1856.] Home Department, 357 



ministers etc., be made agents for the purchase of foreign seeds of 

 superior kinds, which might be distributed through members of Con- 

 gress to their constituents ? And wh}-, instead of this, is a miserable 

 appropriation made by Congress, for the purchase of seeds from soma 

 favorite seed-dealer, and there distributed, where duplicates of home- 

 growth are plenty ? How many farmers are there in the United States, 

 who never saw a globe artichoke or a cauliflower ? There are many 

 hundred kinds of pears raised in Europe, suited to this climate, which 

 have never been heard of by the majority of our farmers. How long 

 has the iron plowshare been introduced into our country ? and how 

 long since its general adoption ? Has not its use increased the amount 

 of agricultural product fifty per cent. ? and has any other invention, or 

 any other twelve inventions of modern times, equaled one per cent, in 

 the increase of product from its use, that can fairly be attributed to the 

 plow? Does not England, by under-draining and sub-soiling, produce 

 of many crops double the amount per acre of the average of this country? 

 and yet have one-third of the farmers of the United States ever seen a 

 drain-tile or a sub-soil plow ? Could England at this time sustain 

 her present population, without the introduction of these improvements? 

 Would not a properly organized Home Department be able to suggest 

 to Congress methods for remedying these evils ? 



Suppose that one-tenth of the amount which has been paid by Con- 

 gress as premiums on new inventions connected with fire-arms, or one- 

 tenth of the amount which has been given to mechanical inventors to 

 enable them to perfect experiments connected with steam-engines, 

 steam-boilers, locomotives, etc., had been ofiered as premiums for 

 improvements in the construction of the plow, what would have been 

 the result? Would not the ingenuity of our mechanics have been 

 applied to this and other agricultural implements? and would not the 

 depth of plowing have thus been increased ? Who does not know 

 that an increase of one inch in the depth of plowing through the 

 United States, would increase the amount of our agricultural products 

 more in value than the total present receipts of our government? AVho 

 does not know that the general introduction of sub-soil plows would 

 produce a similar result? And who is ignorant of the fact, that at every 

 plowing ?natch it is clearly proved, that even slight differences in the 

 figure of the plow, enal le the same team to drag it when inserted at 

 an increased depth? Who knows the true figure of a plow, so that 

 the least amount of force may produce the greatest of disturbance in the 

 soil ? Would not trials made under the surveillance of a department, in 

 whose organization the farmers had confidence, soon settle this and every 



