lands, and information for the people along these
lines is being printed and distributed.

Markets are being sought and opened up for surplus farm and factory
products in Europe and in Asia. The outlook for the education of the
young farmer through agricultural college and experiment station, with
opportunity given to specialize in the Department of Agriculture, is
very promising. The people of Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the Philippine
Islands should be helped, by the establishment of experiment stations,
to a more scientific knowledge of the production of coffee, india
rubber, and other tropical products, for which there is demand in the
United States.

There is widespread interest in the improvement of our public highways
at the present time, and the Department of Agriculture is co-operating
with the people in each locality in making the best possible roads
from local material and in experimenting with steel tracks. A more
intelligent system of managing the forests of the country is being put
in operation and a careful study of the whole forestry problem is being
conducted throughout the United States. A very extensive and complete
exhibit of the agricultural and horticultural products of the United
States is being prepared for the Paris Exposition.

* * * * *

On the 10th of December, 1898, the treaty of peace between the United
States and Spain was signed. It provided, among other things, that Spain
should cede to the United States the archipelago known as the Philippine
Islands, that the United States should pay to Spain the sum of twenty
millions of dollars, and that the civil rights and political status of
the native inhabitants of the territories thus ceded to the United
States should be determined by the Congress. The treaty was ratified by
the Senate on the 6th of February, 1899, and by the Government of Spain
on the 19th of March following. The ratifications were exchanged on the
11th of April and the treaty publicly proclaimed. On the 2d of March the
Congress voted the sum contemplated by the treaty, and the amount was
paid over to the Spanish Government on the 1st of May.

In this manner the Philippines came to the United States. The islands
were ceded by the Government of Spain, which had been in undisputed
possession of them for centuries. They were accepted not merely by our
authorized commissioners in Paris, under the direction of the Executive,
but by the constitutiona