SCIENCE AND THE EMERGENCE OF MODERN AMERICA 



situation and surroundings of the Department of Agriculture; the irregu- 

 larity of its income; and its dependence for support upon the favor of 

 political parties, — let alone the merciful dispensation that the tenure of 

 office of its chief is short, — it cannot be accounted competent to carry 

 on continuous scientific researches; and it is in no sense desirable that it 

 should do so. Works of longiie halehie such as must necessarily run on 

 consecutively from year to year are beyond its powers; and it will be 

 well for Commissioners of agriculture, present and future, to accept the 

 fact. Rather than try to grasp the unattainable, it will assuredly be wiser 

 to study special finite questions as they present themselves; and to this 

 end the best means is the employment of special scientific men of ap- 

 proved competency, each one to grapple with his own particular ques- 

 tion in such place and manner as he may deem fit. 



One commendable feature of the present volume is the comparative 

 brevity of the reports of the superintendent of grounds and the botanist 

 (of the report of the entomologist we shall speak at another time). The 

 report of the chemist, on the other hand, is extended, and it has some- 

 what the effect of a twice-told tale. It was interesting and important to 

 prove that the proportion of true sugar in sorghum-stalks increases con- 

 tinually until the plant is well advanced toward maturity; but the evi- 

 dence of this fact presented in previous reports seemed convincing, and 

 many of the results recorded in the present volume have the effect of 

 being little more than refinements upon good work. The reader is in- 

 clined to ask whether it is not about time for the department to let its 

 scientific corps drop sorghum, and to relegate the subject to the arts- 

 men proper; that is to say, to those fanners and manufacturers who are 

 specially interested in this line of business. 



From a letter of the 'commissioners for locating artesian wells upon 

 arid and waste lands,' as well as from the statements of the commissioner 

 of agriculture himself, it appears that in their opinion the first trial-well 

 at Fort Lyon in Colorado was not a success. The onus of this 'failure' 

 is made to rest, of course, on the shoulders of a preceding administra- 

 tion; but the lesson it teaches is none the less instructive. It suggests the 

 reflection, that while one important function of the Department of agri- 

 culture has been to show the American people 'how not to do it,' there 

 are various ways in which the lesson is enforced. Impracticable borings 

 in Colorado undoubtedly represent one mode of tuition, but in the ap- 

 pointing and changing of employes for political reasons we have an- 

 other; and to the same end must inevitably work all changes of base 

 which are hasty, spasmodic, and inconsequent. It will be of interest to 

 notice how far down the next borings will be permitted to reach before 

 a new incumbent says, 'Hold, enough!' 



From a couple of modestly printed tables on pp. 25 and 692, it ap- 

 pears that the Department of agriculture disbursed $256,129.68 during 

 the year ending June 30, 1881, and $353,748.60 during the year ending 

 June 30, 1882. It will convey no new information, either to scientific 

 men or to the agricultural community, when we say that the results 

 obtained by this class of expenditures have hitherto been, out of all pro- 

 portion, small. 



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