In regard to this amendment Dr. Galloway, Chief of the Bureau of Plant Industry, states as follows:

Referring to the amendment providing for an appropriation of $80,000 to meet the emergency caused by the continued spread of the chestnut-bark disease, I beg to say that this matter has been under consideration by the experts of the bureau for the last seven or eight months.

Our officers have made careful estimates of the funds that would be required and believe that $80,000 would be needed to carry out the plan of cooperative effort with the several States which have already made large appropriations for the work.

The funds, if appropriated, will be expended in continuing the investigations which the bureau has been engaged upon on a rather limited scale since 1907, which have had for their object the discovery of methods to check the advance of the disease. The scope of these investigations will be increased and cooperative work will be taken up with all of the States which are making, or intend to make, any active campaign against the disease. One of the first things that will be undertaken will be to put the State workers in possession of all the knowledge that the bureau experts have gained from the investigations so far conducted, and correlate the work of the department and the State. The destruction of diseased trees, which will be one of the phases of the work, will be done by the State under the joint direction of the State and bureau officers.

Work can be taken up immediately with the States of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina.

The disease has spread so rapidly that efficient methods for its eradication or control have not yet been entirely worked out experimentally, and further laboratory work along these lines will be necessary. The experiments to date, however, indicate that general sanitary methods, such as the cutting out of advance infections, will prove efficient in restricting the disease to its present range.

In view of the immense value of the chestnut forests of the United States, estimated at from three hundred to four hundred millions, and the wide territory already affected by the disease, which has caused damage to the extent of at least $25,000,000, we believe that the amount proposed to be appropriated is none too large.

Amendment 178, to which the House agrees, appropriates the sum of $10,000 to enable the Secretary of Agriculture to investigate the cultivation, acclimating, and development of the most nutritious and productive types of potatoes, and for the purpose of experimentation and development of American sugar-beet seed adapted to the irrigated lands of the arid West. Both projects are urgent and very important.

Amendment No. 179, to which the House agrees, provides as follows: Hereafter so much of the act of May twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred and ten (Thirtysixth Statutes, page four hundred and sixteen), as requires the Secretary of Agriculture to transmit annually to the Secretary of the Treasury, for submission to Congress, detailed estimates for executive officers, clerks, and other employees in the various bureaus, offices, and divisions of the Department of Agriculture shall not apply to such employees in the meat-inspection service or employees engaged in the enforcement of the insecticide act of nineteen hundred and ten.

Amendments not noted in this statement are either merely verbal or other minor corrections, necessary changes of totals and the like, and do not in any way alter the meaning of any of the original language or affect the amount of the appropriations..

TRANSPORTATION FOR CERTAIN AMERICAN CITIZENS IN MEXICO.

AUGUST 6, 1912.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed.

Mr. SLAYDEN, from the Committee on Military Affairs, submitted the following

REPORT.

[To accompany S. J. Res. 129.]

The Committee on Military Affairs, to whom was referred the joint resolution (S. J. Res. 129) to provide transportation for American citizens fleeing from threatened danger in the Republic of Mexico, having considered the same, report thereon with a recommendation that it do pass with the following amendment:

Strike out all of section 1 after the word "assembled," in line 2, page 1, and in lieu thereof insert the following:

That until March first, nineteen hundred and thirteen, in the discretion of the Secretary of War, he is hereby authorized to furnish transportation, which shall not be negotiable or transferable, from places in the United States on or near the Mexican border to other places in the United States, to those American citizens who shall have fled or may hereafter flee from the Republic of Mexico who are now or who may hereafter be unable to pay for their own transportation.

CONGRESS

AGRICULTURAL ENTRIES ON OIL AND GAS LANDS.

AUGUST 7, 1912.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed.

Mr. ROBINSON, from the Committee on the Public Lands, submitted the following

REPORT.

[To accompany S. 3045.]

The Committee on the Public Lands, having had under consideration the bill (S. 3045) to provide for agricultural entries on oil and gas lands, by Senator Smoot, beg leave to report the same with the following amendments:

Page 1, line 4, strike out the words "exclusive of Alaska" and insert in lieu thereof the following words "in the State of Utah."

Page 1, line 8, after the word "selection," insert the following words: "by the State of Utah under grants made by Congress, and." Page 1, line 10, strike out the word "and."

Page 1, line 12, after the word "act," insert the following: "and to disposition, in the discretion of the Secretary of the Interior, under the law providing for the sale of isolated or disconnected tracts of public lands."

Page 2, line 5, beginning with the word "and," strike out all words down to and including the colon in line 9, page 2.

Page 3, line 7, after the word "same," strike out the period and insert the following: "upon rendering compensation to the patentee for all damages that may be caused by prospecting for and removing such oil or gas."

The committee recommends that the amendments be agreed to and the bill as amended do pass.

The bill as passed by the Senate provided for agricultural entries on the surface of lands classified by the department as oil lands. Approximately 3,800,000 acres of lands have been withdrawn from settlement, location, sale, or entry, and reserved for classification, and in aid of legislation affecting the use and disposal of oil lands. It has not been definitely determined what portion of this total area so withdrawn actually constitutes oil lands.