4 TESTS OF DEPARTMENT SEEDS. 155 
market systems of our large cities, the assistance of Mr. Joseph B. Lyman, 
agricultural editor of the New York Tribune, has been enjoyed; returns 
concerning the present status of Virginia agriculture were embodied 
by Mr. Thomas 8. Pleasants, of Petersburg, Virginia; the description of 
the agricultural capacity of Wyoming and a portion of Utah is a report 
by Rev. Cyrus Thomas, of an exploration made in 1870; Mr. N. C. Meeker 
reports the progress of colonization and the results of irrigation in the 
Territories; Dr. H. Latham, of Laramie City, Wyoming, communicates 
the statement concerning the pastoral capabilities of that region; Mr. 
Elihu Hall, of Athens, illinois, gives results of experiments with the 
grasses of the prairies and northern plains; and Dr. Edward Pal- 
mer presents the results of personal observations concerning food pro- 
ducts of the North American Indians. 
In the present volume are found continuations of the history of the 
organization and development in the work of industrial education, the 
annual digest of the State reports, the spirit of receut issues of agricul- 
tural literature, and other annual indices of rural activity and progress. 
J. KR. DODGE, 
’ Editor of Reports. 
Hon. HORACE CAPRON, 
Commvrissioner. 
TESTS OF DEPARTMENT SEEDS. 
The importance of careful experiment and detailed report by those to 
whom is intrusted the test of seeds distributed by this Department, 
has been repeatedly urged. The thoughtlessness or the greed which 
would cause the consumpticn or waste of new and approved grains or 
seeds, is guarded against by the exercise of care in the selection of the 
proper persons to make these tests; yet the Commissioner cannot be 
held responsible for that portion of the distribution made by members 
of Congress. ‘While returns detailing the experience of experimenters 
are yet too often neglected, there has been a vast improvement in the 
past year, which has secured more valuable reports in larger numbers. 
The benefits of the distribution as shown by these partial indices out- 
weigh its expense in a manifold degree, and show how, in the economy 
of nature, large production comes from smallest germs. While the cost 
of seed distribution in 1869 was but half a dollar for each thousand of 
the people, there is reliable evidence that a single specimen of grain 
distributed in one of the thirty-seven States has realized in enhanced 
production ten times the amount expended for all seeds sent to all the 
States in that year. 
The Department has distributed during the year ending December 
31, 1870, 358,391 packages of seeds, including the varieties mentioned 
in the accompanying tabular statement. Of these packages 4,624 
included under the head of miscellaneous were distributed to represent- 
atives of this Government abroad, and in exchange with foreign socie- 
ties and associations. The distribution during the year, as in the pre- 
ceding one, has been chietly made through members of Congress, statis- 
tical correspondents, meteorological observers, and State and county 
agricultural aud horticultural societies and farmers’ clubs, reporting 
regularly to the Department, 
