REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER. 9 
mental! division of this Department, with highly successful results ; and 
several hundred specimens now on hand wiil be increased to thousands 
whenever facilities are afforded for testing the feasibility of successful 
growth in the open air. 
I earnestly hope that an appropriation will be evanted by Congress 
for this purpose. 
DEPARTMENT OPERATIONS. 
The field of labor is so broad, the objects of attainment so manifold, 
in aid of progressive agriculture and enhancement of its productive re- 
sources, that the limited means at the disposal of the Department ap- 
pear inadequate to the great work in hand. Yet a fair exhibit of its: 
operations, it is confidently believed, will attest the wisdom of its origi- 
nation and the profit of its labors. 
Its work demands a higher order of talent than the routine service of 
most public business; it requires a knowledge of national economy, 
social science, natural history, applied chemistry, animal and vegetable 
physiology, and practical agriculture; and presents so broad a range of 
facts in each field of investigation as to demand the most active effort 
and the most persistent industry. For such labor the most meager 
compensation only is offered, and it is found difficult to obtain an 
inerease of suitable service, and impossible to remunerate properly that 
already employed which is found to be most efficient and reliable, while 
that which is practically useless for the purpose is offered in unlimited 
measure. -A just and wise revision of clerical salaries would greatly 
inerease the efficiency of the Department. 
The work of the past year includes the collection of the facts of 
production and experiment throughout the world, the publication of 
general and special reports, investigations in natural science in its rela- 
tions to rural efforts, the introduction and propagation of many new 
and promising plants, and the increase and improvement of farm pro- 
duets by the dissemination of seeds and plants. Results of the most 
successiul character in'these directions will’ be shown in subsequent 
paragraphs, and in the accompanying reports of operations. 
THE STATISTICAL DIVISION. 
This division is the office of publication of the Department, and has 
issued during the past year the monthly reports and the annual for 1869, 
prepared for publication the cattle-diseases reports, furnished statisti- 
cal statements for congressional uses, and similar responses to inquiries 
of commercial and industrial boards or societies, and of individuals. 
The facilities employed in these investigations include not only trained 
and experienced correspondents representing about 1,300 counties, but 
the officers of an equal number of industrial societies of all grades, 
special correspondence with practical scientists and experts, and ex- 
changes with governments and socicties abroad. Foreignand domestic 
