SUGGEST10x\S BY THE COMMlSSlOiNER. 



The Agricultural Department. — Its imrposes and Jioic they 

 are executed. — It is veiy manifest tliat much misapprehension exists 

 throughout the country with regard to the design of this Depart- 

 ment and its operations. Its design is to have a general super- 

 vision over the agricultural interests of the country ; to observe and 

 learn every new i)rinciple and practice which has been developed, 

 and any new seed, plant, or fruit which gives promise of usefulness, 

 whether such be the enterprise or the product of our own or any 

 foreign country. It is designed also to collect, tabulate, and pub- 

 lish the statistics of agricultural products, so as to prevent speculative 

 operations; and by the observations and studies of the entomologist, 

 the botanist, the microscopist, and the chemist, to keep pace with the 

 progress of all these branches of knowledge, and thus afford the farmer 

 and planter the most reliable means of guarding agaiust the injurious 

 inroads of insects, of making the wisest selection of plants and seeds, of 

 arresting destructive diseases of vegetation, and of learning the quali- 

 ties of soil most suitable for their purposes, the composition of fertiliz- 

 ers, and generally the most approved methods of culture. 



Congress has annually appropriated a certain sum for the purchase 

 of seeds and plants; the last year, $G5,000. This money is expended 

 only for seeds and plants which are of a superior quality, or newly dis- 

 covered to be useful and valuable ; and they are distributed, not for the 

 purpose of supplying the icants of individuals, but for the purpose of 

 their introduction throughout the country, because they are either new, 

 useful, or superior ; and the mode of distribution is through members of 

 Congress, to whom a large portion of them are sent, because they best 

 know who among their constituents will make the best use of them ; to 

 the correspondents of the Department, who are found in every county 

 of the country, for the benefit of the farmers around them ; and to such 

 individuals as apply directly for them, leaving the Department to judge 

 who will appropriate them to the proper purpose. 



It has been said that much misapprehension exists upon this subject 

 of distribution. In applications made directly to the Department for 

 seed, individuals often furnish a list of twenty or fifty kinds of seed, 

 embracing a whole catalogue, while it should be understood that the 

 Department does not profess to distribute seeds Avhich are common and 

 may be purchased at any seed-store, but such only as are new, improved, 

 and not to be obtained elsewhere. Seeds, when obtained by the Depart- 

 ment, are put up in packages, in quantities adapted to the various soils 

 and climates of the United States. I^o other selection is made at the in- 

 stance of any individual ; so that for applicants to make their own se- 

 lections of seeds is labor lost. Individuals, too, often send lists of the 

 names of persons living in the same neighborhood to whom they desire 

 seeds to be sent. No attention is ever paid to such requests ; other- 

 wise, the power of the Department for good would very soon be ex- 

 hausted, and the object in view, to introduce into as many parts of the 

 country as practicable what is new and useful, would be entirely de- 

 feated. Many letters from one place, and not unfrequeutly written by 

 one hand, are received at the same time, containing requests for the 



