alkali salts at va- rious depths in alkali soil on which barley would not grow... 5. Diagram showing amounts and composition of alkali salts at va- rious depths in alkali land unirri- 6. Diagram showing amounts and composition of alkali salts at va- rious depths in partly reclaimed 58. Truck of maple, showing hole left 60. Oak tree from which some of the lower limbs have been properly cat and most of the upper ones 61. Showing where a large limb has been cut from a tulip tree....... 62. Field of pineapples growing under shed, showing newly set plants and illustrating the methods of 63. Field of Porto Rico pineapples at 64. Instrument for marking a field for 66. Tangle root of the pineapple. 67. Spot on the base of a pineapple leaf caused by the pineapple mite 68. Grass garden at the U. S. Depart- ment of Agriculture. Plat of buf- falo grass in the foreground................ 78. Salt-marsh grasses-the spartinas 79. Salt-marsh grasses, sea spear grass, injury to buds and leaves, and 101. Macrodactylus subspinosus. Lar- va pipa, beetle, injury to leaves and blossoms with beetles, nat- 102. Desmia maculalis. Larva, pupa, male and female moths, and grape 103. Philaropelus achemen. Young and 104. Typ Horyba. Typical form, female larva, pupa, and appearance of 105. Endemis botrana. Larva, pupa, moth folded leaf with pupa shell, and grape showing injury. 106. Catbird Galecscoptes carolinen. 111. Baltimore oriole (Icterus galbula). 112. A. Microscopic appearance of pure milk B. microscopic appearance of milk after standing in a warm room for a few hours in a dirty dish. It shows the fat globules 114. A vertical section through the 115. A. Milk containing tubercle bacilli; B. tubercle bacilli from a serum 116. A, Microscopic appearance of a pure culture of swine-plague bac- teria in milk; B. swine-plague bacteria as they appear in stained preparations from the liver or spleen of a rabbit; C, in bouillon 117. A, Hog-cholera bacilli as they ap- pear in ordinarily stained prepa- rations from cultures; B, when YEARBOOK OF THE U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. Mr. PRESIDENT: REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. The Secretary of Agriculture has the honor to submit his Third Annual Report. It is a statement of the doings of the United States Department of Agriculture during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1895. It will show wherein expenditures have been reduced for the sake of economy, and wherein they have been increased for the sake of efficiency. BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. MEAT INSPECTION. Meat inspection during the fiscal year increased and improved. The public demanded more extended and critical inspection in all the great cities where the larger abattoirs are located. Earnest efforts were made by the Department to inspect all animals slaughtered for interstate and foreign trade. Those efforts, however, have been made only in the cities where United States inspection has been permanently instituted. At such killing places calves and sheep have been included in the inspection. The number of animals inspected at slaughterhouses during the year was 18,575,969. During the preceding year only 12,944,056 were inspected. This shows 5,631,913 more this year than last. The work, therefore, of inspection at the abattoirs during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1895, was augmented by about 43 per cent. During the same year, in the stock yards, ante-mortem inspection was also made of 5,102,721 animals. By order of the President of the United States, inspectors were placed in the classified service on July 1, 1894. Since that time the number of those officers has been largely reenforced from the list of eligibles recorded in the office of the United States Civil Service ComAll inspectors thus appointed are graduates of reputable 3 A 95-1* 9 |