64 



the Commissioner of Agriculture from $3,000 to $6,000, and one favoring 

 an increase of tbe salaries of tlie statistician, entomologist, and superin- 

 tendent of gardens and grounds, from $2,000 to $4,000 respectively. 



The following views of the results of the convention are presented by 

 the Commissioner of Agriculture : 



The late convention, convened at the instance of the Commissioner of 

 Agriculture, has aiibrded an ample opportunity to the Department to 

 accomplish the object it had in Aiew — a knowledge of the men who, for 

 the present, have in their hands and direct the destinies of the agricul- 

 tural interests of the country, and some knowledge of the instrumental- 

 ities through the medium of which they operate. Tbe assemblage was 

 mainly made up of the principals and professors of agricultural colleges, 

 whose origin may be traced to the act of Congress which made provision 

 for their establishment ; presidents and secretaries of agricultural and 

 horticultural societies, and the chief men who compose boards of agri- 

 culture of the different States. It was reasonably suj^posed that the 

 experience and knowledge of such an assemblage of men would shed 

 much light upon a subject which, at this moment, so occupies the public 

 mind. While every branch of industry, commerce, manufactures, and 

 the art of war itself, is anxiously watched and cared for by the action of 

 the Government, it was very natural that they who have sought to pro- 

 mote the great cause of agriculture should seek an opportunity to confer 

 together about what should be done to invoke the good ofiices of the 

 Government in their behalf. The Commissioner of Agriculture, in view 

 of the necessity of a co-operation of the Department with those active 

 and energetic men who in their respective communities had been 

 selected for their ability, to give a right direction to the subject, very 

 naturally hit upon the idea that agricultural colleges that owed their 

 existence to the immediate provision which Congress has made for them, 

 like his own Department, dei^ending ui)ou its will and pleasure, would 

 be most likely to respond to an invitation which invoked only a consul- 

 tation upon a subject of common concern. It was not without some hesi- 

 tation that the Commissioner ventured to draw upon the services of this 

 class of men, because he felt that the draught involved an expenditure 

 of time and money, which, though it might be repaid by the good 

 which would result from such a conference, might be considered by 

 others an assumption on his part which the occasion did not justify ; and 

 yet to exclude those who had thus voluntarily devoted themselves to 

 the work of promoting the cause of agriculture, to lose the benefit of 

 their counsel, and the opportunity to acquire a personal acquaintance of 

 them, led to the conclusion to enlarge the number, at the risk of affect- 

 ing the business capacity of the convention by reason of its numbers ; 

 so that the design ultimately was to invite two delegates from each of 

 the colleges and State agricultural and horticultural societies, and State 

 boards of agriculture. All' these came and move, and before the con- 

 vention adjourned no one was refused admission who pleased to apply. 

 And every interest, feeling, and project was represented. 



The business committee, (comx)osed of one from each State,) at the 

 outset of the meeting, made a report, which had been previously pre- 

 pared by the Commissioner, recognizing the act of Congress of 1862 as 

 the expression of the purpose of the Government to establish agricultural 

 colleges in the States, and endow them with a fund commensurate with 

 the great necessity for the introduction of scientific knowledge into the 



