399 



wbicli combine all the capabilities of the temperate and many of the 

 tropical zone. To this end, ramie, jute, tropical fruits, and various prom- 

 ising grasses, and many other plants hitherto unknown on this conti- 

 nent, have been introduced, and valuable seeds of cereals and garden 

 vegetables have been distributed, greatly to the advantage of southern 

 agriculture. During the past two months large quantities of seeds of 

 cereals and grasses "have thus been distributed, and a choice selection of 

 vegetable seeds is now in process of distribution, all in ample time for 

 early planting of held and garden. 



The following letter of the Commissioner, addressed to the president 

 and members of the Agricultural Congress recently convened in IS'ash- 

 ville, Tennessee, expresses his views concerning some of the means to 

 be used for the improvement of the agriculture of the South : 



Department op AaRicuLTURE, 



Washington, D. C, September 28, 1871. 



To the President of the Agricultural Congress, JS'ashville, Tennessee : 



Sir : 1 congratulate you upon the assembling of your convention. The 

 meeting of northern.tiirmers and southern planters in a southern city, 

 upon the invitation of southern gentlemen, for the purpose of discussing 

 mutual interests, is auspicious of a better understanding between the 

 people of both sections, and indicates a disposition to bestow upon ques- 

 tions aftecting the material welfare of the country some portion of that 

 attention which has of late been directed to questions chiefly political. 

 Surely there exists no good reason why those who live upon the same 

 soil, speak the siime language, and sharfe the same heritage of blessed 

 privileges should not agree to join hands in the common cause of mate- 

 rial advancement, although they may not be of one mind in the consider- 

 ation of other questions. Such conventions as yours make such agree- 

 ment possible, and give assurance of its permanency. Your meeting 

 accords with the various industrial and agricultural meetings of the year 

 "which have had a national scope and purpose, and I trust that it may be 

 followed by others of like character which will bring in their train pros- 

 perity to all sections and increased development of our national wealth. 

 It is the South that to-day most needs this prosperity,, and it is in the 

 South that the sources of national wealth have been most neglected. 

 The sittings of your convention may, therefore, well be devoted in large 

 degree to an inquiry into the best means of fostering the industries 

 adapted to the South, especially agriculture. 



Oflicial intercourse and correspondence with southern gentlemen and 

 the tone of southern journals convince me that the whole people of the 

 South fully realize that their industrial methods have not heretofore been 

 conducive to their best interests, and that enduring prosperity can only 

 come with the introduction of new methods. What these new methods 

 shall be is a jiroblem which a glance at the present wants of the South 

 may help to solve. 



With the complete restoration of order and tranquillity in the South, 

 wiiich it is the hope of all good men may not longer be delayed, an op- 

 portunity will be afforded for capital to take fresh courage, for labor to 

 assume more settled conditions, and for emigrants from the i!^"orthern 

 States and from Europe to push into every Southern State with the same 

 sturdy enterprise that now leads them into the shadows of the Rocky 

 Mountains and upon the far-oft line of the Northern Pacific Eailway. 

 These are the three great wants of the South to-day : Capital that shall 

 be active, labor that shall be judiciously employed, and population that 



