261 



missioner in 184G was the larcest that had yet appeared, filling 1,184 

 pages, less than 100 of which related to paten cs, the remainder 

 being devoted to agricnltnral topics. The annual reports of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture have seldom exceeded 700 pages, and have Dot 

 averaged above 650 pages. Mr. Burke introduced into the report mauy 

 new features, prominent among which were tables of British and United 

 States imports and exports, and English cotton quotations. The papers 

 in the appendix embraced a wide range of subjects. The potato disease 

 was exhaustively discussed. The Commissioner stated that the number 

 of packages of seeds distributed in 1810 would exceed 50,000. Addi- 

 tional facilities for obtaining information and purchasing seeds were 

 declared to be necessary to the successful prosecution of the agricultural 

 work of the otMce, a declaration which did not prevent Congress from 

 withholding the appropriation of a single dollar for agricultural pur- 

 poses for the ensuing year. When the Patent Ofdce report of 1817 

 appeared, agricultural statistics, essays, correspondence, and newspaper 

 articles were entirely omitted. 



Congress saw and acknowledged its error, and the appropriation 

 ($3,000) from the Patent Office fiiud was restored. In 1818 a very val- 

 uable report appeared, which was especially rich in statistics relating 

 to the i)roducts of labor and ca])ital in the United States, the move- 

 ments of these and foreign products on interior lines of transportation ; 

 the consumption and surplus for exportation of food products, the 

 demands of foreign countries for these products, and tables of popula- 

 tion, pioperty, prices, &c. The volume was more profusely and expen- 

 sively illustrated than an}' that had preceded it. In the report of the 

 following year (1810) an increased amount of space was occupied by 

 miscellaneous statistics, chiefly industrial. The quantity of seeds dis- 

 tributed in 1818 hud increased to 75,000 packages, and it was announced 

 that nearly as many had been obtained for distribution in 1810. In 

 this report mention is made of foreign seeds having been submitted to 

 the test of experiment by an intelligent gardener. 



On the 30th of April, 1819, Mr. Burke" retired from the Patent Office, 

 and was succeeded by Hon. Thomas EAvbank, of New York. During 

 his administration of the office some changes Avere made in the manage- 

 ment of the agricultural division. By direction of the Secretary of tlie 

 Interior, the task of collating and arranging the materials for the agri- 

 cultural portion of the annual report was committed to a " practical 

 and scientific agriculturist." Another change consisted in the publica- 

 tion of the agricultural portion of the report in a separate volume. 

 The lirst of these volumes appeared in 1850, edited, in accordance with 

 the Secretary's views, by a scientific gentleman, Daniel Lee, Zvl. D. It 

 contained many elaborate scientific and practical papers, by Mr. Lee 

 and others, and numerous commercial and miscellaneous statistics, but 

 no statistics of the agricultural productions of the preceding year. 

 This departure from the uniform prfictice of Commissioners Ellsworth 

 and Burke, Mr. Lee justified by declaring that all previously published 

 statistics were unreliable, because of the insufficiency of the data from 

 which they were calculated. He declined to " waste time ami paper in 

 printing crude guesses." The opinion was expressed that Congress or 

 the State legislatures should devise and execute a plan for procuring 

 accurate statistics, but Mr. Lee did not suggest a way by which the same 

 result could be reached through the instrumentality of his own office. 

 In the report of 1851 occurs the same important omission as in that of 

 1850; but in that of 1852 appeared the agricultural statistics of the 

 seventh census, unaccompanied, however, by any analysis, comparison, 



