24 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



shown by a comparison of tlie averages of tlie decade between 1870 

 and 1880 and those of the six years of the present decade, as follows : 



The increase of production in this brief period is over 43 per cent. , 

 while the enlargement of area is still greater, amounting to 54 per 

 cent. So the advance was attained in a series of years with a com- 

 paratively low rate of yield, including the unfavorable seasons of 

 1881 and 1883. 



The increase of wheat is seen to be more rapid than the increase 

 of population, while the market for the surplus has declined, in 

 consequence of the better harvests of other countries and of the 

 increased facilities for handling the surplus of India and South 

 America. The increase of grain-growing in South America comes 

 from a strong tendency of European emigration in that direction 

 and a larger "use of improved implements and machines. Should it 

 continue, competition with our grain fields will be still more severe. 



Accurate records of the progress and changes of production of 

 minor crops as well as large products, and of changes in value as 

 well, are of the first importance to rural economists, to guide in a 

 wise distribution of crop areas and in the introduction of new crops 

 to fill the gaps in consumption and reduce the areas of such crops as 

 may have a surplus unprofitably large. 



DIVISION OF GARDENS AND GROUNDS, HORTICULTURE, ETC. 



One of the prominent duties of this division is the propagation and 

 distribution of economic plants. The impression seems to prevail 

 that all kinds of plants are freely distributed from the garden.^, and, 

 in consequence, unlimited demands are made, and requests for gen- 

 eral collections of plants are of common occurrence — requests that 

 would tax the capacity of the largest nursery establishment in the 

 world to fill. The impracticability, to say nothing regarding the im- 

 propriety, of attempting to meet these extensive demands is so incon- 

 sistent with the intentions of Congress in regard to the functions of 

 the Department as to be sufficient reason for its inability to meet such 

 demands. In the propagation of plants for general distribution the 

 line is strictly drawn between merely ornamental plants and those of 

 strictly economic value. Distribution is therefore confined to the 



