425 



of $2 per acre, tlirougli repeated cropping with corn and tobacco, which are now richly 

 worth $80, througli the influence of clover, fertilizers, regular rotations, and judicious 

 management generally. Then they could only yield a miserable support to their pro- 

 prietors; now they maintain their owners in comfort and even luxury. It has been 

 estimated that 100,000,000 of acres of these worn-out lands have been thrown out of 

 cultivation in the South. Beware of a similar experience in the West ; you are on the 

 road to the same ruin, which can only be averted by a prompt use of restorative 

 agencies, and the exercise of an enlightened judgment in all the operations of your 

 agriculture. 



STEAM PLOWING. 



Among the improvements of the future, inevitable in successful accomplishment and 

 beneficent in its results, I deliberately place that of steam culture. Its success is al- 

 ready assured in Europe. Five sets of steam machinery are now in active and profit- 

 able operation in this country — three upon sugar plantations in Louisiana, and two on 

 a cotton plantation in Mississippi. A set run by two 20 horse-power engines, cultivat- 

 ing to the depth of twenty inches, last year produced a hogshead of sugar more per 

 acre than horse-power culture by its side. 



We shall make changes in this English machinery — we may perfect a thoroughly 

 American machine (though it should not be forgotten that the Fowler method is based 

 upon an American invention) before tlie use of steam in culture becomes general upon 

 our farms ; but that result is sure to come, and I see no reason why it should not soon 

 be reached. It is folly to assume that the noble art of agriculture is to derive no benefit 

 from steam, or that commerce and manufactures must exclusively appropriate an in- 

 vention which has already wrought a revolution in the industries of the earth. 



THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICtTLTURE. 



In all these progressiye movements, briefly hinted at in these remarks, it is the ofiice 

 of the Department of Agriculture to co-operate. Its functions are various, and means 

 of accomplishment extensive. Its divisions embrace statistics, agricultural chemistry, 

 natural history, botany, and practical horticulture. The statistical division is the of- 

 fice of publication, from which are issued the annual report, (275,000 copies of the last 

 issue,) the monthly report upon subjects of special investigation, and statements called 

 for by Congress, and the organization of agriculture. It utilizes the correspondence of 

 the Dejiartment, special and regular, pursiies original investigations through the aid of 

 practical experiments and trained experts, employs consular facilities in obtaining the 

 facts of foreign agriculture, and appropriates whatever is valuable in the records of 

 domestic and foreign societies. 



A well-appointed chemical laboratory has been established and is in active operation, 

 and whatever light chemistry may be expected to shed on agriculture is hoped for 

 from this and other similar efforts to keep the science and the practice of agricul- 

 ture on an even line. In the experiments with sugar beets it has already participated, 

 and will continue to aid in the endeavor to make of their manufacture a great industry. 

 It has been my desire to have an extensive series of analyses of the cereals from the dif- 

 ferent soils and varied climates of this extensive country, and to that end I would here 

 ask further contributions of best samples, from different sections of the State, which 

 may illustrate the effect of altitude and meteorologic influences upon the growth of these 

 plants. These may be sent free to the Department. Agricultural and economic geology 

 and mineralogy, being intimately allied with agriculture, are also represented in a col- 

 lection made in the chemical division. 



The division of entomology is one of great practical importance. The loss to the cot- 

 ton crop by insects is assumed to have been forty millions of dollars in a single year, 

 and the total annual loss to farm crops has been placed by good authority at three 

 hundred millions per annum. Under the direction of the entomologist is a museum of 

 natural history, and an economic collection of the products of agricultural industry in 

 all the processes of their manufacture, including textiles, dyes, sugars, alimentary sub- 

 stances, and medicines. 



To the experimental garden is now added an arboretum, including 1,.'300 varieties of 

 trees and shrubs, affording an opportunity to the student in forestry and arboriculture 

 which cannot elsewhere be found in the country. Greatly needed plant-houses of an 

 aggregate length of 470 feet are now in process of erection, for the pi'opagation of new 

 varieties of semi-troi>ical fruits for the South, new textile plants, and many others 

 useful in the arts for acclimation. 



The system so successfully inaugurated for exchanges of books and documents of 

 ecientifio and industrial societies, and also exchanges of seeds and plants, has been ex- 

 tended to all parts of the world, and promises increasingly valuable results. It has al- 

 ready proved highly useful in our system of acclimation aiul dissemination of new and 

 useful plants. 



I am prepared to maintain, and satisfactorily to show, that our seed distribution of 



