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REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 39 
Reports of these, as of many other seeds enumerated in the preceding 
tabular statement, will likewise be found in the appendix, and are well 
worthy the attention of the agriculturist, who, as‘a rule, is more inter- 
ested in detailed operations and special results than in general theories 
and deductions. 
IMMEDIATE NECESSITIES OF THE DEPARTMENT. 
_ The immediate necessities of this department, beyond the appropria- 
 tiors usually made for its ordinary working, may be stated: 
1. A laboratory of proper size and fully equipped, to cost not less than 
$300,000, with a sufficient appropriation to meet the expenses of the 
additional force that will be necessary to carry forward investigations 
on alarger scale than the present laboratory and appliances will permit; 
an increased appropriation for the salary of the chemist, and the 
further sum of $5,000, made available immediately, to pay for labor and 
material necessary in the pressing work of this division. 
2. An experimental farm of one thousand acres of ground, in the 
neighborhood of this city, and five experimental stations in different 
sections of the country, viz., one in California; one in the interior of the 
continent (to be devoted to the introduction and preservation of the best 
breeds of domesticated animals and to the domestication of some of the 
native wild animals of the country, among them the buffalo); one in 
Texas; one in Florida, and one in New York’ above the latitude of Al- 
bany. To inaugurate these farms a large sum will not be necessary, and 
after the first year the expense will be more than paid by the results of 
the cultivation at each station. . 
8. An increased appropriation for the gardens and grounds of the 
department, which embraces experimental cultivation and propagation 
of trees, plants, &c., for distribution. This appropriation should be in- 
creased to at least $15,000. } 
4, An increased appropriation of $3,000 for obtaining new material, 
employing labor, and otherwise extending the benefits arising from the 
museum and botanical divisions of this department. 
5. A renewal of the appropriation of $10,000 for the examination of the 
diseases of domesticated animals—a work already partially accomplished. 
6. A renewal of the appropriation of $5,000 for continuing the investi- 
gation of the history and habits of insects injurious to agriculture, 
especially those injurious to the cotton-plant—-a work already partially 
completed; and the further sum of $5,000 to pay the necessary salaries 
and contingent and traveling expenses of observers employed in such 
duty, and also such additional compensation, not exceeding one thousand 
dollars per annum, to the entomologist of the department. 
7. Anadditional appropriation of $6,000 to continue the work on forestry. 
§. An appropriation of $5,000 to erect a stable suitable for the housing 
and protection of the stock used on the department grounds. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
WILLIAM G. LEDUC, 
Commissioner of Agriculture. 
