899.

The field work incident to the above inquiries is now practically
finished, and as a result the population of the States and Territories,
including the Hawaiian Islands and Alaska, has been announced. The
growth of population during the last decade amounts to over 13,000,000,
a greater numerical increase than in any previous census in the history
of the country.

Bulletins will be issued as rapidly as possible giving the population by
States and Territories, by minor civil divisions. Several announcements
of this kind have already been made, and it is hoped that the list will
be completed by January 1. Other bulletins giving the results of the
manufacturing and agricultural inquiries will be given to the public as
rapidly as circumstances will admit.

The Director, while confident of his ability to complete the
different branches of the undertaking in the allotted time, finds
himself embarrassed by the lack of a trained force properly equipped for
statistical work, thus raising the question whether in the interest of
economy and a thorough execution of the census work there should not
be retained in the Government employ a certain number of experts not
only to aid in the preliminary organization prior to the taking of the
decennial census, but in addition to have the advantage in the field and
office work of the Bureau of trained assistants to facilitate the early
completion of this enormous undertaking.

I recommend that the Congress at its present session apportion
representation among the several States as provided by the Constitution.

The Department of Agriculture has been extending its work during the
past year, reaching farther for new varieties of seeds and plants;
co-operating more fully with the States and Territories in research
along useful lines; making progress in meteorological work relating to
lines of wireless telegraphy and forecasts for ocean-going vessels;
continuing inquiry as to animal disease; looking into the extent
and character of food adulteration; outlining plans for the care,
preservation, and intelligent harvesting of our woodlands; studying
soils that producers may cultivate with better knowledge of conditions,
and helping to clothe desert places with grasses suitable to our arid
regions. Our island possessions are being considered that their peoples
may be helped to produce the tropical products now so extensively
brought into the United States. Inquiry into methods of improvin