Forever honored be these patriotic women, and no more 'grateful duty has 

 folleu to me than thus, in the most public manner, to pay homage to the exalted 

 worth of the wives and daughters of the formers of the country. 



The Department of Agriculture is a new one, and many difficulties have beset 

 the Commissioner in establishing it in such manner as to make it the most useful 

 to the farming interest of the country. These difficulties are greater by the 

 present condition of the country, when considerations of economy demand the 

 most careful expenditures: Under such circumstances it is not unbecomin"- to 

 refer to such commendation as is embraced in the following extract from the 

 letter of an intelligent correspondent on Kelly's island. Many more such might 

 be given. 



"Please accept," he writes, "my thanks for your bi-monthly reports. They 

 seem to me to he just the thing, and cannot be too highly appreciated." 



And to such expressions of approbation may be added the numerous applica- 

 tions for the distribution of a greater number of copies of these reports. For 

 this approval of his efforts to render his department useful to those for whom it 

 was created the Commissioner returns his siucerest thanks. 



Finally, the Commissioner congratulates his faithful and laborious correspond- 

 ents that Congress has re3toredy}-ee postal communication between them and the 

 Department. Henceforth no pre-payment of postage is required of them, nor 

 any form of indorsement on envelopes containing their communications. 



ISAAC NEWTON, 



Commissioner. 



