addition to conducting research and extension work, the Department administers numerous Federal laws relating to agricultural adjustment, conservation and land use, flood control, farm tenancy and rural rehabilitation, farm credit, crop insurance, rural electrification, marketing and distribution of agricultural products, regulation of interstate commerce in food, fiber, and related products, protection and management of the national forests, and other phases of agriculture.

The Secretary of Agriculture exercises general supervision and control over the affairs of the Department and formulates and establishes general policies to be pursued by its various branches. The general administrative staff of the Department under the office of the Secretary includes, in addition to the Secretary's immediate office, the offices of the Under Secretary and Assistant Secretary, the office of Land Use Coordination, Information, Personnel, Budget and Finance, Plant and Operations, Research (Office of Experiment Stations), and Foreign Agricultural Relations, the Office of the Director of Marketing, the Office of the Solicitor, the Library, and the Extension Service. The Under Secretary and the Assistant Secretary act for the Secretary in his absence and assist in policy formation and in public and official contacts. The heads of the respective offices above mentioned report directly to the Secretary and each has general supervision over the work of the Department of the type which the title of the office implies.

In the office of the Secretary, the Agricultural Program Board reviews, evaluates, and makes recommendations to the Secretary on the plans and programs developed by the Bureau of Agricultural Economics in the light of administrative feasibility and practicability, the interests of farmers and the general public, and the over-all needs of the Department. The Land Use Coordinator serves as chairman of the board, the membership of which includes the Chief of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, the heads of the agencies administering the action programs of the Department, and members of the Secretary's staff.

The Administrative Council is concerned with problems of over-all coordination and administrative management. The Under Secretary is chairman of the council, which includes the Directors of Finance, Personnel, Research, Extension Work, Information, and Marketing, the Solicitor, and the Land Use Coordinator.

OFFICE OF LAND USE COORDINATION

The Office of Land Use Coordination directs the coordination of land-use activities as they relate to the work of the Department as a whole, including the integration of land policies and the clearance of land acquisition projects; the establishment of uniform standards for surveys relating to land use and the correlation of survey projects; the coordination of land use phases of credit policies and programs; coordination of the Department's farm forestry program; the formulation of policies relating to water utilization, water conservation, and water facilities programs, and the coordination of the Department's flood control program; the coordination of administrative and procedural phases of the land-use programs; integration of the Department's land-use programs with those of State agencies. The Office cooperates with the Director of Research and chiefs of bureaus in coordinating land-use research with the survey and detailed planning work of the action agencies and also cooperates with heads of action agencies in coordinating basic land-use policies and programs. On behalf of the Secretary, staff members of the Office represent the Department on the National Resources Planning Board and in other interdepartmental activities relating to land use.

OFFICE OF PERSONNEL

The Office of Personnel has primary responsibility for the personnel program of the Department as a whole. It has general direction and supervision of organization, position classification, recruitment, placement, training, safety work, discipline, and related problems. The Office represents the Department in its relations with the Civil Service Commission and, where personnel matters are concerned, with other agencies.

OFFICE OF BUDGET AND FINANCE

The Office of Budget and Finance, under the supervision of the Director of Finance, who is also the budget officer of the Department, is responsible for the financial affairs of the Department. Through its own staff and through coordination of bureau financial administration, the office directs and supervises budgeting, accounting, purchasing, and related functions. The Office represents the Department before the Bureau of the Budget, the General Accounting Office, the Treasury

Department, the Appropriations Committees of the Congress, and other Federal and non-Federal agencies in the conduct of the financial business of the Department.

OFFICE OF PLANT AND OPERATIONS

The Office of Plant and Operations is responsible for the housing of the operating plant of the Department; the operation of the communications system; the operation of the motor transport service for the Department's activities in Washington; the development of technical departmental standards for the various types of equipment and services used by the Department; the fiscal and personnel management and control functions for the office of the Secretary, and the supervision of the departmental service and management functions of the Beltsville Research Center, such as the maintenance of a central mechanical and repair shop, tilling land, planting and harvesting crops, operating a central sewage disposal plant, and furnishing electrical energy, telephone, janitor, motortruck,ˆ and other related services.

OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS

The Office of Experiment Stations administers the funds for research in agriculture and rural life made available to the experiment stations of the States, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico through annual congressional appropriations under the provisions of the Hatch, Adams, and Purnell Acts, title I of the Bankhead-Jones Act of June 30, 1935, and the supplementary acts. In administering these Federal grants the Office evaluates and approves new and revised research proposals, reviews and approves annual programs and budget allotments, and examines, in the field, the work and expenditures. An annual report on the work and expenditures of the stations is published, as required by law. The general administrative direction and supervision of the experiment station of the Department of Agriculture in Puerto Rico is a responsibility of the Office.

The Office promotes cooperation in the planning and coordination of research both within the Department of Agriculture, among the experiment stations, and between the Department and the stations through advisory relationships and supervisory activities which include the examination and approval of formal memoranda of understanding covering cooperative research. It collects and disseminates information designed to enhance the productiveness and soundness of agricultural research programs including the publication of Experiment Station Record which reviews current progress and results of the research of the experiment stations and other agencies.

The Chief of the Office and Director of Research is responsible for the administration of the special research fund of the Department including the planning and coordination of the nine laboratories established in major agricultural regions and the special research projects of the Department under this fund which is authorized by the Bankhead-Jones Act. The Chief of the Office, as Director of Research, with the cooperation of the bureaus involved, is responsible for the planning and coordination of the programs of the four regional research laboratories authorized by section 202 of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938.

EXTENSION SERVICE

The Extension Service aids in making available the results of research and investigation in agriculture and home economics to those who can put the information into practice. It coordinates the extension activities of the bureaus of the Department and of the State agricultural colleges and deals with emergency situations involving Department assistance to farmers. It represents the Department in the conduct of cooperative extension work in agriculture and home economics by the State agricultural colleges and the Department under the SmithLever, Capper-Ketcham, Bankhead-Jones, and supplementary acts of Congress. Each of the 48 States, and the Territories of Hawaii and Aalaka and Puerto Rico, has a director of extension who represents jointly the Department and the State agricultural college in the administration of extension work. In each State the organization consists of a State administrative and supervisory staff, with headquarters in most cases at the State agricultural college, and county agricultural agents, county home demonstration agents, and county club agents, who have their offices usually at the county seats. The distinguishing feature of extension teaching is the field demonstration, although other educational methods are also utilized to teach the best farm and home practices to farm men, women, boys, and girls. The Extension Service also has charge of the Department's activity in the preparation, distribution, and display of agricultural exhibits and motion pictures.

OFFICE OF FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL RELATIONS

The Office of Foreign Agricultural Relations is responsible for the collection, through the Foreign Service of the United States, the International Institute of Agriculture at Rome, and other sources, of information on foreign agricultural production, foreign markets, foreign trade and related matters of significance to American agriculture, and the dissemination of this information. A limited number of commodity specialists is available for investigation of foreign market conditions affecting particular groups of American agricultural products, including studies of competitive foreign production.

The Office of Foreign Agricultural Relations coordinates the relations of the Department of Agriculture in respect to foreign trade and allied problems and policies with the Department of State and other Departments and agencies of the Government, and with foreign governments and private agencies.

OFFICE OF INFORMATION

The Office of Information supervises the expenditure of the appropriations for printing and binding for the Department; supervises all editing, illustrating, printing, and distribution of publications; and maintains an Addressing, Duplicating, and Mailing Section to serve the various bureaus of the Department. The Office prepares special Department reports and serves as a departmental clearing house for information prepared for the press as a result of the research, regulatory, conservation, service, and action programs of the Department; it correlates information on the results of specialized work in diverse lines, and presents facts in forms most practical for use by farmers and the general public. The Office also furnishes daily, through radio stations in all parts of the United States, authentic information of practical use to farmers and others concerning the discoveries made by the Department and the farm practices recommended by it; and answers by radio questions in all fields of agriculture and home economics.

LIBRARY

The Department library, with its branch libraries in the various bureaus, contains approximately 300,000 volumes on agriculture and the related sciences, technology, and economics, and receives currently 5,000 periodicals. A list of the periodicals currently received in the library has been published as Miscellaneous Publication No. 245.

