316 STATE AID 



three historical dates, 1839, 1862, and 1889. (1) In the year 1839 

 Congress made the first law recognizing the need to agriculture 

 of any attention from the Federal government. An appropriation 

 of $1,000 was voted for the "collection of agricultural statistics 

 and for other agricultural purposes." This money was expended 

 by the Commissioner of Patents, for he was the only individual 

 in the Government manifesting any interest in the subject of 

 agriculture. Hence the whole agricultural "department," such 

 as it was, remained in the Patent Office till the year 1862. (2) 



FIG. 55. Tornado near Isabel, S. D., June 25. 1914. (U. S. D. A.) 



The organic act of 1862 gave the country its present Department 

 of Agriculture, although it was not till later under a Secretary with 

 a cabinet position. The organic act provided for a "Commissioner 

 of Agriculture" to preside over the new department. His duties 

 were "to acquire and to diffuse among the people of the United 

 States useful information on subjects connected with agriculture 

 in the most general and comprehensive sense of that word, and 

 to procure, propagate, and distribute among the people new and 

 valuable seeds and plants." He was also directed to make prac- 

 tical experiments in agriculture. With this substantial beginning, 

 the department rapidly expanded, its work branching out into the 

 fields of plant and animal diseases, insect pests, farm crops, live 



