MONTHLY EEPOET 



OF 



THE DEPARTMEIT OE AGRICULTURE. 



FOR OCTOBER, 1863. 



Depart]mei\t of Agriculture, 



Was7iingfon, November, 1863. 



In presenting the monttly report of the agricultural products of our country, 

 the Commissioner of Agriculture gratefully acknowledges the deep and growing 

 interest manifested by the farmers and Agricultural Societies in support of the 

 unremitting exertions of the Department to develop that interest which under- 

 lies our national greatness, and which is productive of the most effectual means 

 for securing peace, plenty, wealth, and power. 



The extensive home and foreign correspondence of the Department, the samples 

 of home and- foreign grains, plants, bulbous roots, and cuttings, which it is con- 

 stantly receiving and distributing, and the scientific and practical information 

 received and imparted by it, has already manifested an extent of usefulness not 

 looked for by its warmest advocates. 



The Department is too limited in its means to cultivate the wide fields of 

 usefulness awaiting its action. All its operations have been largely increased, 

 and must be still more so, to meet the demands of the farmers of the country, 

 who are now finding out that they have a Department which responds to their 

 calls, and attends to their wants. 



The collection of these monthly statistics, from over two thousand correspond- 

 ents, is attended with great expense, especially since, by the Post Ofiice law 

 passed at the last session of Congress, the Department is obliged to send cut 

 pre-paid envelopes, instead of franks, for the returns. The limits of the Propa- 

 gating Garden, and its capacity, are quite too small to supply the requirements 

 made on it. All grains, seeds, and plants received by the Department to be dis- 

 tributed among the farmers should first be tested ; to do this successfully, re- 

 quires several acres of ground, and, through the kindness of the Commissioner of 

 Public Buildings, permission has been given me to use about twenty acres 

 adjoining the Smithsonian Institute, and the means of working it are required. 

 These considerations are now strongly felt throughout the country, and Con- 

 gress will not be slow in finding the temper of the people. It is my intention 



