300 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1891. 



ture, liorticulfure, and rural (M'oiioiny; and the said professor nia.Y hire, 

 from time to time, so many garduers, practical agriculturists, and Ial)or- 

 ers as may be necessary to cultivate the ground and maintain a botani- 

 cal garden; aud he shall make, under the supervision of the board of 

 mauagemeixt, such experiments as may be of general utility through- 

 out the United States, to determine the utility and advantage of new 

 modes and instruments of culture, to determine whether new fruits, 

 plants, and vegetables may be cultivated to advantage in the United 

 States; and the said officers shall receive for their services such sum 

 as may be allowed by the Board of Managers, to be paid semiannually 

 on the first day of January and July; and the said officers, and all 

 other officers of the institution, shall be removable by the Board of 

 Managers, whenever, in their judgment, the interests of the institution 

 require any of the said officers to be changed. 



In the Hough bill there was an attempt of another kind to weld to- 

 gether the fate of the Smithsonian Museum and the National Cabinet 

 of Curiosities, by giving to the Board of Eegents the authority to erect 

 a building by the side of the Patent Office, so as to form a wing of that 

 structure, and to connect it with the hall then containing the National 

 Cabinet, so as to constitute that hall in whole or in part the depository 

 of tlie cabinet of the institution. 



This was discretionary, however, with the Eegents, who fortunately 

 did not look upon the plan with favor. 



Eeference has been made to the marked similarity between the plans 

 of organization of the National and Smithsonian Institutions. In addi- 

 tion to the feature of museum custody, which has already been dis- 

 cussed, there were others no less significant. 



The National Institution, like the Smithsonian Institution, had a 

 superior board of officers, composed of the President of the United 

 States and the members of his Cabinet. It liad also a board of direc- 

 tors, which included in its membership delegates from the Senate and 

 House of Eepresentatives, corresponding in function to the Smithsonian 

 • Board of Eegents. In other respects, still more markedly than in the 

 constitution of its governing board, the Smithsonian seems to have 

 been organized with the plan of the National Institution in view. The 

 objects, as defined in the Congressional act of establishment (sections 

 5 and 6), correspond very closely to those announced in the early pub- 

 lications of the National Institution. 



The institution at its foundation divided its members into eight 

 classes, as follows : 



I. Astronomy, Geography, and Natural Philosophy; 

 II. Natural History ; 



III. Geology and Mineralogy; 



IV. Chemistry; 



V. The application of same to useful arts; 

 VI. Agriculture; 



VII. American History and Antiquities; 

 VIIi; Fine Arts; 



