REPORI OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 15 
nomic plants, the number of which depends, as a matter of course, upon 
the amount of money appropriated to pay the necessary labor required 
as well as upon the restriction entailed by the limited area of land which 
is available for the nursery preparation of the hardier species of plants. 
The land embraced by the Agricultural Department grounds is largely 
occupied by an arboretum, which is highly instructive and ornamental, 
as befits the scale of grounds surrounding public buildings in a 
great city. 
A considerable portion is also occupied by the buildings and struct- 
ures required for the proper administration of the duties of the depart- 
ment, such as stables, workshops, seed-houses, and greenhouses, Or- 
chards containing select .collections of pears and the small fruits, as well 
as a collection of hardy apples from Russia, further occupy the space, 
so that the amount available for testing seeds and for raising plants, 
vines, or trees for general distribution is not more than two aeres in 
extent. 
When we take into consideration the action of older and more ex- 
‘perienced nations, the importance which they attach to each and every 
agricultural improvement, the ample support they give to all efforts 
which are directed toward the increase of the productions of the soil, 
by means of large experimental farms and stations for the solution of 
scientific questions, and which are maintained in various parts of their 
respective countries, our Agricultural Department and its resources seem 
entirely trivial and ineionificant, 
Occupying a country which possesses every variety of soil and climate, 
extending from the arctic north to the tropic south, and in which agri- 
culture is by far the greater interest—that upon wiih all other indus- 
tries depend; a country one-half of the inhabitants of which are directly 
‘engaged in agricultural pursuits, yet our government is far behind all 
other civilized nations in the encouragement it gives to agricultural pur- 
suits and progress. 
It is respectfully submitted that no more profitable expenditure of 
money could be made than that necessary to secure and maintain a farm 
of 1,000 acres near this city, and eight or ten experimental stations in 
various parts of the country, located so as to embrace extremes of lati- 
tude and climate, on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, and in the South- 
ern and Northern, as also the Middle States. This would enable the 
department to determine on a commensurate scale the value of seeds 
and plants for distribution throughout the country, as also to make such 
scientific and accurate tests in regard to fertilizers, rotative cropping, 
insect depredations, and the numerous and constantly increasing sub- 
jects suggested daily for the benefit of agriculture, as would enable it 
to meet the reasonable expectations of those who are practically inter- 
ested, and who are anxiously beseeching the department for assistance 
in their agricultural and horticultural enterprises. 
Facilities of this kind would aid in the introduction of tropical and 