The dictionary card catalog of the main library, containing more than a half million cards, is a record of the book resources of the whole Department. It is supplemented by several extensive special indexes maintained by the branch libraries in the various bureaus. These together form the most comprehensive bibliography of agriculture and the related sciences available in the United States. A series of bibliographical contributions is issued by the library in mimeographed form, and a separate series of Agricultural Economics Bibliographies is issued by the Bureau of Agricultural Economics library. A brief list of the more important accessions to the library is contained in the mimeographed series, Agricultural Library Notes, issued monthly by the library. In addition, the following lists are issued currently by branch libraries in the various bureaus: Agricultural Economics Literature (Bureau of Agricultural Economics library), Current Literature in Agricultural Engineering (Bureau of Agricultural Chemistry and Engineering library), Cotton Literature (Division of Cotton Marketing library, Agricultural Marketing Service), Entomology Current Literature (Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine library), Forestry Current Literature (Forest Service library), Plant Science Literature (Bureau of Plant Industry library), and Soil Conservation Literature (Soil Conservation Service library).

OFFICE OF THE SOLICITOR

The Office of the Solicitor is the law office of the Department. The law requires that "the legal work of the Department of Agriculture shall be performed under the supervision and direction of the Solicitor" (5 U. S. C., sec. 518).

The Solicitor and the attorneys of his office advise the Secretary and other administrative officials on legal problems in connection with Department activities. They assist in the preparation of proposed legislative bills, administrative rules and regulations, orders, and proclamations. They provide the Secretary and other officials of the Department with legal opinions relative to the application of statutes, Executive orders, and administrative rules and regulations.

The Solicitor's Office also takes part in drafting, examining, and construing contracts, deeds, mortgages, leases, and other documents. It approves the organization of cooperative associations, soil conservation districts, and similar instrumentalities, and assists in determining their eligibility for participation in Department programs.

Other activities of the Office include the examination of evidence to determine whether there have been violations of acts administered by the Department. In proper cases, the Solicitor recommends prosecution to the Attorney General. Pleadings and briefs in civil and criminal cases involving the Department and laws administered by it are prepared by the Office, which cooperates with the Department of Justice in handling such litigation in the lower and appellate courts. The Solicitor's Office represents the Department as counsel at hearings before the Secretary. The Office handles contracts on legal matters with other State and Federal governmental agencies. It conducts administrative hearings in reparation and similar proceedings, and issues tentative findings, conclusions, and orders with respect thereto, under the various acts administered by the Department.

The Office of the Solicitor also prosecutes, for employees of the Department, applications for patents on inventions which are to be used in departmental work. It examines the titles to lands authorized for purchase by the Department or on which loans may be made by the Department. The Office considers and recommends the appropriate disposition of claims for damage to property of the United States in the custody of the Department and of claims against the Government for damage arising from operations of the Department.

OFFICE OF C. C. C. ACTIVITIES

The Office of C. C. C. Activities has general Department-wide responsibility for the administration of C. C. C. programs carried on by the several bureaus, including the coordination of these activities into a unified program; general oversight of C. C. C. matters pertaining to finance, budget, equipment, personnel, location of camps, etc.; and responsibility for the coordination and integration of C. C. C. activities with other programs of the Department. The Chief of the Office of C. C. C. Activities is also designated as the Secretary's representative on the Advisory Council of the Director of the Civilian Conservation Corps.

OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR OF MARKETING

The Director of Marketing, serving as a general staff officer and as personal representative of the Secretary, is responsible for the coordination of marketing, distribution and regulatory work of the agencies and general programs of the Department, interdepartmentally and in relation to State governments and their agencies. The position of Director of Marketing was created by order of the Secretary of Agriculture on January 19, 1940, to take over certain duties and responsibilities previously handled by the Director of Marketing and Regulatory Work.

The agencies of the Department which have functions affected by the work of the Director of Marketing are the surplus Marketing Administration, the Agricultural Marketing Service, the Sugar Division of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, the Commodity Credit Corporation, the Bureau of Home Economics, the Commodity Exchange Administration, the Bureau of Animal Industry, the Bureau of Dairy Industry, the Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine, and the Forest Service. The Director of Marketing also has responsibility with respect to general problems in the marketing field which may involve agencies of the Department not listed herein.

