the nation to meet the debt occasioned bj the war will receive the attention, not 

 only of every American, but of all civilized nations. When the tables of the 

 amount and value of the farm stock for the year 18G4 shall be published, which 

 it is expected they will be in the report for March, a table of the estimated 

 annual production, for that y«ar, of all the industrial pursuits, will be prepared 

 to follow them. 



Whilst much of the great aggregate value of the crops is to be set down to 

 the difference between gold and currency values, and considerable to the war 

 demand, yet, nevertheless, the productive capacities of the country are so vast 

 that the shock of such a war, and the weight of so great a debt, cannot impede 

 to any great extent or for any considerable time the accustomed progress of the 

 nation. 



The value of the leading crops, as estimated by this depai-tment, is, for 1862, 

 $706,887,495; for 1863, S9o5,764,322 ; for 1864, 81,440,415,435. These 

 values do not embrace the crops of Kentucky, which, for want of sufiScient 

 returns in 1863, could not be estimated, but for 1864 will be found in the general 

 tables, but could not be embraced in the comparative statement just made. The 

 advance in value during these three years is 103 per centum, and the chief 

 causes of this great increase are shown to be from the war and the condition of 

 the cnrrency. The advance by the vrar demand is 30 per centum ; by the 

 currency value, 73 per centum. 



For the universal approbation accorded to the reports of this department I 

 return my acknowledgments. A public journal excepts to the policy of en- 

 couraging the growth of tobacco and hops, for the reason that their use may be 

 regarded as immoral — the one a useless luxury, and the other made so by its 

 use in brewing malt liquors. 



It is not the province of this department to discuss moral questions. It 

 would involve a discussion and action that would be without limit, for con- 

 sistency would require a condemnation of ^«e-woolled sheep, because fine 

 clothes are a luxury, and not an absolute want ; and of the raising of the silk- 

 worm, for the same reason. It would force the department to ask from Con- 

 gress a prohibitory tax on all sales of corn and other grains to distillers, and of 

 hops and barley to brewers ; to demand like duties on foreign liquors ; to tax 

 heavily all luxuries of whatever character. A moment's reflection must con- 

 vince all that this department must take a commercial view of all agricultural 

 products, as affording profit or loss in their production. The most virulent 

 poisons are made and grown by nature for useful purposes, but ignorant or 

 reckless application may make them the instruments of death. To this misap- 

 plication must be imputed the moral guilt, not to nature for producing them. 

 Hops and tobacco, ardent spirits and poisons, flounces and silks, have each 

 their proper use, and until this department advocates an immoral use of them 

 it cannot justly be subject to censure. To the ministc!!' and the moralist must 

 be left the consideration of moral questions, and to Cjcsar must be rendered the 

 things that belong to Caesar. 



ISAAC NEWTOX, Commissioner. 



