266 



Government reservation ZSTo. 2, lying between Twelfth and Fourteenth 

 streets, and the canal and B streets south, embracing thirty-five acres, 

 was assigned to the Department lb* experimental purposes. During 

 1865, 1866, and 1867 a large force of laborers was engaged on this reser- 

 vation in testing the merits of raanj- varieties of cereals, gTasses,i)otatoes, 

 tomatoes, and other agricultural products. At one time seventy varie- 

 ties of potatoes were in cultivation ; at another, sixty-seven A^arieties 

 of spring wheat and fifty -five varieties of fall wheat. In 1865 a geo- 

 logical and mineralogical cabinet was commenced, and extensive addi- 

 tions were made to the chemical laboratory and the museum of fibers, 

 cereals, specimens in natural history, &c. The annual report for this 

 year was prepared in 1866, and edited by J. E. Dodge, who had been 

 engaged on the statistical work of the Department since its organiza- 

 tion. In 1866 Mr. Dodge was appointed statistician of the Department, 

 and has since edited all its reports. The annual reports for 1862, 1863, 

 and 1864 were issutd under the supervision of James S. Grinuell, esq., 

 chief clerk of the Department. In 1866 Thomas Antisell, M. D., was 

 appointed chemist. 



Owing to the large increase in the business of the Department, it was 

 found that the rooms appropriated to its use iu the Patent Ottice build- 

 ing were entirely inadequate. Congress, therefore, in 1867, upon the 

 earnest recommendation of Commissioner Xewton, appropriated $100,000 

 for the erection of a Deftartment building on a x^ortion of the Govern- 

 ment reservation above described. The erection of the building, an 

 ornamental brick structure, was commenced late in the summer of that 

 year. Congress also appropriated $10,000 for the purchase of the pri- 

 vate museum of natural history and other objects owned by Mr. Glover, 

 the entomologist, and the collection was accordingly transferred to the 

 Department. 



On the 19th of June, 1867, Commissioner ]!*rewton died in Wash- 

 ington, from the effects of overwork on the experimental farm in July, 

 1866. He was born in Burlington County, New Jersey, in 1800, and 

 l)assed his early years and the greater part of his long life on a farm. 

 Shortly after attaining his majority, he settled on a farm in Delaware 

 County, Pennsylvania, which became celebrated for its neatness, order, 

 and productiveness. He eventually took rank among the model farmers 

 of the State ; was one of the first and most active members of the State 

 Agricultural Society, and for years was iirominent in urging upon Con- 

 gress the policy of establishing the Department of Agriculture over 

 which he was subsequently called to preside. John W. Stokes, esq., 

 the chief clerk of the Department, acted as Commissioner until Novem- 

 ber 29, 1867, when Hon. Horace Capron, of Illinois, was apj)ointed 

 Commissioner. 



One of the first of Commissioner Capron's official acts was the abolish- 

 ment of the experimental farm, previously determined upon, by which 

 the expenses of the Department were at once greatly decreased. 

 Attention was also liromptly given to the execution of the plans 

 previously prei^ared by Mr. Saunders, the superintendent of the experi- 

 mental garden, for the improvement of the grounds of the farm with a 

 view to producing a pleasing and artistic landscape effect. Embraced 

 in these plans was the planting of an arboretum, comprising a complete 

 collection of all hardy trees and shrubs, arranged in their natural orders. 

 As a result of the joint efforts of the Commissioner and Mr. Saunders, 

 the grounds surrounding the Department building are now the most 

 attractive in Washington. They not only gladden the eye of the visitor 

 to the national capital, but they help to educate the rural taste of the 

 nation itself. 