The Consumers' Counsel Division is administered under the general supervision and direction of the Director of Marketing.

AGRICULTURAL ADJUSTMENT ADMINISTRATION

The Agricultural Adjustment Administration is established within the Department of Agriculture to carry out certain provisions of the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act, of the Sugar Act of 1937, of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938, and related legislation. Local farmer committees, elected from among their own number by producers cooperating in the program, are in charge of the field administration of all phases of the A. A. A. program, including commodity loans and crop insurance on wheat, that are made available through the Commodity Credit Corporation and the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation, respectively.

The national A. A. A. program has three primary objectives: The maintenance of the Ever-Normal Granary, by which producers and consumers are assured of abundant supplies and emergency reserves of farm products at fair prices; conservation of the Nation's soil resources; and assistance to farmers in obtaining a fair share of the national income.

To accomplish these purposes, the program provides for the following methods: (1) National acreage goals for major crops that encourage plantings in line with domestic demand, foreign markets and ample reserves; (2) payments to producers who adopt specific soil-building practices on their individual farms, or who increase the proportion of their land devoted to crops which restore and conserve the fertility of the soil; (3) parity payments to supplement conservation payments, when prices for basic farm products are low and when funds are appropriated, to help producers obtain returns nearer parity levels; (4) loans on crops to enable producers to carry over supplies from years of unusually large production for market in years of crop shortage; (5) marketing quotas on cotton, corn, wheat, rice, and tobacco, to stabilize marketing in years of excess crop production, when approved by producers voting in a referendum; and (6) crop insurance on wheat to offset possible crop failure:

Under the sugar program, the Secretary of Agriculture is required to estimate annually the sugar needs of American consumers and to allot the estimated quantity among the various areas, domestic and foreign, supplying this market. It also provides for payments to domestic sugar cane and sugar-beet producers who qualify under provisions of the program.

BUREAU OF AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY AND ENGINEERING

The Bureau of Agricultural Chemistry and Engineering is a research organization engaged in investigations and experiments in the fields of chemistry, physics, engineering, and other sciences with the object of improving agriculture and developing new and wider industrial uses for agricultural products.

The Bureau is engaged in investigations concerning the technology, manufacture, utilization, and preservation, including freezing, of agricultural products and byproducts. Its scientists conduct biological, chemical, physical, microscopial, and technological investigations of foods, feeds, drugs, and substances used in the manufacture thereof, including studies of their physiological effects on the human organism. They perform experiments on the utilization of agricultural raw materials for industrial purposes and on the development of improved processes in the production of rosin and turpentine.

The four Regional Laboratories for Research on Utilization of Farm Products are engaged on studies of the principal surplus crops in each of the four major farm producing areas of the country for the purpose of developing new and wider industrial uses thereof. The Northern Regional Research Laboratory, located in Peoria, Ill., is engaged on studies of corn, wheat, and agricultural wastes; the Southern Regional Research Laboratory at New Orleans, on studies of cotton, peanuts, and sweetpotatoes; the Eastern Regional Research Laboratory at Wyndmoor, Pa., near Philadelphia, on studies of tobacco, apples, potatoes, milk products, vegetables, hides, skins, tanning materials and leather, and animal fats and oils, and the Western Regional Research Laboratory at Albany, Calif., near San Francisco, on studies of fruits, vegetables, potatoes, wheat, alfalfa, and poultry products and byproducts.

The Bureau conducts investigations of farm machinery, farm buildings, rural electrification, and other engineering phases of agriculture. These investigations deal with mechanical equipment for producing and processing farm products, including seedbed preparation, planting, cultivating and harvesting, fertilizer placement, hay drying, cotton ginning, fiber flax processing machinery, and control of insect pests. They also cover the planning and construction of farm buildings, including heating, lighting, insulation, sanitation, and water supply for farmhouses, crop storages, and animal shelters, and facilities for the transportation and storage of perishable fruits and vegetables.

Service is rendered other bureaus of the Department in the design and construction of structures outside the District of Columbia and in the purchase of engineering equipment.

BUREAU OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS

The Bureau of Agricultural Economics is the general program planning agency of the Department. Under a general memorandum of understanding the Bureau cooperates with the operating agencies of the Department in developing a unified